Whats the psychology of the consumer you are after when dropship?

10 replies
I am thinking a lot about dropshipping, it doesn't look like an online business model that offers any value to the consumer compared to other models like blogging or affiliate stores, blogging and affiliate stores guide, inform and solve the problems of the consumer so it makes sense to make money from them. You give something and take something.

Dropshipping looks like a model that exploits the weaknesses of the consumer, so what is the weaknesses that we truly exploit when dropshipping? is it impatience and unwillingness to research? ignorance? indifference for money? a fail sense of security? a patient consumer can go himself on aliexpress and buy the product and also make his research, its not like it takes much time, it takes less than 10 minutes to accomplish this, so you don't even offer time. Are these weaknesses so huge that we can even make so much money with them? just what is in the mind of these consumers?

Im trying to make some sense of this model, i really need to understand why someone makes so much money with it since it will improve me as a seller and give me the advantage i seek when i list products. I have done some business before and have encountered crazy consumers but even then everything made sense somehow. Last time i saw a guy who sold 500$ tvs at 900$ on his site and made tons of money, i just don't understand why all of this stuff works.
#consumer #dropship #psychology
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  • Profile picture of the author ChrisBa
    I don't know how much of the psychology around this is other than someone wanting to buy a product. Obviously different products and demographics will have different reasons behind their purchases.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rose Anderson
    If a consumer wants to buy ski jackets they might not want to spend hours searching the internet for all the possible places to buy.

    If they find one site that offers a variety of ski jackets all in one place -- wtih reviews -- it's a one stop shop.

    The biggest advantages are the time saved and the knowledge given about the products.

    How you feed the psychology of buying is more about the product then the business method. That's a separate issue.

    Rose
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  • Profile picture of the author IGotMine
    a patient consumer can go himself on aliexpress and buy the product and also make his research, its not like it takes much time, it takes less than 10 minutes to accomplish this,
    You are not your target market!
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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    Originally Posted by Shanks88 View Post

    I am thinking a lot about dropshipping, it doesn't look like an online business model that offers any value to the consumer compared to other models like blogging or affiliate stores, blogging and affiliate stores guide, inform and solve the problems of the consumer so it makes sense to make money from them. You give something and take something.

    Dropshipping looks like a model that exploits the weaknesses of the consumer, so what is the weaknesses that we truly exploit when dropshipping? is it impatience and unwillingness to research? ignorance? indifference for money? a fail sense of security? a patient consumer can go himself on aliexpress and buy the product and also make his research, its not like it takes much time, it takes less than 10 minutes to accomplish this, so you don't even offer time. Are these weaknesses so huge that we can even make so much money with them? just what is in the mind of these consumers?

    Im trying to make some sense of this model, i really need to understand why someone makes so much money with it since it will improve me as a seller and give me the advantage i seek when i list products. I have done some business before and have encountered crazy consumers but even then everything made sense somehow. Last time i saw a guy who sold 500$ tvs at 900$ on his site and made tons of money, i just don't understand why all of this stuff works.


    Why do you keep mentioning drop shipping?

    Does your traffic search for drop shippers when looking for a product to buy? No, they don't. Traffic could care less about drop shipping.

    It reminds me of all the Shopify forum threads that act like because they have a Shopify store it requires something different to make a sale. It doesn't.
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  • Profile picture of the author dave_hermansen
    I think your problem is that you assume that AliExpress is the only place on the planet that you can dropship from. Sure, by all means, if you want to sell cheap, Chinese products and deal with long shipping times, use AliExpress. It's easy and anyone can sign up with them so don't be surprised when you are competing with thousands of other websites, all selling the same low profit, low quality goods.

    Or, you can learn to dropship the right way - shipping products directly to consumers from real brands that people recognize. Just because you are selling products, doesn't mean that you can't supply better information, buying guides and helpful resource articles that help a consumer make a decision about which product to buy. We built more than 100 successful dropship sites long before AliExpress even existed. We continue to prefer the real brand dropshipping method over the no-name brand AliExpress model. The products are better, people actually are searching for them and want them and the brand has a reputation to protect so they offer far better customer service.
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    • Profile picture of the author tortorfires
      Dave,
      Thanks for sharing your knowledge. One challenge I see with this is price comparison with familiar brands. It's easier for the user to search Amazon for a price comparison. Any thoughts on this?
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      • Profile picture of the author dave_hermansen
        Originally Posted by tortorfires View Post

        Dave,
        Thanks for sharing your knowledge. One challenge I see with this is price comparison with familiar brands. It's easier for the user to search Amazon for a price comparison. Any thoughts on this?
        Many big brands have M.A.P. pricing in effect, which prevents sites from displaying lower prices. Everybody is on the same playing field. Since everybody has the same prices, you need to offer better information and better service.

        We've never considered Amazon a real threat. Amazon product descriptions are pretty generic. The key to beating them is creating much better product descriptions that answer the questions people have. In addition, you can create buyer's guides on your website that really help people narrow down the product selection to the things that will work best for their particular needs. When people feel more confident, they hit the Add to Cart button more often. Why would they go to Amazon or any other site if you've answered all of their questions and you have the same prices as everybody else?

        One other thing ... it really helps to prominently display a phone number that people can call if they have questions. If you answer the phone, you are already miles ahead of most websites and phone calls convert at AT LEAST 50%. Try calling Amazon and getting an intelligent answer to a question you have about any product on their site!
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        We help sellers get the MAXIMUM amount for their websites and all buyers know that these sites are 100% vetted.
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        • Profile picture of the author tortorfires
          Ohhhh. I hadn't heard of M.A.P. pricing until now. Thanks so much for sharing the deets.
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  • Profile picture of the author tortorfires
    Branding is powerful. I just sold an item for $300 and dropshipped it at $150. The challenges with dropshipping I am facing include:

    1. Price comparison with Amazon
    2. Keeping up with customer support
    3. Returns - As detailed as I get sometimes people just change their minds. It's a bit frustrating. While I do have a 14 day return policy I don't want bad reviews so I try to work something out with the customer.
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  • Profile picture of the author AffiliatiCloaker
    I had never read about that kind of psychology before.
    I would like to know more about advantages and disadvantages of this,
    and as you said how is that people make money with this.
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