Post: #26

continue posting, OP

ignore the naysayers.

Post: #27

Would you be able to provide any examples of good dropshipping websites as a basis to look into? Thanks

Post: #28

(07-16-2017 04:17 AM)nigerian Wrote:  unless you find a really good niche as well as an exceptional product, dont bother with this.

Damn it's been a while since I've read a post from you good to see you back! To this day...You and Brofist are the 2 new members that I remember making a commotion from the start

Not gonna lie... I've prayed in the past for a Fappening II just to type in Where Brofist at... I need Pics... more juicy Pics!

Post: #29

I think it depends on what your strength, interests are and willingness to be location free.

If you are internet marketing savvy person who wants to run business out of a laptop while traveling somewhere, drop shipping would be the only option.
Low margins? You are not putting any cash upfront. You cant really complain.

For me, id rather market my own brand.(female items) Id like to shoot my own photos and short videos with models for social media, design items, do promotions etc. Thats where I would have fun by being creative. Obviously it will cost more money doing marketing this way and I will have to get products made in bulk that will never sell (I say 20k to start minimum) but margins will be a lot higher and i can build small online brand presence.

There used to be infomercials about dropshipping business like 10 years ago (still there?) basically you order catalog from them, choose items you want to sell on your personalized website and they will take care of the rest.
I thought whos going to buy something from Johnny's website with bunch of generic items.
I think they made money by charging monthly service fee to the members.

I know OP wont tell exactly what he sells but it would be really hard to bring people to the online store if what you have is available everywhere and you cant beat others prices.

Btw Overstock.com is pretty much drop shipping business these days. They used to sell real overstocked items out of some cheap warehouse ( saw fake polo shirt there) Its amazing how they got there.

Post: #30

Thank you for posting this OP! How would you say this compares with starting with Amazon FBA? i would imagine this has higher profits but is harder to make sales?

Post: #31

(07-15-2017 02:23 PM)WeekendCasanova Wrote:  1) The packaging does not show the true cost. In your fulfillment service (Oberlo), you leave a note to the supplier that you're dropshipping, and they do not include the cost, receipt, or invoice. Only the product.

This is 100% incorrect assuming your talking about shipping to USA customers. Anyone who's ever ordered a product off Ali Express knows this. I'm not talking about invoices inside the package which most sellers don't include anyhow, I'm talking legally a package cannot enter the USA through customs without a declaration on the package which clearly states what's in the package, the quantity, and the cost. Now many sellers lie about the cost but typically lower not higher so in reality your customers are probably seeing a lower cost than you actually paid which in some ways makes it look even worse.

2) Shopify encourages dropshipping. If you have a slow-shipment time notice in your FAQs, receipts etc, your customers are less likely to file a chargeback.

Never disagreed that Shopify doesn't encourage dropshipping, Shopify has a dropshipping guide and regularly blogs giving tips on how to do this as well as promotes apps which assist iwth it so nobody is saying SHopify doesn't allow dropshipping.

That said you act like customers are actually going to read an FAQ. On my website during checkout I have GIANT BOLD RED lettering explaining something to customers and almost none of my customers actually read it. You can put it right front and center in front of people's faces and in my experience most people don't read. Ask any eBay or Amazon seller about this, you'll clearly have dimensions of your item and you'll still get someoen messaging you, what size is this shirt or whats armpit to armpit. I must answer 10 questiosn a day stating "that's explained in the description". Most people don't read.

3) I've had maybe 2 chargebacks in over a year of running stores. I've never lost a chargeback, and have NEVER heard of someone being blacklisted for getting a chargeback issued against them.

If it's working for you awesome keep doing it but just browse reddit or any ecommerce forum and you'll see dozens if not hundreds of people crying about chargebacks. As far as being blackballed just do a google search of high risk processors, that industry wouldn't exist if people weren't blackballed. The last merchant processor I got wanted to see 6 months of processing history and while not typical I was told that I was high risk when I had 1 single chargeback which I won over the course of hundreds of successful transactions. One chargeback typically isn't a huge issue, I think industry average is about 1% but excessive chargebacks will get your processing terminated and you'll have a hard time finding new processing. BTW Stripe and PP are not real processors, youd ont have a true merchant account your setup with hundreds of other people.

4) Most stores ARE upfront about their shipping times.

Some people are super upfront while others try to hide it in fine print deep in an FAQ page which IMHO is counterintuitive as they are better off bing upfront and losing a few sales than dealing with dozens of customers repeatedly messaging or calling asking about tracking info.


Are people successful dropshipping, absolutely, more power to them. I still say the vast majority are not successful and in the day and age of Amazon where people pretty much expect packages in two days with easy return policies ali express dropshipping isn't exactly a great customer experience.

At the end of the day most dropshippers will rightfully say this...look there's a very specific type of customer who will buy my product, they like the cheap price and are willing to wait a bit, nobody else matters, and that's true. If you can find those customers you can do well for yourself.

Post: #32

(07-16-2017 08:41 AM)JayD Wrote:  Would you be able to provide any examples of good dropshipping websites as a basis to look into? Thanks

Do a search for a product or industry and then the word SHopify. Won't work for everything but you'll find some. Something like this for example...

"hammock tree straps shopify"

https://shopify.redrocketgear.com/produc...1651835398

"bracelet shopify"

https://www.puravidabracelets.com/

Post: #33

(07-16-2017 10:12 PM)Sebastian Wrote:  I think it depends on what your strength, interests are and willingness to be location free.

If you are internet marketing savvy person who wants to run business out of a laptop while traveling somewhere, drop shipping would be the only option.
Low margins? You are not putting any cash upfront. You cant really complain.

For me, id rather market my own brand.(female items) Id like to shoot my own photos and short videos with models for social media, design items, do promotions etc. Thats where I would have fun by being creative. Obviously it will cost more money doing marketing this way and I will have to get products made in bulk that will never sell (I say 20k to start minimum) but margins will be a lot higher and i can build small online brand presence.

There used to be infomercials about dropshipping business like 10 years ago (still there?) basically you order catalog from them, choose items you want to sell on your personalized website and they will take care of the rest.
I thought whos going to buy something from Johnny's website with bunch of generic items.
I think they made money by charging monthly service fee to the members.

I know OP wont tell exactly what he sells but it would be really hard to bring people to the online store if what you have is available everywhere and you cant beat others prices.

Btw Overstock.com is pretty much drop shipping business these days. They used to sell real overstocked items out of some cheap warehouse ( saw fake polo shirt there) Its amazing how they got there.

I think you bring up a great point. If you're going to dropship something you have to ask yourself why would someone buy this from me instead of Amazon where they get free 2 day shipping, super easy returns, and the customer already trusts them.

The only reason is either a lower price, which is often tough for a dropshipper to do as they are not buying in bulk, although that's really the secret to dropshipping is finding those hidden gems with a bit of margin left

or

the other reason someone may buy from you is you have a very unique product or a very unique collection of products. If I want to buy a new motorcycle seat for example sure they have them on Amazon but I have to browse around and find one. HOwever if I come across a site which sells nothing but parts and accessories for a 80's Suzuki Cafe Racers or something like that I may shop there as they have everything geared towards me and if they have a good blog or good products I'm going to assume they've picked out the best parts and accessories out there for that particular bike.

That said no customer in their right mind is going to visit JimsCellphoneAccessoryShop.Com to buy a phone case for $15 when they can go find the same case on AMazon for $7 with 2 day shipping.

Post: #34

update: i've got my new store all ready to go and i'm at the phase where i'm going to start running ad campaigns, but i've been getting my ad campaigns rejected by fagbook and locked out of my Advert Manager account, usually at the payment phase after i've put in my payment info. this is the second time this has happened. i've tried to contest it, but it takes ages for FB to reply. if they actually do reply it's just an automated response.

anyone else ever have the same problem?

there's no adult content in my ads or anything like that, and my products are normal.

Post: #35

(07-22-2017 02:25 AM)asiaslayer Wrote:  update: i've got my new store all ready to go and i'm at the phase where i'm going to start running ad campaigns, but i've been getting my ad campaigns rejected by fagbook and locked out of my Advert Manager account, usually at the payment phase after i've put in my payment info. this is the second time this has happened. i've tried to contest it, but it takes ages for FB to reply. if they actually do reply it's just an automated response.

anyone else ever have the same problem?

there's no adult content in my ads or anything like that, and my products are normal.

Certain product categories even if not adult are not allowed on Facebook such as dieting among other things. Maybe check TOS to make sure your products aren't violating Facebook ad terms. Otherwise assuming your not putting too much text in your ads not sure why they are being rejected

Post: #36

Great post, love the info.

A few questions, if you don't mind:

1. Do you run multiple stores (to capitalize on different niche ideas)?
2. Does your store(s) focus on one or two items, or a large variety (say, 20+) within the niche? Does this get hard to keep track of?

Cheers and thanks

Post: #37

Thanks for the details OP. So I was browsing your t-shirt thread and looked up Justin Ceners T Shirt boot camp found here http://justincener.com/bootcamp/ . The sales page is rife with hype it seems, making everything look much easier than it really is. Does anyone have experience with this course, or know anyone who has?

Post: #38

(07-24-2017 04:29 PM)Nitro Wrote:  Thanks for the details OP. So I was browsing your t-shirt thread and looked up Justin Ceners T Shirt boot camp found here http://justincener.com/bootcamp/ . The sales page is rife with hype it seems, making everything look much easier than it really is. Does anyone have experience with this course, or know anyone who has?

Nope, but if someone does, please chime in.

Right now I have replaced several products on my niche site articles with my own shopify store links. However, it seems that people still opt to get the amazon products instead. (I have links to both).

Post: #39

since Shopify is a bit of a pain the ass to get started on and requires a lot of initial investment like dumping lots of money into advertising and constantly whoring out your products on social media, what's the deal with Amazon these days? i thought i read they won't let you sell anything unless you have a company or legit supplier invoice? what if you sell your own unique brands or unbranded items?

Post: #40

Jamacabound is right about the price on the package when it arrives at customs in the USA. But there are ways to smooth things out. Ie, we have many fulfilment centres around the world and we declare lowest prices possible. That way we keep shipping cost and taxes you pay as low as possible.

Post: #41

(07-24-2017 04:29 PM)Nitro Wrote:  Thanks for the details OP. So I was browsing your t-shirt thread and looked up Justin Ceners T Shirt boot camp found here http://justincener.com/bootcamp/ . The sales page is rife with hype it seems, making everything look much easier than it really is. Does anyone have experience with this course, or know anyone who has?

Justin cener does have some good courses but this game is all about mostly testing and a bit of luck. You can sign up for a membership at getswodo and get quite a few expensive paid courses there for dirt cheap to get your basic knowledge. I would also suggest looking up ecom empires on facebook and joining that group. Theres a completely free course there that will get you the basics.

Post: #42

Maybe I missed where you mentioned this explicitly, but you basically buy the product up front in bulk right? What happens if you can't sell 1,000 pairs of leggings or whatever it is you bought on Aliexpress?

Post: #43

(07-26-2017 03:25 PM)goodington Wrote:  Maybe I missed where you mentioned this explicitly, but you basically buy the product up front in bulk right? What happens if you can't sell 1,000 pairs of leggings or whatever it is you bought on Aliexpress?

You don't need to buy anything at all until the customers pay you for it. Then simply order it else where and put their shipping. As you begin to scale up, you can buy items in bulk and have them handled by fulfillment centers.

Post: #44

Any and all products on aliexpress are almost 100% guaranteed already being sold on Amazon, eBay, etc by the Chinese sellers themselves or other scrubs who are trying to sell it for the lowest price possible. Opening a Shopify and dumping money into ads for most of the crap on there is a waste of time and money.

You need to create an original product or find a new one and search for private suppliers.

Post: #45

(07-26-2017 07:41 PM)asiaslayer Wrote:  Any and all products on aliexpress are almost 100% guaranteed already being sold on Amazon, eBay, etc by the Chinese sellers themselves or other scrubs who are trying to sell it for the lowest price possible. Opening a Shopify and dumping money into ads for most of the crap on there is a waste of time and money.

You need to create an original product or find a new one and search for private suppliers.

Just because its on amazon doesn't mean anything. Facebook is interuption marketing. Products that do well are passion items or something that just makes you say, shit i need that.

Post: #46

(07-26-2017 07:41 PM)asiaslayer Wrote:  Any and all products on aliexpress are almost 100% guaranteed already being sold on Amazon, eBay, etc by the Chinese sellers themselves or other scrubs who are trying to sell it for the lowest price possible. Opening a Shopify and dumping money into ads for most of the crap on there is a waste of time and money.

You need to create an original product or find a new one and search for private suppliers.

You are aware that myself, and 100s of others are making 6+ figures a month using Shopify.

But sure, we'll listen to you and jamaicabound, who steals content like and redistributes. Craven little weasel.

Idiot.

EDIT - It's also why I'll no longer post in this thread.

Post: #47

I literally just learned about this now.

For the longest time, I thought dropshipping was either more complex - or a weasel hustle. I feel dumb now for not getting on this earlier but better late than never! No surprise I see a former Toronto trooper here on RVF leading the charge with a great informative datasheet!

My goals now are to get this going for when the Canadian winter comes I can hit this hard and try to get some modest side income coming in. I am not looking to get rich, but if it can be a few $100 a day that can help towards using the money for better things like helping to pay down student debts.

Post: #48

(09-19-2017 01:16 PM)WeekendCasanova Wrote:  

(07-26-2017 07:41 PM)asiaslayer Wrote:  Any and all products on aliexpress are almost 100% guaranteed already being sold on Amazon, eBay, etc by the Chinese sellers themselves or other scrubs who are trying to sell it for the lowest price possible. Opening a Shopify and dumping money into ads for most of the crap on there is a waste of time and money.

You need to create an original product or find a new one and search for private suppliers.

You are aware that myself, and 100s of others are making 6+ figures a month using Shopify.

But sure, we'll listen to you and jamaicabound, who steals content like and redistributes. Craven little weasel.

Idiot.

EDIT - It's also why I'll no longer post in this thread.

I wasn't talking about, nor did I ever say not to use Shopify. I said the majority of the cheap junk items on Aliexpress are already being sold by many, many other people, including chinese manufacturers themselves. I simply meant you have to find a new product on there before others do, or make an existing product unique in some way, if you want to be successful selling it in most cases.

Post: #49

(09-19-2017 01:16 PM)WeekendCasanova Wrote:  You are aware that myself, and 100s of others are making 6+ figures a month using Shopify.

6 figures a month is amazing. Would love to hear more. Maybe a blog post if you don't want to post on this thread?

Post: #50

Guys, if you're going to do this treat it like a real business and not a half ass hustle. I'm not saying dropshipping in itself is a terrible idea but IMHO it's critical you have a relationship with your supplier. You don't just want to be some clown ordering stuff from Walmart or Ali Express it will end badly, your not building a business your acting as a middle man, you have no brand, you have no control over pricing or inventory, etc.

You would be better off contacting a company who makes a product you like and asking if you can be a dropshipper or distribute it, work out a commission rate or discounted price you can buy for, you'll get much further doing this than doing Ali Express.

First off most Ali stuff people are going to buy on eBay or Amazon, not go to a specialty site for. Secondly the shipping times are long and not that I really care about this but technically speaking your violating importing laws because these items aren't for personal consumption or use your doing a commercial endevour but again not acting like moral police so do what you want but I'm saying this isn't really effective anymore.

Tail Lopez is now making videos about this stuff. Alex Becker who in the past was a software developer is now making videos about dropshipping wolf mugs and unicorn socks even though in the past he was a multimillion dollar software entrepreneur who was above this stuff. That tells me that this is completely saturated and dead.

The whole just pay shipping gimmicks are dead, fb ads to stupid products are dead. Again, not saying not to dropship but actually contact a real company making a non shit product, form a relationship and do it the right way.