Am I just courting trouble?

pebble123_2

Hi can anyone advise me please.
I am a casual ebay seller, I buy craft items and then make them up and sell them on as finished items. I am registered with HMRC as self employed and my selling account is a business one.
One of the wholesalers that I get my craft items from is now offering a drop shipping service and I thought this may be a way to expand what I sell into different areas, but from what I've read on here, I should avoid it.
I know this isn't a scam site, as I've used this supplier for a couple of years, they are local to me (I've even been to the warehouse), but generally for certain items I can't buy in large amounts as I haven't got anywhere to store them. It seems to me that drop shipping may be the answer.
I have ordered a few things and they've been delivered quickly, both to my address and a friends that I used as a test (elsewhere in the country).
Is the issue that the delivery etc. is out of your control and you're likely to get negative feedback, or is there something deeper than this?

For now, what I've done is used the drop ship system (which means I can just get a few items, rather than 72!) and then will list them, so I *know* I have them, but they won't make the sort of profit that I would make from having more items.

Does this seem like a sensible way forward?

RFW

It depends. Plenty of people do OK from dropshipping. Presumably there's no exclusivity of product, so anyone can buy from the same place and sell. If it's worth it to tie in with your other products and earn a bit extra then fine. You also need to know the speed of dispatch and if anything in delivery would have any detrimental effect on you, ie is delivery guaranteed, what if item goes missing, etc.

I've never used dropshipping but my instinct would be that you need to be fully secure that there will be no problems and if there are they will be sorted quickly, that's hard enough when just dealing with buyer and postal company, dropshipping adds at least one extra person to deal with.

terra_ferma

pebble123 wrote: »

Hi can anyone advise me please.
I am a casual ebay seller, I buy craft items and then make them up and sell them on as finished items. I am registered with HMRC as self employed and my selling account is a business one.
One of the wholesalers that I get my craft items from is now offering a drop shipping service and I thought this may be a way to expand what I sell into different areas, but from what I've read on here, I should avoid it.
I know this isn't a scam site, as I've used this supplier for a couple of years, they are local to me (I've even been to the warehouse), but generally for certain items I can't buy in large amounts as I haven't got anywhere to store them. It seems to me that drop shipping may be the answer.
I have ordered a few things and they've been delivered quickly, both to my address and a friends that I used as a test (elsewhere in the country).
Is the issue that the delivery etc. is out of your control and you're likely to get negative feedback, or is there something deeper than this?

For now, what I've done is used the drop ship system (which means I can just get a few items, rather than 72!) and then will list them, so I *know* I have them, but they won't make the sort of profit that I would make from having more items.

Does this seem like a sensible way forward?

I don't do drop shipping, but I'd do it if the profit was worth the risk. I can't comment on the level of risk, because it's a business model I'm not familiar with.

If things go really bad you could lose your account (and any accounts linked to it, including family members'), if you get a lot of people not receiving their items and opening disputes/giving negative feedback and low stars.
If the money you expect to make is worth the risk, and you don't mind the risk of losing your eBay account, why not (there's always etsy etc for you).

pebble123_2

Thanks for the responses. These would generally be relatively low value items, so I suppose if anything went wrong I could stand the loss.
I have ordered a few items through the drop shipping system, rather than the wholesale one, and they seem to arrive quickly enough for me, but some buyers may not be happy with it. Items ordered on Monday before 1pm arrived on Thursday, which I consider to be OK.

Crowqueen

These would generally be relatively low value items, so I suppose if anything went wrong I could stand the loss

Just watch your margins. No point in selling something that is going to make a loss, even if it is a cheap line.

Charge, say, 5p extra on each item. Put this into a fund against loss in post.

forgotmyname

I think a few items i bought recently were drop shipped. Problem i had they were not quite as described.
One seller said he didnt know about the change of spec got the item.

The other admitted the supplier must have changed the item and not notified them.

Not a problem but, It can leave you open to some negative feedback for those reasons.

Also what if you sell the item and then find it no longer in stock at your supplier.

More risk.

soolin

It's th e'no stock' problem that hits many people.

I buy a lot on ebay and often from large business sellers, and I routinely get refunds as the dropshipper is out of stock. I tend to just ignore feedback (unless seller asks me to leave any) but many buyers will leave poor feedback and/or stars.

Crowqueen

The time I bought something that was dropshipped, it came from HMV three weeks late (due to snow) and the seller's account was obliterated in a hail of negs/neuts, including one from me (only neutral I've left, the only neg being for a similar problem four years ago with someone who went on holiday leaving listings running and no message saying they were away - was slightly suspicious because he responded immediately after I left the neg).

I only left the neutral because she didn't respond when I took her up on the offer of a replacement. I didn't have a problem with the dropshipping itself, but obviously the seller learned the hard way that it was a bad deal.

It is something to go into with eyes wide open. Some people on the official boards use dropshipping as a way of covering themselves when they inadvertently run out of stock. But they dislike being used as dropshippers themselves.

Gleeful

Watch out for packaging. I bought a book on eBay last week which came dropshipped in Amazon packaging. I wasn't impressed, although it was my own fault for not shopping around.

forgotmyname

Not your fault the buyer didnt check amazon 1st though. But maybe they didnt know about it but do now.
So 1 less future repeat customer for you and 1 extra for amazon?

tattycath

I've bought a couple of things on ebay that were posted out to me direct from Amazon. Personally I didnt have a problem with it-and the comapnies i purchased from can't have made much - if anything - out of the transactions. (I checked out the items on Amazon once i realized they were from there).
The way I looked at it was this: I bought an item from ebay, I was happy with the price, I received the item (regardless of where from), I was happy with the item. Job done. I don't understand how someone can be dissatisfied at receiving the item they purchased-just because it was from a website and not physically from the seller.