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.
JD Trader said
I also didn’t take the poll, just found your blog while doing a search of dropship information. I have make quite a bit of profit using dropship. The thing is, I sell unauthorized use of sports logo printed on apparels which is a violation of eBay’s rule. Have stop selling these things. Anyway, the dropshipper (from China) doesn’t really care less as long as they get the money.
I learned this thing from another eBay member who had made a killing by using these ‘copying’ technique. The strategy is to do research, list thousands of item listing within a niche and balancing the auction and store inventory listing. Multiple eBay ID is required but this is only for advanced hardcore eBayers.
Hope that would give you some clue.
Mary A Vivian said
You are 100% correct. In an earlier post today I mentioned that I have been selling on the internet since 2002 using nothing but dropshippers.
I do make sure that this information is available to all my customers, that these are dropshipped items,
I don’t stock them myself, and there is a chance that they will sell out without warning.
Getting them to take a few minutes to read this is not my problem but theirs. “YOU CAN LEAD A HORSE TO WATER, BUT YOU CAN’T MAKE HIM DRINK”
I do not use sites that do not have a dropship plan for resellers.
There is no sense in doing this at all. The customers really don’t like it when they receive their item with information in their packages, that show this could have been purchased for less somewhere else on the internet. It makes no difference if they have select to never do a seach for the items elsewhere.
I now use mostly merchants or manufacturers that give me a discount, so I can compete with the prices. I prefer private sellers than using the standard dropshipping companies.
Basic dropshipping companies found on the internet sell All the same products. Most of these are cheaper china imports, or refurbished items.
Hundreds of resellers use these suppliers and you end up having to have the lowest prices in order to even sell the items. Plus when so many resellers are using them, the products sell out too quickly.
Your right! Searching the product before listing them save a lot of time, effort and money. If there were only 3 on Ebay I would go ahead and list an item if I knew I could compete with the price. However if there are several listings, it is doubtful if you could sell enough to make it worthwhile.
Dropshipping does work but you have to do your homework, get the prices low enough that you can compete in pricing and you have to have a supplier that you can count on.
Check out the MarJac Outlets store on eCrater.com. Everything in this store is being dropshipped.
Good luck and Happy selling.
dropshipebayer said
If dropshipping is working for you then great! You are the exception to the rule. Let us know how your dropshipping based business lasts. Thanks!