Newbie looking for some advice

8 years ago

Originally Posted by GalwayIMT

1. Should I use World Wide Brands, SaleHoo, or just cold call Sony, Samsung, LG, ect..?

2. Should I set up my own store or use Ebay?

3. Will companies do business with me if I'm only on Ebay? I've read that they won't even give you the time of day without your own store already set up and waiting for products.

4. Does anyone have experience with Bigcommerce? Would it be a good place to set up a store? It seems comparable to Shopify, but I would love to hear what you all think of it.

Thanks.

P.S. Before anyone says import my own stock, I don't have the funds to do that right now hence the drop shipping, I want to do my own private label stuff down the road but right now I need to generate some cash flow. And no I'm not looking for a "get rich quick" solution, I know it will take time and effort, I'm willing to put in the work and be patient, I just need some guidance to to get me started.

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1] Use worldwide brands. There is real diversity.

2] Setup both, your ebay store as well as your own website. Any shortage in sales will always be compensated with your e-bay store and you will realize the competition in a much better way.

3] Yes. Answered in 2 above.

4] Setup a Shopify store. It's much more flexible and robust.

.

Thanks
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GalwayIMT 8 years ago

FarNext, thanks I'll think about it, the problem is I'm very limited on funds right now and the membership cost would take most of what I have. Any idea on if SaleHoo is any good? Also thanks for the advice on the multiple stores, I would have to start with just one due to funds but I'd like to expand once I could afford it.

rumifdx, thanks, I guess I should have been more clear with my wording, I meant should I sign up, but you've kind of answered that. I'd love to go right to PL but I'm very limited on funds, and doing electronics would cost more than $500 with minimum orders, I would need a few thousand at least and at the moment I don't have that kind of cash.

ChadGilbert, thanks, Setting up stores on multiple platforms takes money and I'm limited on funds, once I get some cash flow I would start setting up on other platforms but right now I have to pick just one since that's all I can afford. Have you used BigCommerce? How does it compare to Shopify?
- Thanks
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rumifdx

8 years ago

Originally Posted by GalwayIMT

Ok quick back story, I've been self-employed since 2008 running a courier business. I started off with one contract with the New York Times, expanded to three more contracts, then lost all but the original contract due to larger companies out bidding me. While I'm driving my route I listen to podcasts two of which are the SPI podcast and Freedom Fastlane, and I've been interested in ecommerce for years but never looked into it seriously until about a year ago, now I'm hooked and want to move my company in that direction since the newspaper business is dying and I can't compete with the established trucking companies anyway. Plus I'm burnt out on driving, and would love to be off the road!

So here is my problem, I've been reading this forum and about a hundred other places and everything seems to contradict it's self, ex: Ebay is good, Ebay is bad. I'm just lost, I have some ideas but I don't know where to go with them. I want to sell electronics, and I want to drop ship them since I don't have the space to store them or the money to warehouse them. So my questions are,

1. Should I use World Wide Brands, SaleHoo, or just cold call Sony, Samsung, LG, ect..?

2. Should I set up my own store or use Ebay?

3. Will companies do business with me if I'm only on Ebay? I've read that they won't even give you the time of day without your own store already set up and waiting for products.

4. Does anyone have experience with Bigcommerce? Would it be a good place to set up a store? It seems comparable to Shopify, but I would love to hear what you all think of it.

Thanks.

P.S. Before anyone says import my own stock, I don't have the funds to do that right now hence the drop shipping, I want to do my own private label stuff down the road but right now I need to generate some cash flow. And no I'm not looking for a "get rich quick" solution, I know it will take time and effort, I'm willing to put in the work and be patient, I just need some guidance to to get me started.

WWB is not something to "use", is just a directory of wholesalers willing to drop-ship for you, but with hundreds if not thousands of other drop-shippers sourcing from the same suppliers I can't imagine how on Earth you're going to find a good product with not much competition and good margins, given the notoriously-low margins products you find on directories such as WWB.

If your ultimate goal is PL, start directly with your ultimate goal; it's hard at the beginning but it gets easier once you start, and the profits you can make are WAY bigger than selling other people's inventory. I buy my product in China for $2.2, landed cost is $4.5, and sells for $20. FBA fees are around $5 which leaves me a clean $10 profit/sale, and I can easily sell #5/day now that I'm still in the early stage. Rinse and repeat.

On FB there are awesome groups of PL sellers such as the TAS group by Scott Voelker.
you don't need thousands to get started. With $500 you can have a product on the market and once you sell you re-invest the profits into more inventory.

For a folk like me who never used the Computer before in my life being able to start this business and make it profitable has been a blessing in my life. And the best part has still to come.

If I can make it from Thailand, you can pretty much do the same from anywhere in this world.

Good Luck

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GalwayIMT

8 years ago

Importexport, thanks. I've PM'ed you.

Thanks

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Samfakroon

8 years ago

Hello. I will not beat around the Bush. You get Products from Aliexpress or alibaba and sell them on your own store made on Shopify. You can do this with Ebay as well. Your advertising source will be Paid Facebook, Paid Instagram. if you need mentoring on this contact me.

Thanks
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Importexport

8 years ago

Originally Posted by Samfakroon

Hello. I will not beat around the Bush. You get Products from Aliexpress or alibaba and sell them on your own store made on Shopify. You can do this with Ebay as well. Your advertising source will be Paid Facebook, Paid Instagram. if you need mentoring on this contact me.

Aliexpress is a retail site and is not suitable for resellers wanting to make good profits. Alibaba is full of traders masquerading as manufacturers.

If you want maximum profits you have to buy direct from genuine manufacturers. Traders buy from them and add a substantial margin before selling to you. If you buy direct you can bank that extra margin.

Both Alibaba and Aliexpress have numerous complaints about scams lodged against them on Ripoffreport.com.

There are safe sites that I recommend, but I don't publish them online because there is a lot more to safe sourcing than just using safe sites. See: If your secret B2B portals are so safe why don't you share?

Walter Hay.

"If you think education is expensive - consider the cost of ignorance."

Thanks

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Use emotions and perceptions to build a great brand. Ask me about my book LabelsThatExploit. For safe sourcing and easy importing from 41 countries globally, see https://provenglobalsourcing.com

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violet0176

8 years ago

Unless you plan on buying by the pallet, there is very little profit in consumer electronics.To become an Authorized dealer with Samsung, Sony, etc...you need to do more than just call them up, lol. You need a physical store and excellent credit and trade references.

You would be smart to choose a nice that isn't already over-saturated.

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Importexport

8 years ago

Originally Posted by violet0176

Unless you plan on buying by the pallet, there is very little profit in consumer electronics.To become an Authorized dealer with Samsung, Sony, etc...you need to do more than just call them up, lol. You need a physical store and excellent credit and trade references.

You would be smart to choose a nice that isn't already over-saturated.

I agree totally. Consumer electronics is not for small fry, particularly newbies.

Walter Hay.

"If you think education is expensive - consider the cost of ignorance."

Thanks

Signature

Use emotions and perceptions to build a great brand. Ask me about my book LabelsThatExploit. For safe sourcing and easy importing from 41 countries globally, see https://provenglobalsourcing.com

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sbucciarel

Banned 8 years ago

1. Should I use World Wide Brands, SaleHoo, or just cold call Sony, Samsung, LG, ect..?

I use World Wide Brands and they have a lot of electronics dropshippers and wholesalers.

2. Should I set up my own store or use Ebay?

I would do both. Most of the ebayers I've seen have both.

3. Will companies do business with me if I'm only on Ebay? I've read that they won't even give you the time of day without your own store already set up and waiting for products.

Don't know ... it's never stopped me from buying on Ebay

4. Does anyone have experience with Bigcommerce? Would it be a good place to set up a store? It seems comparable to Shopify, but I would love to hear what you all think of it.

Nope ... WooCommerce all the way.

Thanks

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GalwayIMT

8 years ago

Sorry for taking so long to reply everyone, my courier business picked up due to the holiday shipping rush.

I've taken your advice to heart and will hold off on electronics for now, maybe I'll come back to it later who knows, but I've come back to an idea I had about a year ago and I think I'm going to run with it. My best friend is in the US Army (reserves now) and we had an idea to form a partnership and supply gear for military members.

Thanks for all the advice!

Thanks

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chuff1026

8 years ago

when getting advice from someone make sure that they have proof of success
we live in a world where every mother fker and their aunty wants to give advice without experience and even worse without success

I cannot speak about any other method but I have been succesfully dropshipping on ebay for over 3 years and I have been making about 10k a month for the last two years
I have dropshipped more than 2 million on ebay
I have snap shots of many of my months of sales so I can share that with you

if you have any questions on how I was successful on ebay
I will gladly share that with you

some people make money on shopify
soem on their own site\some on ebay
i personally make on ebay

when takign advice simply try to get advice from someone whow as successful in their specific area
most people on forums, sadly to say have too much time on their hands so most likely they are not successful. And please unerstand I said MOST people..not ALL

so please do not hold those little words and run with them

world wide brands is a piece of shyt in my experience BTW