Questions on sourcing on Alibaba and how dropshipping works

Hi,

1. Sourcing on Alibaba for Macbook Pros or iPhone, is it real or a dream?

2. Dropshipping- so you list products and wait for customers to buy then pay supplier but how can you pay supplier you don't get your money from eBay/PayPal until you ship out, then PayPal release funds, so how does this really work, or do you just purchase inventory in advanced because I don't see this quite working out?

3. I've kinda been selling for a while I'm tired of my current job and looking for a change. I would like to make this selling thing full time, I see stories about people making 60,000-70,000 just selling products. I wonder is it real, how can I get on that path, I want to learn as much as possible please help asap thanks

Hi Christopher and welcome to the forum

In regards to Alibaba, the general rule when dealing with mainland China is to stay well clear of branded products. No matter what the supplier will tell, you can't et genuine branded products at wholesale prices or even dropship prices from these suppliers and that includes those on Albaba.

Your second point is correct and you have clearly idnetified a problem if using a new PayPal account for dropshipping..You really need to have some free cashflow to get the ball rolling and to carry you past the account holding period with PayPal. If you don't have great cashflow, then the easist thing to do is just sell something cheap, pay for that up front and then serve your account suspension before getting more serious.

That however can also have the effect of raising ared flag with PayPal and can still cause them concerns, So I would always suggest speaking with them about what your plans are and who your suppliers are. They're always happy to listen to these things and it can save you a lot of drama over from just throwing the dice and hoping for the best with them.

Can you earn 60/70K, well as you said, you do see it put about that is possible and that's usually from someone trying to sell you a book on online selling secrets (which of course is a waste of money) Is it really possiple, the short answer is actually yes, but it's never as simple as some will have you believe.

You can forget dropshipping straight away, put that thought out of your head. Anyone telling you they can earn that from DS is full of %$%#%^^^**&*&. To be earning that sort of income you would need to know your market inside out, be on top of all the market trends that effected your market and have a massive cashflow or at least credit line behiend you to enable you to purchase in the volume size required to get the best possible price available on all your products.

Outside of that, just the logistics of running a business that size would mean you would have no chance of doing it on your own.

So is it possible, yes, is it likely .. even with a truck load of hard work, no it's not.

Cheers

Thanks I really appreciate it, well last night i was studying in just digging deep down into the forums but i still have more questions. I was always told if your going to do something you might just learn everything about it...


1. SaleHoo Stores, Bigcommerce, Volusion -how can you get good traffic to these stores without really marketing it yourself? I mean on Amazon or eBay, if you have the right sweet keywords i noticed your stuff will sell, and of course with a nice quality picture?

2. Who has MacBook Pros and iPhones 6s plus for wholesale- i know its a oversaturated market but alot of things are starting to be like that haha,everybody is doing the same thing its always been about consistency to me i just want to auction off a couple so i can get my money up get my ratings on eBay up and then move on to something

3. Would the faster way to get eBay ratings up would be auctions vs buy it now?

4. So the best way to start off selling things is just to study the awesome Terapeak?

Hi Christopher,

The ultimate success of having your own indpoenedent webstore, not using a multi sales channel like an eBay or an Amazon is all about generating traffic. There really isn't any simple way of doing it. Multip channel pletform like those mentioned bering with them majot competition, but also major traffic that any e-commerce store needs.

What having your own store outside of these networks will reduce your competition to a large dgree (but not competely of course), but they won't automtaically deliver you the traffic you need. That's the pay off, you reduce your compitetion, but you have to drive your own traffic to succeed.

Apple products are not available wholesale and most definitley not available through dropshipping, no matter what anyone elese will tell you, certainly not brand new. Apple has a closed disribution network, measning that they will only stock Apple approved retail outlets. They do not release their stock through open wholesale distribution channels.

So to sell Apple products, you have to become an authorised Apple disributor and I asure you, that is not a very straight forward process and you would need a massive line of credit to even be considered.

Regarding aution v buy it now, that's not creally the question you need to ask. Either way will work just as well as the other if you have your market correct.

Terapeak is indeed a fantastic resource, but we also offer members a FREE alternative to that by way of our Research Lab feature. I would suggest you certainly use that before considering paying for Terapeak, but absolutely nothing wrong with Terapeak, it's the industry leader for sure.

Cheers