dropshipping and amazon and ebay question

I see you've asked variations of this same question now in multiple threads. Rather than reply to the above in another thread, I quoted the others here. There is no such thing as a stupid question but some may take more time than others to fully address.

You asked if drop-shippers are middlemen: When you are drop shipping, selling as an affiliate, or retailing, you are typically selling another company's products or services for a price greater than your total cost. I define middleman as someone who buys from manufacturers and sells to retailers, so that is better defined as a distributor. (There are distributors who drop-ship for manufacturers.) You are not a middleman - An affiliate or a drop-shipper is a commission-only salesperson that has received permission to represent and offer a product or service.

The only difference in drop shipping versus affiliate marketing is who collects the money when the sale is made. This affects the fulfillment process, how returns are handled, after-sales support

I do not recommend you do drop-shipping on eBay, Amazon, or other third-party sales sites. As a beginner, you will most likely lose your account as eBay and Amazon have put methods in place to prevent this process. If you are going to drop-ship, use your own website.

[Are you competing against wholesalers?] In some cases, yes. In other cases you are competing directly against Amazon itself as it is buying direct from wholesalers. Starting out, it's better to find products or services where it is easier to compete. Your research will tell you where you have an advantage.

You compete against other businesses when selling anywhere on the internet. A product or service's price is only one area of competition, so yes, you can out-market other sellers. This is done by providing better service, faster fulfillment, more knowledgeable pre- or post-sales support, education for product use, inclusion of proprietary materials other sellers cannot offer (such as a recipe book for cooking products), longer (or extended) warranty, private membership clubs for customers, lower shipping cost, etc.

Your research will show how and where you can successfully compete. With enough effort, you may find something you can source at a lower cost. There are wholesalers that cannot sell for pricing as low as some small businesses because the small entrepreneur working out of their house doesn't have the business overhead / employee cost of the manufacturer. Alternatively, development of a USP (Unique Selling Proposition) such as some mentioned above can allow you to compete against a lower price.

[Wikipedia Link] Unique Selling Proposition

KenW3,

Thanks for the detailed answer. I do appreciate it. I was about to purchase one of those drop shipping course but I wanted to educate myself as much as I can about drop shipping .

So far what I gather in order to be competitive in a nutshell it comes down to what kind of service you offer as you mentioned that makes you stand out and obviously having a good or unique niche .

Thank you for your reply. Too often, people will post replies to try and help and the member writing the OP never even bothers writing a reply nor tries to clarify the help they've received. This shows commitment.

Don't do it. Don't buy a course or subscribe to a monthly membership for education about drop shipping. Don't join fee-based social groups for what is being sold as drop-shipping communities. There is enough free information already on the web. The number of videos on YouTube about drop shipping is huge.

(For both free and paid education) Some of the information is correct, some is out-dated, some is completely wrong, and some is just a sales pitch to get you to give them money. Some of the old and useless education can cost you more than the price you paid for the information. Some will work in one country but not in others. Some of the courses are from people whose business is not running drop ship stores, but to cash in on prior success and get you to give them fifty a month or a thousand one-time for guaranteed success.

When you have read and watched enough information, then you will know which is which: What information is old, obsolete? What used to work but no longer does? What is working now? and then it's just a matter of What steps to take to start a real physical company location and build a business?

To be competitive, you just need to be able to beat your competition by being a better choice for their purchase. Competition is not just about who has the lowest price.

[Link] The Shopify Ultimate Guide To Dropshipping

[Link] The eCommerce Fuel answer to What Is Drop Shipping?

[Link] The Salehoo 5-Part Guide To Dropshipping Main Page

Each of these guides are from people selling services and solutions. They educate for free with the hope that you will use their products or services. This is part of their marketing. Their demonstration of expertise is used to draw customers to their offers. They each do something well and this instruction is used to teach a prospect how to move toward becoming their customer.

Again thank you for the replay much appreciated it.

As KenW3 says above there is no need to purchase course on drop shipping as there is plenty of free info that you can study.


As an Amazon FBA seller I regularly make use of camelcamelcamel to study the sales history of specific products. You will see price history and you will see if Amazon is selling (or had been in the past) a certain product and how third party sellers have been doing with it. It is very tough to compete directly with Amazon as they apparently will keep lowering the price to beat third partly sellers..