Questions to ask your dropshipper before you start reselling

Start by determining the products or types of products you want to sell. You have to choose the supplier/s that you want to work with. Once you have chosen your dropshipper, simply open an account with them and then you are able to list their products for sale without paying for them upfront. You only pay for them when you sell something, then you process the order and they ship direct to your customer.

You make your money from the difference of what your selling price was and what the supplier's cost price is. Just bare in mind that you need to calculate all your costs when pricing an item. Listing fees, selling fees, transaction fees, shipping fees, absolutely everything or you can quite easily end up loosing money on the deal.

You may have noticed that many use the term wholesaler in the same post as dropshipper. Just be aware that they are two completely different things. A wholesaler sells products in bulk with a set minimum order quantity, the more you buy, the cheaper the price. A dropshipper has a set price per unit, whether or not you buy 1 or 20 of the same item, they have no discount on bulk orders, but have no minimum order quantity like a wholesaler.

Dropshippers like to call themselves wholesalers a lot of times because it's a good marketing term. People associate the word wholesale wholesale with cheap, so it gets thrown around a lot these day, but isn't relevant unless the supplier is offering you discounts on volume purchases.

With dropshipping, you don't have to purchase products up front. The dropshipper allows you to advertise their products with your margin built into the price. Then at the time of the sale, you then place the order to ship directly to your customer and pay them their asking price and keep
your margin. Just remember when doing your pricing model to calculate shipping and advertising costs

To help you start off on the right foot with your dropshipper here is a relatively long but very helpful list of questions to ask your dropshipper before you start reselling their products:

1. Do you have any account setup fees ?

2. Do you have any monthly subscription fees ?

3. Will you charge us any extra fees, open or hidden charges, direct or indirect charges, etc. apart from the item selling price in order to ship the item direct to our customers with our label ?

4. After opening an account with you, how long do we have to wait to before starting to sell ?

5. Do you have handling or packaging fees ?

6. Maximum how long would we have to wait for a reply when emailing your customer support ?

7. How much do we need to spend to get a discount on each item ?

8. What is your minimum and maximum quantity order ?

9. What are your warranty policies ?

10. What are your guarantee policies ?

11. What are your shipping policies ?

12. Who pays import and export tax (Customs & Excise) ?

13. Ask about refunds -
a. What are your refund policies ?
b. Do you charge any refund fees ?
c. Do you charge for charge-backs or failed credit card charges ?
d. How long do we have to wait before you give a refund when a refund request is made ?
e. Do you wait for the item be returned to you before giving a refund or do you give the refund immediately when requested ?
f. If you refund only after the item has been returned to you then how long do we have to wait for the refund to be issued after the item has been returned to you ?

14. What are your return policies ? Do you charge any return fees ?

15. Who pays shipping for replacement deliveries ?
(Our customer returning item to us and then we return it to you. Finally, you post replaced item to our customer. There is 3 delivery step here).

16. Who pays shipping for returns where no replacements would be made, us or you ?

17. Do they sell to the general public -
a. Do you advertise on Trade Shows ?
b. If so, then where and how long you've been doing it on these places ?
c. If not, then what's stopping you ?

18. When did you start trading and when did you start dropshipping ?

19. Stock levels
a. How often do you update your stock levels on your website ?
b. When your short on stock and we make you an order, maximum how long would we have to wait for you to restock and dispatch it to our customers ?

20. Are you willing to include receipts when shipping the items with our brand names and addresses on the receipts ?
If so, is there any extra charge for this?

21. When a customer complains against an order because the item didn't arrive or was found broken after opening the packaging, maximum how long does it take you to investigate and solve the problem?

22. Do you send automated/electronic notification upon receipt of order and release of shipment?

23. Can you please provide some examples of problems that arise with your drop shipping arrangement and how have you dealt with them?

24. Do you provide tracking numbers for your delivery/shipment?

25. do you also sell on Ebay?

26. Do you ship the items in packaging that plasters your business name all over them?

27. Are you able to give me competetive pricing so I can compete in the market?

28. Do you offer any incentive to sell more?

29. Do you have a datafeed that I can download?

I also recommend downloading our SaleHoo New User Manual which you can find Link hidden: Login to view. (Note this guide is exclusively available to our members only)

Hope this helps!

Hi Where can I get the user guide manual? thank you

I found a drop shipper. I'm in the stupid question asking phase right now. Cant wait to get started!!!

aahchng wrote:Hi Where can I get the user guide manual? thank you

Hi Amos,

That link has now been sorted for download, so you can get the manul by selecting the link in the above post.

Cheers

So if I were whole saling for a supplier, that means I would be purchasing from them in bulk? Or the customer would have to purchase from *me* in bulk?

Buying in wholesale means you are purchasing in bulk from a genuine wholesaler.

Wholesale pricing is based on the size of your order, the more you buy, the better price per item you can essentially secure from the supplier. I use the word genuine because many dropshippers like to use the word "wholesale' to describe themselves, but aren't true wholesalers. They like to use the word as a marketing term because people associate the word "wholesale" with the word "cheap"

If a supplier will sell you 1 x item for X and not offer you multiples of the same item for cheaper (providing MOQ targets are met, then they are not a genuine wholesaler.

I'm still not understanding the difference...

To make it simple

A dropshipper will sell you one item at X price, they have no MOQ (Minimum Order Quanitity) So no matter how many items you purchase, you will pay the same price as if you only buy one.

A wholesaler has a price tier structure with MOQ amounts. So if you purchase X (for example 100 units let's say) then your per item cost will be X. Then on tier two, if you purchase, let's say 350 units, then your per unit price will be lower than purchasing 100.

Essentially, the more units you purchase with a wholesaler, the better per unit price you will secure.

Why?
Well that's quite simple.

A wholesaler will either be buying direct from a manufacturer or large distributor or may even be a manufacturer selling direct. So the more product the wholesaler can sell, the more they can order. The more they order, the better the price they can negotiate and then they can pass that on to you, the buyer and make themselves more competive than other wholesalers.

That makes everyone more money, the manufacturer makes more money because they have more orders, the wholesaler makes more money because they can negotiate a better price based on the larger order size and you, the retailer make more money because teh wholesaler will usually pass on some of their savings to you to make them more competitive and increase their sales and then it all goes around a again.

A dropshipper doesn't have this power to effect a market because they are selling products in very low volume. So they don't have the leverage to negotiate better prices from their suppliers. That's the big difference between the two.

Thank you

Mark

Regards,

I bought the tool salehoo and I am a beginner for sale, want to learn the necessary steps to start interacting with people on the forum who are already doing business with salehoo and selling products of the major suppliers of this valuable prlataforma as it is ''Salehoo' ' I have the desire to start using this platform in order to be able to start selling on ebay and amazon.

Esstaria very grateful to someone in this forum could give me some support as you begin to make money with suppliers, ebay and amazon, I'm from the Dominican Republic and I am at your service.

Thank you!

CARLIXTO CAPELLAN

Hi Carlixto,

You'll find our list of fully verified suppliers in our directory, the link to that is in the blue title bar at the top of the page. If you are unable to find what you're looking for, just drop us a line here and support will assist you.

Cheers

Grcias Mark for its recommendations'm starting in salehoo and I count on the full support of the community, I'm looking for suppliers who can supply me products that I can promote through ebay and amazon, suppliers that have the capacity to supply description and images of each product. I would be very grateful if some people in this forum can have the products with your descripcón and photos.

Very truly yours,

CARLIXTO CAPELLAN

Hi Carlixto,

Most (if not all) suppliers can provide you with product images and description that you can upload to your SaleHoo Store. It's just a matter of what you want to sell. I have listed a few dropship suppliers that you might want to check out:

Link hidden: Login to view
Link hidden: Login to view
Link hidden: Login to view
Link hidden: Login to view

These are just some of the dropshippers we have and they are from various categories. Please visit Link hidden: Login to view for more suppliers. Simply enter a product you are interested in and a list of suppliers carrying that item will come up.

Please go over the suppliers' resellers program or contact them directly. Do note that the prices listed on their websites are mostly in retail to it's best that you inquire about their dropshipping services/ discounts/ offers.

Some tips for you to effectively communicate with suppliers- Link hidden: Login to view

Hope this helps and all the best!

Excellent information has provided me, I thank you for the support provided in this forum, since we are new to this type of activity and want to develop to see if with God through me do a good seller like you.

Very grateful for the provision of information

CARLIXTO CAPELLAN

do the customers ask which country is the product made in and ask model name?if i really answer this , they will know the real factory name by google search and they will order the same product from china directly. right? is there a solution?
by the way, should the end user know in advance that i am doing dropshipping for his ordered product?do people do it so in ebay or amazon? isn't this regarded negative to make good sales if customer knows product is dropshipping?
why should people buy products from online dropshipping way and not go to real offline shop?
which products are highly profitable and highly required for online sales?

Is it allowed dropshipping from amazon germany to amazon USA?


• in dropshiping, ebay supplier should ship the item directly to amazon buyer.but in amazon, it is mentioned that the dropshipper (supplier) is not allowed to ship the item directly to buyer.{ in amazon, it is not permitted Purchasing products from another online retailer and having that retailer ship directly to customers}
what do u think?i think if the dropshipper (supplier) is not allowed to ship directly then this is not considered dropshipping because the beauty of dropshipping is in that when when my listed item in amazon gets a buying order then i inform and pay to the supplier which he directly ships the item to amazon buyer.so i dont need to pay upfront.

If I find a product which is 0,3 $ in china, how can I make it dropship to amazon USA?the shipping charge and time for low cost one item will be big. Right? how do most people do?
Thank you
Best
Dr.Sarkis

sarkis333 wrote:do the customers ask which country is the product made in and ask model name?if i really answer this , they will know the real factory name by google search and they will order the same product from china directly. right? is there a solution?
by the way, should the end user know in advance that i am doing dropshipping for his ordered product?do people do it so in ebay or amazon? isn't this regarded negative to make good sales if customer knows product is dropshipping?
why should people buy products from online dropshipping way and not go to real offline shop?
which products are highly profitable and highly required for online sales?

Hello Dr. Sarkis and welcoem to the forum,

In regards to what customers may ask. You may in fact be asked anything at all, but it is entirely up to you as to what information you provide in response to a customer. If you feel that the information requested goes beyond a need to know, then don't provide them with the response they ahave requested.

Questions such as what country is the product made in and model number seem innocent enough to me to respond to, in fact I would consider having model information in the listing up front an absolute requirement personally.

I would certainly never suggest highlighting the item is being dropshipped, I don't think that is ever smart as it does put off many buyers simply for the fact that they are buying through a third party and should they have any issues, well they know that they then need to relay on you to resolve the issue on their behalf and that's never a good place to be as a consumer.

In regards to high turn over profitable items, my suggestion would be to stay well away from that type of market with dropshipping. Dropshipping has its advantages over wholesale, but profit margin definitely isn't one of them and high turnover markets are saturated with big dollar wholesale buyers purchasing in large volume to secure the best possible unit prices and then reselling at thin margins to dominate the market.

This method is extremely effective because despite the margins being kept thin, the profit is generated through the high turnover and the more a seller can dominate the market with this tactic, the more turnover volume they can produce.

Dropshippers always want to get into these types of markets, but simply can't compete with this type of strategy with dropshipping margins. It's a one way road to no where in my opinion.

sarkis333 wrote:Is it allowed dropshipping from amazon germany to amazon USA?


• in dropshiping, ebay supplier should ship the item directly to amazon buyer.but in amazon, it is mentioned that the dropshipper (supplier) is not allowed to ship the item directly to buyer.{ in amazon, it is not permitted Purchasing products from another online retailer and having that retailer ship directly to customers}
what do u think?i think if the dropshipper (supplier) is not allowed to ship directly then this is not considered dropshipping because the beauty of dropshipping is in that when when my listed item in amazon gets a buying order then i inform and pay to the supplier which he directly ships the item to amazon buyer.so i dont need to pay upfront.

If I find a product which is 0,3 $ in china, how can I make it dropship to amazon USA?the shipping charge and time for low cost one item will be big. Right? how do most people do?
Thank you
Best
Dr.Sarkis

I'm not quite sure I understand what you mean but dropshipping from Amazon in Germany to Amazon in the America, can you clarify that please?

I think you are confusing the dropshipping policy on Amazon, dropshipping is allowed, exactly as it is allowed on eBay.

In regards to dropshipping to Amazon, you don't actually dropship TO Amazon, you essentially dropship from Aamazon. So the process is that you list an item on Amazon, then when a customer orders this you then process that order through your supplier and they send it direct to your customer.

Nothing actually gets sent to Amazon itself.

In regards to shipping cost. Yes, shipping cost and shipping time are two very important factors that you always need to take into consideartion when researching products. You need to always be sure you can be as competitive as possible with you competition or it's very difficult to be successful in this business.

Cheers

Before I choose a plan, I like to start with the basic plan until I will learn the in and out how to do the business the right way so can you tel me if the basic plan I get the drop shipping guide?

Hi Tzipi and welcome to the forum :)

If you are talking about a SaleHoo Store Plan, when you say "basic plan", you don't need to purchase any SaleHoo Store plan at all to download the guide, you only need to be a subscribed SaleHoo member. At the moment you are only a free member, so that guide can't be downloaded,

Cheers

Can anyone tell me what Bangood is like as I have them as a dropshipping Company but they have informed me that they dont put my business details on my packages that are sent to my customers?

Hello,

I am now considering drop shipping model and analyzing all cons and prons.

My question is refereed to the following. When sourcing from a dropshipper, is it a common practice to ask for a samples first? If not, how as a seller of this (drop-shipped) product you can be sure about the real characteristics and quality of these products?

Thank you,
Lena

Hi Lena and welcome to the SaleHoo community,

I would expect perhaps not so common, but you make a very valid point in regards to checking product quality.

Wholesaler's in general will usually send you a sample product first before you outlay a large volume of cash on stock sight unseen and tested, but you will have to still pay for it in most cases of course . So if you transfer that rule to Drop Shippers, it essentially involves you just ordering the product to test it for yourself before offering it for sale.

Could you imagine how much suppliers would lose if they happily just gave away free product to everyone that asked, that's a nightmare no supplier wants to willingly be a part of.

So I wouldn't be holding my breath waiting for a Drop Shipper to offer free sample products any time soon :)

Hi Salehoo! I have a question: How does it works, when I have two differents supliers for my Store? How do a manage de shipping issue, in the case the clients gets products fros this two different supliers?

Thanks!

ninosonja wrote:Can anyone tell me what Bangood is like as I have them as a dropshipping Company but they have informed me that they dont put my business details on my packages that are sent to my customers?

Hi Gaetano,

Yes, that's how Drop Shipping works. The supplier )like Banggood) send the package blind, meaning that they don't include their details so the customer doesn't know they sent it.

Cheers

It's fine using multiple suppliers, but you need to be aware of three things.

Different Shipping Times
Different Shipping Rates
Different Warranty Policies

The easiest way around this is to create your own uniform policy on each of those that encompasses those of each of the suppliers you are using. The down side to that, you may have to offer a much slower shipping time to compensate for your slowest supplier, so you have to take those sorts of things into consideration.

Ask yourself if it's going to impact your business if you do offer different shipping times and rates, if you don't feel this is going to be a problem, then run with it. You really just need to make sure it's obvious to customers making the purchases up front.

Right. Good luck getting answers to 1-2 of these questions let alone 30 questions lol. 99% of the companies you'll be dealing with are from Asia and hardly speak English so this seems to be written by someone who has never actually attempted this and just assumes this is what you do.

It was written by someone as a guide to help those that are unsure as to what questions to ask and by someone who has in fact actually spent time working and living in Asia themselves.

No matter where a supplier is, if they are unable to provide answers to questions, then they aren't someone you should be seriously considering doing business with.

Hello all,

My company is just registered and I do not have any other license. Do you know if we need any licence to dropship wholesaler's/ supplier's branded products on amazon or ebay?

Thanks..

Hello there how does cash on delivery work as a dropshipper?

Hello,

I am a beard product supplier that provides wholesale, blind drop ship and private label services. I have found that when a perspective retailer contacts me the easiest thing for me to do is email them a copy of my policies and a product catalog. This eliminates most of the questions and helps them decide if they would like to carry my products.

Thanks,
Mike