Drop Shipping

carcuscrae

Hi

Just wondered if anyone had any experience of Drop Shipping. Is it worth it?

Thanks

spendthrift66

What is it?

geordie_joe

spendthrift66 wrote: »

What is it?

It's where you sell stuff you don't own then go and buy it after the person has paid for it. You order the item from the Dropshipper, who then sends the item directly to your customer instead of you.

Many sellers on ebay use this, but they also annoy many buyers when they auction something and by the time the auction is over the dropshipper hasn't got any left, or the end price isn't high enough for them to make a profit so they just tell the buyer the item is no longer available.

I've heard a few people saying it is hardly worth it as the price is often the same, or not much more than you can buy the item for on ebay.

EDIT: I've also heard that dropshippers charge you an annual fee, something like £40 to buy from them.

spendthrift66

Thanks - so I sell a calculator (for eg) and then buy it off someone else who sends it out to customer. What's the point? (Sorry if I'm being dim!)

geordie_joe

spendthrift66 wrote: »

Thanks - so I sell a calculator (for eg) and then buy it off someone else who sends it out to customer. What's the point? (Sorry if I'm being dim!)

You are right.

The point is you don't have to buy and keep a lot of stock. If you advertise a calculator on your web site, or an ebay auction and nobody buys it then you've lost nothing but the ebay listing fee. If you'd actually bought the calculator first then you would be out of pocket.

It sounds like a good idea, but there as so many people doing it on ebay that the selling price has dropped so much it is not worth the effort.

EDIT: One "selling point" for drop shipping is you don't pay the delivery charge to have the item delivered to you. The customer pays for the delivery, but it gets delivered from the company you bought it from so only one delivery is paid for, by the customer.

spendthrift66

Thank you.

carcuscrae

Check this website, its what I saw on Bargainspy and I wondered what it was as well.

http://www.firstpointdropshipping.com/index.html

carcuscrae

So basically you would advise to avoid it then?

geordie_joe

carcuscrae wrote: »

So basically you would advise to avoid it then?

Yes, unless you want to pay £20 to find they are selling stuff for the price you can get it on ebay.

Mac_Sami

carcuscrae wrote: »

So basically you would advise to avoid it then?

Err.... no.

Dropshipping can be a successful business, provided that you select your dropship company / companies carefully and do thorough research beforehand.

Dropshipping companies who ask you to pay to see what they offer are not worth going for, as a rule of thumb. The good dropshipping companies won't need to charge you a membership / subscription fee.

Also bear in mind the level of customer service from the dropshipper. How do they deal with questions? What happens if an item needs to be returned? Can you brand the packaging with your own labels / logo?

I had a site that sold adult goods using dropshipping. The dropshipper in question was a reputable company in the UK who could provide me with a live feed of which item(s) were in stock or not, which meant my web site automatically stayed up to date, meaning no unhappy customers who order items only to be told they're out of stock! By investing the time to begin with in research and ensuring the web site worked well, I could concentrate on promoting the site, as well as try other channels of selling.

Money wise, I found the profit margins on adult goods to be quite high - normally dropshippers are just another seller in the chain, and because you're up against other people (who are using the same / similar dropshippers), your prices compete, get lower and end up with very small profit margins.

Personally, I ended up selling the site for a very small sum, simply because the nature of the site wasn't for me anymore. It can be rewarding, and Google is your friend for finding out more (as well as asking here!)

carcuscrae

So can you recommend any good drop shippers or send me to a website that can tell me all I need to know?

Thanks