Dropshippers

Complicated? No, it's actually pretty simple.

Customer orders an item from you, you place the order with the dropshipper, the dropshipper sends the item to the customer.

Sounds like a dream come true, but there are minuses.

1. If the dropshipper is out of stock, you're left holding the bag.
2. The dropshipper typically charges a fee for each item they ship ($3 is about the norm). That's really not bad, considering the price of boxes and stuff these days. But you need to factor that into your price.
3. If the dropshipper is slow in getting things out, your feedback will suffer.

So there are good and bad parts. My advice is to never pay up-front fees to a dropshipper, those are scams. And if you're doing a good amount of business you might want to order a few items and keep them in stock in your warehouse (read: garage) in case the dropshipper goes out of stock.

be selective with good dropshippers, that's the key point before starting your own dropshipping business, because it is you who deal with customers, not the supplier in behind

Hey I don't mean to through a money wrench into this but I have tried Dropshippers and have had a lot of negatives with it. Now it could be me and it probably is but make sure look up the drop shipper before using them. I have had bad experiences but that does not mean that you have to. Just look them up make sure they are a good drop shipper.

Just my two little ones
Mattd365

Don't go to Doba, that's all I can tell you. I wasted hours at their site. Every single thing I looked up I saw people on eBay selling it for as much or cheaper than what I would pay for it at Doba.

The problem is that most people are unlikely to tell you the dropshippers they use because they would just be creating more competition for themselves. You wouldn't walk into your local store and ask them who they buy their stuff from, would you? It's just a trial and error process, and when you find a winner keep it to yourself. Well, you can IM me and tell me, too. But that's it! ;-)

If you start pushing serious amounts of product you can sometimes create your own dropshipper of sorts. Approach small manufacturers and ask them if they would be willing to drop-ship; some might if you can guarantee a large number of sales, but most won't because it's not worth the hassle.

Another other option is to just buy a small or large quantity of an item and ship it to a fulfillment house. When you get an order, you just have to let them know and they'll pick, pack and ship for a fee. There is also a fee for the warehouse space you use. Try to find a dropshipper in mid-America, like in Oklahoma, since they can service the whole US without crossing every zone. Set up a UPS account with Unishippers and you'll save a lot on your shipping.

Amazon does fulfillment, but it's pretty expensive.