Lots of people make money from Amazon, either through sending them directly to Amazon, or by having an Amazon Astore, so I'm not sure that's a valid concern.

My understanding of drop shipping is that you are basically the seller, with the drop shipper simply fulfilling the orders. In that case, you're going to have to deal with any customer service issues that may arise, returns etc.

Whereas with Amazon, people know and trust Amazon already, and once the person buys through your link, you don't have anything else to do apart from get paid

Hope that helps

Chrissy

I'm having the same problem. I'm just having a hard time finding a drop shipper for my particular niche.

Amazon is definitely easier than dropshipping. Literally the only thing you need to do is send the user to a third party site and collect a cheque. Plus with dropshipping, unless you're going into a tiny niche with big margins, you're going to make the same kind of profit.

I'd do amazon only on the basis of the less work involved.

And as an even bigger bonus, Amazon have the branded trust already, so users who may not buy from your random site will be much more likely to buy from Amazon.com, a site which they have probably bought from in the past.

Have you considered FBA-Fullfillment by Amazon? You would buy the products directly-wholesale, and send them to the Amazon warehouse. They would be listed on Amazon and you can also list them on your site and have Amazon fulfill all of your orders on your site or other venues you list. Of course it really depends what you sell, as Amazon doesn't accept everything for fulfillment. But there are many more opportunities out there to buy wholesale then to find good drop-shippng products.

There are different things you need to consider going either Amazon or Ecommerce. Ecommerce might be more of a pain in the butt, but the value and long term success I think outweighs the hurdles.

If you build it correctly and market it to it's full potential, you could at some point sell it for possibly six figures.

I have an ecommerce store in a building phase right now as I'm concentrating on other projects. However, I highly recommend this site for everything you need to create, market, source, etc your ecommerce store and it's free. He's also a warrior.

http://www.storecoach.com/

Amazon is definitely to way to go. What most people do not know about dropshipping is that those who are most successful are businesses. It is a B to B model and not really an IM (or individual) to B model. Many people think it is a IM to B model.

I'm with Chrissy....Amazon already has the reputation. Don't reinvent the wheel. Let them do all the work and you become an affiliate and just get a check.

They handle refunds and complaints if there are any.

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Promoting products sourced from the worldwidebrands dropshipper directory is a strategy that may have been profitable in 2005 not today.

Today a successful dropshipping strategy requires selling a unique product which can take a lot of work sourcing the product. The best dropshippers are often wholesalers that are not even familiar with the term dropshipping. If you pitch to the wholesaler what the process is all about and how you can sell a lot of their product through this arrangement, some will listen to you.

But dealing with dropshippers sourced from popular dropshipping lists won't make you a cent. These guys are just middleman that are cutting into your profits, and while the convenience of not having to carry inventory sounds good, you'd need to sell very high volume to make it worthwhile for you, which is unrealistic in most competitive niches, but it'd also depend on your marketing skills.

Affiliate marketing is a heck of a lot easier though, and if you're just getting started, likely the best option. Promoting products on another site like Amazon is not a turn off for buyers, it can in fact be a positive thing, since Amazon is a trusted brand.

Also with drop shipping you're able to choose the selling price of goods so its possible to achieve a higher profit margin

Most of my income comes from Amazon marketing. They convert well because they are such a well known brand!

I would give them a go if I was you.

dcristo,

I'm selling products from my site that can be bought direct from the manufacturer as well as Amazon (and it's third party sellers).

My products are far from unique and are well-known brand names in my niche.

I still manage to make a profit and as my SEO work continues I will make more sales and more profit.

Yes, drop shipping and ecommerce is a lot harder that affiliate - at least in setting up your website and listing products but, and this is my personal view, retailing products is a much more rewarding and potentially more profitable business.

Anyhow, I wish InWait all the best in whatever path he selects.

Robert

Before I got into full swing with Amazon, I did the dropshipping route and I will say that it was actually more hassle. Yes, there's good money to be made from dropshipping however you really save yourself so many steps in the whole selling process by just focusing on setting up the site and getting it ranked....Not having to deal with the processing end of selling goods is such a BIG relief! I can tell you that firsthand!

Robert, may I ask what is your USP? How do you differentiate yourself from your competitors so that you don't have to compete on price? I am assuming you sell thousands of products and don't rely on one drop shipping source?

You might test with Amazon, taste some paid traffic, see what converts, and then if things look good then look to source products directly.

dcristo,

you can easily found out all about my store and my USP - hint: just follow my signature.

Actually, my niche is full of other retailers that operate 100% drop ship. Also, many of the bricks and mortar stores also run their online store on a drop ship basis - many people don't seem to realise that bricks and mortar stores run their online business on a drop ship model.

And yes, a lot of people that visit my site are doing comparison shopping - it's a major thorn in my side. But also, many customers don't compare prices and they buy despite me being more expensive than other sites.

Finally, I am able to compete price-wise on many of the products I sell. There are several reasons for this: 1) some distributors/manufacturers have MAPPs in place so it's a level playing, so I can easily compete against the likes of Amazon. If you visit my site you'll find out how I'm able to get orders for MAPP items whereas Amazon doesn't. 2) A lot of other online retailers operating on a drop ship basis are buying products at the same price I am, so I can go as low as most other sites - obviously, some sites sell items at a loss, which is something I don't do.

I hope this answers some of your questions.

Robert

Go with Amazon because they have established a truly great working system which has been tested over and over again. What I dislike about world wide brands is that they don't let you look at available products till you register and later you only get disappointment. while Amazon is more open and have nothing to hide.

comparing Amazon with an ecommerce dropshipping site is like comparing apples to oranges. they both have advantages and disadvantages and although I have several Amazon sites that do very well, I'm also thinking about creating an ecommerce site in the future, in which I will have products dropshipped as well as post some of my own things which can potentially give me a better return than posting on ebay etc.

I'm a collector of model trains so I often buy and sell on ebay and other auction sites.

Amazon and affiliate sites are great. All I do is get them ranking high in Google and other search engines, do some other promotional stuff every now and then and I get plenty of sales hands free. No worries about shipping, returns, or any of that other stuff like others have mentioned. Remember also that with dropshipping you need a very reliable source. If they don't ship a package out on time or something else happens you'll be the lucky one getting all the grief from it.

Resale can be excellent on a popular ecommerce site along with lots of other benefits. customers stay on your site instead of navigating away from it. Its your and you own it. Personally, that would give me a little bit more sense of pride and accomplishment.

Who says you can't do both? You can quickly start with Amazon, and see how you like it. You can have some sites up, while you are developing your dropshipping business, and perhaps even eventually link the two.

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I see that you mentioned the word "control". Although you do relinquish some control when affiliate marketing for someone else, you also have very little control when drop-shipping. Many an eBay seller has been hammered because of lack of control of delivery times.

I do very well with Amazon so I'd recommend going with it.

dropshipping is a hazzle wereas dealing with Amazon is not.

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Hey!

They are completely valid concerns, I remember when I was starting out a long time ago, I was asking similiar questions.

Firstly, on deciding whether to go for eBay and amazon, why not simply go for both. They are both great platforms to sell on and are very profitable.

Regarding which products to choose, what is your passion? What do you really, really love doing. Let's say it is playing football. They sell products football products. It always best to sell products that you love and have a knowledge on so you can answer any questions your customers may have and also pass on your enthusiam.

Hope this helps and if you have any further questions feel free to ask!

Kindest Regards
The eBay Power Guru

Amazon if you want peace of mind and an easy steady flow of business. Drop shipping is a little hit and miss but the profits are better.
As in all business, the more risks and commitment you are willing to take and put in, the greater the rewards! If you want to sleep at night go for the Amazon. If marketed int he right way, this format will be fine.. it is a tried and tested and reliable format!
I wish you luck with your direction.

To start out you should follow this simple model:

1. Get an Amazon Prime Account ($75/year) - gives you free 2-day shipping
2. Research hot products trending on Ebay - electronics do very well
3. Find the product on Amazon (make sure it's sold under Prime)
4. Start a 30 day ebay auction with a minimum buy equal the Amazon price (copy all the product description and images into the auction)
5. Watch the auction and answer the questions to make sure you get positive feedback
6. Item sells above the minimum price - Go to your Amazon account buy it and ship it to the seller using the Prime 2-day shipping (make sure to suppress the invoice as part of the checkout)

I successfully used this method to earn a few thousand dollars a month starting out. It's easy and fun to watch how stupid people get caught up in Ebay and bid for items higher than they can get them at Amazon.

I would go with Amazon first. With dropshopping, you have to pay for the product before you have the money that you get from sales.... unless you're selling on ebay, have a Paypal debit card, and can pay for a product that needs to be dropshipped. Plus... dropshipping shipping fees are high. Just another reason why you should choose Amazon.

Amazon would be an affiliate business. Dropshipping would be a retail business.

It really depends on:

Can you find a good company that is willing to dropship products for you?
Do you want to deal with accepting payments, customer service, returns, etc?
Do you want to run your own business or just a website that gives you a 1-time commission?

If you really want to run your own store, starting out by dropshipping is the way to go (provided you get a good company willing to dropship for you).

I think you would look more credible using Amazon or Google Checkout. I tend to see Amazon as a leading figure in that kind of industry. So, yes I am for your idea.

I had a pretty good online store for a couple years before I sold it. I simply found a good online seller and signed up for their wholesale (dealer) program. I had been an affiliate of theirs through Commission Junction previous to that, but the commissions were not satisfying so I figured why not try their drop shipping and mark up the prices to earn more per sale. I didn't follow any guides or read a lot of forum posts. I just did it. And it worked. I just had the occasional return to deal with and had to answer a few emails per day, but I sold plenty of items - even though my prices were often a bit higher than Amazon or other competitors.

See, we think like marketers too much on this stuff. A lot of buyers are pretty ignorant about this stuff and will just buy from the first place they find what they want (as long as the price isn't ridiculously high).

Be sure to put your buyers on an email list (not easy to do when you're an Amazon affiliate). Now you're building a real business full of repeat buyers.

John

ALWAYS test with amazon and or eBay first where possible to see if your product sells and how much of a price you can sell for. You should heed that advice.

I once told a good friend that before he spent his thousands on his ecommerce site and thousands on product that he do the same. He didnt listen... now he's broke.

Well, Amazon is a trusted shopping site, if you join it then you can make money from it, if you follow its guidelines, training, advice and latest tutorials as well.

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but the affiliate program i believe comes with a standard 5% referral commissions across all the products, just to set your expectations right

Drop shipping VS Amazon...

Amazon
- Amazon limits you to region. If you are US based, all your sales from other countries will not count!
- Their commission is very low (4%)
- Some states in the US have been amazon affiliate slapped (who's next?)
- Try using Adwords with an affiliate site - they will slap you for life.
- Easy to do, IF you can get a product that sells well.

Drop Shipping

- more control
- have a website, sell on amazon, ebay, facebook, google shopping, etc...
- PPC friendly (choose a niche with low PPC & you got gold)
- much harder work - but it's under your control for yrs to come
- finding REAL drop shippers is challenging

I made $2.34 with amazon last month
I made $$$$ with drop shipping on all of the above - yeah, it's hard work, but worth it if you run it like a REAL business (as if you were a brick and mortar retailer) - takes a lot more research on products and consumer thinking and buying habits.

Worldwide Brands and SaleHoo is who I use plus do my own research for more on my own. eventually the goal is to get a small where-house and ship my own stuff that I buy through my web biz. Much lower wholesale cost to me thus meaning more profit at the end of the day.

Gotta look at the big picture. Amazon and CJ are great for starting out, but the real money is buying wholesale and selling retail using IM as the backbone (for me anyway) as I got sick of being slapped around by google, amazon, CJ vendors, etc.

This is just my experience, hope it helps a bit.

I also built a amazon astore