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What factors should consider while choosing drop shippers?

by mindtricks18
11 replies
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What needs to know when choosing drop shipping for an online store. Please explain the most important factors to consider when choosing a drop shipping provider for online business.
#choosing #drop #factors #shippers
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  • Profile picture of the author Serene Carmen
    Hi

    Not entirely sure I understand your question. Are you looking to dropship using a distribution/3PL partner in China or are you asking about how to choose a platform (e.g. Aliexpress or CJ Dropshipping etc)?
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    • Profile picture of the author mindtricks18
      Originally Posted by Serene Carmen View Post

      Hi

      Not entirely sure I understand your question. Are you looking to dropship using a distribution/3PL partner in China or are you asking about how to choose a platform (e.g. Aliexpress or CJ Dropshipping etc)?
      Yes, I am asking which will be better like e.g. Aliexpress or CJ Dropshipping or other dropshipping providers. what factors are the most important when selecting a dropshipper.
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      • Profile picture of the author Serene Carmen
        Hi

        Thanks for clarifying. Have you decided on your niche and products yet?

        I would expect that you would need to see which platform has your products available ?

        I belive Aliexpress has the most products available, but shipping times are pretty bad (unless you go with a 3PL partner in China such as Source in Box, Fulfilman etc. if you go this route you will pay more for shipping).

        So the factors you will need to consider when deciding on a platform:

        1. On which platform is my product available and are the product reviews good?

        2. Is the product supplier able to scale (how many orders can they handle per day)

        3. Shipping time (some options like Spoket allow you to dropship from th US and EU so that shipping times are reduced)

        4. Those mentioned by Matthew (relevant/good variety of product options, customer support, good ecommerce store integration software (most have Shopify plug-ins), multiplatform sales capabilities.

        Before you finaly decide on one platform make sure you are happy with the product (do not sell anything you haven't seen a sample off). You should be happy with the quality.
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      • Profile picture of the author dave_hermansen
        Originally Posted by mindtricks18 View Post

        Yes, I am asking which will be better like e.g. Aliexpress or CJ Dropshipping or other dropshipping providers. what factors are the most important when selecting a dropshipper.
        Well, I'd have to say neither. AliExpress is fine for finding products that you want to improve and then private label and buy in bulk, but dropshipping things that can take 2 weeks or more to arrive to your customers is not a great formula for repeat business and happy customers.

        CJ Dropshipping is selling the same no-name, unbranded stuff that thousands of people are trying to sell online - most with very little profit margin.

        We teach two kinds of eCommerce models - one where you buy the cheap stuff, brand it as your own, have it shipped from a fulfillment center in your country and crete your own brand where there is no competition.

        The other model is high ticket dropshipping of known brands. In that case, you need to contact the actual brands to see if they will dropship for you and if not, see if you can find one of their distributors who will.

        The easy route is AliExpress and CJ and because they are easy, everyone is doing it and most are failing equally. The harder route are the two methods we teach. Fortunately, harder also means far less competition and greater rewards.

        I'm not sure how many things in life worth doing are easy.
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  • Profile picture of the author Matthew Stanley
    Agree with Serene. Are you able to provide any additional context? Do you have experience doing it already? And to back up a bit, are you certain you want to dropship in the first place? (not voicing an opinion either way - can certainly be good for high dollar brand items as well as other things - as with anything IM, there are drawbacks and benefits to all models)

    Outside of cost considerations, general guidance on this might be to ensure the partner has relevant/good variety of product options, customer support, good ecommerce store integration software, multiplatform sales capabilities, etc.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kay King
    He has not been on the forum for a while, but this member is a true expert in drop shipping....you could learn a lot by simply reading through HIS posts in various threads on the forum.


    https://www.warriorforum.com/members/importexport.html


    click on 'statistics' and 'find more posts by' to find previous posts he made. It's a good starting point if you are new to finding supplies or to drop shipping.
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  • Profile picture of the author kris777888
    I think the following things need to be considered:
    1. Minimum order quantity
    2. Transport speed
    3. Product quality
    4. After-sales service
    5. Return and exchange process
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  • Profile picture of the author allegandro
    One problem many forget is:"How to get the products in your online store in the right way?"

    Sure if you find 5 or 25 products and the stock and pricing don't change every day or week you can do it all by hand.

    But what if you do phone cover drop shipping and there are 10 suppliers each with 5K products, every day changing pricing and stock? If that is the case, you will have a real big problem.

    And that is just a small part of your uploading and processing problem. Think also about filtering, imagine you just want to sell green covers for an iPhone X, but your supplier sent you a complete list, or you don't want to sell products that have less than 5 items in stock at your supplier.

    So in my opinion, before you can start selling you need to get the products in your store.
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  • Profile picture of the author dave_hermansen
    1. You need to ensure that you are making enough money to pay for advertising, the minimal monthly website expenses and, of course, your time and what you are worth. We set that at a BARE MINIMUM of $20 per order after paying processing fees and shipping but really prefer over $50 and really over $100.

    2. Is the product widely available in local stores. If so, you have a loser!

    3. Is there always stock available or are you going to be constantly selling things and then having to refund them when the supplier has no stock?

    4. Is there a constant turnover in product models? If so, you'll always be rebuilding your store and never have the time to market it.

    5. Is setting up the site really going to require thousands of products? If so, it will take all of your time maintaining your site (and dealing with #3 and #4, above). Using supplier product feed files is a shortcut that will hurt sales - your pages will be identically to dozens of others with nothing separating you from them.

    Really, there are more than a dozen things to consider, but those are the top 5.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jil Doshi
    1. Do not limit your product choices to the best sellers on Amazon or eBay
    2. Cheap prices to attract customers
    3. Important considerations: weight, size, shipping country
    4. Use social media platforms to your advantage
    5. Achieve effective searching via some essential dropshipping tools
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  • Profile picture of the author Brackwom
    Although dropshipping suppliers keep outdated websites, many smart suppliers invest in technology to help streamline client operations. Functions such as customizable data feeds, searchable order history, and a detailed product catalogue make things comfortable for online merchants.
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