Unless you pay some initial "fee" there is no risk, I think. You can loose your time and efforts only.
Dropshippng is a Joke! It's not worth the headache of the pocket change you will make! Especially after all the fees, marketing, etc. If anyone is looking to make some decent money you are better off doing an affiliate style program! If anyone is looking to make some money here and have questions about affiliate marketing I would be happy to help. Also if anyone has gaming site/domains they are sitting on and collecting dust I can offer them a really good affiliate program that pays real $$$. PM me with questions if you meet the criteria.
How many dropship programs are you in? How much money did you made in aff, that you are hypeing like this
My employer keeps absolutely no inventory. All of our business is dropshipping. We are a >100 employee, multi-site company that easily runs with the big dog competition in our industry. It can be done!
My dropshipping site goes online April 1st. The point is to find a supplier that does not compete with you! Many suppliers sale also retail and will try to steal your customers. Make sure you find supplier who only does wholesale. Also, I am trying to keep it simple at the beginning, meaning, one type of product only. It is much easier to market, because with too many different products, you need too many marketing campaigns, keywords etc. I would also suggest not to go with anyone who requires membership fees. Remember, they are doing you a favor of supplying a product, but you are doing them a favor of marketing and selling it. So no reason to pay membership fees. As for the money, my profit margin is 40%. Yes, some affiliate products give you even 75%, but for example Amazon gives you about 5%. Either way, it all depends on the product and the size of the market. The bigger the market, the smaller margins you can afford to have, as you move a larger volume of products. And vice verse, of course. Many people want to move brands like Apple, but they do not allow a big price changes, so you basically compete with the same products for the same prices. Make sure, you have enough margins to move around, and act like a regular store - offer some products for a discounted price, make sure you sign up people for newsletter, offer seasonal sales etc. For example, let's say you are selling chocolate. After Valentine's day, the specific valentine's day chocolate is hard to sell. So drop the price of Valentine's day merchandise as low as you can go (without losing money, of course) and place it on sale. You won't make any money off of it, but you are likely still get people interested in the product, thus giving you a chance to get them on your mailing list. And next Valentine's day, you will have a perfect audience to target. Just make sure you closely watch your bottom line, so you don't actually start losing money on the orders.
Actually I know 5 main sites for dropshippers, they are all located in China: For expensive items www.lightinthebox.com www.chinavasion.com A lot of little gadgets: www.dealextreme.com www.focalprice.com www.lightake.com You need to try them make a comparison. Then fianlly find one to serve you.
thanks for this i have been trying to find a dropshipper for some stuff for a while but couldnt so i just did inventory to my house and soon to be warehouse! I want to open up another business soley dropshipping
The problem with dropshipping is that if you buy from the typical online "wholesalers," your margins are not good and you have so much competition, you get squeezed. I did affiliate marketing and dropshipping for a few years, and the dropshipping was a waste of my time, the margins were so miserable. If I ever did it again, I would go to trade shows and ONLY work with merchants that were not already online -- e.g., real honest-to-goodness wholesalers, not the fake ones everyone uses. That way you could retain more like 50% of a sale, not 10% or less. I want to add, the time spent on customer service is considerable, so be prepared for that, because unless you manage some jaw-dropping margins you are not going to be able to outsource it. Don't forget the time you have to spend on PCI compliance and keeping your shopping cart up to date. Not for me. Affiliate has done much better.
i suggest also to find drop shipper that does wholesale + drop ship (mixed). i started this not too long ago for group buy sites and its working very well. ask your drop shipper if they can give you "group buy" price and still take care of the handling and shipping. you will see, in todays market, many will say yes. i know i did and its working great for both my clients and i. i can send examples if someone are interested.