Dropshipping Demons, Care To Give Up Some Secrets?

You're gonna be hard pressed to find anyone who's willing to give up their drop shipper; you'd then be their competition.

You can go to worldwidebrands.com they have a directory of trusted drop shippers (its gonna cost you though)

I haven't had a look through the site yet, but from memory, I think there's a tour you can take, but any substantial info is only available for paying customers.

Cheers,
Sissy

1. Ebay is not the best place to sell directly unless you have something that is in demand and not currently offered. Like every other auction site, it becomes a pricing war and you are not going to see very much profit for the time and effort put in. If any at all. I'm not saying it's impossible but the odds are stacked against you when it comes to ebay. Instead you might want to use Ebay as a traffic source. There are a lot of different ways to do it.

2. Create a legal business entity so you can contact companies and manufacturers directly. 98% of legit drop shipping companies are going to require some sort of business ID or tax identification number. For example, if you live in the UK and want to use US drop shippers, at the very least they want to see your a registered business. Try contacting manufacturers and if they don't dropship, ask for their distributors contacts.

3. China is difficult to source from if you have no Chinese contacts. I currently source from a factory and it seems a bit dodgy sometimes when it comes to what I ordered, and what I actually receive. I don't use drop shipping in that situation because it definitely would destroy my business. There are many services online to get contact information of Chinese factories. I think your best bet is to steer far from these. I got my contacts from people here in Japan who have friends/family in china. I have seen many scam examples across the internet. So if you do get some Chinese contacts, ask to see their business certificate. They will most likely send you a copy. You need to verify that it is real, and that the business registration is for the same people your dealing with. I've seen a few legit certificates but for totally different businesses.

For online dropshippers, World Wide Brands is pretty well known, as is Salehoo. Each have their pros and cons. Salehoo is about 5 times cheaper than world wide brands. I don't use either so you'll have to go by reviews or some one else who has.

I think it's important to really get as much knowledge as possible when it comes to drop shipping, because it's not as easy as people will have you believe. It takes quite a bit of work.

This is just from my experience By no means am I claiming to know it all or even that this is true for any one elses experience.

So obviously drop shipping is some kind of super-secret endeavor, but I was wondering if someone could advise on how they feel about drop shipping in terms of their websites. I have a set of websites where I'd like to give away lots of good free information, but if I could put a store on it, I feel like the website would have a ton of worth. Is this a worthwhile endeavor?

Would someone mind guiding a newbie about what steps are involved in setting up drop shipping?

Is it truly imperative to have a business? I probably just should- I work at a law firm and have filed 5 or 10 for other people- it would take me ten minutes. I just don't want to spend extra money until my online businesses are going somewhere. Maybe I'm putting the cart before the horse. Thanks!

OP, I would stay away from Doba. They are a legitimate company, but they also act as a middleman. You will pay a monthly fee and have added costs tacked on by Doba to the product.

Worldwide Brands is a directory. I have a membership and it is worth the money. They research all the companies and they only list legitimate dropshippers who are direct factory distributors or manufaturer distributors. This means you will no deal with fly by night people who simply add a layer of costs to the product. The difficult part is sifting thru the companies to find a niche.

ebay is difficult to do dropshipping on. It has a lot of traffic, but it is difficult for a small person to come up with the buying power to compete with the big boys on the site. Your own website may be a more viable alternative as you will be able to achieve higher retails.

I can recommend oberlo.com no secrets, good pricing and good service - everything you need to kickstart your business.