Thinking about drop shipping

Drop shipping isn't that great from what I've found. I sell on eBay and I tried using a drop shipper that specialized for eBay sellers. I found that it wasn't worth it. One main problem is that a bunch of people are using the same drop shipper, which isn't cool if you compete directly against these people. Your competition will undercut everyone until all the profits are gone.

I'd stay away from drop shipping personally. It's a lot more hassle than it seems like it should be, but maybe others have a different experience.

Cody

Don't. Do. It. . . . . . . . . . the margin is very low, and the wait time for the customer is too high if you sell on ebay.

I used to drop ship on Ebay, mostly in the computer parts arena. Got harder and harder to match the low prices of many vendors. If you have real good suppliers you might not have too many delivery/refund problems. But if you get a bad supplier, it can be a nightmare - I know.

I started out doing a lot of dropshipping. One of the companies I used was great the first few months- they were a specialty dropshipper for health care and supplements. I was selling over $2,000 a month of just their products on eBay. Then they went flaky on me. Really flaky. Lied about what was in stock. Then, after I had sold it, lied about when it would be coming back in stock. So, I'd check with the customer to see if a few extra days was ok, promise them something wonderful for the inconvenience, etc. Then I'd call a week later and the company would tell me that a mistake was made and the product was not reordered. I spent a lot of time refunding people. I learned to keep their products in stock if I wanted to sell them - but their stocking was so bad it was not worth it most of the time.

I was not the least surprised when, a few months ago, I went to place an order with them and their web site was completely gone.

Thank goodness no one ever slammed me with feedback, but that was under the old rules where sellers could leave negatives for buyers. I had similar problems with a couple of other dropship companies.

I am still a PowerSeller on eBay (well, til they completely phase over to the Top Seller program). These days though, I only dropship products from one company and I stock 95% of what I sell. I just use dropshipping to fill in the gaps. These days customers will leave negatives/neutrals for no good reason. I had one customer leave a neutral because they had not used the item yet. Another left me a negative when I made a mistake and sent them a size larger than they ordered, instead of asking them to return it, I sent them a second item for free since they would be able to use the other one as their baby grew - still left me a nasty negative. So, I would really hesitate to use a dropshipper unless you completely trust them.

If you can find a good dropshipper, there is money to be made in some markets. I would look at Worldwide Brands for a great dropship list.

The best dropshippers are manufacturers who are willing to dropship. The few I still work with are all manufacturers (I have a retail web site where I occasionally dropship products, mostly I stock inventory). As a former eBay employee, I got a free membership to a well-known dropship company. I have never used it (and they refuse to cancel it by email - my time is worth too much to cancel by phone and have them try to talk me into staying). Every time I get curious, I look at some of their items, then price them on eBay. No profits, often they are selling at "wholesale" for more than the Amazon price.

Funny you should ask that because I did a post on my blog about dropshipping.

The Wednesday Opportunity: Dropshipping | IM Rant

But I've only got two words: STAY AWAY.

Hi,

I have had a lot of success in the last 12 months from dropshipping. I do not however rely on eBay. As some other warrriors have pointed out eBay can be a price war cutting out the profit unless you have a unique product.

I am thinking of launching a WSO about how I made dropshipping work for me, eventually earning upto $400 a day. Would anyone be interested in this WSO?
M

I tried this a few years ago.. made some money but nothing to write home about.

I think you need to drop ship massive volumes to make a decent living from it, it was too much work for me but can see if someone spent all day, everyday, at it, they might get somewhere.

Maybe I wasn't doing things right. I fully accept it may well have been my own fault to see such low returns because I do hear many stories about people doing very well from it.

But in my experience it wasn't worth my time.. and more importantly, it wasn't fun.

Its all about the relationship
As someone else pointed out - go with the manufacturers who are willing to drop ship.
Develop a good relationship with them. Times are tough. More and more manufactures are looking to do drop shipping or at the very least they are dropping their minimum order amounts.
But its a 2 way street - don't be flake

There are just as many retarded drop ship retailers (sellers) out there as there are bad drop shippers.

I see both sides as I'm a manufacturer who drop ships.

Don't use dropship companies. Too many hands in the pot mean less profit for you and most times with the dropship companies there is NO profit. Or they sell junk.

As for ebay - I only sell close out items, liquidations, clearance,etc
There are fewer and fewer items that you can sell on ebay anymore without taking a bath on the price.

If you sell on ebay you really should make sure you have the item in your possession before listing it for sale. Buyers want it delivered yesterday. Your reputation will be in the hands of the drop shipper - not good

Dropshipping is a tricky subject to get into. I will warn against dropship wholesale programs like Doba.com. Only because they aren't a true dropshipper. They are the middle man. They advertise products with a "retail price" that is higher than any where else that you can buy the product (like Amazon for example) then they'll list their price as the wholesale price which is more comparable to the actual "street price" thus leaving you with very little margins or even sometimes you can find the same product for cheaper on Amazon.

The 'real' way to get into dropshipping is to contact manufacturers directly. Large companies will most likely ingore your requests to work with an individual selling on eBay. Most eBay sellers that are able to make some good money are those actually have a brick-and-mortar retail store that sell their additional inventory on eBay. You'd have much better luck setting up a dropshipping agreement with companies if you had an established retail business in that niche.

You need to find a specific niche that will work. Consumer electronics are very popular for consumers. This means that everyone and their dog are trying to sell those things on eBay creating a lot of competition and very low profit margins.

I'm not saying that it's impossible to get started with a eBay dropshipping business but you'll spend far too much time and money before you see a return on investment. I hope that this helps!

I did try drop-shipping for quite a while, made some money but what I realized is that unless you are going to use a relatively unique product, it will be very difficult making money from it because of the so many other people trying to sell the same product online.

Some people, for whatever reason, would be selling the same same product from the same manufacturer at a very small price compared to yours that you would find it more difficult to do the same.

If you decide to do so, do not use middle men. I almost got hooked on Doba.com, back in the day. One reliable source of info would worldwidebrands.com. They pretty much do a good job at helping you find reliable companies.

Otherwise, do some homework the product you are attempting to drop-ship, and:

1. Check the size of results on the search engines to see the popularity of the keyword.
2. Check the sponsored listings to see the how many people are paying for ads on the product
3. Check the product on google shopping, yahoo shopping, and msn shopping to see how many other stores are selling the product and for what price.
4. Make a decision.

Otherwise, I find Internet Marketing much more rewarding.

I have tried drop-shipping and any profits went to middle men, so I got out of it. If I got into it again, I would do more research.

I tried it and didn't like it, especially when the supplier lets you down.

I found affiliate marketing more profitable and less hassle.

Just saw a video today from a warrior of a clickbank guru talking about ebay and the place he mentioned for wholesale and dropshipping was here:

Alibaba Manufacturer Directory - Suppliers, Manufacturers, Exporters & Importers

Mike