Does anyone do drop shipping?
I would like to build a store either catering to weddings or baby supplies. I know this is treating affiliate marketing but I am sure there is someone here who has a online store. Does anyone know of a reputable drop shipping company besides contacting wholesalers directly? From the research I have done there are sites such as wholesale2b, doba etc but I was wondering if anyone uses sites like these and have any feedback for me on which one to use. Any advice will help. Thanks.
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I'm signed up with Salehoo and haven't really done any drop shipping because I can't figure out how to sell something and make a profit from a drop shipping company. They say you don't have to buy anything wholesale, just wait till the customer orders, but that sounds like a lot of trouble to me. I've made a few hundred selling my old merchandise on ebay. Thats about as far as I've gotten.
Hey Kendall,
The way it works is suppose the drop shipping company can sell item X to you for $15. You turn around and sell it to your customer for $20 and collect the money from your customer. Then, you place an order with the drop shipping company, pay them the $15 and tell them where to ship it (your customer's address). In this scenario you made $5.
This is an oversimplification because usually shipping eats into any profits that you gain and also you need to set up an ecommerce shopping cart solution and deal with payment processors. Also, returns are usually handled by you.
Best Regards,
Jim
No I have not tried Drop Shipping. I always thought it would be a large task to keep up with. The worst thing would be trying to find lost shipments and dealing with upset customers. I think it is better to let our affiliates deal with all that.
Hey Kathleen,
I found that drop shipping was a tough boat to keep afloat. The problem is that even manufacturers that agree to do it, the costs to process are greater. And they pass that cost onto you from what I have found.
If you do want to pursue it, the absolute best resource that I found at the time is WorldWideBrands.com (no affiliation). It is a paid service but they do the heavy lifting of finding legitimate companies plus they have pretty good training in the area.
Salehoo.com (no affiliation) also has suppliers but when I was using them (several years ago) they didn't seem like they checked the manufacturers as well as WorldWideBrands.
Another possible way to go about it is to find top sellers on eBay and work out arrangements with them to sell products that they are currently selling. You are not really competing with them as you are buying from them at a discount. You could set up either drop shipping arrangements with them or if they don't want to go that granular, you can see about small volume shipments to you that you could turn around and sell.
Best Regards,
Jim
Some other points to make, Doba was largely expensive ($49 per month) which eats into already tough margins in the drop shipping arena. Also, watch out for these middle tier programs that claim to handle everything including listing on eBay for you, etc. They are usually borderline scams and you never make any money from them.
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I am looking for drop shipper as well. found wholesale2b and worldwidebrands. Reveiw say wholesale2b is lacking in the customer support. Worldwidebrand have a $299 one-time membership fee. Need advice as well.