Dropshipping, Any good?

Collabora

babylou wrote: »

tell me about it!... well not so much the dropshippers as the website hosts!

how wrong you are . i run a web hosting business and very successfull over the last 20+ years.
i also run 2 online retails sites that use dropshipping and these are successful, you just need the right product and pick the right dropshipper

Collabora

Zelazny wrote: »

By my reckoning, to sell an item at 11.85 on ebay as buy it now would cost:

40p to list
63p final value fee (assuming it counts as technology related - 5.25% of the final price)

So you'd receive a net £10.82 from ebay. If you use paypal and do under £1,500 per month, there'd be a charge of 20p plus 3.4% to receive this money, which is 57p.

Thus, you'd be getting £10.25, and would be 68p out of pocket.

If you could make the purchases through an amazon associates account (FYI: if it's your account, this is against the rules) and got say 5% back, that would add up to 54p rebated. Still leaving you 14p down on the sale.

Paypal fees go down as transaction volume goes up (to as low as 1.4% + 20p) on a normal account - not sure about a business account. Likewise, amazon referral amounts go up the more you put through, but as using it is likely to be more than a little dodgy in the first place, I'd not rely on it. I'm not sure if you're allowed to find someone who does have an associates account and use that, then split the money, but I suspect it would fall foul of the rules.

Some dropshippers wont allow you to sell on ebay or amazon

harvyedward

working_at_home_mom wrote: »

I have been doing some research on drop shipping and im looking for a complete business solution as im not a techy. Anyone know any complete solutions? I have come across droptec, but not seen any reviews on them anywhere. Anyone had experience with them?

You may see my reply on drop shipping and it will solve your problem and you could take some decision.

bjarvis2785

Ladies & Gents,

For the longest time now i've been considering Dropshipping on eBay.
I've found many Dropship suppliers, however it seems the majority either have out of date lines, poor quality products or for the few that do have decent products the margin left in the sale is minimal.

So, i'm asking a genuine question with the hope of a genuine response.

Does anybody on here actually make a half decent income from Dropshipping (in particular on eBay)?
Is the time vs reward trade off actually worth it in real life terms?

Would love to hear any thoughts on the subject.

Flyonthewall

While people do dropship and use ebay, ebay does state in its rules that you should have the items in stock that you are selling. If there are any problems your ebay account may not last long.

Any returns will come back to you so keep that in mind. Hopefully you'll get few returns but if you sell a lot and a few change their minds you may end up with stock you've no room for.

People generally don't like waiting ages for delivery so you'll need to check disptach times and remember that it'll take longer outside of the UK, but as your ebay account will be UK registered people will be expecting it to come from the UK (in other words they expect quick delivery times).

People do make money from dropshipping, but there's a lot that you have to watch out for and keep in mind when doing so. As you've already found out, there are a lot with poor quality products and high prices.

On top of that, you will still have fees if selling on places like ebay.

In the end, it all comes down to whether you can find a dropshipping company you are happy with that sells the items you want, at a price you can make a profit on. However, no one is likely to tell you which to use and the prices you should charge to make money because you'll be competition to those who know.

If you've got the storage space then buying wholesale may be better, but obviously there's the upfront cost of buying stock, you have to post it yourself and prices may still be quite high.

soolin

As a business on eBay I am always being approached by companies offering me drop shipping terms. However, if you spend any time looking into it it soon become apparent that the only one making money is the wholesaler themselves- and many of them actually sell direct on eBay as direct competition anyway.

Many years ago I did actually look into a drop shipping offer, it was for the cheongsong type dress that at the time was very popular , I don't recall the exact figures but was offered dresses at say £10 a piece delivered and the business manager that contacted me was happy to assure me that these were easily sold on eBay at £17.99. A brief bit of research showed that yes, many sellers were listing these at £17.99, unfortunately they didn't sell at that price and instead sold nearer £14.99. Watching the listings for a while the pattern was that the drop shipper got a few sellers on board, they watched their feedback crash and burn as dresses turned up that didn't fit, or where stitching was loose, or didn't arrive at all. The sellers then got suspended and the drop shipper moved into new sellers.

I have never drop shipped , all my stock is held by me, I control when I send it, how I pack it and I alone are responsible for the items I send. Much better that way, I don't trust anyone else to manage my business.

bjarvis2785

Thanks for the replies guys, much appreciated.

It's something that i've always felt was more weighted towards the distributor/wholesaler rather than the retailer - it's almost got a 'scammy' to-good-to-be-true approach.

Space is not necessarily an issue for me, so i may well be looking in to buying a few items wholesale and just testing the waters.

Soolin - Whilst i appreciate you're not going to give me the full details (and i really wouldn't expect you to), do you currently purchase from UK wholesalers or do you source from abroad with a service like Alibaba?
I understand this is of course based on the products being sold, but i'm more asking whether you have experience with Alibaba and whether you could share any tips or advice?

Thanks again.

soolin

bjarvis2785 wrote: »

Thanks for the replies guys, much appreciated.

It's something that i've always felt was more weighted towards the distributor/wholesaler rather than the retailer - it's almost got a 'scammy' to-good-to-be-true approach.

Space is not necessarily an issue for me, so i may well be looking in to buying a few items wholesale and just testing the waters.

Soolin - Whilst i appreciate you're not going to give me the full details (and i really wouldn't expect you to), do you currently purchase from UK wholesalers or do you source from abroad with a service like Alibaba?
I understand this is of course based on the products being sold, but i'm more asking whether you have experience with Alibaba and whether you could share any tips or advice?

Thanks again.

I have used Alibaba - just remember to factor in the import costs- and also be aware that virtually everything sold there is also being sold at a knock down price by the Far East sellers themselves. Therefore you cannot compete on price and must compete on reputation and speed of delivery alone. There is not a great deal of money in it though, many items arrive partly damaged, so have to be written off in your books. Also, with the market completely flooded I am often stuck holding stock that I cannot sell at all- whatever the price. That's why I have very little stock sourced from the Far East

Most of my items though are sourced within the UK and not necessarily from a wholesaler.

fenners

How do you get around the fact it takes between 21-31 days for items to come from overseas?

soolin

fenners wrote: »

How do you get around the fact it takes between 21-31 days for items to come from overseas?

That's the whole point really, if a seller is drop shipping from overseas and are honest about delivery times they don't get the buyers, and if they lie about delivery times they get bad feedback and stars and lose their eBay accounts.

My advice is still to hold your own stock and control your own shipping times.