Your experience of drop shipping

[DuaneJackson]

I have the skills and resources to create a website selling virtually any product and ranking well in the search engines with next to no overheads.

I know a few people here have been talking about drop shipping type businesses.

I'm curious as to what your experience of this type of business has been.

Was it successful? What are the main problems you faced or are facing?

[Astaroth]

As someone who has bought from drop shippers my experience has been:

1) calculating shipping can be an issue (ie potentially you have multiple suppliers charging p&p so either working it out on a website is difficult or if you are not absorbing costs the p&p can look rediculously high)

2) Poor customer services, the company doesnt know the products its selling & with a number of them have tried to divorce themselves from post sales issues. There was also a slow process for chasing up orders etc due to the extra link in the chain.

3) A large proportion of your company reputation is based on the services provided by others - it is much easier to switch courier company than it is to switch dropshippers.

[Fusionhost Group]

Well so far my experience has been good, customer service is also good.

Ive had one mistake which was my own fault. But most dropshipping company's want a either a big deposit or cash first before you can even see prices...

[autolycus]

Duane,

Not tried dropshipping myself, but there are some resources mentioned in this article on our site which may be helpful:

http://www.advice4businesses.co.uk/online_dropshipping.shtml

Dave.

[jimbojones]

Hi All,

I have been heavily discussing this topic over the last few months on here and have good experience of setting up dropship services.

I have just spent 3 months researching, implementing and organising over 80 different suppliers/dropshippers for 60+ websites.(ranging from electronics, houseware, CD/DVD's, fashion amongst many others.) I have just left my job and am looking for a good company to utilise my skills.

I have a good portfolio of clients and contacts to hand if anyone is looking to take on somebody with good knowledge of setting up this particular type of service.

In my experience I think dropshipping is a fantastic idea and believe that it is the future of distribution on the web. It has opened up various areas within the online community for all types and sizes of business. Like many concepts there are pitfalls to avoid if you are to make it a success:

A good example which has been mentioned is the shipping aspect. Some companies will charge over the top postage/shipping costs and will then also try to charge you for a "drop ship fee" i.e the inconvenience of packaging an individual item. (therefore the margins end up not being that great).

My advice to anyone thinking of setting up a dropship service is to be selective - if one supplier cannot offer the margins you hope for, there are still plenty out there that will be more than happy to take your business on.

If anyone has any queries, I'll be more than happy to be of some assistance.

Look forward to your thoughts,

All the best,

Jamie

[MichaelG]

We have a very good dropship relationship with our supplier and we do provide a very good after sales service.

I believe the key is to create a site for each dropship supplier you want to work with - mixing suppliers is always a problem - especially with shipping.

[adeljane]

although we are not reseller, we supplier dropshipping service. As far as I concern, if you want to have successful business experiment, first, you need choose the right product and honest dropshipper.
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fingerprint lock dropshipper, free shipping to worldwide
adelshop.com

[ibscom]

We use dropshipping at the moment. There are good and bad aspects to it in my opinion.

Firstly I agree that it is very difficult to standardise the delivery cost. Therefore in doing so it makes you look like you are ripping customers off with fairly high delivery charges. We charge £6.99 purely because we are passing on our suppliers charge, sometimes at a loss.

I must admit it does frustrate me sometimes when suppliers charge a flat £10 rate for delivery just because it is fulfilment when it is not as high to purchase say 10 units. We want to order when we get an order only shipping the quantity our customers want, however we are likely to reach the 10 units just as fast if not faster than any one who had purchased a bulk amount.

secondly It also frustrates me when so called trade only dropshippers sell their goods retail on the shopping sites at a lower or similar price to the trade price they are selling to resellers at. We have got rid of two suppliers because we have seen their products on kelkoo at a cheaper price than the trade price.

Apart from that we have had fairly good experiences and not had that many problems with the supply chain.

However we are always looking out for better fulfilment suppliers so if anyone is aware of any good skype or voip equipment suppliers please let us know.

chris

www.ibscom.co.uk (http://www.ibscom.co.uk)

[TechFox]

I am looking for a gothic clothing dropshipper. Can anyone help?