Do you have a dropshipping tip to share? Here is mine...

[SadSuspended]

I know there are not a lot of supporters of dropshipping on this board but I have managed to continue to make play money to keep me going. One thing that drop shippers should be alert is when there is no inventory from the supplier and we are completely unaware that we are selling an item that is no longer in stock and it will be difficult to find. To manage my account successfully, I have begun to purchase 1 item of each from my store to keep handy for an emergency and stored them on bins. As soon as I know there are no more of a specific item, I delete the listing but at least manage to ship one more item rather than cancelling the order and lowering my seller’s score. What is your drop shipping tip?

[rsot]

Ask for a sample to make sure quality is good - tip is not to have a random dropshipping fulfillment shipper...

[trosky]

If you come to have a few suppliers with quite a few items each that could mean a whole lot of products and items. So the question is why is it better to drop ship them and not stock them?

[SadSuspended]

It is faster for me to dropship and more profitable.

[trosky]

More profitable? That's odd, most often when buying in bulk you get better pricing which means better profits.

[SadSuspended]

That is correct, but my portfolio is diversified and I"m not stuck with 500 of one kind.

[trosky]

That's true more variety is good. If it works for you great! I hope you're using local drop shippers to have good shipping times. How do you handle returns with so many suppliers I'm curious?

Good tip on having at least 1 item in case of out of stock. When I've done drop shipping it was a mess to check every item each day from each supplier to make sure it was in stock still, you do this manually too or have a better process?

[user3657]

Define drop shipping.

Some think of "drop shipping" as selling an item on ebay and then buying it from walmart.

Some legit distributors will drop ship though.

[pikachu10]

I plan on dropshipping, but since I'm establishing my stealth empire still, I won't be able to for at least 6 months. :(

[yankee]

Originally Posted by pikachu10

I plan on dropshipping, but since I'm establishing my stealth empire still, I won't be able to for at least 6 months. :(

Why at least six months?

[Klemantina]

In 95% of the cases I will find the item somewhere else, maybe a little bit more expensive. Just contact the buyer and refund him. In the worst case you will get 1 negative. Never happened to me. I guess it all depends on what you sell and your volume of sales. The one thing I can allow myself to share about drop-shipping is to be extra careful with your suppliers, always be ready for the worst case.

[vogeltron]

Drop shipping services has been overall a failure for the majority of members that have come through this site over the past 2-3 years I have been on here. I don't know how anyone could feel comfortable selling things that they have no quality control over. To each their own.

I have been asked many times. Why don't the people who sell your items just do it themselves. Because of the time, effort and energy I put into it. That means pictures, descriptions, measurements if its clothing. Quality control, etc. Even with a big learning curve and many setbacks. I am where I am at today because I learned from my mistakes and I also figured out how to adapt.

The stealth guide helped me get back in the game. Some of it was luck, some of it was me figuring things out myself. Some of it was copying what other did. None the less knock on wood it has worked. If you can make drop shipping work and you have built that trust. More power to you and congratulate you. However, these relationships end badly more often than not.

[rsot]

Originally Posted by Klemantina

In 95% of the cases I will find the item somewhere else, maybe a little bit more expensive. Just contact the buyer and refund him. In the worst case you will get 1 negative. Never happened to me. I guess it all depends on what you sell and your volume of sales. The one thing I can allow myself to share about drop-shipping is to be extra careful with your suppliers, always be ready for the worst case.

Smart substitution when needed