Is Dropshipping really worthless?

16 years ago

I actually have dropshipped and some very small money on eBay. eBay is so competive price wise that it is very hard.

The nice thing about dropshipping is that you can start off with almost no money and have a business going. It is not a bad way to start, but eventually you will probably have to buy your products wholesale to make a sufficient profit if eBay is your target market.

1 more thing is I do not recommend buying into a dropshipper type company. You will be very disappointed with the pricing. On almost everything they stock you will be able to have it shipped to your house from s seller on eBay cheaper than you can even get the product for.

Carol

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Monetize

16 years ago

You've heard bad things about dropshipping companies
or dropshipping in general? Because those are two very
different things. Obviously, if you go with one of these
crappy "as-seen-on-tv-garbage" dropshippers you're
likely to have a bad experience. Think about it.

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Treece

16 years ago

I used a dropshipping company and it was an interesting experiment. The only way I could make money was to order the product in quantity and have it shipped to me. If I sold a single product at a time, I couldn't get the shipping prices low enough to be worthwhile.

I now work with companies that will occasionally dropship for me if I am out of stock, but I hold my own inventory.

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Barbara Eyre

16 years ago

My online store is stocked via drop shippers. I did not go with "drop ship companies", but with smaller businesses. It took me awhile to seek out these people as some didn't advertise that they drop shipped, but all it took was an email to ask and viola.

I get the same discount as wholesale, no drop ship fees, personal service, everything is in my store's name (shipping labels, et al).

I do not do ebay - no real sense in it any more, in my opinion.

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Tuzic

Banned 16 years ago

Hi,

the thing with dropshippers is that they dont allow you to be competitive, as we have used dropshipping companies before & listed all their products on ebay & amazon but they're just not cheap enought to sell well on amazon or ebay..

this is a big problem...other than that the products were delivered in good tim & were in great condition.

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davebo

Banned 16 years ago

[DELETED]

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Bruce NewMedia

16 years ago

I think it depends. If I remember Andy Jenkins of StomperNet says his websites that sell Game Figurines-collectibles (can't remember what they are called) is ALL dropshipped merchandise. He claims he built up his whole business that way. I don't believe he sells on Ebay tho.

Years ago I had partner and we sold merchandise imported from China on Ebay. We had first tried to sell similar stuff on Ebay by dropship, but it was impossible to be price competitive. On Ebay at least, it's extremely difficult to make a margin when you dropship.

BTW, I think Davebo has provided you with some great info on what really can work

_________
Bruce

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Easy Cash

16 years ago

You are better off importing direct from China.

If you have some spare cash and willing to sort out the import arrangments (It's not hard) you will do a lot better and you are not relying on dropshippers.

You can get things imported from China at a rock bottom price.

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Barbara Eyre

16 years ago

Davebo and I pretty much said the same thing - only his was more detailed.

I don't know about solely getting China-made stuff. People are more and more looking for quality, things that last, since nearly everything you buy lately from electronics to clothing seems to fall apart fairly quickly (they do for us at least!).

All my dropshippers are 100% USA made. Many are hand-made (another popular niche/keyword).

I would stay away from ebay. By the time you pay the fees to keep listing products and all that that, your profit margin per product keeps getting lower and lower. Get your own online store (carts are anywhere from free to $500 - depending on your code learning curve and other factors). Start small, as you don't want to overwhelm yourself with 5 dropship companies (one for t-shirts, one for baseball caps, one for belts, etc etc type thing), build trust and confidence and work your way up to where you want to be.

The key then is to move away from dropshipping and use profits to buy your own inventory from those suppliers (so you can charge cheaper shipping and other perks).

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gigis 16 years ago

There is some excellent advice here. Thanks for the post.
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greenandchic

16 years ago

Originally Posted by Barbara Eyre

My online store is stocked via drop shippers. I did not go with "drop ship companies", but with smaller businesses. It took me awhile to seek out these people as some didn't advertise that they drop shipped, but all it took was an email to ask and viola.

I get the same discount as wholesale, no drop ship fees, personal service, everything is in my store's name (shipping labels, et al).

I do not do ebay - no real sense in it any more, in my opinion.

***snip***

All my dropshippers are 100% USA made. Many are hand-made (another popular niche/keyword).

I would stay away from ebay. By the time you pay the fees to keep listing products and all that that, your profit margin per product keeps getting lower and lower. Get your own online store (carts are anywhere from free to $500 - depending on your code learning curve and other factors). Start small, as you don't want to overwhelm yourself with 5 dropship companies (one for t-shirts, one for baseball caps, one for belts, etc etc type thing), build trust and confidence and work your way up to where you want to be.

***snip***

I'm curious as to how you deal with the cost of shipping. I have two small business that drop ship for me (and two companies that I buy wholesale) and it's great when a customer only orders from one of them. But when a customer orders products from both, the shipping costs eats me alive.

I only offer a flat fee shipping to stay competitive, but its hard to make even a little profit this way.

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Barbara Eyre 16 years ago

Carla,

When you have dropshippers that each use a different form of shipping (flat fee, live rates, table matrix, etc) ... it can be a bit tricky to find that "middle road". I've found that in some orders, I make a little bit from shipping, and in other orders, I lose a little bit. In the end, it nearly washes (evens itself out).

There is one of my dropshippers that will only ship to me (and then I ship to my customers - it's still really quick though). In this case, since the items are inexpensive wholesale, I tend to buy an extra of whatever item that I ordered and have a small nest egg. Then, when a customer buys one of those products, I know I can send it to them really cheap - then I refund the over pay of shipping.

Like I mentioned before, your goal is to take your profits and slowly buy your inventory, instead of having the companies drop ship them. This way, you can be more in control of your shipping charges to your customers.
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- greenandchic 16 years ago
  
  I think my goal is to buy my inventory. That would be so much easier in the long run. Its defiantly easier to my own fulfillment with the two vendors I do buy from(for the time being).
  
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Melody

16 years ago

Originally Posted by Barbara Eyre

My online store is stocked via drop shippers. I did not go with "drop ship companies", but with smaller businesses. It took me awhile to seek out these people as some didn't advertise that they drop shipped, but all it took was an email to ask and viola.

I get the same discount as wholesale, no drop ship fees, personal service, everything is in my store's name (shipping labels, et al).

I do not do ebay - no real sense in it any more, in my opinion.

I have to agree with Barbara here! My husband spent 25+ yrs in the wholesale side of the gift industry, and then used his knowledge and contacts to build up his own dropshippers list. He did VERY well on EBay until the latest round of changes - and it was not the pricing and competition that finally drove him away - it was the changes to the feedback system. Sellers are no longer allowed to leave a negative for buyers - and buyers are pretty much running amok on EBay right now. We've had buyers leave a negative when they didn't get an item ordered on Sat by Tuesday am........

There are easier ways to make money online!

Dropshipping can be lucrative - but find your own resources with a little legwork and avoid EBay!

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Rupps

16 years ago

I'll just echo the sentiments of the rest.

For years I have been using companies that drop ship for me. I also drop ship some items for other companies that I stock.

These are not "drop-ship" companies (nor am I), but smaller companies that welcome the extra business. I have found larger businesses and distributors basically snub their nose at me when I even inquire about it.

While I do sell some things on ebay, none of it is drop-shipped as I also found there is not enough profit in the products I have found.

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williamd52

16 years ago

I have used a dropshipper for ebay items such as charm watches, dogtags, mouse pads and the like. It worked out okay, just be careful about selling clothing items. The sizes are not the same as American's are used to buying. These are small ticket items, nothing fancy or expensive. The website is ArtsNow - Custom T-Shirt & Other Popular Products. NOT an affiliate link, I no longer sell on ebay. Too much hassle with the new management, not much of a future there IMHO.

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Mike Montgomery

16 years ago

I used drop shipping every day when I had a physical
product business and it worked really well.

It does not however work with ebay as the margins are
just to small

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napoleonfirst

16 years ago

There is a guy called Dominic Lee that succeed in this stuff. He has a blog too.

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ezimedia

16 years ago

HI

I use to import my own cooling fan products back in 2000 and sold them online.. and I did well I got all my contacts from this website.

Manufacturers: Global Sources

you will also want to check out...

alibaba.com

Buy it yourself and you are in control..

Only thing I hated was the wrapping and packing every day... and going to the post office.

Downloadable Digital products or a site offering online services is much more fun...

Tom

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morwanneg 16 years ago

Echoing the sentiments of the rest, dropshipping is not at all worthless. Success or failure in dropshipping is relative. So long as you work hard and have good quality products, then dropshipping will work for you.

Kind regards,
Morwanneg
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- morwanneg 16 years ago
  
  Oh, by the way, i used to be with Worldwide brands before. I'm thinking of dropshipping with them again. I have written a comprehensive worldwide brands review, you might want to read it and hope it helps you.
  
  Kind regards,
  Morwanneg
  
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Cherilyn Woodhouse

16 years ago

Do it the right way, without having to sell based solely on price (i.e. seek out good products, ask the manufacturer/distributor if they will drop ship), and drive enough traffic, you're basically doing a form of arbitrage with physical products. Buy low, sell high, never actually touch what you're selling.

But just like every other form of arbitrage out there, the key to making real profits is SCALE. Do it big, or go home.

- Cherilyn

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googleplex

16 years ago

There are a lot of good comments here but I think if you get a reputable company to work with and do things the right way (Mainly trial and error like everything else) then its not worthless and you can make some decent coin from it.

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cashreward

16 years ago

Yah, Dropshipping company i have not used but if your mind is on the doubting side why going ahead using them.

Beside you can do more by finding out from google.com by search for dropshipping(space)scam. With this google will give you there compilations concerning the company.

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bannerdemers

16 years ago

I've been two weeks looking for dropshippers of optics for my sportinggoods based site. So far all I've found are near or above retail on quality products or (wholesale?can't say for sure) pricing on junk. I can find several wholesale companies that want me to stock inventory, and in some cases buy a resellers license, but can't afford all that at the moment. Any suggestions?

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captivereef

16 years ago

i used to dropship through the bigger online retailer companies in the reef aquarium nichce, made about 20-30% profit margin and at the peak was doing about 30,000 a month in sales.

I always wanted to avoid the big so called drop ship companies and found this the best way. Many large online retailers are usally distributors to so they give you a good discount.

Once my kids came it got to be to much and i stopped.

Best way is to email them or ask if the dropship, many will especially to bring in extra revenue.

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dsmpublishing

16 years ago

I used to dropship a lot a couple of years ago when i was an ebay powerseller and found it very profitable and used to even sell dropship lists. At the moment i wouldnt do it on ebay as its too competitive but theres nothing wrong with selling it via your niche site.

i.e. if i had a food website i would do a shop with some dropshipping products such as pots and pans.

on the other hand with the recession lots of companies would be willing to dropship that wouldnt before for a lower price.

it really depends on what your product is

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taberdude2 16 years ago

Hi,

I used to sell on Ebay too, until all the wonderful changes.

I even dropshipped a little.Try Googling "free store club." They dropshipped for me and I had no problems with them.

If you'd like to start an online store for free, I would try "Ecrater" or "BISI" (buy it sell it).Be ready to promote your store as if it is your own website.

Another online store is "Atomic Mall" which will import your Ebay feedback. Low final value fees and last I checked no listing fee.

I gave up on all that along time ago-but still have it in the back of my mind to do an online store, eventually.

Hope this helps, someone.

Deanna
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Craig Fenton

16 years ago

Hi Business Lady:

Statistics show that even with the legit dropshippers you may earn only 20 percent profit. It is important to decide if there is enough product to move and or if there is a big ticket item that is worth moving at 20 percent (give or take). Two that get good ratings for their legit services dropshipping and more are:
World Wide Brands and Salehoo. You can do a Google search and make your own decision about the costs and benefits.

Shop wisely and I hope you have great results.

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raider23

16 years ago

For what it's worth

I tried dropshipping some years ago and found it was impossible to compete
There are just too many professionals out there who keep there own stocks that you have no chance

Find another way to make money

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Trieu

16 years ago

before I got into IM. Selling Wholesale and dropshipping goods were the only business I know. There have been alot of negative stories about dropshipping and I can see why as some of the prices are ridiculously high from some of US companies I signed up with

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Barbara Eyre

16 years ago

Originally Posted by Craig Fenton

Statistics show that even with the legit dropshippers you may earn only 20 percent profit.

With the small companies/businesses I go with (for my niche), I get 40-50% profit. I get wholesale pricing. No one charges me anything different or extra for drop shipping. I purposely steered away from those that did charge extra for drop shipping.

Originally Posted by Teo

before I got into IM. Selling Wholesale and dropshipping goods were the only business I know. There have been alot of negative stories about dropshipping and I can see why as some of the prices are ridiculously high from some of US companies I signed up with

Again, this depends on your niche, but I looked for small companies ... "Mom n Pops", those who wanted to grow themselves and loved having the extra help from us, to spread their products around. They did it as another form of affiliate marketing ... that is how I look at this. Well, until I get the inventory myself *grins*

But like Carla and I have stated, drop shipping is great to get your foot in the door, but as you obtain the profits, turn around and buy your inventory so you can be more in control of shipping and other aspects.

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grumpyb

16 years ago

There is clearly two types of dropshipper and selling products via a large dropshipping company Type 1 is IMO fraught with danger.
You have little if any control over shipping and its your reputation on the line not the dropshipper.
I have dropshipped using Type 1 and found it was a nightmare so we stopped it.

However Dropship Type 2 is great and this is where we have suppliers who primarily only supply us for on line and they warehouse send the order out but work with us to ensure customer service. This is like a partnership where we act as an additional sales arm for some companys. This works very well

The other type of dropshipping is IMO a recipe for disaster to the point of almost being on line selling suicide.

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misterlmno

16 years ago

I have been using dropshipping for 4 years as a fulll time income. You just need the right niche and of course supplier.

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Luke12

16 years ago

I used to use dropshipping, but it was good if i did not want to grow my company. The only way to make your company expand is to have your own inventory and manage all the shipping aspects. The only problem with that, this process takes up alot of your personal time. I was looking for a warehouse but thats alot of money and maintaince so thats not cool, but I ran into a fulfillment service that could do anything for me at a flat rate no hidden fees. Long story short I have increase my profits 6 to 8 dollar per item and I am incontrol of my company future. what a awesome concept. Dont know If I am allowed to put a link up here but just shoot me a thread and I will let you know who I am using!!

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Is Dropshipping really worthless?

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