Calculating Dropshipping Costs

by antis
3 replies
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So I've decided to try dropshipping on Ebay to see how it works. I have found 30+ different manufacturers from China, Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, USA, and France. They all agreed to dropship for me. As long as dropshipping has low profit margins (about 10%), I want to start big right away - list at least 3k - 5k items this month.

The biggest headache for me right now is calculating the shipping costs. Am I supposed to ask my supplier to calculate shipping for every single item to every single location? That will take like forever, because some of them have 500+ items on sale.
I guess it shouldn't be very accurate for more expensive items, but some items are worth 7 - 10$. Because of that everything has to be very accurate, because profit is very very small. One little mistake, and you are not making any money.

Another thing that I want to know is there any automation tools for that? I mean let's say if you sell 200 items every day, it will take a lot of hours to send every single order through email by yourself.

Any help or tips would be appreciated. Thanks!


Paulius
#calculating #costs #dropshipping
  • Profile picture of the author nvm001
    Hey there...how exciting! I think I would narrow my product offering down a bit. Is there any way you can narrow the field of offerings down and say, specialize in one niche area?
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  • Profile picture of the author antis
    Hello. Well I specialize only on inexpensive electronics, but I don't have like a really small sub-niche.
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    • Profile picture of the author LABEShops
      I would definitely start small - select a handful of products that normally sell well and list them first til you get your margins and everything else figure out - then add the rest. That way any missteps won't cost you too much.

      You could use calculated shipping though you will need to be sure to select the country each product is shipping from.

      Don't forget to take in all other expenses into account when pricing. And remember, electronics is a risky item with usually high returns and scammy buyers (one reason I don't sell them).
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      Owner of LABEShops.com & 20+ Niche Online Stores as well as Scifispace.com and other sites. Recommended Host: Evolve

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