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The Ultimate Guide to Dropshipping

ecommerce.shopify.com

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Re: The Ultimate Guide to Dropshipping

#51

Post by whatshisface »

prawn wrote: post #41
whatshisface wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, now we have merchants with no store, no warehouse and no inventory... what exactly is left for the merchant to do?

Marketing, making the sales happen, etc. They wouldn't exist if they didn't do something useful. It's like asking why affiliate marketing exists. It does and it's huge.

I suppose I was thinking about the wrong kind of product, I now realize it would be much more viable for one-time small purchases than it would be for repeated purchases or large purchases. (where the incentive to cut out the middleman would be powerful)

Re: The Ultimate Guide to Dropshipping

#52

Post by patrickk »

whatshisface wrote: post #25
spiredigital wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good feedback - we'll have to incorporate this into our 1st round of revisions. Drop shipping is a fulfillment model where a merchant doesn't carry any inventory. Instead, they only purchase an item from a wholesaler when they receive an order from a customer. Then, they have that item shipped directly from the wholesale warehouse to the customer. It allows a merchant to start a store without having to invest up-fron…

So, now we have merchants with no store, no warehouse and no inventory... what exactly is left for the merchant to do?

Everyone in the supply chain (manufacturer --> wholesaler --> retailer) specializes in their own area.

It's mentioned in the guide that wholesalers are often terrible at SEO and website design.

Hence the room in the market for niche retailers who dominate their own long tail keyword terms (SEO), offer a great sales experience (well designed site) who can identify products that are possible to resell profitably.

Re: The Ultimate Guide to Dropshipping

#53

Post by xlevus »

I'm not entirely sure if it's still classified as dropshipping.

But I've been told that some postal services (e.g. NZ Post) are able to provide dropshipping like logistics for you.

e.g. You manufacture your product in China. The postal service will then manage logistics for you from factory to your customers.

Re: The Ultimate Guide to Dropshipping

#55

Post by rodolphoarruda »

spiredigital wrote: post #36
seanlinehan wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a great answer. I think it is important to note that all of the information you have provided is already available on the web, so you aren't really revealing super secret information. You have provided a very well written and properly structured guide for information which could have been gathered anyways. I went down the dropshipping information wormhole recently it was a super annoying process. You're guide…

Thanks! You're right - most of the information is publicly available, and we just consolidated it into one spot. Some aspects are a bit harder to find publicly - like some of the tricker aspects of managing the logistics of operating a drop shipping business - but still not impossible to find. You just have to dig a bit deeper, or talk to someone with experience.

And... you touched a point which new people to dropshipping will hardly read somewhere else: that you take responsibility and accountability for your suppliers' mistakes. This happens all the time. I did some dropshipping in the past with suppliers in China. I can tell you it wasn't for those with faint hearts. Having customers calling/emailing you 10^2345 times a day to complain about the product they had received wrong, while it's not your fault, sucks big time. Back to the point, I'm glad you have made a note about this aspect in your website.

Re: The Ultimate Guide to Dropshipping

#58

Post by terrellm »

This guide has some great information. A dropship commerce store can be a great complement to a software company if you are able to integrate a company's products in with your software.

My wife and I develop a cattle management software called CattleMax and began operating two dropship e-commerce stores several years ago. Our stores help us offer customers a full solution (identification + weighing/measuring + management software) and also provide a nice supplement to our SaaS revenues.

Our first store, The Cattle Tags Store (CattleTags.com), sells cattle identification supplies including visual ear tags and RFID tags & readers. Our software is useless of the rancher hasn't identified his or her cattle, so good identification is important.

Our second store, The Cattle Scales Store (CattleScales.com), sells digital weigh scales designed for weighing livestock. It is a natural fit since our software can import weights from the scales and these scales also integrate with the RFID readers we sell at The Cattle Tags Store.

In the beginning, we were hesitant to create the stores but got through that hesitation by saying "OK we will try it out for a few months".

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