eBay Dropshipping Poll – Surprise!
Posted by dropshipebayer on March 4, 2009
Well, I have been running my “Have You Made Money on eBay Using Drop Shipping” poll for a few weeks now and I am both surprised and also not surprised.
I am surprised that 6 people have said YES that they have made money on eBay using a dropshipper. I am not surprised that more than 2x that amount, 14 people, have said NO that they have not made money using a dropshipper to supply their eBay auctions.
But I am curious. I want some people who answered yes or who answer yes to submit a comment and let us know how you did it. What product you sold, what drop shipper you used. You don’t have to tell everything because nobody wants others stealing their sources.
I am very interested. Drop shipping did not work at all for me with DOBA or anyone else. I now subscribe to Drop Shipping Sucks (please use my link).
So, if you are an ebay seller who has successfully used drop shipping please comment and let us know! Thanks!
Felicia said
I didn’t take the poll, but I wanted to put my 2 cents in. I think the problem with most Ebay sellers that use dropshippers is they don’t inform their customers in the listing that the item will be coming from a dropshipper. It lets the customer know that if they don’t pay for their item right away, there is a chance the item may sell out at the dropshipper. It seems a bit deceptive to me to not disclose that info ahead of time because I know there are people out there who don’t want to deal with dropshipping at all.
I’ve been using an apparel dropshipper for about 6 months now and I have made quite a bit of profit. Looking at my Ebay feedback, about half of the sales are from my home inventory and the other half are dropship items. Matter of fact, the first 4 are dropship items.
When I first started using this dropshipper, I posted a response in an Ebay forum under an unrelated issue. Another Ebay seller told me that they guarantee my sales would go down because I mentioned I use a dropshipper in my listings. Good thing I didn’t listen to that person because I actually started getting more business.
I’ve seen other sellers with some of the same products I have, but have not been able to sell their dropshipping products. I believe I’m more successful at it because I do my homework first. I check to see if the product I want to list is already being sold on Ebay. If there’s already 3 people selling the same product I want to sell, there really isn’t any use in me putting it up too unless I can provide a better price or maybe add another product to make it a lot.
I try to make my listing unique and add more of a description. I try to add as much info about the sale as possible. For example: Since most dropshippers don’t ship to P.O. boxes or charge an arm and a leg for international shipping, I give those customers the option to buy the product and I’ll have it sent to my address. Then I will forward it to them. It saves a lot of money for International buyers.
I also include on my listings that I check the suppliers website several times a day to make sure the items I have on Ebay are still available at the dropshippers. It eases the customer’s mind and reduces the amount of refunds you have to issue. I think it comes across that I care about my customers and will only offer dropship items from longtime and competent suppliers.
I’ve only had one instance where the item was no longer available. It was at Christmas time on a popular item…and even then, it really wasn’t my fault that the customer didn’t get the item sent to them. The customer was suppose to indicate what size they needed, but didn’t. I couldn’t order the product for them and emailed them several times to find out what size to order, but they never responded. After a couple of days, the item sold out so I had to issue a refund. The customer gave me my first and only neutral feedback. To date, I have no negatives.
I try to order one of each item to be delivered to me so I can make sure to provide the best description or exact measurements that the suppliers website pic might not provide. There are a lot of ways to improve dropshipping sales, but you have to have the time to do it and put in a real effort. Sellers can’t just put a picture up and expect the item to sell. Anyway, those are my thoughts. I hope some of this info will help somebody out. Thanks. I really enjoy your posts.