A lot of ebay sellers have had success with dropshipping. If you have not heard of dropshipping, it is a business term used in a situation where the dropshipping company agreed on a set price, handle the inventory, does the shipping and labelling and collects the payment. However the dropshipping company do not sell, rather it has a network of sellers who does the selling. The dropshipping company is only in charge of fulfilling the orders.
Dropshipping is every eBay seller’s dream. Since you do not need to deal with the hassle of maintaining stock and shipping, you only need to list the auctions which the dropshipping company sells.
Most dropshipping companies will charge you near a wholesale price and you are free to charge whatever price suits you.
Though dropshipping sounds great, they are some pitfalls you should aware of. Here are some tips to keep in mind when dropshipping:
1) Who your customer belongs to?
Even though all the shipping, inventory and labelling is not done by you, you are still your customer’s point of contact. That means if there’s any issue arising whether from faulty product or none delivery of items, your customers will contact you and you should then try to resolve it with the dropshipping company.
2) Reputation of dropshipping company
You should do your due diligence and find out more about the dropshipping company you are doing business with. There are a lot of scammers out there who takes your money and don’t fulfill orders or send out very poor quality products. You can visit the Better Business Bureau at http://www.BBB.org to seek for more information about the company you are doing dropshipping with
3) Paying before droppshipping
Beware of companies that claim you have to pay a fee to access their product catalogues. A legitimate dropshipping company will not charge you a fee for this.
4) Delivery times
Most negative feedback that occurred on ebay are due to shipping problems. Whether an item was not delivered or delivered late. Therefore, it is important for you to inquire the delivery turnaround for each region, the cost. Also be sure to ask whether a tracking number for each delivered item is available. This will allow you and your customer to track the item.
5) Dropshipping quantities
There should not a minimum quantity to order. It’s ok if the dropshipping company offers a discount if you purchase larger quantities. But they should be able to handle orders regardless of the quantity of items
The crux of dropshipping is to buy low, sell high so that you can make a profit. If it’s too much trouble for you, you can use ebay consignment centers where they will sell you help your items.
