Is dropshipping in Australia feasible?

Hello everyone,

I live in Australia and in the planning stage of developing eshop for female fashion or baby's stuffs. I would have thought to start it easy and low by using dropship service rather than start building my inventory.
However, I've been banging my head off the wall trying to find a legit dropshipper in Australia. The reason I'd prefer dropshipper in Australia is I want to offer is Quick and Not So Expensive Shipment.
I have joined esources.co.uk but found a very limited options for dropshipping, salehoo is better, IMHO as it has forum that I found very useful.
I'd like to learn from the guru here, my questions are:
1. Does my idea of limiting to local (Australia) supplier/dropship make any sense? Should I consider looking at other places?
2. Does Dropshipping idea works in Australia? It might be good in US or UK but I have only heard one success stories so far in Australia - and this person didnt even find the supplier from any dropship directory.

Help :-)

Hi Christianlebe, and firstly welcome to SaleHoo

In regards to if it makes sense, the theory behind the idea is very sound. It shows you're thinking about the structure of your business and how it impacts on your customers, and that's one of the most important aspects of any starting any business.

Of course whether or not you can implement that comes down to finding the right suppliers. My advice would be to split that into two plans, so number one would be to source locally, number two would be to open it up to international suppliers if number one wasn't a practical option for you

You could of course also consider number three, a combination of both. That could give you a core product range with fast turn around, then give you a wider range of products as a secondary range where shipping is slower, but well worth it for the customer because of what the products are.

In regards to does DS work in Australia, it's not country specific. It's about having the right processes in place to provide as good of a service to your customers as possible. With DS, there are always going to be things outside of your direct control, but you have to minimise those as much as possible.

Key problems areas for DS, no matter what country, are things such as supplier reliability, supplier communication and suppliers assistance in the event of a problem. Item lost in the mail, broken or substandard to what the customer was expecting.

When you have issues like these, you need a supplier that will respond quickly to the issue and have procedures in place to assist with a fast satisfactory remedy for both you and the customer.

Good Drop Shippers understand that you are an asset to their business and they will service you as such. Bad Drop Shippers tend to just chew customers up and spit them out as they feel that there will always be new customers coming through for them.

:)

Hello Mark,

Thank you so much for your reply. We are taking your advise. The night I posted this message I have been talking to overseas dropshipper.

I have found this forum very useful!

Hello everyone,

I live in Australia and in the planning stage of developing eshop for female fashion or baby's stuffs. I would have thought to start it easy and low by using dropship service rather than start building my inventory.
However, I've been banging my head off the wall trying to find a legit dropshipper in Australia. The reason I'd prefer dropshipper in Australia is I want to offer is Quick and Not So Expensive Shipment.
I have joined esources.co.uk but found a very limited options for dropshipping, salehoo is better, IMHO as it has forum that I found very useful.
I'd like to learn from the guru here, my questions are:
1. Does my idea of limiting to local (Australia) supplier/dropship make any sense? Should I consider looking at other places?
2. Does Dropshipping idea works in Australia? It might be good in US or UK but I have only heard one success stories so far in Australia - and this person didnt even find the supplier from any dropship directory.

Help :-)

Can you help us more by telling us why dropshipping in Australia isn't looking good for you? Eg lack of variety, costs to high, shipping rates etc

Dropshipping does work in Australia as I know many people successfully running their business on this module, the key is to have a good quality product with enough margin. Also some dropship companies also reward volume, so if you are pushing out 1000s of orders a day then you get even cheaper shipping/courier rates.

Now if dropshipping in Australia didn't satisfy you then there are heaps of companies in china willing to help you, just do a search on google and you will find them everywhere.



Alex C Ryan
Managing Director
Import Export Exposed
startimportingnow.com.au

Hi there,

I couldn't find that many options for Australia based company that offer dropship service. The companies that offer that service give small margin (around 5-10%)
So based on Marc's suggestion. I have been looking for dropship company outside Australia. I am ordering some samples now.
The problem with looking for supplier through the net (eg. Alibaba) is they are not trustworthy. I can't really differentiate legit supplier with another middle man.

Cheers

Hi Christian,

I'm a little puzzled why you are searching for dropshippers on Alibaba.com, when in fact we have several pre-screened and legitimate dropshippers in our directory. Maybe you should try doing your search here instead :)

If you need help, we are always ready and willing to our members :)

Cheers!

I was telling my experience before I joined Salehoo in reply to importexportcoach . Now I am using esource.co.uk and salehoo. I found Esource really hard to navigate, not user friendly, whilst Salehoo has a very good navigation. This forum is excellent.
As I mentioned, I have found a supplier from Salehoo and currently ordering some samples.
Thank you Salehoo!

I was telling my experience before I joined Salehoo in reply to importexportcoach . Now I am using esource.co.uk and salehoo. I found Esource really hard to navigate, not user friendly, whilst Salehoo has a very good navigation. This forum is excellent.
As I mentioned, I have found a supplier from Salehoo and currently ordering some samples.
Thank you Salehoo!

Thanks for the compliment, Christian :) On behalf of all the staff at SaleHoo, a big thanks to you!

Good luck with y our orders and new supplier.

To more success online :)

I am writing you regarding the drop shipping business. I am an eBay member and interested in joining drop shipping businesses and I have been reading about on the internet and I am really enthusiastic about it.
Therefore would you please contact me at any time by any means? The drop shipping I require based in Australia looks hopeless to me if you have somewhat particular things I should do please reply to my email ASAP.
Thank you in advance for any help you might be able to offer.


Sincerely,

Hi Bari and welcome to the forum,

I've removed all of your personal details for safety reasons. It's not a good idea to provide all those details in such an open format since you can never be sure who is seeing them and the intenion they can be used for. My tip for the furture, keep those private to protect yourself in an online environment.

In regards to dropshipping, what sort of products are you most interested in and do you require only Australian based dropshippers or happy to deal with International suppliers who will ship to Australia for you?

Hi
We are Australian wholesaler and dropshipper (Jarri Lights) for decorative lights such as Table Lamps, Floor Lamps and Chandeliers. Please search for our Salehoo page for the best prices to give you maximum profit as compare to any other product Link hidden: Login to view.

Cheers,
Jarri Lights