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-   Dropshipping & Wholesale Suppliers (https://www.aspkin.com/forums/dropshipping-wholesale-suppliers/)
-   -   Dropshipping questions (https://www.aspkin.com/forums/dropshipping-wholesale-suppliers/119085-dropshipping-questions.html)

Chris2119 07-31-2018 12:53 AM

Dropshipping questions
 
Hi!

Quick rundown... I started DS items on eBay summer 2017. I had some small success in the beginning earned a few hundred dollars and then eBay cracked down and put a ban on the hunting stuff I was selling and my sales have been a trickle ever since. I try to list a few items a month to see how they do but I have next to no luck. In the past 31 days I've had 6 sales.I spend about two hours a day trying to research new items to list and prune the ones I have I try to keep around 10-20 items up. I am just wondering am I doing something wrong? I am sourcing items for Aliexpress and DH gate, Is DS dead and Im wasting my time? I am trying to grow it organically and not using a listing software and Im not too keen on sniping by DS genie. Im just kind of lost at this point and felt like I got super into DS and was headed in the right direction and then had the rug pulled right out from me.

Any tips, ideas or tricks to help me find a new direction for my eBay DS store.

Should I snipe List more?

hypothamus 08-08-2018 12:44 PM

Re: Dropshipping questions
 
Everyone has a different take on dropshipping. I think the best advise I have heard is to first find your niche, and then to stock the 20% of items where you generate 80% of your revenue, then use dropshipping for the odds and ends that represent the last 20% of your business.

The problem with AliExpress is that it takes weeks to deliver merchandise. I know others have used this model, but I got too many complaints, regardless of how big the font is for time to deliver.

I use drop shipping, but only in my niche area, and never from China. I have reliable dropshippers in the US that ship faster than I do.

You have to be in your niche and know your market. Once you do, then pick and choose your dropship providers slowly, and your items slowly.

Dropshipping is going to be very low margin. I have my high margin items in inventory. This is also due to the manufacturers that I work with have a high minimum opening order and annual buy commitment. The balance is that the margin is much higher. For dropshipping, I am sometimes using a distributor, who holds the inventory, and their cost is higher than if I bought direct. The difference is I don't have to hold inventory. Then there is the shipping and handling cost associated with the drop-ship. All this adds cost.

For my inventory, depending upon item and cost, I might have 10% to 100% margin. It probably averages 20%. For dropship, it is often closer to 2% to 8% net.

Othmane 08-09-2018 07:31 AM

Re: Dropshipping questions
 
The way I see things, Dropshipping is a business model that will always existe and still actually work just fine, It's not as easy as it seem to be, espicially in the beginning, but you need to find your way of doing things correctly.

For me the 2 most important keys for success in this business are:
-> Reliable suppliers.
-> Automation tools.


-> You're dropshiping from AliExpress and DH gate, I wouldn't consider them as a good choice because of delivery related issues, (20 - 30 days, tracking code sometimes doesn't work). At least for me they don't qualify for reliable suppliers, maybe there are people who are sourcing from Aliexpress and it's working for them, I just don't like to do things this way.

Other source markets I would suggest:

Amazon
Bestbuy
Walmart
Costco
Lowes
Overstock
Samsclub
sears
........

-> You said that you're not using a listing software! I don't see your perspective on how you are going to make a profit in DS without a powerfull tool that can help you have 10,000's of listings, starting from creating listing automatically (you can do like 500 listings in 5 - 10 minutes), then keeping track of prices and stock changes on your source market, in order to keep things synchronized between your store and you source market. then you may also consider having a tool that can make odrers automatically on your behalf whenever an item is sold, responds to returns requests with return labels, the possiblity to reply to differents accounts messages from the same window via API...

You can literally have a money making machine, It's not easy but it's possible ;)

dallis 08-09-2018 11:07 AM

Re: Dropshipping questions
 
Some people are saying EB is trying to eliminate dropshippers. You could be a part of that.

Just an FYI.

Sunspot144 08-09-2018 11:22 AM

Re: Dropshipping questions
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by dallis (Post 936029)
Some people are saying EB is trying to eliminate dropshippers. You could be a part of that.

Just an FYI.

Imagine all the freed up market space. Scrolling thru 6 pages of the same item being sold for a penny less is not my idea of shopping online.

Othmane 08-09-2018 10:02 PM

Re: Dropshipping questions
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by dallis (Post 936029)
Some people are saying EB is trying to eliminate dropshippers. You could be a part of that.

Just an FYI.

Some people are saying that just to keep you out of the competition.

Just FYI :comp5:

Kajunrook 08-17-2018 05:34 PM

Re: Dropshipping questions
 
Well I have dropped shipped from Aliexpress and DHGATE for years with only minor problems. Make 10s of thousands of dollars.

Othmane 08-18-2018 11:45 AM

Re: Dropshipping questions
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Kajunrook (Post 937726)
Well I have dropped shipped from Aliexpress and DHGATE for years with only minor problems. Make 10s of thousands of dollars.

Glad to hear that ;)
Well done.

oompaloompa 08-18-2018 01:31 PM

Re: Dropshipping questions
 
you need USA warehouses for it to work with ebay, or it would take over 2 weeks to arrive,
but you can get sellers on ali etc that have usa warehouse, you just have to ask around, it takes alot of research and sometimes if the orders are going to be big, then they will set it up for you and create a contact in USA (or wherever you want) that will ship their stuff for you.

hypothamus 08-19-2018 10:24 AM

Re: Dropshipping questions
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Kajunrook (Post 937726)
Well I have dropped shipped from Aliexpress and DHGATE for years with only minor problems. Make 10s of thousands of dollars.

That would be great for another thread to hear your stories. I have tried that with mixed success. I found most people do not want to wait 21 days to get their purchase.

sax4 08-19-2018 10:53 AM

Re: Dropshipping questions
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Kajunrook (Post 937726)
Well I have dropped shipped from Aliexpress and DHGATE for years with only minor problems. Make 10s of thousands of dollars.

A lot of dropshipping denialists on the forum, i've been doing it for 10 years and am still alive somehow

RigorAndMonroe 09-20-2018 09:55 AM

Re: Dropshipping questions
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by hypothamus (Post 935890)
Everyone has a different take on dropshipping. I think the best advise I have heard is to first find your niche, and then to stock the 20% of items where you generate 80% of your revenue, then use dropshipping for the odds and ends that represent the last 20% of your business.

The problem with AliExpress is that it takes weeks to deliver merchandise. I know others have used this model, but I got too many complaints, regardless of how big the font is for time to deliver.

I use drop shipping, but only in my niche area, and never from China. I have reliable dropshippers in the US that ship faster than I do.

You have to be in your niche and know your market. Once you do, then pick and choose your dropship providers slowly, and your items slowly.

Dropshipping is going to be very low margin. I have my high margin items in inventory. This is also due to the manufacturers that I work with have a high minimum opening order and annual buy commitment. The balance is that the margin is much higher. For dropshipping, I am sometimes using a distributor, who holds the inventory, and their cost is higher than if I bought direct. The difference is I don't have to hold inventory. Then there is the shipping and handling cost associated with the drop-ship. All this adds cost.

For my inventory, depending upon item and cost, I might have 10% to 100% margin. It probably averages 20%. For dropship, it is often closer to 2% to 8% net.

I have never had a problem dropshipping for the exact reasons you stated. The manufacturers that dropship for me have their own UPS accounts and can ship way cheaper and faster than me. The one time I did use Aliexpress it was from a seller that had a warehouse in the U.S. Fidget spinners just started getting big and I wanted to start selling ASAP. Never had a problem with shipping and even got positive reviews for how fast my shipping times were.

There is a wrong way and a RIGHT WAY to do everything. Do your due diligence and research if you want to get into this.

dan_ebay 09-20-2018 10:11 AM

Re: Dropshipping questions
 
Still have a side business that dropships. Most people don't understand the dropshipping model, most dropshippers list 1000s of items, even if just 1% of their listings sell 1 item per day on average then they'll be doing well.

hypothamus 09-23-2018 11:43 AM

Re: Dropshipping questions
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by RigorAndMonroe (Post 945007)
I have never had a problem dropshipping for the exact reasons you stated. The manufacturers that dropship for me have their own UPS accounts and can ship way cheaper and faster than me. The one time I did use Aliexpress it was from a seller that had a warehouse in the U.S. Fidget spinners just started getting big and I wanted to start selling ASAP. Never had a problem with shipping and even got positive reviews for how fast my shipping times were.

There is a wrong way and a RIGHT WAY to do everything. Do your due diligence and research if you want to get into this.

Care to expand upon that? It is an interesting post.

RigorAndMonroe 09-26-2018 12:38 AM

Re: Dropshipping questions
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by hypothamus (Post 945639)
Care to expand upon that? It is an interesting post.

Let me know if there's anything that you want to know in particular but, all in all, the main rule is to only use US suppliers and/or overseas suppliers that have expedited shipping. That one step alone will put you ahead of the hundreds of people thinking that they're going to hop on Aliexpress tomorrow, sign up for a 14-day free Shopify trial and make 6 figures bi-weekly. Yes, finding a good supplier takes time and actually building a real relationship with people but it's worth it.

The second thing people need to do is break out of the mind state that you can only operate online. Don't limit yourself. Sellers overestimate the research skills of the average person. For example, if you go into your local pet store and notice that the inventory they have available is not in line with the latest industry trends but you happen to know a supplier that sells the newest cat accessories then try to negotiate a deal with the store owner. Email them prices and pictures of your inventory (really your supplier's inventory) and if they like what they see and make that deposit, have your supplier blind dropship the items to him/her. You collect the difference. Alternate method, open the yellowbook, call up different stores and do the same thing. Also, I very rarely use overseas suppliers but I'm not opposed to shipping overseas. High speed internet is a blessing that not everybody has. Use that to your advantage. Everyone does not know about ecommerce. If you have a holistic goods supplier and you sell sugar-free donuts to a small grocery store in Panama do you think they are going to go on Google, hunt down your supplier and yell at you because you sold it to them for more money than your supplier? No. Name your price. Another thing, go on Google and look up all English speaking countries. That's to anyone reading this. Use that to your advantage. You can thank me later.

Kajunrook 10-02-2018 12:11 PM

Re: Dropshipping questions
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by hypothamus (Post 937975)
That would be great for another thread to hear your stories. I have tried that with mixed success. I found most people do not want to wait 21 days to get their purchase.

Well I state plainly in my listing that it takes 15-30 days and I upload shipping once it is shipped, when you are buying $1000+ from ali or dhgate they will ship fast if you ask them. I never sell a ds without 100% markup and even drop ship from ebay to customers. Just snipe their add, add $3-10 to their price and post. When they order, I get tracking and email to customer. Two clicks and I make $3-10 bucks.


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