Starting a dropshipping business is appealing for many reasons. You don’t have to worry about inventory management. You don’t have to worry about product fulfillment.
In fact, your only task is to sell products, take orders and make a decent profit. Sounds easy right?
Unfortunately, it’s not that simple and with any business model that sounds too good to be true, there are always gotchas.
In theory, a dropshipping business sounds like a great idea because it’s inherently scalable without requiring a large upfront investment. But when you dig down a bit further, there are many complications that you need to be aware of.
Most people try to open up a dropshipped shop expecting it to be easy, but in reality, there’s more to it than you think.
This article will provide you with a realistic and comprehensive view of how to make money dropshipping and the pros and cons.
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What Is Dropshipping?
Dropshipping is an ecommerce business model where an online store does not carry inventory for the products it sells. When an order is made, the online store purchases the products from the wholesale supplier who then ships the order directly to the end customer.
As a result, the online store owner does not have to store physical inventory or perform any shipping and handling.
There are no upfront inventory costs because all products are purchased on demand with no minimum order quantity.
As a result, you can start a dropshipping business for less than $3 with a free open source shopping cart like WooCommerce.
All you need is a website, free credit card processing and you can start taking orders immediately.
Recently, my 9 and 11 year old kids launched their own dropshipped ecommerce store selling entrepreneurship t-shirts for only $2.95. You can check out their shop over at KidInCharge.com
Editor’s Note: If you want to read the behind the scenes backstory on how my kids created their online store, check out my post on How To Start A TShirt Business For Under $3 With Your Kids
Overall, dropshipping is the least expensive way to get started in ecommerce.
Is Dropshipping Legal?
Dropshipping is 100% legal as long as you obtain all of the necessary sellers permits like a traditional ecommerce store.
After all, a dropshipping business is just like any other online store except a third party supplier handles the shipping and you handle the orders.
In fact, many large companies like Target, Wayfair and Create & Barrel drop ship other brands as an additional channel for generating sales.
However, certain forms of dropshipping are illegal on marketplaces like Amazon and Ebay. For example, you are not permitted to dropship goods from Amazon to Ebay and vice versa.
In addition, dropshipping from AliExpress and other online markets are expressly prohibited on both Amazon and Ebay.
According to the terms of service for both marketplaces, purchasing products from another online retailer and having that retailer ship directly to customers is illegal if the shipment does not identify you as the seller of record.
However, if you only plan on running a dropship store (without Amazon or Ebay), rest assured that dropshipping is 100% legal as long as you obtain a business license and sellers permit.
How Old Do You Need To Be To Dropship On Shopify
To open a Shopify store for dropshipping, you must be at least 18 years of age.
If you are not 18 years old, you must register your Shopify store under a parent or guardian’s name with their permission.
However once you turn 18, you can transfer the registration of your Shopify store under your own name.
How To Start A Dropshipping Business
Does running a dropshipping store sound attractive to you? Here’s what you need to get started.
First off, you must setup a website or a platform to take orders from.
Then, you have to partner up with a dropship wholesaler or distributor that is willing to ship products direct to end consumers.
As part of your partnership, you and the third party supplier will decide on a wholesale price for the products you want to sell online.
Once an agreement is in place with your supplier, here’s how dropshipping works and the entire fulfillment process.
- The customer places an order for a product on your website and you collect the money.
- You forward the order and shipping details directly to your dropship supplier and pay the agreed upon wholesale price for the product.
- Your dropship supplier packages and ships the order directly to the end customer as if it was shipped directly from your online store.
- You get to keep the difference between your selling price and the wholesale price.
Sound good to you? Here’s how to start a dropshipping business in 4 easy steps.
Step #1: Start Your Dropshipping Store Website
Setting up your website is actually the simplest part of the entire dropshipping process because there are so many “easy to use” options available today.
Overall, your ecommerce platform decision will be based on your budget, what features you need and how tech savvy you are.
To save you time, here are my top 3 ecommerce platforms for dropshipping.
Shopify
Shopify is a fully hosted shopping cart platform that handles everything for you and is the easiest way to get started.
Upon signup, Shopify will provide you with a secure website and free built-in credit card processing so you can start taking orders right away.
The main downside to running a Shopify store is that it is the most expensive solution of the bunch but you can get up and running immediately without knowing anything about technology.
Click Here To Sign Up For Shopify For Free
BigCommerce
Similar to Shopify, BigCommerce is also a robust, fully hosted platform that is very easy to use. While it’s less popular than Shopify, you get more bang for your buck and the support is excellent.
Click Here To Sign Up For BigCommerce And Get 1 Month Free
WooCommerce
WooCommerce is the most popular shopping cart in the world because the software is 100% free. But the downside is that you have to set up everything yourself and you need to host your own website.
However, the $2.95 price tag is tough to beat!
Click Here To Install WooCommerce For Less Than $3
If you are having problems deciding on a platform, then check out the comprehensive shopping cart reviews I wrote based on hands-on experience.
- BigCommerce Vs Shopify – Which Is Best And Key Differences
- WooCommerce Vs Shopify – Which Platform Is Better For You
Step #2: Research Profitable Product Ideas
Because the dropshipping process results in lower margins, the best products to sell are goods that carry a higher price tag.
If this is your first time selling online, here are some product guidelines that you should follow.
- The product’s inherent value should be ambiguous – It is much easier to command premium pricing on products that are not easily comparison shopped. As a result, try to stay away from electronics and focus on items that don’t have an intrinsic value.
- Choose a niche with lots of related products – The key to running a successful online business is to cross sell your goods. If a customer buys a BBQ grill, sell them cooking utensils and an outdoor thermometer. Repeat business is key.
- Sell goods where the average order size is at least $50 – Because margins are lower, you want to make sure that you can generate a decent profit per sale
- Sell products that are timeless – Avoid products that go obsolete within a short period of time. After all, the more often a product turns over, the more work it will be for you to update your product listings and maintain your website. This is yet another reason to avoid electronic related products like iPhone cases because they change so often.
In addition to the guidelines above, you should also consider the following.
- Is personalization an option? – People are always willing to pay more for personalized goods so it’s in your best interests to choose a product that lends itself to customization.
- Are your products consumable? – Selling consumable products like makeup, cleansers, food products etc… are desirable because they lead to repeat business. You can setup a subscription based service where your customers are automatically sent replenishments at the beginning of every month.
- Do you know where your target market hangs out? – If you can sell a product that has a dedicated blog or Facebook fan page, it’s much easier to find and market to your customers.
- Can you easily create content for your products? – For a dropshipped store, search engine optimization is crucial for generating free traffic online. In general, the more content you can produce, the more search visitors you’ll attract.
For a more in-depth analysis of how to quantitatively find profitable products to sell, check out my post on How To Find The Best Products To Sell Online – The Ultimate Step By Step Guide
Step #3: Find Dropship Suppliers
Because dropshipping is so popular and the internet is ripe with scammers, you first must learn how to spot a FAKE wholesaler.
First off, a REAL wholesaler will never charge a monthly fee for the privilege of accessing their catalog of goods.
Genuine dropship suppliers are merely distributors and their goal is to sell their product in bulk, not run a monthly membership site.
Second of all, a real dropship supplier will never sell their own products to the end consumer at wholesale prices.
Remember, a wholesaler’s primary customer is a retail shop and it would go against their best interests to compete with their own customers.
In any case, once you know what to look for, you can start looking for real wholesale suppliers using the strategies outlined below.
Contact The Manufacturer
The easiest way to find a legit dropship supplier is to simply call the manufacturer and ask for a list of wholesale distributors.
Then once you have this list, you can contact the distributor directly and ask them if they are willing to dropship.
What’s convenient is that most distributors carry a wide variety of products from a number of different manufacturers.
As a result, if you can land a big distributor, you’ll almost always gain instant access to a large catalog of items to carry in your shop!
But establishing a partnership with a distributor can be hit or miss and you need to be prepared.
Most legit suppliers only want to deal with legit retailers so make sure you have all of your ducks in a row before you reach out to them.
Sometimes it helps to have a mock website up and running to show them you are serious.
But bottom line, you need to prove to your suppliers that you are the real deal and that you can actually move product!
Note: If you want to learn more on how to negotiate with suppliers, then check out my post on How To Approach A New Supplier For Your Online Store
Order From Your Competitor
If you know that your competitor runs a dropshipped online store, then you can find out who their suppliers are by simply placing an order.
Once you receive your package, you can look at the shipping label for a return address.
While the shipping label may not have the supplier’s name on it, you can easily Google the address and find the name of the distributor.
Attend Wholesale Trade Shows
Instead of contacting vendors via email or phone, it’s often much more efficient to find your suppliers at a tradeshow.
Not only does meeting face to face make it easier to develop a personal relationship, but you can also touch and handle the vendor’s entire product catalog.
Most tradeshows (at least in the US) are 100% free as long as you have a business license. As a result, you have nothing to lose for attending. Most major cities have wholesale tradeshows many times per year in a variety of niches.
Use Dropship Directories
A dropship directory is a database of suppliers that are organized by niche and it can be a convenient way to quickly find products to sell.
In addition, companies like Worldwide Brands pre-vet every company in their directory to make sure that they are legit.
The main downside to using a wholesale directory is that the distributors and products are easily accessible to other members who sign up for the directory as well. As a result, the products you find in a directory may be more competitive.
However that being said, wholesale directories are a great way to brainstorm and find vendors immediately.
Click Here To Sign Up For Worldwide Brands And Get $30 Off
Use A Print On Demand Company
A print on demand company is a service that allows you to print your own custom designs on generic merchandise like t-shirts and mugs.
What’s nice about using a print on demand company or POD is that there are no upfront costs to list a product online and there are no minimum order quantities.
When you receive an order, the print on demand company manufactures your product with your design on the fly and ships it to your customer.
You don’t have to spend any money up front and you don’t pay the print on demand company until after you’ve received your money.
To illustrate how inexpensive it is to start a POD business, my kids launched their own t-shirt business for less than $3.
Here’s a list of my favorite print on demand companies.
- Printful – Printful is one of my favorite print on demand companies and they let you choose from hundreds of different products including t-shirts, hats, bags, and pillows.
- Printify – Printify is Printful’s main competitor. Instead of physically printing their own goods, Printify partners with different print providers to offer a wide range of customizable products.
- Custom Cat – CustomCat also offers a wide range of products like shirts, jackets, hats, and bags. Their selection isn’t quite as large but their prices are lower.
I also wrote a review of Printful vs Printify if you are deciding between the two.
What To Look For In A Dropship Supplier
Because your business hinges on the quality of your dropshipper, here are a few attributes that you should look for when evaluating your suppliers.
Remember, a successful dropshipping operation requires a partnership between you and your distributor and trust is essential.
As a result, before you rely on any dropship vendor, you should always place a test order to see how the order is handled.
Specifically, you should look for…
- How Fast The Order Ships – Shipping time is extremely important for an online store and it’s essential that orders are shipped within 1-2 business days
- How The Order Is Packed – Is the product shoved in a crappy box with packing peanuts? Is the box unmarked without the suppliers business name? Will the product arrive safely and undamaged?
- The Quality Of Customer Service – Do they respond in a timely manner? Do they provide tracking information and an invoice? Do they give refunds for defective merchandise and returns?
Before you start selling, you should pick up the phone and ask the customer support rep in depth questions about the product to see if they know their stuff.
Specifically, here are some sample questions to ask.
- Can you do customization? – You can often command premium pricing for personalized goods so customization is a huge plus.
- What are your pricing terms and are there quantity discounts? – You’ll want to negotiate quantity discounts upfront so you know what pricing to expect as your store grows.
- What is your dropship fee? – Most dropshippers charge a per order dropship fee.
- What is your return policy? – Even though dropshippers ship on your behalf, all returns will be sent back to you. As a result, you need to understand the return policy to get your money back.
- Can you purchase wholesale at lower prices? – You may want to carry inventory for your most popular items to make a higher profit margin. The price for buying wholesale inventory should be less than your dropship price
- How often does pricing change? – Dropshippers may change their prices from time to time. And when the cost does change, you need to know how the information will be communicated.
- What is the warranty period and what does it cover? – How long are the products being sold covered under warranty and how can a customer redeem it?
- Do you use EDI? – EDI stands for Electronic Data Interchange and is an automated way for a dropship supplier to transmit their inventory stock to your website in real time. EDI keeps your store and your supplier in sync which makes customer support much easier.
In addition to the above questions, it’s also important to ask for a single point of contact at your distributor to deal with customer support and product issues that may arise when you start selling their product.
For example, what happens when a product is out of stock? What happens if you sell a product that has been discontinued? What happens if shipping is late or misses a deadline?
All of these factors matter and you should take some time to vet your vendor for quality.
Step #4: Drive Traffic To Your Dropshipping Store
Social media is the best and cheapest way to build traffic to a dropshipping store.
And the right social media platform for your business will depend on the products you sell.
- Instagram – Any product with a high visual component tends to work well on Instagram. For example, if you are in the fashion or wedding industry, Instagram is a must
- Pinterest – Home and interior design products work extremely well on Pinterest. Similar to Instagram, products with a high visual component are perfect for Pinterest.
- Facebook – Products that target an older demographic tend to work well on Facebook.
- TikTok – Tiktok allows your brand to have tremendous reach even for brand new accounts. What’s great about TikTok is that you don’t need a lot of subscribers to drive customers to your store and the traffic is free!
- Twitter – Business to business brands tend to do well on Twitter. Most brands have a Twitter presence for customer service and loyalty.
The secret to succeeding on social media is to research where your target audience hangs out and build a brand on that platform.
In addition to social media, you can also build traffic through search engine optimization. By targeting keywords that people are actively searching for, you can attract organic Google traffic for your products.
No matter which marketing platform you choose, make sure you focus all of your efforts on one traffic source before moving onto the next. And as you generate sales and leads for your store, make sure you collect both emails and SMS phone numbers.
Email marketing and SMS Marketing allow you to bring customers back to your online store repeatedly until they are ready to buy.
By attracting new customers through social media and retaining your existing customers through email and SMS, you can easily grow a sustainable ecommerce business.
Running Your Dropshipped Store And Issues That May Arise
While running a dropshipped ecommerce store is more hands off than a traditional online store, you need to be aware of these pitfalls as you run your business.
Handling Returns And Refunds
Even though you are not in charge of order fulfillment, you are still responsible for accepting returns and providing customer support for defective merchandise.
After all, you are the face of your business and the customer is not aware of the arrangement you have with your drop shipper.
As a result, you have to deal with returns yourself and you can’t depend on your supplier for customer support.
Here’s how returns are handled for a typical dropshipped store.
- The customer asks for a refund by contacting your customer support phone or email.
- You contact your supplier for an RMA number
- Your customer sends the product back to your supplier with the RMA number clearly indicated on the packaging
- Your supplier refunds the wholesale cost back to your account when the package is received.
- You provide the refund to your customer
In addition to the above process, your supplier may charge a restocking fee which you can either pass along to your customer or you can choose to eat the cost. Either way, it’s all a part of doing business.
Dealing With Out Of Stock Products
When a customer orders a product that is out of stock, it is your responsibility to communicate this to the customer. Typically, you should give your customer 3 options.
- Wait for the product to come back in stock and provide an ETA
- Exchange the product for a similar item
- Refund their money
Dealing With Multiple Dropshippers And Shipments
If you work with multiple dropshippers, your customer may purchase multiple products that span multiple suppliers.
When this occurs, the customer will receive their order broken apart into multiple shipments. In addition, you will be charged separate shipping costs from each dropship supplier.
When situations like this arise, you must inform the customer so that they are not confused.
Because it also costs you more money to ship across different dropshippers, you can either charge an additional shipping fee or eat the cost.
What Are The Average Dropshipping Margins?
The average dropshipping margins are between 10% and 30%. This means that if someone spends $100 on your online store, you will make between $10-$30 in profit.
However, this number can vary greatly depending on the type of products you sell online.
For example, I have friends who achieve 50%-60% margins dropshipping perfume, jewelry and large oversized items like stoves and outdoor grills.
I also know a colleague who dropships personalized funeral urns and caskets that command high margins because his niche is not price sensitive.
Overall, your margins will depend on how crowded your market is and the level of competition. But for a typical dropshipped store, you should assume a 10-30% margin on average.
It’s also important to note that this number does not include expenses such as credit card processing, advertising and other fixed expenses. By the time you account for overhead and marketing, most dropshipping stores have net margins in the single digit range.
How Much Money Can You Make Dropshipping?
Every business is different but you can make between $1000-$10000 per month dropshipping in your first year if you leverage at least one marketing platform to its full potential.
For example, if you can rank in the search engines for your target keywords, you can hit 6 figures per year on search engine optimization alone.
Similarly, if you leverage influencer marketing, Facebook ads or Google ads effectively, you can make over $100k in revenue as well.
In general, it takes 1 good traffic source to hit 6 figures but 3 or more to make over a million dollars.
However, these numbers are expressed in revenue and not profit. Once you take into account the 10-30% margins, you can make between $1000-$3000 per month running a dropshipped store after one year.
Is Dropshipping Profitable?
Dropshipping can be a profitable business if you find reliable suppliers to work with. However, your profit margins will be much lower than a traditional ecommerce store that carries inventory.
The main advantage with dropshipping is that your ecommerce business is infinitely scalable once you gain traction.
Without the need to carry inventory or physically ship orders out, you can focus your efforts on marketing and sales.
How Quickly Can You Make Money Dropshipping?
You can potentially make $100K in revenue in your first year of business if you master at least 1 traffic source. However, making money with dropshipping is much slower than selling wholesale or private label.
Because dropshipping margins are so low, it’s much more challenging to run profitable advertising campaigns. Furthermore, because you are selling someone else’s products, you will be competing directly with other vendors carrying the exact same goods.
The best way to make money with dropshipping is to dropship a variety of products to see what sells. Then, you can carry inventory for your best sellers and increase your margins.
Can You Lose Money With Dropshipping?
It is extremely difficult to lose money with dropshipping because there are little or no upfront costs. Your only real expense is the cost of your website which can cost as little as $3/month to maintain.
However, there are several ways that you can lose money with a dropshipping business.
- You run unprofitable advertising campaigns.
- You have a high rate of returned merchandise.
- You sell products that have a high rate of fraud.
As long as you are careful, dropshipping is a very safe business model.
What Percent Of Dropshipping Stores Are Profitable?
While there are no published statistics regarding the percentage of profitable dropshipping stores, the dropship business model has grown tremendously in the past several years.
According to Statista, Shopify dropshipped almost 1.9 million products in 2021.
Meanwhile, according to Grandview Research, the market size value for dropshipping businesses was 149.4 billion in 2020 and is forecasted to grow to 557.9 billion by 2025.
The fact that more businesses are moving towards dropshipping is a reflection of its viability.
What Is The Best Price Range for Drop Shipping
Because the margins for dropshipping are so low, the best price range or average order value for a dropshipping business is over $100.
By selling higher ticket products, you’ll make a higher profit per sale which will give you more margin for advertising and customer service.
For example, in order to run profitable Facebook ad campaigns, you need to generate a minimum profit per sale of $30 to make the numbers work.
A higher profit per sale will also help offset the costs of customer service, shipping and give you a better chance at finding a winning product.
The Benefits Of Dropshipping
If you are able to find quality suppliers, then dropshipping is extremely attractive because you can run your business from anywhere. All you need is a computer and an internet connection and you are good to go.
As a result if you are brand new to ecommerce with a small budget, you can run a dropshipping business as a stepping stone to get started and then transition to more lucrative business models when you are ready.
In addition to convenience, here are some other benefits of dropshipping.
Benefit #1: The Setup Costs Are Practically Zero
Here’s the bare minimum investment required to start a dropshipped online store if you use a free open source shopping cart platform.
- Sign up for a webhost – $2.95/month
- Install an open source shopping cart like WooCommerce – Free
- Install an SSL certificate – Most webhosts will give you an SSL certificate for free to secure your website
- Sign up for a free credit card processor – $0/month, 2-3% fee per transaction
- (Optional One Time Cost)Purchase a template for your website – $20-$50
If you tally everything up above, that comes out to between $2.95 and $52.95.
Bottom line…
There is no upfront inventory cost.
There are no warehouse costs.
There is almost zero overhead.
I can’t think of any business model that is less expensive to start
Benefit #2: It’s Simple To Setup
Back when I started my online store, my options were limited. But today there are literally hundreds of services out there that will help you setup an ecommerce store in less than a day.
The right option for you depends on your budget, what features you need and how extensible you need your ecommerce platform to be.
Watch the video below to learn how you can install WooCommerce in just 1 click.
Editor’s Note: I’ve negotiated a 63% discount off the regular price of BlueHost For MyWifeQuitHerJob.com readers.
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Benefit #3: The Risks Are Much Lower
The beauty of dropshipping is that there is practically no risk. Because you are investing so little money upfront, there is very little to lose.
Because your business is inventory-less, there’s no pressure to make sales because you don’t have to bear the overhead of storage or shipping.
In addition, you can carry a huge variety of items in your store because you don’t have to store any of it!
If you browse dropship directories like Worldwide Brands, you’ll find dropship suppliers for practically any niche you can think of.
You can choose to carry 1 product or 1000 products online. It doesn’t matter! Once you figure out what you want to sell, you can usually find a dropship supplier to supply it.
Benefit #4: Location Independence
Dropshipping is an online business that can be run from anywhere. You don’t need an office or a warehouse or any employees at all.
As a result of this freedom, you can focus your efforts on growing your business instead of taking care of inventory and overhead.
Overall, dropshipping is one of the most scalable ways to run an online business because your overhead does not grow linearly with sales.
In fact, I have several colleagues who run good sized dropship businesses with just a handful of people.
The Cons Of Dropshipping
If your gut is telling you that dropshipping sounds too good to be true, then your instincts are correct. As with everything in life, there are always downsides to every business model.
Most people stumble into dropshipping with the expectation of quick riches only to realize that making money with a dropshipped store is actually much harder than they anticipated.
Below are all of the cons of dropshipping that you must consider.
Editor’s Note: If you want to learn more about all of the ecommerce business models, then check out my post where I compare dropshipping vs selling on Amazon vs running a traditional ecommerce store
Con #1: You Won’t Be Getting The Lowest Price
Most people open up a dropshipped online store with the misconception that they will be receiving the same wholesale pricing as everyone else for their products.
In reality however, dropship distributors often charge extra fees and/or tack these fees onto the quoted wholesale price.
Put yourself in your distributor’s shoes for a moment.
Would you prefer to sell a large bulk quantity of products all at once to a store or would you rather sell onesy, twosy amounts to individual customers and be forced to individually ship and pack each item?
The distributor is doing all of the work here and this will be certainly be reflected in your wholesale price.
To throw out some numbers, most dropshipping stores get between 10-30% gross margins whereas most traditional shops that carry inventory have 50% gross margins. It’s a huge difference!
Because your wholesale prices are higher than a traditional store, you will not be able to compete as effectively on price unless you take a good sized profit hit.
In addition, lower margins will inhibit your ability to advertise on sites like Facebook and Google. Not only that, but less profit per sale also makes customer service problematic.
For example with our online store, our margins are between 70-90%. As a result whenever we get an angry customer, we simply give them a refund AND let them keep the product.
Because our margins are so high, we can afford to take the hit. With dropshipping, the convenience of not having to fulfill orders comes at a cost.
Con #2: You Will Need To Charge Higher Shipping Costs
Often times, you will require the use of several dropship distributors to fully flesh out the product selection for your store.
Using 2 or more different dropshippers means that 2 or more companies will be making separate shipments to your customers, which means that 2 or more companies will be charging you their own separate shipping costs.
If I’m a customer and I buy products from your store across 3 different distributors, you will have to charge me a much higher shipping cost just so you can break even.
The only way around this is to only use one dropship distributor which may not carry the breadth of products that you need. The result is that you will have to pass these extra costs onto the consumer which reduces your price competitiveness.
Con #3: Dropshipping Can Be A Logistical Nightmare
You might think that since the dropship distributor is doing all the work that you can sit back and relax. Unfortunately, you have to deal with your customer base.
You have to be the one that answers all of the questions. You have to be the one to apologize when an order doesn’t arrive on time.
The main problem is that when you use several different dropship distributors, getting the entire order to the end customer can be a logistical nightmare and there are many shipping complexities.
All distributors will have different shipping times and will be shipping from completely different locations.
If a customer orders products across 3 different distributors, they will end up receiving 3 different packages at varying times.
If an order is particularly time sensitive and needs to be rushed, you will have to make sure that all of your distributors can deliver the product on time.
In effect, you are staking the reputation of your online store and linking yourself to all of your dropship distributors in a single chain. If your suppliers fail to deliver, then it will reflect negatively on your online store.
Con #4: Your Customer Service Will Be Out Of Your Hands
Customer service and your online reputation can make or break your business. With the world wide web, social media and Twitter, news of a botched transaction can spread extremely fast so it is absolutely crucial that you maintain a great image for your online store.
Whenever I receive a call for our online wedding linens store, I always take the time to ask how they found us. And the majority of the time, the people who find us do so because they were referred to us by one of their friends.
Word travels fast.
Our customer service is one of the main reasons why we have grown over 3x in the past 3 years.
With dropshipping, you unfortunately have very little control over your customer service. Since you are not in charge of product fulfillment, you can’t control when a customer will receive their product.
If a customer wants to make a return, it’s a major pain because you have to make sure that you get your money back before you can provide a refund.
Sure, there are always ways to mitigate these problems but the solution inevitably involves either raising prices or taking a profit hit at the expense of customer satisfaction.
Con #5: Amazon Makes Dropshipping Even Less Attractive
Prior to Amazon, it was much harder for companies to sell their goods to the masses. As a result, distributors had to rely on traditional retailers and dropshippers to help them move product.
Today, Amazon controls such a large piece of the ecommerce pie that most companies can get by with just selling on Amazon as a 3rd party seller.
Amazon handles your sales, your product fulfillment, your customer service…basically everything that a traditional retailer would typically take care of. But the difference is that the distributor gets to keep all of the extra profit!
If you are a dropshipped store selling the exact same products that can be found on Amazon, it will be impossible to compete on price. As a result, you will have very little leverage.
After all, would you rather buy from Amazon at a lower price or pay more to buy from an unknown shop?
Editor’s Note: If you are interested in selling on Amazon, check out my article on How To Sell Private Label Products On Amazon – The Definitive Guide
Other Dropshipping Methods
All of the methods mentioned thus far involve taking orders on your own website and relying on legit dropship suppliers to fulfill your orders.
However, there are other forms of dropshipping that you should be aware of but they are NOT recommended.
All of the methods described below should be avoided altogether.
Dropshipping From Amazon To Ebay
Dropshipping from Amazon to Ebay became popular because it literally requires zero upfront cost. You don’t need a website and all of your sales come from Ebay.
Here’s how it works
- You put up a listing on Ebay for a product that you want to sell at a higher price than Amazon
- When a customer places their order, you make an indentical purchase on Amazon and have it shipped to the Ebay customer
- You pocket the difference in price
First off, this form of Ebay dropshipping is no longer allowed and Ebay reserves the right to ban your account if you are ever caught.
While dropshipping is technically legal on Ebay, they only allow dropshipping when orders are fulfilled directly from a wholesale supplier.
You are NOT allowed to fulfill your goods from Amazon, Walmart or any marketplace.
Dropshipping To Amazon From AliExpress
Dropshipping is technically allowed on Amazon as well but the order must be fulfilled from a legit wholesale supplier.
And like Ebay, Amazon reserves the right to ban your account if you try to fulfill your order from a 3rd party marketplace.
For the past few years, “get rich quick” business owners started dropshipping cheap junk from AliExpress on Amazon and pocketing the difference in cost.
This process is called AliExpress Dropshipping and here’s how it works.
- You put up a listing on Amazon for an AliExpress product that you want to sell
- When a customer places their order, you make a purchase on AliExpress for the identical product and have it shipped to the Amazon customer
- You pocket the difference in price
Please do not try this business model as it relies on a shipping loophole called ePacket that will soon be obsolete. In addition, the product quality on AliExpress is difficult to maintain.
When Dropshipping Makes Sense
While I would never start a pure dropshipping store today, there are many ways to use dropshipping to your advantage.
Because you don’t have to carry inventory, you can instantly throw up an online store with hundreds of products in a short period of time.
Then, you can use this shop to conduct market research. Based on which products sell well, you can pick and choose the most successful products to buy inventory for and enjoy higher margins.
The dropshipping model is best used as a vehicle for product validation or for fleshing out an online store that is sparse in certain categories.
Overall, it’s best to use dropshipping when…
- You need product validation – Dropshipping is a great way to test new products with zero upfront risk. By running ads and quickly testing the market, you can decide whether you want to go all in on a product niche.
- You are on a major budget – Dropshipping is by far the cheapest way to get started in ecommerce because you don’t need to pay for or carry any inventory.
- You are new to ecommerce – If you are an ecommerce newbie, then dropshipping is a good way to dip your toes in the ecommerce waters with very little risk.
- You want to carry a large variety of products – If you want to create a store with lots of products, then dropshipping is the easiest way to go. With just a few third party suppliers, you can quickly start selling hundreds of goods overnight.
Editor’s Note: If you are interested in learning how to start your own online store, click here to take my FREE 6 day mini course on ecommerce.
When To Avoid Dropshipping
Unless you are a brand new entrepreneur on a budget or an online store owner who is exploring new products, dropshipping is generally not a good choice for seasoned shop owners.
Because you are selling other people’s products, it’s difficult to build your own brand. After all, there so many aspects of your supply chain and your customer service that are beyond your control.
For example, you have no control over the customer unboxing experience because more often than not, your product will arrive in an unmarked brown box with zero branding.
If an order is shipped late or never arrives, the blame is on you.
You also have no control over inventory. If you have a hot selling product but the supplier is out of stock, then you won’t make any money.
In a nutshell, your dropshipping business lives and dies with your suppliers. If they are not reliable, then you won’t succeed.
Therefore, if your goal is to build a brand, then avoid this online business model.
Overall, if any of the below describes your situation, then avoid dropshipping.
- You are trying to build a brand – With dropshipping, you are fundamentally selling someone else’s products which means that you are not building a brand. In addition, because fulfillment is not under your control, you have very little sway when it comes to managing the customer experience.
- You want high margins – Margins are always going to be a problem with dropshipped stores. With only 10-30% margins, your advertising options are limited and you’ll often have to rely on SEO or social media to promote your business.
- You want exclusivity – When you sell dropshipped goods, there are likely hundreds of other vendors selling the exact same product which always limits your pricing power. You may also end up competing head to head with Amazon and larger stores as well.
Is Dropshipping Worth It?
Dropshipping is worth it if you want to create an online store for as little money as possible or if you want to test certain products for sale without a large monetary commitment.
However, if you have at least $2000-$3000 to invest in your business, dropshipping may not be the best business model to pursue.
After all, the time that you save in not having to deal with inventory and fulfillment will be spent dealing with customers unless you have a reliable core of dropship distributors.
One thing that I forgot to mention is that many drop shippers don’t use automated supply chain technology with a real time API. What this means is that you may not be alerted in real time whether a particular product is available for sale or not.
Therefore if an item is out of stock, you will have to interface with the customer to let them know when they can have their items. Unless your shopping cart is closely tied with your dropshipper’s database, it will be difficult to maintain an accurate inventory count.
With dropshipping, you are trading off not having to deal with fulfillment logistics with having to deal with more customer headaches. And depending on your personality, this may or may not be a wise tradeoff.
While the tone of this article has been anti-dropshipping in general, don’t get me wrong. Many people have run a successful business with dropshipping as it works very well with small niche stores but my personal opinion is to avoid it if you can.
Editor’s Note: If you are interested in learning how to start your own online store, click here to take my FREE 6 day mini course on ecommerce.
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Steve Chou is a highly recognized influencer in the ecommerce space and has taught thousands of students how to effectively sell physical products online over at ProfitableOnlineStore.com.
His blog, MyWifeQuitHerJob.com, has been featured in Forbes, Inc, The New York Times, Entrepreneur and MSNBC.
He's also a contributing author for BigCommerce, Klaviyo, ManyChat, Printful, Privy, CXL, Ecommerce Fuel, GlockApps, Privy, Social Media Examiner, Web Designer Depot, Sumo and other leading business publications.
In addition, he runs a popular ecommerce podcast, My Wife Quit Her Job, which is a top 25 marketing show on all of Apple Podcasts.
To stay up to date with all of the latest ecommerce trends, Steve runs a 7 figure ecommerce store, BumblebeeLinens.com, with his wife and puts on an annual ecommerce conference called The Sellers Summit.
Steve carries both a bachelors and a masters degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University. Despite majoring in electrical engineering, he spent a good portion of his graduate education studying entrepreneurship and the mechanics of running small businesses.
Thanks for this information. In the world of location independence, dropshipping is often touted as a great way to set up an online business so that you can travel. It’s very helpful to have information on some of the realities of this choice so that people can have a clearer picture of what it means.
Actually on the contrary dropshipping on ebay with the right company is worth it and isn’t a hassle.
It really does come down to selecting your drop shipper(s) very carefully. Margins don’t always have to be thinner. Not all drop shippers charge a per item fee. If you are a legitimate business you can source your products at true wholesale prices. That’s what Worldwide Brands is all about. True wholesale suppliers. Most drop ship and or offer light bulk sales.
The problem is that most people get into this business model with their eyes wide shut.
I want to go the ebay route, any tips or advice for this nube?
What wholesaler do u use? Obviously u have found a good one. Plz respond because I am seriously considering starting an online store.
What company do you recommend?
Thanks, Steve, and nicely put. You reinforced my concerns.
For any of the readers who have had dropshipping success, would be great to hear what works for you. My guess would be, as Steve mentioned, a narrow niche with few SKUs….
Though I do a lot of my own order fulfillment, some of my vendors are drop shippers. They are all small businesses and I have closer relationships with all who I work with. Its rarely left up to chance because of the close relationships I have, but I do understand how it can be a disaster.
In terms of the costs of shipping, you are absolutely right. Unless a customer only orders one brand that drop ships, I’m left paying more for the shipping myself.
After a year and a half, I haven’t really found a better solution. My capital isn’t large enough to carry inventory of ALL the products I sell – no way.
For me, the appeal of drop shipping is more of the upfront COST not necessary the perceived ease and convenience.
I use Gooten for my dropshipper and it sounds way simpler than what you described in this post. Once someone orders something from my shopify store, they do their thing, and I literally don’t have to worry about anything. I’m happy with their pricing and my customers are happy with the quality. I was hesitant to start so I get alot of what you’re saying but just find someone who has good customer and tech support and dropshipping isn’t so scary.
Hey Tanya is it possible for you and I to connect to have more conversations about your knowledge and experience with Shopify?
Interesting article with a number of robust things to consider when determining if drop-shipping is the most appropriate means to deliver product to customers.
We have found there are many instances where the benefits of drop-shipping (someone else deals with logistics of fulfillment) can be combined with the benefits of handling it yourself (lower costs, increased customer service, better information control, increased profits) by using a fulfillment company.
There are fulfillment companies that focus on small to medium size businesses, particularly those ready to make the step away from a drop-shipping model.
Thanks for this great information on drop shipping Steve. I learned a lot!!!! 😉
I meant to mention that I agree with you Steve. It is a lot of hard work and you definitely have to find the right drop shipping company.
Thanks again for this great post!
Nice article. I found your blog some days, and most of your articles are great. I always avoid an affiliate business model (making money for a product owner and getting peanuts). Now after reading this article i understood why my good business wasn’t happy when i offered him started as a dropshipping store.
Good luck to you and i’ll visit your blog often.
sorry, i misstyping a few words in my last post.
Thanks for the dose of reality. My husband and I had a dropshipping business on eBay back in 2004-06. Back then, everyone only talked about the pros of dropshipping. But from personal experience, I can agree with all the downsides you mentioned. Glad you’re one of the honest ones who tell it like it is.
Thanks Tiare,
Dropshipping is good way to create a lifestyle ecommerce business but the profit margins aren’t nearly as high as carrying inventory.
Hey Steve, I’ve been looking for a course / mentor to start with, but I’m finding that NONE are transparent about their current or past success’ and/or business’. Who do you suggest I could learn from that is completely open about their past AND day to day DS business. I don’t want to “learn” from someone who only knows how to sell an online course, you know what I mean? Looking forward to hearing from you.
Very great information! Im curious, you mention that the time you save with drop shipping is replaced dealing with customers. If you we’re selling your own inventory would you have to spend equal amount of time dealing with customers as well.
What he means I think is that you dont have control of nearly anything yet you still have to deal with customers instead of the manufacturer.
Sure, you would have to deal with customers either way, but at least if you controlled things, you could possibly reduce customer issues.
If you have a good drop shipper to work with, this is less of a problem from what other people say, but this means it comes down to who you are working with, so learn and be careful.
Great article. Let the truth be told Amen.
Dropshipping is not easy. As a first time entreprenuer who doesn’t want to hold inventory its a lot of work, if ecommerce were that easy everyone would be doing it. It’s like running a marathon with no finishing line in sight. There are e-tailers who make billions who use this method of fulfilment like net stores aka hay needle, don’t know if they still do this and have started holding stock.
Just to add to Jasmines comment – I like dealing with customers as it lets me stay connected with the truth and understanding from the people who pay the bills what they actually want. Lets face it Drop shipping is a great way to leverage and scale a business however comes with the traps listed in this article. Great read about drop shipping.
Hello,
You bring up a lot of good points. Though drop shipping can be tough if done right can certainly be worth while. Finding a quality wholesaler is a key player in success. One downfall many have is trying to create a website built upon too many products from several drop shippers without any niche in mind.
– Roger
Great article about dropshipping…finally someone reveals the truths. I was a dropshipper for over 5 years (pretty profitable after about 2 years) until my main supplier went out of business, leaving me no choice but to close my business. All points in this article are very relevant and anyone considering dropshipping should take them to heart. I started out dropshipping from too many suppliers, getting mixed orders for “this product and that product” and ended up losing too much in profits to shipping costs (products shipped from different suppliers). I finally decided to just go with one of my most profitable products and was successful, however the “logistics nightmare” is on point. I was the only customer service and while I liked having the interaction with my customers, it mainly came down to not having control over shipping that created so many headaches. I had to get into contact with my suppliers about missing orders, damaged orders, etc. then appease my customers. One time in particular almost sent me out of my mind. The Today Show did a televised segment on a Saturday for one of the products I was selling and the orders began streaming in faster than ever before. I thought it was an error until I realized the orders were legit. The warehouse couldn’t keep up in fulfilling all my orders (let alone the other dropshippers that had hundreds of orders as well) and for weeks (yes, weeks!) I was constantly dealing with customers wanting to know where their orders were. It was a true nightmare (although in the end the profits were exceptional :). In addition, if you don’t have any ecommerce experience it will be a challenge to get your website (product) found, set up merchant accounts for accepting payments, integrating the payment method into your website, you’ll have to pay more money to have security for payment processing (a must!) etc. There are all-in-one websites out there (i.e. Volusion) that you can start with, but I found after being with them for about a year, the cost was cutting into my profits too much and I decided to design my own sites, I have experience with this, but that is not an option for many. In addition, your shipping options will be limited, for example, you can’t offer expedited shipping or various shippers (i.e. USPS, FedEx) as you don’t know when your supplier will actually get to shipping your order. And if you have more than one supplier, you will more than likely have more than one shipping company. I have to say at this point (after my business has been closed for about 1 year) I have been looking into products that I can stock and ship myself, knowing that having control will offer me the ability to offer my customers exceptional customer service from start to finish.
Thanks so much for this great post. I think drop shipping business is relatively new and innovative type of eCommerce. it is actually similar to selling as usual online except for the shipping which done via third party companies. so I think the most important good effect is that by implementing drop shipping business you will save more time and money. on the other hand you must learn drop shipping business from an expert so that you will not fall in many holes along your way.
If you would read more, I did this post that shows you the drop shipping business process in action
http://www.2dropshipping.com/drop-shipping-business-process/
Hi Steve,
You’re obviously against dropshipping – but only because of your circumstances. You obviously live in one location and don’t move around and can carry inventory.
I on the other hand am nomadic, which means I live in a different country every 3 months (by choice as well as necessity). So it means I don’t have a home base anywhere to store inventory (and I’m not interested in renting storage space, because I move around).
I’m thinking about starting an online store (and even doing your course) but this post of yours is made me question that. In fact, this post has put me off your entire blog because it’s so negative and one-sided!
I don’t see any other post in your blog to counteract this negative post – for people who have had great success with dropshipping (and who prefer it to carrying inventory). Shame on you for that.
Steve,
I’ve just posted here at https://mywifequitherjob.com/why-dropshipping-isnt-as-easy-and-simple-as-you-think/ – you obviously have a bias against dropshopping without actually letting us know why you have this bias. You offer nothing that is pro-dropshipping. You’re obviously pro-inventory only because it’s worked for you.
But just because dropshipping hasn’t worked for you doesn’t mean it’s wrong.
The lack of balanced views in your blog is shocking.
I was thinking about dropshopping, to suit my nomadic lifestyle, and doing your course to set up my shop. I won’t be doing your course now, since it’s clear you won’t be supporting my choice to dropship.
Hi Steve,
I live in Jamaica I want to start an online store but shipping costs and time for me would be crazy. Jamaicans are not into online shopping yet. My main Markets would be USA And Europe.
My Mother makes sandal on a small scale and we want to turn that into a online business and supplement it with other shoes while building her Brand.
I had considered drop shipping as a method of meeting my customers needs but this post has me really concerned.
Do you have any other suggestions?
That’s quite a strong opinion about dropshipping!
I think a lot of the issues you’ve mentioned can be resolved by choosing one dropshipping partner to fulfil all of your orders. That would mean only one supplier/contact point for issues, that means stable and foreseeable shipping expenses. Not to mention with the most popular ecommerce plaftorms like Shopify or Woocommerce, if you’ve got a technologically advanced fulfilment partner, then they can automatically push the shipping and tracking number notifications to the end buyer without you having to do any of the work.
I look at Printful, and see that if you had gone the on-demand print product route, you wouldn’t have any of the problems you’re outlining.
I sincerely urge you to open your mind and give it a try, despite your previous experience with dropshipping.
Hey Julia,
I wrote this post during a time when dropshipping was all the rage so I decided to take on a contrarian point of view. Dropshipping can definitely work but the ramp up takes longer.
How clever 😀 Cheers to that, Steve!
Great article about dropshipping…finally someone reveals the truths. I’ve been a dropshipper for over 5 years now and i love it… I do it full time now and I make way more money now than before working a 9pm to 5pm job.
Check this Out, this is how I started. My little Secret to you, It’s Great for any Droppshipper..
http://24e85vcmjpf0hm4mbcu8-k5l3k.hop.clickbank.net/?tid=SALEHO
Here in the states there is a store called designer shoe warehouse (aka DSW) and they sell shoes for up to 80% off. Because of my (free) membership discounts I was able to get a pair of winter boots that are worth $200 original price for free. I didn’t even have to pay a penny. I use my member rewards and the fact that the boots were already priced 80% off I was able to get them for free because my member rewards covered the remaining 20% I was supposed to pay.
So my question is instead of just droppshipping would you recommend going to a place like DSW (or any outlet store for that matter) and buying expensive brand name stuff at outlet store prices and then selling them full price online? Have you had any sort of good experience with this? I actually looked up my boots on ebay and found they sell like hotcakes so I figured why not? But I wasn’t sure I know this is a little different than drop shipping itself but this could be a goldmine for money if you can keep buying shoes for 50- 80% off and just turn around and sell them for full price but I just don’t know if you had any experience with this method.
I’m from the UK and i’ve just started an e-bay shop selling men’s accessories.
I have looked into drop shipping so i can increase the range of my products, mainly small kitchen appliances and other consumer electronics.
In my research i have found the profit margins to be non existent or extremely small ie: 3-6% my biggest concern is losing that grip on customer service and as you put it ‘logistical nightmares’. if you hold stock you can say to your customer ‘no problem i’ll ship you out a replacement and it will be tracked and with you on x date’ but with a drop shipper you have less control over the process. Also you may not have an integrated order system with them so you could sell 5 of one product and the drop shipper only has 2 left, leaving you with 3 orders to fulfill and 3 disgruntled customers.
You also have to wade through the vast amount of scam artists out there, and really do your research on the prices, i have often found products cheaper on amazon and ebay 10 and even 20% cheaper than the price a dropshipper offers at supposedly wholesale prices! and don’t forget to add VAT as almost all drop shippers charge inflated delivery costs and don’t advertise the price with VAT included. You also have the monthly or yearly fees to pay many of them too, so if you find you sell less than 10 products it could really eat into your profits.
The old sayings still hold true today in my opinion, buy low sell high, and stack em high and sell em cheap. People want things too quickly in this day and age, they want to put little work in for big profit, but like any business it takes long hours, plenty of effort and hard work, and sweat, tears, pulling your hair out and banging your head against a wall. There are NO shortcuts to success whatever people tell you at the end of it all it’s down to how much you want to succeed and how much you are willing to learn and how much work you are willing to put in.
I’m in the early stages of choosing between being a affiliate or dropshipping (neither being my full business model). This piece was invaluable. Thank-you!!!
I do not know why would you think that drop shipping isn’ t great. That is your opinion no body can stop you from expressed yourself. I think it’s because of your circumstances. To me it’s a great thing to do specially when you shop online even though you pay for the shopping.
Question for anyone who can answer and/or point me to the answer:
My family owns a brick and mortar retail shop and recently started selling our products online. Our e-commerce site is technically drop shipping but products bought online then ship to our retail shop for in store pickup. We’re using the same distributors and shipping methods as if we placed an order for our own inventory, but instead customers are paying for and placing the orders directly which are then fulfilled and shipped automatically. It’s a seamless, hands off process on our end.
Well then, What’s the issue? The issue is that the e-commerce site is entirely 3rd party operated and costs us $200 a month. The biggest PRO is the inventory is auto updated and synced real time to distributor stock levels. If products become out of stock it won’t let our customers purchase, so no backorders.
BUT, the CONS are the fact all product descriptions, site design, site architecture and navigation is set by 3rd party. Only things we can “customize” is which products to display and the price margins we want to make, and can choose from like 10 different generic skins for the style.
I’ve come to the conclusion their overall e-commerce site design for us sucks and simply does not convert into sales. Navigation is horrible and I really need to write the descriptions, show related products, upsell, offer “coupons”, etc..
So IN CONCLUSION, I want to cut out the middle man! But HOW do I do that? How do they sync with my distributor and fulfill orders like this? Again:
– real time inventory levels
– orders purchased then pull item from distributor stock and start process.
– their payment then goes to our bank account
– We then “manually” verify the order w/ the distributor, which was placed by our customer right when they clicked “purchase”. Essentially the orders been on hold, waiting for our payment to them, and the green light to ship it to us.
PLEASE ANYONE WHO CAN HELP. Thank you so much and God Bless.
“Because your wholesale prices are higher than a traditional store, you will not be able to compete as effectively on price unless you take a good sized profit hit.”
This doesn’t follow. Yes, your wholesale prices are higher, but your overhead is reduced in other areas. You don’t have to rent storage space, buy packaging, or hire anyone to handle storage and distribution. You’re also not taking on the risk of holding onto product that may go bad/obsolete/damaged while you’re holding it, or that it just won’t sell in a reasonable period. If your distributor is big and longstanding, it’s very likely they can handle these things more cheaply than you could.
Do you need web developers to build or maintain your stores? I am highly experienced in Magento.
Hi Steve, I’m afraid that I agree with Rich Hohd. Your comments, views and opinions are very negative and one sided. Whilst some of the problems about dropshipping you mention here might be true for some, there are hundreds of people on Ebay successfully running dropshipping businesses so it cannot be all that bad and hopeless. Even if you hold your own inventory and arrangement shipment of your own inventory things can still go wrong. For instance your supplier could run out of stock due to importing problems, warehouse fire or any other problem that could occur. Sometimes items can become damaged during the delivery process even if you do arrange your own shipment. Posting centre can make errors. So I think it goes to show that even if you are an inventory seller, a number of things can still go wrong to give you headaches. Each selling method has its own pros and cons. And steve, I am just wondering, are you sure you are not trying to put people off dropshipping because this is in direct competition with your type of business? No need to answer, just a question that occured to me.
Great article!,
Dropshipping is the best bussiness in E-commerce.
as i said about dropshipping is the most easy bussiness and there is alot of automation tools out there to make it even more easy…
Good luck everybody… !
I own a Scuba operation in Mexico.
I was thinking about adding an online store to my website and offer t-shirt sales that would be shipped to guest and waiting for them when they get home. We don’t have the room for holding inventory. What do you recommend?
Yes,
It is never easy to handle shipping and complains.
In my site, I put. “All Items are coming from China”
This is an amazing article! I feel like I now completely understand the real risks involved in dropshipping. I will be re-evaluating whether or not I will still undertake a dropshipping venture. Thank you so much!
Some very true facts in this. The key is to choose good partner, test it first yourself (purchase something) and use good dropship-API. Using several dropship partners is not a wisest choice. Your margin is smaller but you also dont have to pack and ship stuff or put a load of cash upfront into your stock. When you grow, you can always switch from dropship to your own fullfilment with own stock and overcome multiple-partners problem.
Affiliate is not all roses too as the partners always shuffle links, products, prices, screw something etc. Also the margin here is very very small = huge volumes or pocket money. And with affiliate you have no control over the price, so affiliate shop is not a very good idea. Its better to have some “review blog” or something like that.
http://bit.ly/1p386YV I believe this site is one of the best dropship suppliers and wholesale sellers. You have to check it out for yourself
Don’t let this drive you away. Only states the obstacles and not the advantages. Ecommerce platforms like Shopify, 3Dcart, Big Commerce, etc have so many tools to make it easy…ier. Dropshipping can be a logistical nightmare…not really, these e-commerce platforms allow you to identify each ship point by manufacturer and calculates the correct shipping cost based off that location. Product is shipped once…not twice. Like once to your warehouse and then to customer. The manufacturer can also pass on better shipping costs due to their volume. Costing – sure you were not getting the same cost but you also have a lower margin requirements and less funds sitting in a warehouse not moving. I was a buyer for a fortune 500 company and have been working for a national manufacture for years. This is where the industry is heading for sure. It’s all around finding the right product with the right suppliers. If you do that, you’ll be fine, but nothing is easy or everyone would be doing it. I know so many people doing this and doing it well because of the fear of others not to do it.
Hey Just pointing out there, that there is a really good drop shipping platform that has over 8000 suppliers with really low prices. Just go here. I’ve been a customer here and there great!
Zappos started out by drop shipping as many orders as they could in the beginning. They eventually grew out of it and started fulfilling their orders. They still fulfill some orders using drop shipping, as does BestBuy, Target, Home Depot and hundreds of other companies.
My point is that drop shipping can work as a fulfillment method but it doesn’t have to be the only method you use. Not everyone’s situation or gaols are going to be the same.
tnx steve!!!!
very interesting information!!
WebTipster eBay DropShipping Tool
Very informative. I was just introduced to drop shipping and began my research here. Nice things to take into consideration in contrast with affiliate marketing. Thanks for the info!
A great read. I have an online store, and something that I’ve found VERY difficult is getting my wholesale company to ship in a timely manner. They are very unorganized and it unfortunately trickles down to me and makes ME look unorganized.
When I started my dropshipping business in 2011, there had been very few people and experts who actually know about dropshipping. But since 2014, a lot of companies, specially dsmtools.com has been providing very good help, support and tools for dropshipping. These tools really make a lot of things easier and help us all in moving ahead to make a bigger impact in the small size to mid size businesses and lives of smaller businessmen.
dropshipping
Dropshipping is clearly more easy than buying wholasale and going to post office for shipping order everyday, so never listen to any negative thinker. You will lose faith and give up.
Agreed. here only the negatives have been outlined, the writer has clearly only stated WHY it won’t work. Like with everything else there will be problems that need to be solved, we need to think HOW to make it work. Good luck to everyone in their pursuit
The internet is full of overblown claims about the glories of drop shipping, but there are far fewer sites exposing any of the downsides. I already know the upsides of the business. That’s why I’m investigating it in the first place. What I REALLY need is to know the pitfalls before I invest my first dime. This site helps immensely with that.
Obviously this guy has drop shipped before – he is not being negative he is giving us the nitty gritty details. Great referral plug there towards the end buddy! You gave us a strategy and then immediately used it yourself. Thanks for that.
hi
i have question i want to build website to sell affiliate products which website you recommend? but i want to add button not a link and when my customers press the button will take the products to shipping cart and pay money through me
i do not want the button move the customers to the affiliate company i want them to stay on my website how i do that ?
Make your own product and brand. Do you really think you can get rich selling somthing that’s easily and redly available online ? First find your market THEN make your product.
You want to advertise affiliate product in your website and want customer to pay you money at your website? Let me ask you this question. How about the seller that you are affiliating their product? They ship out product without getting any money? You doesn’t make any sense dude!
hi Steve. a good app for dropshipping from ali to ebay is the Dropshipping eBay Lister (black lister).Have 100 supported suppliers and list the items on eBay only with few clicks. Connect more than one Repricer. Edit your images with Photo Editor . SEO Templates with shortcodes meta-tags. Fast & Auto Listings.
Now I’m not entirely sure if this is allowed but I hope it is.
I do not intend to discourage people from trying dropshipping but I only wish to warn them of the dangers.
https://molesramblings.wordpress.com/2017/04/09/why-dropshipping-can-be-very-dangerous/
Part one of my post. If I cannot post links to my own blog please say and I will write my blog posts here instead.
I’m just starting out with drop shipping …..
It can be something of a headache but as the saying goes you never know once you try it yourself .
Realtime inventory updates is the biggest challenge I have seen so far
I thought this very interesting. Things to know. I am 73 wanting to work and make Xtra money. I don’t have money to give any one thank you
This was by far the BEST and clearest advice i have seen, thankyou so much 🙂
Hi Steve. Good explanation of Drop shipping. The key points are very well understandable. I will agree on your points of drop shipping and thus it solves the problem of OUT OF STOCK.
Can you add best companies for drop shipping? So that it will be easy for sellers to find out best companies. I have found out this link http://mobilityecommerce.com/ over Google while searching.
Do you think it is a good company to start off with drop shipping?
I’m just now thinking about trying dropshipping for my business dont even have a website yet but, I’m not sure I want to even try this now! But ive got to do something. Im a very disabled Vet because of chronic arthritis and, I can’t do much physical Labor. So I’m needing to try something online. Anyone have really good advice?
Yes, I would highly recommend affiliate marketing for 1 as well as selling your own products that you own to sell on Shopify, that way you have all control over your products and business.
unfortunately, running a successful drop shipping business is very expensive and stressful, it does work for some people who has the money for it if you don’t have the money for it forget it!!!
also, some of these distributors can be from china it would take over 3 months before your customers get the products which means you would have to deal with that.
Ps. I know plenty of people who makes a good living just by doing affiliate marketing without a website.
can you send me a link or 2 to point me in the right direction to start affiliate marketing
Stay Away from China! It is a nightmare. Aliexpress, DHgate, all of those can take a month to two months for orders to arrive to your customer. Just don’t do it. And besides, it’s time we took back our Country! Made IN USA!!!
Hello,
You have mentioned a good reason to start a Dropshipping business. It’s a very useful article.
Here’s an article on how to start a Dropshipping business: https://magenticians.com/how-to-start-dropshipping-business/
Thank you.
Steve, I want to get started in ecommerce . I have been reading your posts and I feel like I am going around in circles . I really like your posts, but in one post you say to avoid Drop shipping and then I read one where you you say if you were to start an online business now, you would go with drop shipping because the ramp-up to a quicker profit is not what you need at this point in life. Either way you will still have to deal with customer relations . I have no idea where to start, please help .
I Will Find Killing Product 4 Dropshipping Aliexpress, Shopify, Amazon, eBay, Moreover, I Will Start Drop Shipping, Store Creating, Products Sourcing, Marketing
Please checkout my gig on Fiverr here https://www.fiverr.com/mirajsujonbd
Great article. As you quite rightly highlight there are numerous pitfalls and it’s most definitely not a get rich quick scheme. I currently dropship on eBay using Amazon. Again never going to make me rich but currently ticking over OK. Interested to get your thoughts, I’ve wrote about my first couple of months here: https://www.thriftypence.com/retail-arbitrage-a-guide-to-amazon-to-ebay-arbitrage/
I am agree with the author that Dropshipping business idea is not always works in our favor. It has lot of hardsships to start this business. I have also come across this blog that will help all those who want to start dropshipping business.
I hope it will help readers: http://www.masalaanews.com/the-definitive-guide-to-start-drop-shipping-business-its-advantageous/
Kinda funny because you don’t even have a mindset of doing dropshipping. Like literally author of this article don’t know how to rule dropshipping business. Like literally supreme is selling without any advertisement and you can’t even make your suppliers handle in low costs for real??…..well literally don’t run an article if you don’t know how to run the world son…!!
So since you know how please forward info on how to dropship successful.
Starting and running any business has its ups and downs. For my dropshipping business, I use DSMTool.com and it is really helpful.
Write an article about our dropshipping company, we will pay you 10% on all sales as our affiliate.
Let me know.
Amy
MentalBunny.com
Very good detailed post about dropshipping. I’ve shared your article on my article about dropshipping
https://webstartupsolutions.co.uk/portfolio/how-to-start-a-dropshipping-business/
Great article about dropshipping much appreciated.Learning a lot on your blog buddy.I will look into shopify dropshipping.
Thanks for the info very useful
With the negative view of dropshipping it’s seems it will probably be difficult to do a niche store as well. You have persuaded me to not start. I will look at other avenues.
That was a great article, had a good read.
This is the best dropship solution ever
you can find trusted suppliers of brand name products which you can sell on Amazon, eBay, and your own store without having to buy, store, pack, and ship stock. Over 1,000 trusted dropship suppliers check it out
http://infoguid.pro/dropshipbusiness
Hello All,
Can do guest postings on sites like Huffington post, DailyKos, Business.com, Forbes, Inc, Devsaran, Buzzfeed.com, and many more.
Very low-cost price
Best regards!
Elaine
Hello Amazing Article. I have one question. I saw a lot of people drop ships and gets a customers complain about the products quality. how to handle this situation?
I’ve had this problem some. They usually have mixed reviews, so unless it’s constant negativity toward the product and/or returns, I leave it online. If it is a constant issue, I discontinue the product. I would love to know how others handle it as well. Of course there is good and bad with every business, and this is one of those factors that is hard to control as the middle man. Also, damages can be an issue, and since it’s not coming directly from you, it’s difficult to have the supplier to improve packing. SOME suppliers care and are good to take into consideration problems like this and will help, but unfortunately not all. I have a 50/50 mixture of what I would consider good suppliers who will communicate with me and some act like they don’t give a crap to be quite honest. I don’t really understand that since it is technically their customer too. Lol
hello nice article, do you have any other articles related to drop shipping from ali express?
Thank you very much for this post it´s really instructive, I personally started the online selling business and it was very difficult to find trustable suppliers until I found this amazing web with more than 1000, I personally have done business with a few and the products are very good, I truly recommend it for everybody in this area.
For the economic freedom!!
This is the link: https://tinyurl.com/yajleeva
Hey that web it´s really good thanks for sharing
Thanks Angel, your tip was very helpful
Great article. I have had dropshipping business before and it was closed due to inventory problems in partner company. I got orders, but the stock was zero, so I had to refund the money and apologize the customer.
It was not profitable experience, but I gained some knowledge about marketing and sales which I use in other projects.
Hi There ,
If any one is looking for a US Based dropshipping company , we are located at the hearth of the fashion district in New york , we are wholesalers since 2000 and we started dropshipping since 2014 , and we dropship clothing women’s clothing
to be more precise 🙂
http://www.smainyc.com
Very informative article about dropshipping. But another side still it’s full-fledged business where you only get profit. Many giants across the world are using this approach to deliver the product to its customer without any involvement. Thanks for sharing such an article. I would recommend you write about Affiliate marketing.
It’s true that competition in drop shipping is high and fierce, but it doesn’t mean that it won’t work and won’t gain any profit. If you love the business and work hard on and for it, you will surely reap what you have sowed. Drop shipping tools like DSM Tool are esential and of great help when doing drop shipping.
i was started ecommerce business intialy facing problem with wholesalers
Finally i got solution with salehoo for easy finding best products and brands https://bit.ly/2LHOvtb
cool tips man! will need to find an influencers niche. Despite I’m busy working in sales sector, I had an idea of starting drop-shipping like a year ago. Finally i did! Good I found Bitdegree free secret formula dropshipping courses. Good lecturer and well explained, I made everything by myself and already in the stage of driving sales.
Poor branding possibilities were not mentioned. Going down the road you may want to differentiate from all the dropshippers that are selling the same product.
You can check the sales amount or people who are running that business, if there is an obvious decrease, it means that business is hard to get profit.
According to the search results of Oberlo, the total sales amount and the number of businessmen in dropshipping are increasing year by year in most areas of the world.
We are just about to start our store and would love to have your thoughts about customer support, shopify and cash flow.
Having tried it myself, it is steadily losing its power as a source of income as more and more flood into the scene to get involved
I still believe that the dropshipping business model has a great potential! And many of the problems described in the article can be solved with the help of AliDropship plugin.
What about buying an established drop ship business instead of building one
I’ve been dropshipping from Amazon to eBay 3 years now, and just as eBay started cracking down on dropshippers and making the future of dropshipping seem super scary, my dropship automation software PriceYak decided to make their software completely free for users with under 10K listings. So the setup costs are no longer “practically zero,” they’re just zero. I’ve used a lot of other software like Easync and SaleFreaks and DSM Tools but PY easily has the best support and most powerful features.
Does anyone know how long ago this article was posted
To avoid higher shipping cost, I only suppliers who offer free shipping. By doing so, I can pass on the saving to the customers. I do not charge them shipping fee.
Nice post
Wow…I have really gained a lot reading from this article….thanks….I love this
Thanks for the information. Really looking forward to implementing this soon!