Is anyone Dropshipping?

[Mrsearlybird]

Hello, I’m seriously looking in to Dropshipping. I need a massive life switch and something where I can work from home instead of my other business - which is a ridiculous amount of stress.

Id love to hear from anyone doing this. What worked, any tips ect…

Thanks

If you are intending to sell on Amazon or Ebay make sure you read their rules very carefully (also read up on Arbitrage) as it is banned in most forms. Also, don't expect help from their forums as most of us who run proper retail businesses hate dropshippers

It's not creating value, it's just being parasitical and misleading customers. I'm sure you can find a better WFH gig than this.

It’s a bit harsh calling it parasitic when some retailers will give a discount to licenced resellers.

Have you ever only ever bought Nike from the Nike website for example?

And you have idea of the content of the website I’m building regarding building value. But yeah thanks for the valuable input 👍🏻

No, not on Amazon or eBay 😁

I’d be ‘hopefully’ working with brands who do allow licenced resellers not arts and craft stuff.

If I were to buy branded sportswear from, say, SportsDirect, then they've bought the shoes from Nike at a wholesale price, usually of around 50% off. If I spend £60, they're making £30. That's how they can afford to sell them less than RRP and still make money. Where's the value for the customer from buying from a dropshipper?

• The dropshipper (even if they have a resale deal, which sounds fake but ok) isn't going to have the same margins as a shop, so they can afford to discount the product by less.
• Dropshipping is often much slower delivery than buying direct or just going to a shop
• Because the dropshipper doesn't hold inventory, quality control is worse
• Returns and complaints are more complicated for the customer because of this middleman.

It's a parasitical business model. I sound harsh because I'm serious here, it's a way some people think they'll make an easy buck. And the icing on the cake is a lot of people lose money trying this stuff, they get predated upon by people running training packages and webinars and end up losing money overall (in that way, it's like MLMs, life coaches, or vanity publishing).

Tread VERY, VERY carefully.

It’s one of the side hustles I looked into, but I chose digital products instead and I’m regularly making £3k+ per month. I paid for a course and then just went for it. I’m loving it.

Hi can u pm me pls? How to do this? Where to get on? Thanks

Why would someone share their business idea?

I know this isn’t a new thread but I’ve never heard of dropshipping! WTF is it and why is it so hated?!

What you do is you advertise some product for sale (e.g. on Facebook marketplace or Etsy) as if you had it, and when a person orders it, you put in the order with some other supplier. So you just act as a middleman. It means:

• More expensive prices
• Less quality control
• Often, deceptive practises

People believe they're buying from a local person, a licensed store, or a craftperson but instead they get some fly-by-night grifter.