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USA Seller - Shipping from China
 

My busines heavily relys on products from China. My seller offered to begin shipping for my the products directly to my buyers, instead of shipping them to my first and then me shipping them out.

Has anyone ever tried this? Are their any potential problems as far as eBay is concenred. I believe its possible to list the product location as "China" and buyers would know that it is being shipped from China.

I just dont want eBay giving me any problems..

Re: USA Seller - Shipping from China
 

Yes. Its called drop shipping and has the potential to be disastrous if you do not know what you're doing.

Re: USA Seller - Shipping from China
 

You will be doing dropshipping, you can read a lot about pros and cons about it.

You will have to mention you are dropshipping from China. Delivery times will get much longer. If you are trading low priced items, delivery times can be AGES, Chinese manufacturers bulk send huge orders to reduce shipping price to pennies, and this delivery plan can take 2-3 months to get to a single client. Even if that's not the case, more questions arise. Are you sure your provider will package the products with the care you do? Customer service will be much more complicated.
I'm not sure it will be helpful if i continue. If you find something tempting in this offer, like reducing costs and outsourcing work, do try it with a small % of your monthly items, keep detailed stats on their well being, order 1 item for yourself as a customer to see how is it packaged and how it arrives.

Re: USA Seller - Shipping from China
 

I have drop-shipped between 50 - 100 items (all from china) and so far only had 1 complaint (guy received item 2 days later after complaint).

Drop-shipping can be very profitable but you do have to take in consideration scammers. A majority of Chinese sellers do not offer tracking which makes scamming very easy (all they have to do is say they never received item). I suggest giving it a try and see how it goes. If all is well and you don't get any (or many) complaints then keep on doing it. But you do have to say the item is coming from china and make sure to say in the description that shipping can take up to 30 days (usually the items come in within 2 - 3 weeks).

Re: USA Seller - Shipping from China
 

If i have a trusted seller with 7 day shipping, will i run into any potential problems with eBay?

Also, how do i let buyers know that there items will be coming from China? And will this be a red flag with eBay?

Re: USA Seller - Shipping from China
 

What do you mean "7 day shipping"? do you mean the item will be delivered within 7 days? i highly doubt that because 90% of my inventory is from China and the earliest i ever received a shipment was 12 days (and this was shipped EMS which is expedited shipping).

In order to let your buyers know that the items are coming from China you'll have to change the "item location" to China. Unless you're only drop-shipping to international buyers (which is what i do) then you'll just have to put it in the description and say something like "international buyers please read. Items will be shipped from China not from 'your country here'"

Drop-shipping is allowed on eBay (http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/product_sourcing.html) so i don't understand why this will be a red flag. I even told an ebay rep that i drop-ship to international buyers and she said i was smart :)

If you're using a stealth account then of course this will get you noticed in which i would not suggest drop-shipping. If the account is legit then do it, but stealth you're taking a chance.

Re: USA Seller - Shipping from China
 

Oops. Trusted seller offering seven day shipping from China has the potential for danger to your eBay account..

Profit margins for you both would not include 7 day shipping

Please make sure you get a clearly defined agreement of what the seller will offer

Not having that could mean your eBay account gets into trouble

:typing:

Re: USA Seller - Shipping from China
 

Best bet is to get the products in bulk in hand and ship yourself - better for quality and customer satisfaction OP.

Re: USA Seller - Shipping from China
 

One other concern is your supplier contacting your buyers for follow up sales. In 2005 I partnered with a small distributor in my category. After about 8 months my repeat buyers gone from n early 100% to almost non. My partner(drop shipper) started sending out fliers with a coupon code to a private website and a combined shipping offer on his own ebay store.
Major waste of time on my side.
I still drop ship per say, but I have a huge amount of control and a physical presence in each state. I drop ship from two factories over season for international wholesale buyers and this is only done via a third party forwarding service. All invoices are removed, labels from boxes, etc... again a presence and control.
Wish you luck.

Re: USA Seller - Shipping from China
 

I have seen it done successfully for usually low end items. Usually not any kind of electronic item.

Have bought a few leather auto replacements covers for center console etc. Said buyer was like in Texas then came e-packet. Buyer had like 99.5% feedback. I am sure they end up just refunding anyone that complains or takes to long. Or they just stipulate that it takes quite a while for the items to arrive.

None the less. As members mention above it is very risky. Personally, I want all items in hand to inspect myself before shipment or listing.

Re: USA Seller - Shipping from China
 

Dropshipping will cause many problems,first of all ,you can not see the item and you donot know the quality.Secondly,you have no way to control the shipping time,it may delay for any international shipping.Thirdly,the sellers may send paper of the email address with the parcel together,so next time your buyer will go for your supplier directly.

Finally,Your selling price is not so good because the single interntional shipping fee is high,it is not easy to win the order as you know the competition is so big.

Re: USA Seller - Shipping from China
 

I am against drop shipping. I would rather take a loan out at the bank than do this, As he effectively becomes the 'be all and end all' to your business. If something goes wrong with an item, you will be the one who gets the negative/ebay case not him, Just YOU.

Re: USA Seller - Shipping from China
 

In general I agree with you but some people don't have capital or can't get a loan so dropshipping would be a great way to make money, I am currently dropshipping not just on eBay.

Re: USA Seller - Shipping from China
 

I don't know about you but I drop ship without pre buying the item and most of the items are delivered in 2-5 days, only problem is is that item may run out of stock. Quality of the product is great/New or manufacturer refurbished.

Re: USA Seller - Shipping from China
 

And then buyers get pissed off due to delays for not having item even though they won it...?

Re: USA Seller - Shipping from China
 

If you looked at Teedon's flag, did you not notice it was CHINA.

Their knowledge of the market is far greater than yours

:p

Re: USA Seller - Shipping from China
 

Really depends on your item if you want to talk about the profitability of doing this.

In terms of keeping your account status above standard i would say this is a bad move.

I ship items both from China and from the EU and know for a fact that there are a lot of issues that arise when your shipping from China in volume.

Generally you need to look hard at the reason for you doing this. In my experience if you don't control this element of your business you will soon find your business is out of control.

You opened your post by saying your business heavily reply on products from China, remember it also heavily relays on having ebay accounts with good standing.