I know lots of eBayers like to use drop shippers and generally don't make a lot of money because there are 10's of thousands of them fighting tooth and nail to out penny each other. So...I don't want to do that. I was thinking however of something slightly different. Like an online mall that I could slowly promote and grow into a familiar one stop shop for a range of products. People can find most anything on eBay these days at a competitive price but people still do buy from other sites so I think it's a tenable kind of plan if not fairly unoriginal. I guess I'm wondering if drop shipping is a good rout for such an idea and if so, where should I go to research good drop shippers? If that's a place like DP, then impart your wisdom please. Cheers
Actually dropship is good or bad is dependable to how you manage it. For me people still buy from other shop though the price is slight higher than ebay is due to many factor such as the reputation,the service.But what customer want is the after sales support such as repair the damaged part.
In general, it is going to be hard to compete with online using drop shipping. That being said, it all depends on your business model. Some online retailers use extensive drop shipping to fill their orders and they do quite well. However, they have established relationships with the companies that are doing the drop shipping for them so they can negotiate a good price. When you're just getting started and can offer the drop shipper no real sales volume it is going to be very difficult to be competitive unless you pick a small, rare niche. As for eBay sellers, they should never use drop shipping. DropShippingSucks.com explains the problems with drop shipping on eBay very well. If you're planning on opening an online mall, you're best bet may be to find some affiliate programs that offer product feeds. These will allow you to fill your mall with prices that are the same as at the major sites themselves. When someone buys from your store, you will get a commission. Just like drop shipping but in a way you can compete. cj.com offers product feeds to their affiliates based on which programs you join. Check them out and best of luck to you!
After sales support was actually primary concern and as alber859 pointed out, how can you give that kind of service for a product that never was in your possession right? That being said, after sales support is still manageable even if fairly disconnected. More of a pass the buck kind of thing. I don't have warehousing space unfortunately so I can't maintain a large inventory of items on my own. This is why drop shipping occurred to me up front. I did not however consider the possibility of affiliate feeds. That's not a bad idea at all. I would prefer to do drop shipping if possible but it sounds like there aren't any drop shippers that would be able to facilitate a profitable business model like this. Hopefully what I can do is build the store's reputation using affiliate feeds and start making independent drop shipping agreements with manufacturers or wholesalers after becoming some what established. It seems like that would be the best option for me. Thank you very much for the advice posted thus far. Any more advice is of course welcome. Cheers
I really think affiliate feeds will work well. Most good companies will keep you "cookied" for a period of time too. So, even though the customer in the end knows the item is from xyz.com and not you, if they return and order more you will still get the commission! Most offer 90 - 120 days but some are as long as 2 years! The other nice thing is that all customer service is handled by the actual retailer. So, if there is a problem with the product/order, they do not come to you and say "make this right" they go directly to the source. Some popular programs with feeds are: Amazon.com, Buy.com, even eBay.com! Good luck, if you have any other questions just ask!
Well there is one thing that springs to mind. Can I still do this in an online mall type of format? I mean, would I still be able to list a bunch of products on my own website with pictures and product details? I guess what I'm concerned about is a customer not being able to order two things from two different companies on my own website. Is there a way to get around this some what easily? Cheers
Well, you can show different products from different companies right on your website; yes. However, the checkout process will exist at each individual store with some exceptions. A marketplace like Amazon.com has thousands of vendors selling, so in essence you can have everything just as an amazon affiliate. In that case you can customize the checkout process so it, until actual payment is processed, appears as it is all on your site.
Also, BTW, eBay's affiliate program will allow you to do neat things with their API. Their commissions add up quickly and you can use the personal touch on your site to make new people feel comfortable buying on eBay.
Well that's quite alright really. I mean essentially the business plan has begun to morph into pure affiliate marketing and website promotion which isn't so bad. I mean, this is a project that I was already thinking of giving two or three years to grow organically so that's not really an inhibiting factor in the end. Fiddling with the eBay API will end up costing me some cash because I can't do that myself but all in all, not a big concern. Thank you very much nodropship. You've been a great help to me.
No problem. The eBay API isn't too hard. Don't spend too much money! If you look hard enough you can find some free or very cheap pre-built modules. You've hit the nail on the head with "thinking of giving it 2 - 3 years to grow organically"... That is THE key. Letting things "grow". I have a few sites that I basically put online and then "abandoned". All of a sudden, 6 - 10 months later they are starting to make an income. Just by sitting there on the web long enough it would seem.
Well, the web is a marketplace of over one billion. As saturated as it is, there's always plenty of traffic to spread around.
we can't say it is good or bad, because customers don't know about the dropshippers, so if they got any problem, they will contact you. and also there are lots of problems like tax, shipping, etc.
One of the things my sister does for her site is to constantly look for unique LOCAL items when she travels around the country. Usually local items have very little exposure outside of a limited local or regional area and therefore are perfect products for an online store selling worldwide. Repeat after me: Local = little or no competition online. When she finds something she would like to have in her store she personally visits the maker of the product to see if they will dropship for her. If they will, she gets everything she needs done while she is still there, like pricing, like dropshipping terms, like payment terms, like copyright and trademark issues, and so on. And she does it all in person so she knows them and they know her. As noted above, local items have little or no competition. Therefore, when an online viewer sees those items on her site, they either buy or they don't. Those customers never price shop because they can't - no one else has that product. Custom made products are another perfect online product. Check your local area for people who custom make items according to the wishes of the buyer. Screen printing custom info on shirts comes to mind for one. Also anything unique regarding signs, badges, etc. The problem with custom products like these is that often your potential customer can get a very similar thing online or locally, so there is potential competition to worry about.
Yes, custom products like the ones at CafePress and other such sites can be ok as far as drop shipping goes. But they usually are still higher-priced. You can also find drop shippers of items such as supplements who will private label drop ship for you.