Where do I start to offer drop shipping service?

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Hi,

I have just moved to China with my husband from New Zealand.

Seeing many threads on this forum are about seeking drop shipping company, I thought to myself why not start one? Since I am now living in China and have the geological advantages.

I have dabbled a bit in affiliate marketing and had some success in it. However, I'm getting tired of constantly having to come up with articles and the need to build backlinks. As well as Google's constant update, I wanted a different way of making money online.

Offering a drop shipping service is a totally different game to affiliate marketing. I'm wondering if you seasoned marketers could point me to a place to start?

It seems most of the forum thread focuses on people looking for a drop shipping company. How about people who want to start offering drop shipping service?

**Edit** I think my main question is, could I advertise myself here in warriorforum offering drop shipping service? Is warrior-special-offers-forum the best place for placing ads?

Thanks and regards

image0611
#drop #offer #service #shipping #start
  • Profile picture of the author dave_hermansen
    In my opinion the first place to start is finding a desirable product line to offer. If you can do that, it won't take much marketing effort to get accounts set up and buying from you. Focus on finding a product line that has the following going for it:

    1) The products retail for $100+ (this is important because a lot of your expenses will relate to shipping).

    2) The product type has a high demand and low competition. You will want to find something that is searched for a lot, but doesn't have a lot of competition (meaning the amount of suppliers is quite limited).

    3) The market must not be brand heavy. Meaning that it needs to be a product type that people aren't determined to get a brand name when they shop for it. (i.e. if you are looking for a TV it is important that you get a reputable brand name.)

    After you select a good product line the marketing should be relatively easy. By simply submitting your website to some decent dropship directories you will get a certain amount of business. Here's a small list of dropship directories to get listed in:

    Worldwide Brands
    Salehoo
    Coach's Supplier Directory (this is mine)

    Beyond that, I would actually send a message to all the top retailers in your targeted market, offering to dropship from them. Include a catalog, price list and details for how to get signed up with you. Smart ecommerce store owners are always looking for additional suppliers, so this would bring you a fair amount of new clients I would think!

    I speak with ecommerce store owners every day who are struggling to find dropshippers for their specific product line. If I spent a few minutes, I could probably come up with a good list of product types that people are usually unable to find dropshippers for. That would also be a good place to start.
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  • Profile picture of the author image0611
    Hi Dave,

    Thank you for your generous reply.

    We do have a few ideas in mind that would certainly fill in these criteria:

    1) single product value $100+ with a full product line

    2) product type is certainly in high demand - however my husband and I differ in opinions about competition. So I would say, until we do a bit more research, we won't really know the true competition for sure.

    When I plug the product specific keywords into Google keyword tool, the competition is low but the monthly searches are low as well.

    3) from Google keyword tool, the number tells me that people don't mind about buying less well known items of this product line

    With regard to submitting our website to dropship directories, I was hopping if I could start with forums?

    My reason is simply that I know forums (from years of working with internet marketing) but I don't know too much about how to best position myself among the competition within the directories.

    I could argue that since the well-established directories are already full of big players, we as small start-up drop shipping company simply do not have the ability to compete with them.

    I have also sent you a PM regarding your * hint *.

    Thanks and regards,

    image0611
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    • Profile picture of the author dave_hermansen
      Originally Posted by image0611 View Post

      With regard to submitting our website to dropship directories, I was hopping if I could start with forums?
      It's not going to hurt anything to post in forums, I just don't think you'll get as good of results as you would by reaching out to the retailers that are already in that niche. 99% of people that "plan" to launch a store around a product line they have found ever actually do it. So you are greatly increasing the odds by contacting people that are already launched and selling the same or extremely similar products.

      Originally Posted by image0611 View Post

      My reason is simply that I know forums (from years of working with internet marketing) but I don't know too much about how to best position myself among the competition within the directories.
      There's no POSITIONING that needs to take place. You simply provide the requested details and you are inserted into the directory's database. People then find you by using keywords that are related to your product offering or business name.

      Originally Posted by image0611 View Post

      I could argue that since the well-established directories are already full of big players, we as small start-up drop shipping company simply do not have the ability to compete with them.
      You simply do not want to offer a product line that the "big players" offer. The key to selecting a good product line is choosing one that is being overlooked by the big dogs. If Best Buy or Walmart have what you are offering you will almost for sure fail.

      Originally Posted by image0611 View Post

      Our area of products is in the electronics and gadgets. And we plan to use Aliexpress for easy and secure payment for the buyers. Thus our ideal clients are people who are looking to test the products, or ordering a few to start with and basically people who are just starting out with their ecommerce with electronics and gadgets.
      Both of these ideas concern me. Electronics is probably the most over-saturated general market on the web. Unless you have a truly unique product type that is being overlooked by the big players, I would avoid anything within electronics.

      You can certainly use AliExpress for payments, but I think you'd be better off accepting payments on your website through PayPal (and possibly major credit cards too). I purchase wholesale from all over the world and I would avoid a supplier if they only accepted payments through AliExpress.

      I hope this advice is helpful!
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  • Profile picture of the author image0611
    Perhaps I could start my advertising by becoming a War Room Member and then post a classified ad here in WarriorForum?

    Or is it better to work with forums like thewholesaleforums.co.uk?

    Thanks
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    • Profile picture of the author Importexport
      Originally Posted by image0611 View Post

      Perhaps I could start my advertising by becoming a War Room Member and then post a classified ad here in WarriorForum?

      Or is it better to work with forums like thewholesaleforums.co.uk?

      Thanks
      Dave has given you some excellent help, and he is much more expert at dropshipping than I am. Where I can help is locating suppliers.

      My book would not be of great use to you except for sourcing because you will not be importing, but I would like to help you with a safe way to locate suppliers. Seeing that you are in China you may think that you will find them easily, but unless you know where to look you could be very frustrated.

      If you look in the usual B2B sourcing sites you will find large lists of suppliers many of whom claim to be manufacturers and are not. For your new business you must locate genuine manufacturers.

      If you PM me I will give you details of one great place to visit, as well as a couple of websites that are safe to use. I usually keep these to myself because without the full story found in my book, many newbie importers would still finish up in bother. As you will not be importing I don't have that concern.

      Regarding thewholesaleforums.co.uk, provide you are will to pay the annual fee of GBP200, it could be useful to you, but there are many other places such as those suggested by Dave where you can get a free listing.
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  • Profile picture of the author image0611
    Hi Importexport,

    Thanks for your kind help.

    We have got our own supply of products and got the sourcing figured. What we need know is where to find people who wants use our service.

    Our area of products is in the electronics and gadgets. And we plan to use Aliexpress for easy and secure payment for the buyers. Thus our ideal clients are people who are looking to test the products, or ordering a few to start with and basically people who are just starting out with their ecommerce with electronics and gadgets.

    I will follow you and Dave's advice and start seeking out places where we could list our service for free to start with. Then look into the paid options afterwards.

    Thanks and regards,

    image0611
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  • Profile picture of the author battleweb
    I'm not sure if you are aware of this, but in general dropshipping directly from China can be a real headache for merchants here in the U.S. due to shipping times and customs issues. American consumers typically are really inpatient and expect to receive their products within a matter of a couple of days from the date they place their order and they are definitely less forgiving when their order gets caught up in customs for up to weeks sometimes. However, I know of a niche that has a very good success and satisfaction rate with dropshipping from China to here in the U.S. and I have been wanting to connect with someone in China to start this, so I might be a good lead for you. PM me if you are interested.
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    • Profile picture of the author image0611
      Originally Posted by battleweb View Post

      I'm not sure if you are aware of this, but in general dropshipping directly from China can be a real headache for merchants here in the U.S. due to shipping times and customs issues. American consumers typically are really inpatient and expect to receive their products within a matter of a couple of days from the date they place their order and they are definitely less forgiving when their order gets caught up in customs for up to weeks sometimes.
      Yes this is something we are aware of. And is definitely something that needs to be constantly improve as my business grows.

      Currently we encourage our reseller to use EMS for 7-day delivery with tracking number. And we do our part here to negotiate the shipping cost down as much as possible.

      We also do worldwide shipping, so are not limited in U.S.

      Originally Posted by battleweb View Post

      However, I know of a niche that has a very good success and satisfaction rate with dropshipping from China to here in the U.S. and I have been wanting to connect with someone in China to start this, so I might be a good lead for you. PM me if you are interested.
      Thanks. PM sent.
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