Sandy, Sandy, Sandy.

This is something I hear time and time again.

And this is a scenario you hear of every. single. time.

The problem is you have to take a DATA-based approach to dropshipping!

Additionally, dropshippers INTENTIONALLY inflate their prices on their products. They do this because if they signed up just everyone, their markets would be saturated, and NO ONE would sell products for a profit. It happened in the early 2000's and dropshipper after dropshipper went out of business because there was such immense pressure to lower prices on their products.

So, dropshippers then started charging membership fees - which also wasn't popular.

So, then they started INFLATING their prices to HIGHER than the eBay prices OR the same price they pay.

This is so that people will come to their site and either immediately leave and not sign up with them.. They don't want to sign up with just anyone - they tried that before and went out of business.

Instead, you have to NEGOTIATE with them a VERY specific price.

Now how do you find that specific price? Well, that's a good question. Because with dropshipping, your margins are VERY thin - and you need to know all deductions that will happen on an eBay sale to make sure you're still making a profit.

If you approach a dropshipper by just looking at their price lists and saying: "Your pricelists are too high, I won't work with you" You haven't taken it as far as you should. You still need to negotiate a SPECIFIC lower price for them (and not just a percentage)

In fact, you should know not only the PRICE you SHOULD sell it for on eBay, but also the FORMAT...

This is something I've been teaching myself for YEARS.

However, without a history of selling it's hard to negotiate with a dropshipper anyway. There are other avenues to sell on eBay (other than dropshipping) with much higher margins that can help you get in the door with dropshippers.

Once you cross those sales thresholds, you'll then be able to negotiate more easily. PM me if you want to talk about this a little more. I have a free eBook that I can have you read to give you a good foundation.

-Auction Debt Eliminator.

Hi,

Yes, I do make money from dropshipping. You need to partner with good sites where products aren't being sold cheaper on eBay, either because dropshipper enforces MAP pricing or that you have to look for quality products where the ebay sellers won't have access to prices lower than what the dropshipper offers, and therefore cannot undercut you.

Also, don't forget there are other ways (not just price) to offer value.

Finding good dropship partners is the difficult task. I'd suggest you send off emails to online stores in the niches that interest you and see if you can get them to dropship for you. I have found six dropship partners like this. I am currently in the process of starting several stores. I already had one dropship store from a few years ago but only recently decided to try and get into this business in a more serious way.

Hi Sanhal,

Yep I am making money online with eCommerce and many people are. The industry is booming and is having a massive impact on retail stores/malls throughout the world.

As mentioned above you really just need to find great suppliers to work with. If you already have a product or niche in mind then the best way to get started is to send an email inquiry to them and follow up with a phone call.

If you're having trouble finding suppliers they can generally be found with a bit of research:
- Manufactures or brands will often list exclusive distributors for the countries they sell to
- Try searching Google for keywords like '<product> manufacturer' or anything like that
- Look what other drop ship eCommerce stores are selling on their site and try to trace their products back to the supplier with Google

Hope that helps!

Thanks for the great tips on this thread guys. So negotiating a good price is key or go with products that don't make it to ebay.

Close-- you have to negotiate a "Specific" price, based on the market value, less the deductions.


It CANNOT be arbitrary.

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No, and there really shouldn't be. Otherwise you're competing against everyone who is wanting to 'dropship just for the sake of the easiness of it' and not for the profit margin. These are people who dabble in the prospecting, and quit after a week or two, or at least until they get their first invoice.

For the reasons outlined in my reply to Sandy. Markets get saturated, and dropshippers go out of business because of pressure on pricing.

That is why dropshippers intentionally inflate their prices and only deal with people who have histories in the business... And there are ways of gaining that history.

But, there are also ways of finding suppliers and NEGOTIATING specific prices based on historical selling prices less deductions that you pitch to dropshippers.

I've been practicing and teaching this way too long and have seen this mistake time and time again.

Hi Sandy,

I only do business in the US and I stopped selling on eBay years ago but my advice would be to ONLY work with drop ship suppliers who enforce MAP policies.

I've owned eCommerce stores for the past seven years. I started off directly importing from China but switched to working with drop ship suppliers about five years ago.

I've learned A LOT over time but the main thing is that to really be successful you need to work with suppliers who enforce pricing policies.

If you don't know, MAP stands for Minimum Advertised Price. If you work with a supplier who enforces a MAP policy it means that NO OTHER RETAILER can sell the same item for less then you.

With all of the shopping comparison engines out there (including Google) I don't see how anyone can be successful selling the SAME EXACT ITEMS for more money then Amazon or any other large eCommerce store.

MAP is there to level the playing field. Suppliers put these policies in place to protect their brands and to protect their retailers profit margins.

I hope that helps and I hope you are able to find suppliers in the UK who enforce MAP policies

Thanks,
Anton

PS: I should also add that I HIGHLY recommend against using paid drop ship services who show you what MSRP is and what your profit margin *can be*.

MSRP is not the same as MAP and there are A LOT of retailers out there that are fine with making ~5% net per sale who are basically giving these items away. And again, I don't see how anyone can make money selling the SAME EXACT item for more then competition, especially when the competition is so easy to find with Google Shopping's new "in your face" approach.

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Also - and this goes for anyone, if you're looking for a place to start, make sure you educate yourself on market worths before you EVER start contacting suppliers.

You need to arm yourself with negotiation armaments - otherwise you let suppliers push you around and set all the rules, when that should never be the case.

Always remember: NUMBERS make decisions. Not emotions or indecision. Arm yourself with knowledge and you'll go a lot further.

On the contrary, I have almost too much fun...

I sell some products by drop ship--but I also drop ship my own creations. My secret is to visit the trade mart shows that cater to my specific market. In every product you can imagine, there is most likely a trade show somewhere that has vendor booths for suppliers and manufacturers. Meet with the vendors, ask if they drop ship. With the economy today, I have seen several who said no a few shows ago but have rethought the idea. Some who require a minimum order will take an order for a smaller number of units with a small surcharge once you have established a relationship. Beats carrying heavy inventory or when you need a couple of items in a pinch.
Get to know the booth workers. They will give you some advice and some will even recommend others who may be able to help you.
Again, research your product's area of access---to sell baby strollers, go to the ABC convention, to sell home products, go to the Trade Marts (major cities) like our AtlantasMart. Forget about the online "dropshippers directories"--the only way they make money is stringing you along and charging a fee. Do an online search of wholesale/drop ship + (your product line) and check individual companies who will light wholesale or drop ship for you.

One great resource for finding vendors in your area (and even by category and by industry) is TSNN.com

You can see tradeshows in your area and by date.

When you attend these tradeshows you have potential vendors by the HUNDREDS that you can meet and greet and gather pricelists from.

From the piles that you gather you can then do your market analysis from there.

And then arm yourself for your price negotiations.

The great thing about having a face-to-face is that you can set up exclusivity if you're the first one there. Trade shows are great places for people wanting to get their product out in the public, and they might not even have an online presence yet.

Literally hundreds of suppliers at trade shows.

TSNN.com... it's free.

Im trying in dropshiping business online and i got cash from this business and getting it very simple because we just sell it without any packages.

Id like to know how your getting your successes as well dan! if so, sounds cool

djackson,

Just remember - If you ARE going to go the dropshipping route -

Here's 2 things to remember:

You don't let dropshippers/suppliers tell you what to do: YOU make the rules/pricing

You have to make DATA based decisions - because if you're going about it cold - you can lose out on a lot of money. You need to know market worths, deductions, profit margins, etc. Otherwise, you're in trouble.

Many times people are attracted to the convenience - but with razor-thin margins, you sacrifice profitability.

You really, really, need to know what you're doing - or have a mentor that KNOWS what they're doing.

The cost can be too high. (Both in monetary cost and opportunity cost)

To auctiondebteliminator who said:
"You don't let dropshippers/suppliers tell you what to do: YOU make the rules/pricing"

I don't want to start a debate but that's just silly---you are NOT in charge of the drop shippers pricing or rules. If you are told not to sell below retail price, and you try, you won't get any products shipped. You can negotiate all you want but that does not mean you control the "rules or pricing". The wholesaler is doing you a favor to accept drop shipping---they are more interested in selling multiple units wholesale.
The control you do have if a drop shipper does not allow for decent profit margins is to move to another drop shipper, buy in light bulk, produce the product yourself or find a different product to sell. Those are your alternatives.

You are exactly right here.

If a supplier isn't willing to negotiate their pricing to accommodate the ACTUAL market worth of their item to generate a profit -- I move on. There is no reason to utilize a supplier that will not make you a profit.

After all - a supplier NEEDS retailers - Retailers don't need suppliers, and can always move on.

Hence, retailers make the rules -- utilizing market data, of course. I never approach a supplier without this data, because if a supplier doesn't use empirical data based on economic principles and research to run their operations, they won't be in business very long.

So if a dropshipper is dead-set on 'making the rules on pricing' - I'll go ahead and let them go out of business themselves. Just like the huge 'bubble burst' of the early 2000's when a whole ton of them did when they practiced that idea.

And if you're buying items at non-negotiated prices, you're paying too much.

Yeah, that's weird.


Go here.

TSNN Trade Show News

Turns out they were doing an update - but it is working now just fine. It is a GREAT site where you can find hundreds of dropshippers FACE TO FACE. ....

Close, Audarah

Map prices are assigned to people who have no negotiating power.

They are for 'beginners' and who haven't approached a supplier with an understanding of the market worth of the item.

Basically, the people that have MAP prices assigned to them are lining the filing cabinets of the supplier (and haven't processed a sale at all)

The people REALLY competitive in the niche (product sales) from the supplier have approached the supplier with actual costs to acquire-- competitive to the market worth of the item and they came to the supplier with data where they KNEW they could be competitive.

The supplier knew that person knew they weren't just 'some person just signing up for the sake of signing up' and was more willing to work with them because they knew they were going to bring them more business.

(Much like a CPA network only allows the 'real affiliate marketers' into their networks)

In a nutshell --- You can - and should negotiate lower prices from a supplier and throw out all MAP and MSRP prices.

The actual cost to acquire you pay should be based on the MARKET WORTH of your item minus deductions.

Markets dictate prices -- not suppliers.

When it comes to opinions to each, their own. We've obviously had VERY different expierences when it comes to selling online. I just find it odd that cometely disagree that brands enforce MAP to protect their brands.

I'm not going to release any info about the brands I sell for or the niches I'm involved with but I'll give a generic example of exatcly why brands do enforce MAP to protect their brands....

Michael Kohrs bags are sold in almost every department store across the country and sold in thousands of Indepedendant retail shops.

When they release a new line of bags they do not negotiate with each retailer (big or small) and agree on different MAP policies for each retailer.

They set pricing (MAP) and every store (big and small) has to tag the items at the same price. Retailers can't just say "we sell other bags for $100 so we want to sell these at the same price". The brand has a "higher end" image to protect and THEY set market price for their brand.

The same is true with all of the suppliers that I work with who enforce MAP. Of course, retailers can offer coupons BUT they can not list the items for sale at prices other than those set by the supplier.

The brand (supplier) sets a fixed market price and all retailers have to adhere to the same. If they didn't enforce such policies their brands value would disappear overnight and no one would want to sell for them because only those willing to make the smallest profit margins would get the sale.

But then you need take the market into the equation -- which is the more powerful force. (and always has been)

Items only sell for prices people are WILLING to buy them for.

And if a supplier 'sets' a price for an item - but the market doesn't value that item for that price -- then NO one sells it..

MAP price or not.

That is why prices are set by MARKETS-- not suppliers.

So, when you approach prices based on a market worth, and approach a supplier BASED on this market data, then you have a more powerful argument.

Personally, I won't deal with a supplier that would be so rigid as to ignore market data...

They could stare at it in the face and say: "Well, our items aren't selling at this price -- but we're NOT going to change the price for ANYONE because that would 'cheapen' the product''

Any supplier that ignores market parameters and data won't stay in business for long. No matter how much they 'value' their brand.

Adapt, or die.

(See Supplier behavior of the early 2000's - that was their behavior, and they didn't stay in business)

P.S. I was a manufacturer/dropshipper as well (until I sold that business)

I talked to one of my students on the phone today..

(He wasn't doing eBay, but building an website) and we were talking about this very concept.

He had a number of keywords that he had researched that had great demand and manageable competition and also a sizable pile of pricelists as well.

When we were going through the pricelists, I was teaching him how to find the market worth of the items.

We quickly found that the MAP pricing was a full FORTY PERCENT HIGHER than what his competitors were selling it for. Even without his markup!

And this was after negotiation attempts were made.

Even after this, I told him this was a GOOD sign... why? Because if he was to build a site - blindly accepting the MAP price, he would have never sold a single item.. It is better to analyze the market and decide that a supplier ISN'T going to work, then to build a site (or eBay store for that matter) and wonder why you have no conversions.

All data is good data. And take everything a supplier tells you with a grain of salt.

Julia Russo is right.

Basically, the further down the 'food chain' the higher the profits-- but generally, the larger quantities you buy upfront.

Yes, you can make money with dropshipping, but the more cutthroat and competitive is. (As you can see with our negotiation discussions!) That is why I don't dropship unless I CAN negotiate with a supplier where I KNOW I can compete better.

Otherwise, I'm not interested in being just another fish, in a giant school, within a big ocean.

Why would you Drop ship when you can import and have full control over your inventory.

It doesn't make sense. When you drop ship you are limiting and your business.

Your business is at the mercy of drop ship merchants.

They dictate the price or profit you make per item based on what the market is paying.

When you get it from the horses mouth you making the most profit possible from the
get go.

Plus then you can muscle out sellers you know are drop shipping because you can afford to
drop you price. They can't because there's not enough profit in it because they're getting
it from a middle man.

You can screw the drop ship sellers into the ground and force them out. Yes it's a doggy dog world out there.

When you control your inventory you control the price.

Yes, drop ship if you want to make small change

Drop shipping is like selling any other product, although if you have a massive competition then you will be fighting a losing battle. ID say find a product with a smaller amount of competition and then find a way to get the items as cheap as your (limited) competition. This may take a few months of selling items at a small profit margin but will be worth it once your supplier drops your prices.

hope this helps

Yes, many of our partners are making money with dropshipping.

However, business oriented only on cheapest prices is not the best idea. I will ask for refund on course if that was the only principle you´ve learned.

Hey Auctiondebteliminator: You cannot compare "worst case scenario dropshipping" with "best case scenario wholesale"

Please, when comparing something, use ceteris paribus rule, otherwise unexperienced people got bad informations.

1. There is possibility to hire accountant for fixed costs here in Europe. As our tax laws are 100x more messy then yours (USA), I am sure that there is possibility to pay few bucks to accountant in USA too

2. In no way you are able to pack "3 items", print invoice, put it into package, close package, tape package, print address sticker, call postman and give him the package within 10 minutes. We are sending thousands packages, everything is fully automated (15 different printers automatically spitting all documents) and even when I am standing behing the employee with whip, they are not able to fully finish package within 10 workminutes.

3. Consider also stock costs: We are working with multimillion (€) stock - over 140.000 pcs of jewelry physically in stock - how many of beginners in business can invest so much into stock to have so huge offer in their eshop? Moreover, for small businesses in our niche, there is sometimes as much as 60-70% of unsellable inventory after few years - many many companies go bankrupt because of this (due to cashflow problems).
We are big - what we do not sell in US, we sell to Russia. Bad selling in Russia - we go to Sweden or Kazakhstan, China or whatever.

and many more examples...

So it is not so easy to say: "dropshipping is bad - make wholesale". It depends on situation. Many of our partners are doing annually $50K+ on dropshipping - probably nice money considering you do not have to mess with goods handling.

I don't think you have to be an 'old business dog' to know that there are other avenues OTHER than dropshipping and wholesaling.

In fact, there are quite a bit of other ways that are not mysterious at all. In fact, you don't even have to build a website to utilize them.

These are, but not limited to,

Consignment,
Arbitrage,
Offline product sourcing,
Online product sourcing,
Pawn shops,
Flea markets,
Thrift stores,
Garage sales,
Manufacturer product sourcing
Personal manufacturing
Importing
Etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc,.

Not mysterious, secret, nor confined to just wholesaling or dropshipping at all.

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How do you go about finding the good small suppliers? My search has only lead me to big name distributors, any small guy I've found has crap products/prices or is a scam..

It's honestly not that hard to make money with dropshipping, but margins can get really thin on popular products. It's way more effective to go wholesale.

Hi Sandy,

I see that you are in the UK. OK, so I conducted my importing business in 4 countries including the UK, so it has been necessary for me to know different rules relating to different countries.

MAP is illegal in the UK, and in fact in the entire EU, so you can forget everything that has been posted on this thread about relying on MAP to ensure profitability. There are some exceptions relating to franchises where a MAP policy is allowed.

I would prefer to sell my own physical products online than doing the drop shipper thing. According to me its risky.
I think it is important to talk directly with any people involved with supplying products that you intend to store and ship to customers. Ideally you will meet with the manufacturers face to face and get the products in your hands and have a tour of the factory.

Cymax and a few companies who do similar things make millions annually and are in the top 200 internet retailer. I know I use to work for them as their SEO specialist

Hi Everyone,

I'm new here. Well...not new...I've been lurking and reading Warrior Forum for a while, just never joined until now.

I've purchased and read several eBooks, programs, etc about dropshipping, wholesaling, etc. etc. and am beginning to feel like I'm floundering without a compass, and not really getting anywhere.

I really feel like I need some better guidance and direction on how to do this. I'm certainly not looking to become a gazillionaire overnight or even over the next few years, BUT I would like to at least be able to learn "how" to do this "the right way" and actually make a decent $300-$500 per month (after expenses) as an "initial goal". Like I said...this is not a "get-rich-quick" venture for me, I just want to learn the "real" ends-and-outs of making money online, and make a steady, gradually increasing income on the internet.

My preference is to sell physical goods from my own website(s), but I don't have alot of money to outlay for inventory - which is why I was looking into dropshipping.

Any advice, guidance, tips, or education from you guys would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks ahead of time for your assistance !

Selling drop shipped products online can be profitable if you do it correctly. I have been selling online for 10 years with drop shipping and selling on eBay, Amazon and other channels.

However I have heard a lot of people complain about not being able to compete in the marketplace and still make a profit due to the high prices of some third party drop shippers like Doba. The reason for this is that the drop shippers like Doba are playing the role of the middleman and have to increase the price so that they too can make a profit.

However I never ever use third party drop shippers like Doba for this reason. I go directly to the manufacturer which cuts out the middleman and gives me a competitive edge by getting the prices much lower than I would if I used third party sites like Doba.

However you will still sometimes find that the manufacturer does use a distributor to sell their products to retailers which means their will be a bit of a mark up of just a few dollars above wholesale as the distributor has to also make money but you will find in these rare instances the markup will not be as high as a third party site like Doba.

I currently have a database of over 10,000 manufacturers that I have worked with in the past or I'm currently working with that I have collected over the 10 years that I have been selling online.

If you don't want to stock and carry products on hand I would recommend that you go to the manufacturer directly as it will allow you to earn a higher profit and allow you to stay competitive.

Most manufacturers these days have a dropship program for their online retailers. However to go directly to the manufacturer you will need a resale certificate if your in the United States or a VAT number if your in another country. The other thing you will have to keep in mind is that you will now have to keep track of the inventory from each manufacturer. For mot manufacturers once you sell a few items they will allow you to link your shopping cart to theirs so that way your inventory is automatically updated. Other wise you have to check with each manufacturer on a monthly basis to make sure no products have been discontinued and inventory is available. I can't stress this enough as if you are carrying a product and its been discontinued and someone buys that product on your site you will find that product for the customer or you will have to give them a refund or a credit towards another item. During the holiday's this is extremely important. But if you are serious about ecommerce you can find it fun and profitable but you do need good time management skills if you don't have a team working for you.

In conclusion I would recommend everyone go directly to the manufacturers. In a few months I will be launching a membership site that gives people access to my database of 10,000 manufacturers and distributors plus it will cover channels to sell your products like Amazon, eBay and much much more. It gives traffic ideas for online retailers along with tools that will help make your business run that much smoother.

@NateYoung:

VAT and resale certificates when going to manufacturers: This information is not correct. VAT is charged in Europe only and resale certificates are in USA only - there are many countries outside those areas - where no VAT nor resale certificates exists.

Moreover, it depends solely on manufacturers whether they require resale certificates/VAT for dropshipping or not (for example - we are manufacturer and we do not require it for regular dropshipping - https://www.silver.ag/en/cooperation-with-silver-ag/ ) and we have many partners in Asian countries/Australia, Russia, CIS etc, where such and certificates even does not exists.

I did fall on dropshipping business (selling on ebay) few years ago when I had to stay at home due to high risk pregnancy. And for nearly a year, it did help pay my car and some bills in the house. I think it is a matter of choosing the right products with the right company as well. You don't want to ruin your credibility as an online seller, so make sure you choose the most reliable and compliant dropshipping company! Good luck.

I am doing it right now. I am searching for low priced items on Amazon and selling them on Ebay. Amazon ships the product directly to the customer. I never need to layout any money.

To not confuse people. Most manufacturers and manufacturer approved distributors do require a resale certificate for USA based retailers. For European retailers you need a VAT number. Now to be clear If I'm a retailer in Europe buying products from a USA seller then a resale certificate is not required and nor is a VAT number because the USA does not use VAT. If I'm a USA retailer buying from a European manufacturer then I don't need a resale certificate or a VAT number. Now if I'm a USA retailer buying from a USA manufacturer you will have to have a resale certificate along with an EIN number or Employer Identification Number.

So Igor is not correct and hasn't done their research properly. Now it is true that there are some manufacturers in both the USA and Europe that don't require a Resale Certificate or a VAT number but those are usually third party distributors and already have the prices way above wholesale leaving the retailer with very small margins.

I have a resale certificate and an Employer Identification Number as I'm in the United States and I do some importing of European products but a majority of my suppliers are right here in the USA. I don't see why any United States retailer wouldn't want a resale certificate because it only costs the same as dinner night out if not less as each state and county has their own fees for obtaining a resale certificate. But the benefits are great as having both a resale certificate and an EIN under my business name allows me to get my products drop shipped at normal wholesale prices and not to mention I get to apply for Net 30 terms using my business credit rather than my own personal credit.

So Igor I'm not sure if you do your selling here in the United States or Europe or somewhere else but your absolutely incorrect. I told you that you were correct in my previous post as you did give a correct partial answer which was some manufacturers and distributors don't require either one depending on where that manufacturer is located but if there here in the United States they are required by federal law to obtain the resale certificate number for every retailer that carries their products regardless if its drop shipped or carried on hand.

The only downfall to going directly to the manufacturer is you might have to submit orders to each manufacturer if you have have 20 orders in a day and they are all from different products and they are not all manufactured by the same company. Then you will have to submit each order individually to the manufacturer. Beyond that its the only way to go.

Yes I've made lots of money by dropshipping.. Dropshipping is a great business if you do it well..I've started this kind of online business after my adsense account banned..But I did'nt do amazon or ebay..I became reseller of local supplier(online store) in my country..The key of success of doing dropshiping are :
1. Choose the right supplier
2. Choose good products(in term of quality and price)
3. Get traffic for your dropship site(urgent)

That's based on my experience..Good luck..

I personally don't sell items, I drop ship for others because I stand to make more moving more volume than benefiting from getting cheap items and selling them for msrp. I think it's not a bad idea to create your own product and then have others sell it and since you make it you can get it dirt cheap (like me )

It is very, very true.

How I began, yes, I was dropshipping. I made some money doing it - and then I always wondered 'where does my supplier get these products?'

It then led me to a journey where I got larger, and larger margins.

I have been a dropshipper, a wholesaler, an importer, an affiliate, a manufacturer, etc.

I've truly done it all.

Yet through it all, people still ask me 'So, Auction Debt Eliminator, how do you dropship?'

I finally had to cave and create an eBook on it because the demand was so high - but my only hope will be that people will get the bug and always think: "But wait, where does my SOURCE get the item?" And work their way down to get bigger and BIGGER margins!

That is what a true entrepreneur does. It's what I did, and I cannot be happier.

Well I sell physical products in the health niche as an affiliate... I consider that a form of drop shipping... so yes... I make money dropshipping.

no i do not do dropshipping

Yes, it's possible to make money if you have a concrete plan as how you will market the products you are selling. The hard part of any business is knowing how to market them.

I make good money drop shipping. As you have pointed out marketing and delivering at a profit is the name of the game!

[DELETED]

I have dropshipped products and I also provide products to be dropshipped. Either way can be very profitable. To get established and start making money sooner rather than later start with dropshipping other peoples products.

I am working on a jewelry site right now and it is basically dropshipping as we speak. However, since it is close to where I work, I will be picking up the items.
Having said that, they will in no way allow you to set your own prices if you use their pictures.

Want to know the real reason dropshippers charge monthly fees? Because that is their real business model - not product sales. They know the "download - import to shopping cart - launch a site" model doesn't work. They make their money on everyone's membership fees, while simultaneously listing every product in their warehouse on Amazon and eBay for pennies over cost.

BUT ... you don't have to have the lowest price to win. In fact, none of the top 100 eCommerce sites on the web have the lowest prices - you can always find it cheaper on eBay or Amazon. eCommerce success is more about consumer engagement than pricing.

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drop ship commodities for mining companies.

2% of $25m+ is a lot.

or are you focused on $100 tv's?

I'll also add this ... the bulk of my clients income DOESN'T come from the products the person came to the site to find. It comes from the other stuff you upsell them later.

Here's what I mean ... if you're LOOKING for a product by name, you're price shopping and "trust shopping". Even if you make $0, you got the customer. Now you can re-engage them by promoting another upsell or accessory - one that they WEREN'T looking for. You present your offer, they either buy it or they don't, but the point is they aren't on a quest for a massive deal. They know your name, your brand, and they pull the trigger. Maybe they bought a Garmin GPS, and you happened to have the lowest price of the day. But when you email them an offer for a second cradle for their other car, or a charger, or other low-priced items where you have great margins, they aren't going to Google it and find the best price, they'll just buy it.

One of my buddies just built the most ridiculous upsell script for Shopify that I've ever seen.

For anyone inserted in upselling; if you REALLY want them to convert you should offer them as "one-click" purchases after the customer has already entered their billing info.

Obviously upsells will vary widely from niche to niche but one that almost everyone running a drop shipping site can offer is premium shipping.

Thanks everyone for contributing to this post! I am just getting started with alksense's system and I'm very impressed with what I have read so far. I have been in B2B sales for a while now and after having a child and wife that is a chef and works crazy hours it would be great to work from home. Unfortunately my first business partner found a way to completely screw me and not only kick me off the board (family/friends bought majority shares) of directors but also insure our investors and my money was ties up in the company by taking a massive loan making shares to risky for investors. So I am at square one pinching pennies, stressed, and ready to get started drop shipping to build a new sustainable business that I alone control or with a trusted experienced partner. Yes there are people that make money drop shipping but also teaching people to drop ship, apparently. Thanks for all the info everyone and thanks alksense for the support I received so far and the training. I'm sure I'll see y'all on some beach somewhere soon!

i am doing dropship much easier option compare to owning a tradition ecommerce site

I also tried to jump into the industry selling through drop shippers on eBay. I realized the same thing, there are a ton of the same product with lower prices. What I soon realized was that if I open up my own store, on my own domain, I can sell at comparable prices as eBay, and not have the fees associated with it. I have gone from drop-shipping 100% of my product, to only drop-shipping 50% and holding 50% on inventory. One good technique that helps is to sell in bulk. Instead of just selling 1 of an item, group them into groups of 5 or 10. This will not work if you are selling patio furniture, but it works good for smaller items with a low price. Cheers!!

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Hi;

@Igor Pauer; I see your silver jewelry shop in european market, so you are in the b2c channel. So when I will make money with dropship,I can not do it with you-then you are my competitor in the b2c market channel too.

Please correct me if I be wrong there..

best wishes
marco005

Hi;

@Igor Pauer; I see your silver jewelry shop in european market, so you are in the b2c channel. So when I will make money with dropship,I can not do it with you-then you are my competitor in the b2c market channel too.

Please correct me if I be wrong there..

best wishes
marco005

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Is it okay to order from a distributor? They seem to be easier to find. Manufacturers are a bit tougher.

There's no WRONG source for products. As long as your source is reliable and offers reasonable margins they are a good source. That said, we always start with the manufacturer and move down the supply chain from there.

I will be honest, I have been making a full time income off of eBay drop shipping so if you do it right and treat it like a real business and not hobby, the money you can make just on eBay is crazy.

You can then use those same techniques in any marketplace other than eBay.

I had my first online business dropshipping products.

However, I couldn't ever reconcile in my mind that my supplier was somehow getting items for a lower price than what I was getting!

It drove me nuts, and all I wanted to do is find out his source. He masked it well, particularly because he knew I was pretty interested. I asked him flat-out once, and he wouldn't tell me.

I was eventually able to find a wholesaler that did sell these items, and increased my profits.

However, THEN I questioned: WHERE IS MY WHOLESALER GETTING THEM!?

They were also reluctant to tell me, and I never found that one out.

However, because my item was generic (no name brand out of it) I was able to ship it to a manufacturer in China where they said: "Yeah, we can make that."

Their successful reverse-engineering brought my cost down from 8.00 a unit to around 1.50 a unit.

From there, I do buy large quantities, and I have container load that empties every 18 months. It's nice to have the inventory on hand and have absolute control over the item. Shipping times, tracking numbers, etc.

If you want to be a top-rated seller on eBay, you have to be quick at fulfillment. Dropshippers go on vacation, have secretaries that have no idea what their doing as far as fulfillment, etc. (I had a mom-and-pop dropshipper at first.)

I have been checking on taxes and from what I see, you need to report dropshipping sales, buying from one site and reselling on ebay, as short term capital gains ( USA ) and not income. That's a pretty heavy tax burden.

Does that sound correct?

You really need to talk to a tax professional but I can tell you that what you said is not correct in every case. It depends on what kind of business structure you have. For example, if you have a sole proprietorship or an LLC, you pay normal income tax. Usually you also have to pay self-employment tax in addition to income tax.

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Very few of them make money.... not a gud stuff for Internet Marketer... better stay away from it...

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Well, drop shipping is one of the best way to make money. My most of the friends are working as a drop shipper and earning a lot more money with the help of this. The biggest advantage of drop shipping is, you don't need to have your own inventory, you just need to make a contact with supplier and earn money through this.

Well we are uk based and started last year in april sales were over 20,000 with just ebay alone . profit margen was very low as it was a new ebay account . This year within first three months its gone to 6000 and now having a good feedback making decent profit > So yes making money with drop ship business .
Just to let you know we are selling a opencart back end with 1600+ register buyers with their complete info, if you are interested . Dropship isnot just work you have to go for right products.

Buying from Amazon and selling on Ebay is not true dropshipping. That is a type of online arbitrage. It is possible to make a little profit doing this. You dont have to be the lowest price all the time. The problem is there are a lot of people doing this now and you are competing with them

I should also add that dropshipping can be a great "gateway drug" ... you can fill out a site with relevant products while you're working on finding your audience, then later take an inventory position on the ones that are selling consistently.

Here's what I made last month from one of my dropshipping stores:



Read the full income report and breakdown: March 2015 Income Report

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Dropshipping can be profitable, you work in the physical products ecommerce market which is constantly increasing but you have to find a good niche and reliable suppliers

There are millions of products to choose from, but not all of them will make you money. Research is essential. To determine how well and for how much your item can sell, look at eBay's completed items. If the item you are researching sold many times and at a price that meets your margins, then it's a keeper. If the product is not listed, that's even better. You can dominate the market until other sellers catch on. Rather than concentrate on a percentage for your profit margin, look at the dollars that item will generate. If you can make either 12 dollars selling a 4-dollar item for 16 dollars or 50 dollars from selling a 100-dollar item for 150 dollars, which would you choose? Think about it.

Strategies for Success
Some of the greatest success from drop shipping on eBay comes from using other retailers, not wholesalers. Items selling on clearance at retailer websites can be used to fulfill orders. Many times these items are even cheaper than wholesale, because the store wants to get rid of it. When someone buys the item from your eBay listing, you go to the retailer's website, place an order with your payment information and the eBay buyer's shipping address. You don't need to tell the retailer you are reselling the item. This strategy works well because the retailer has reliable shipping times and quality items. It takes research to find that hot item, but the profit margin can be anywhere from 100 to 400 percent. Sometimes retailers limit the number of items a customer can purchase, so check the store's policy before you list a bunch of them. You can also pretend to purchase the item, type in a large quantity and see if it is placed into your online shopping cart. Monitor quantities every few days to make sure the item is still available from the retailer.

You can crush it right now on amazon dropshipping from other online merchants (online arbitrage). We have several in our group doing >$100K/mo in sales; 14% margin

r

Here's an update, my store is back on track and sales are growing and more consistent.

Dont' waste your time with eBay to Amazon arbitrage. Build yourself a niche store and build a real business, collect emails, and make those customers yours for life.

F#@$ eBay and Amazon.

Awesome Johnnfd! Very interested in how to do that. My sales should be around 70k this month on ebay but would love to learn how to have my own thing going.

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I tried it myself & found it hard to be able to find the right sites & products. I did a few & by the time Ebay took thier fees I came out behind, after investing a reasonable amount of money as well. So I had to walk away & treat it as a paid lesson.Finally I found an ethical company thats paid out over $25m in commissions & I am able to make $1k, $3K & $5K commissions regularly now & know I am helping others.

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Yes you can plently of money to be made and the perfect time to get into drop shipping. To find quality suppliers look at your competitors in your niche, then check out there brands. Get a list of the brands they carry and check if they enforce MAP pricing. If they do your half way there on a winner.

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anyone want a guy in u.s who can forward the shipping packets to u.s addresses please contact me.
been there done that.

I worked for a company when I was younger that made millions per year drop shipping. There is money in everything as long as you find a market people are seeking.

i sell 100k a month using that basic method
its mote detailed
but i make 10-15k a moth dropshipping

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