Drop Shipping

hildosaver

Hi all,

I have a seller account on Amazon.co.uk that I have used to sell books over the years - very small time. Over the past few weeks I have been reading about drop shipping and have made contact with a furniture wholesalers who do lovely stuff with the hope I can start drop-shipping through my amazon account. Just wondering if anybody here has experience doing anything like this and has any advice?

Still in the 'thinking about it' stage here.

Browntoa

just remember that any failures by the dropshipper affects you and your feedback

hildosaver

Browntoa wrote: »

just remember that any failures by the dropshipper affects you and your feedback

Yeah I'm very aware of that and I guess that is one of the main drawbacks/risks of drop-shipping however the quality of the products look to be very good but I guess only time will tell if their delivery, etc. is up to scratch.

Has anybody done something similar to this? How did it work out for you?

Another drawback I have read about is that any returns may come back to myself - which as I will be dealing in furniture obviously could take up a lot of space - thankfully I have a large barn at home which should be big enough to store lots of furniture if needed.

sjbrun

And don't forget drop shipping is against Amazon's terms as you dont hold the stock.

fishybusiness

Thinking it through, have you looked at the margins?

Drop shippers will be on tight margins, add Amazons fees, can you still make money?

Also, on the subject of returns, you may be liable for return postage. If you arrange returns to come to you, would you then have to pay for returns to your drop shipper? That could eat in to profits.

Ensuring your drop shipper packages well and delivers carefully is a must.

paddyrg

Ok, maybe less of an issue with huge goods like furniture, but packages missing in the post become a squabble.

hildosaver

fishybusiness wrote: »

Thinking it through, have you looked at the margins?

Drop shippers will be on tight margins, add Amazons fees, can you still make money?

Also, on the subject of returns, you may be liable for return postage. If you arrange returns to come to you, would you then have to pay for returns to your drop shipper? That could eat in to profits.

Ensuring your drop shipper packages well and delivers carefully is a must.

These are all good points and things I will look to discuss with the potential wholesaler before I start - the amazon cost also I will need to keep a close eye on however just because it makes it a lot easier to get things started I might stick with it at first just to get myself up and running and learn the business. As I am fortunate to have a lot of storage space available to me I may also look into buying stock in myself in bulk though this will require a bit of saving and thinking about what sort of items I feel I would be able to sell successfully.

With re: tax - I already complete a SA tax return each year due to rental income - will I need to complete a seperate one and declare myself as a sole trader if I decide to go for this or do I simply include all the information into my normal SA return?

bris

So what do you do when you drop ship a £500 side board and the customer wants to return it in line with the CCR's which is a legal right?


You have to take it back but your drop shipper doesn't so your stuck with it. This happens to drop shippers all the time, returns are your problem so you need deep pockets when it all goes wrong.

paddyrg

Might be better to think in terms of doing an affiliate/sales lead deal instead. Let's face it, if I buy a sofa this week I'm not going to be back for another for a while, so 'owning' the relationship is of limited value.

hildosaver

'So what do you do when you drop ship a £500 side board and the customer wants to return it in line with the CCR's which is a legal right?


You have to take it back but your drop shipper doesn't so your stuck with it. This happens to drop shippers all the time, returns are your problem so you need deep pockets when it all goes wrong. '

Fair point - at least I have the space to store the item until I can hopefully sell it on again but you are right that initially I would take the financial hit of basically paying for the side board myself. Lots to think about, thanks for pointing out some of the potential problems.

paulofessex

If your looking at starting drop shipping on a smaller scale, take a look at ats distribution they offer a pre loaded store where you can add your own products too. It's set up for Google see etc also.