If you read the forums on ebay and feedback from ebayers, many say dropshipping using ebay as the sales channel is not as lucrative as it used to be. These days, almost any product you buy from yr dropshipper, you find being sold on ebay already. Highly competitive and margins extremely low on ebay. In theory, it sounds easy, you have supply (i.e. dropshippers) and you have the demand (i.e. ebay) so just match the two! The information flow on dropshipping to ebay is becoming more and more perfect so it is not that easy to arbitrage from dropshipping to ebay anymore. Of 'cos one can still succeed but the % of success is so much lower now
I have been in both things and I would recommend dropshipping in the long run, but you have to do it with legitimate companies. Take the extra 10 minutes and $15 to start a real company and then get a resale license. This will get you in with the real distributors who actually dropship for you. Don't just type it in google and see what you get because real dropshippers do not want to be found that way, so they do not seo their sites or get indexed for those reasons. Yes, setting up a company can be tedious, but it is much more lucrative in the long run. It can be hit or miss with affiliate programs, but you still have to put in a good effort with that as well. As previously stated, you cannot just slap up some ads and expect money to come right in via affiliate links, it just doesn't happen. I would go with dropshipping if you want to have a little more control of your own fate. Good luck.
I don't understand that :| Profit margins smaller? I can believe that - but it also depends on what you're selling and how you are selling them. Think about this. Let's say you start a clothing store [the Lord knows there's thousands of them on eBay - let alone the internet]...There is tons of competition for clothes. There are literally THOUSANDS upon THOUSANDS of stores on EBAy. Nobody feels like going through thousands of stores to find the best deals. So - You will want to start an EBay store - and make sure that you establish a huge base of "repeating customers". Your customer service, professionalism, and overall product quality will get you to the lucrative means that you need to get to. EBay is just as lucrative because even though it grows with sellers - i'm sure the number of buyers is growing even more Also remember, that if people perceive that the competition is too crowded; it's going to discourage a huge amount of people from even attempting a business - they'll give the classic quote: "How can I compete with this guy?" - If you're smart - you're going to be the guy that discourages them
I really want to get into E-bay for myself. I've been managing E-bay auctions for businesses fulltime for a couple years and I've done really well for them so I want to do the same although I don't have the funds to purchase a large amount of merchandise at wholesale and have an inventory. Drop shipping sounds interesting although I'm sure there are many drop shipping scams out there. What do you do on E-bay if there is a problem with the merchandise, that means you have to take the bad feedback even if you don't have anything to do with the product itself? Or if shipping is delayed or missed or anything like that? I'm really interested in this; Expertforumguy if you could PM me information on a drop shipping merchant I could get started with I would really appreciate it. Thanks!
LOL, I am realistic and just don't want to paint rosy "easy make money" when the fact it is not easy as you make it. Read around experiences of ebayers and ask in ebay forums about dropshipping niche If you have succeeded in dropshipping-ebay, please let us know your ebay store/ page so we can visit you in ebay and see how you do it
Nope, I definitely DON'T have an EBay store, simply because I'm not at that phase of my online business plan. That's way in the future after I've have established my affiliate marketing stuff. I need mula to run an EBay business - especially because I'm a college student, and I can't really earn money by dropshipping every single day - I need autoprofits - affiliate marketing does that for me. I have dropshipped before - I was earning boo-koo money a week, but I had to stop because it was consuming my time; I'm a college athlete, go to school full-time, and it's literally impossible for me to sustain a full-time EBay business. So i'm doing affiliate marketing to raise enough funds so I can pay someone else to run it for me ya dig? I can tell you this though. Dropshipping IS easy if you have experience. For Dropshipping on Ebay to be easy you have to: - Know your shipping limitations - Include taxes - do tax research - ORGANIZATION, Organization, organization! [Did I mention organization?] - Have a BACK-UP bank account & back up funds - I failed miserably my first time because pay-pal froze my account, then EBay froze my account. - When you see profit - transfer to your bank account IMMEDIATELY! - so pay-pal can't freeze it. - Use AUCTIVA.COM - Learn SEO, even outsource articles and start a blog that drives traffic to your EBay store. it's OVERWHELMING if you have no idea what you're doing: - Disorganization - Put all your hope and trust into pay-pal - Abuse EBay [List too many items without opening a store] - Please oh please make sure the dropshipper offers refunds. Nothing is worse than promising a refund only to find out your dropshipper won't accept the product. You lose money, the customer, and your reputation.... :[ alrighty then. that's all peaaace