Starting into Dropshipping - Amazon FBA or eBay

FBA means fulfillment by Amazon but it is not dropshipping. They warehouse items that you purchase in bulk and then do the shipping for you. Likewise, eBay does not have any prodcuts that you can dropship.

Both are simply places to advertise your goods but you need to find a supplier who will dropship for you first. You can take the easy way out and get no-name, generic products dropshipped from China via AliExpress and deal with a TON of competition or you can go the more difficult, less competition route of contacting actual brands and seeing if they will dropship for you or if they can provide you with contact info about their distributors who might dropship for you.

There is a whole lot more information you need to know about dropshipping than can be answered in a simple bulletpoint list in a forum thread. There are many courses online, some paid, some free, that will help you a great deal in your journey.

When you say dropshipping through Amazon FBA, it just sounds you need to understand the FBA itself. Under FBA program you have to send inventory to Amazon's warehouse so Amazon can fulfill orders on your behalf. While on the other hand, when you do dropshipping then your supplier will ship the items after receiving the order from you and the payment of course!

However, you can still dropship on Amazon using individual account. If you have completed your product research and have supplier on hand then simply list your items and start promoting.

Oops, Looks like I've been using the words in the wrong places. Well, atleast I am now getting to understand the terminology better.

Maybe I can put what I have in mind and can be better guided?

What I want to sell is, home decor products inclined towards nature: bamboo, wood.
I don't wish to hold an inventory, but rather work with ready sellers on Amazon, working on the FBA model.
So I get an order, and in turn place it with the FBA seller on Amazon with an agreement that the Amazon (FBA) seller ships the item to my customer in my name. (I hope I'm making sense)

Is something like this possible - whether on Amazon or eBay?

The short answer to your question is that Amazon will hold your inventory. You'll have to pay them a fee every month for doing just that. You still should have your products shipped to your house. This way you can make sure everything is okay before sending them off to Amazon.

I highly suggest that you read as much material as possible about selling with Amazon FBA. The entire process is something you'll have to become familiar with. While it's not as easy as many would like to think right off the bat, it's not complicated either. You will get to the point where it all becomes second nature to you.

hello, Fay
i would say from my experience shopify is the best way for me
unlike amazon fba you dont hold any inventory, if you are afraid about the shipping time dont , dont worry just make sure in the descriprion of the products you state that it would take around 2-4 weeks, that way you will escape from some big problems afterwards,

I do shopify and amazon fba too. I get more sales on amazon cuz of high traffic. I dropship and don't hold any inventory. If you're concerned about fulfillment time of amazon then you have option in your amazon account to adjust the same. Though if you're just starting out then i would recommend you to take a look at affiliate marketing as well. Its better than drop shipping in every way

I don't think you will make decent money either ways. You need your own store to sell your products.

I would advise doing Amazon FBA using private label products. It's a great way to get started.

A great free resource for this is The Amazing Seller Podcast by Scott Voelker.

1. You find a market that you can sell multiple physical products to.

2. Start with just one product. Only start your second product once you are selling at least 10-20 units a day of your first product.

3. Make sure your first product is small, cheap to source, and doesn't have too many moving parts (so it doesn't break easily on transit).

4. Also research your competition on Amazon, making sure there is a MODERATE amount of competition. Too much competition is bad, too little competition means you'll never get that many sales.

5. Fish around on Alibaba or Ali Express for a suitable product and manufacturer. Get your manufacturer to add YOUR brand to the product. The product could be exactly the same as something that already exists on Amazon, but having your brand-name on it makes it unique enough so you always have the buy-box.

6. Have your product inspected by a 3rd party inspection company before it's shipped.

7. Then have it shipped to YOU, so you can double-check it.

8. Then ship it to an Amazon FBA warehouse.

9. During all of the above, you should be sorting out your Amazon listing and deciding on how you will advertise your product. Will you use Amazon PPC, Facebook ads, or something else?

There's a lot more to it of course, but I would suggest going over to Scott Voelker's website, reading up some, listening to some podcasts to understand what it's all about, and just get started. You'll learn all the small details along the way.

Once you've got a few private label products making you enough money for you to live on, you MUST start looking into making truly UNIQUE products, where you MODIFY something that's already on the market, based on what customers want. The PLR business model I described above won't last very long, it's only a matter of time before Amazon clamps down on all these identical products under different brand names. But while it's still allowed, it's a great way to get your foot in the door!

Best of luck!!!