Hello All,

I am researching this as an option to move into the ecommerce arena due to working full time, time is extremely limited.

I wondered if anyone had experience of DropshipLand, The Select dropshipping company or If-wholesale. These are all easily found on google so I am sure that someone will have come accross them.

My initial hope is to Ebay first then own website, once I have learned more about them and weighed up whether to learn how to create my own website or buy from a company.

I am very wary as these companies don't provide you with examples of their purchase costs for some products and am concerned that once parted with approx £20, the margin will be 2% to 5% which would just about cover Ebay and Paypal costs.

Any advice or feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Jayne

I have never heard of them, but then I buy stock in.
Anyway I wouldn't do it on ebay simply because you are going to be charged whether they sell or not.Far better doing your own site, it doesn't cost as much as you would think, and listing everything form the dropshipper you decide to go with.
Sorry can't be much more help

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Childrens Fancy Dress Costumes and Fairtrade Clothes
Childrens Costumes and Dancewear

Thanks Tinkerbell!

Fair point. I would much prefer my own site but keep getting cold feed when I see some of the costs. I am happy to manage the CMS myself but have not enough technical background to design the site and know nothing about the hosting.

OK so I think I should do more reasearch but any feedback and advise is appreciated.

Thanks Jayne

Well as far as costs go you areprobably looking at between £50-£100/year for hosting max!
If you need someone to design a template there are some good designers laready who post on here, I am sure they will pop along if you ask
Very reasonable prices too. Nick and Dezina can help with banners etc and templates
You can use a free shopping cart like zencart too, or you have cash to spare there are some very good ones around, i am sure some memebers on here have some, openmind I think is one??
So costs to start with are minimal. Then it is the SEO to work on etc but lots of useful tips on here and there is always someone who can help if you get stuck.

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Childrens Fancy Dress Costumes and Fairtrade Clothes
Childrens Costumes and Dancewear

I've never used them, but I know about them and have heard quite a few stories about them.

If you want an idea of the integrity of the company, read this http://www.netprofitstoday.com/blog/...pship-example/ and decide whether you want to deal with a company like that.

BTW Dropshipland and DVDdropship are the same company.

There's plenty of complaints about them on the net, a quick Google should tell you everything you need to know about them, though be wary of anything you read on a particular dropshipping forum that they sponsor as many of the comments are far from unbiased.

The problem with dropshipping on eBay is that so many of the other sellers will be selling exactly the same products as you, so you all end up cutting your margins just to make a sale. If you can find a wholesaler who is willing to dropship but doesn't do a lot of it, then you might be able to find a niche that'll work for you with little competition, but any of the main dropshippers are likely to have saturated eBay already

As far as costs are concerned, a self contained empty ecommerce store can be set up and hosted for a year for less than one month's fees for a moderate eBay seller. Your own store is far far cheaper than using eBay. The disadvantage of setting up your own site is lack of traffic when you first start out which can be disheartening though if you stick with it, you can soon change this and end up with far more traffic than eBay will ever send your way.

If you want to learn more about selling either on eBay or your own site (It really isn't as technically challenging as some people think) then just ask, there's a few of us on here who have years of experience in ecommerce.

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Lawrence

Suggest you listen to advice given by Tinkerbell and Lawrence.
What you spend on EBay fees, with no guarantee of selling
anything on ebay, could be better used creating your own
individual online store. Not a fan of dropshipping..too many
people doing exactly same thing now.

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Wow, thank you all very much for your input.

I actually feel really pleased with it and very motivated. I will begin by researching and learning more about zencart etc to establish my own website. I have stopped myself signing up for Dropshipping sooooo many times because I had a gut feeling, I am just pleased that I stumbled accross this site.
Have to say.... this forum is brill!!

Thank you
Jayne

Hi Jayne

If it helps i was exacly like yourself with no knowledge what so ever but I stuck with it and eventually with a lot of help of these good folk, I eventually got a website together and I'm delighted with it.

I was amazed how little it cost aswell. With help desigining templates and paying a years hosting, domian names etc i'd say I spent around £250 and that's because i got help to do alot of it which many people do themselves and therfore don't pay for, so depending how brave you are it could cost you alot less.

I looked at dropshipping but did discover too many people doing the same thing so I really took the plunge and found suppliers in china and imported the stock over. That was the hardest and most time consuming part, not to mention the storage implications. But it was the right thing for me.

I'm still learning but that's part of the fun. Zen cart is great and have very indepth forums for all the help you need. I discover new things everytime I visit just by reading other people's threads.

Traffic to my site has been amazing, I've had over 8,000 hits in a month. (I think is good )
Sales are slow though but I'm hoping with a bit of tweeking and time that will turn around.
To get this I've done leaflet drops, advertised in local ad magazines, got every friend and relative telling people, approached businesses like vets etc (being pet products), put lealets in post office windows, shops, things like that. 10,000 A5 leaflets cost me £98.

oh yeah, and I got a t-shirt printed with logo and web address on for £10 and I wear it when out walking my dogs!!!

Anyway good luck and I hope that helps.

Tori

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www.pupsandpets.co.uk

Sound advice Tori..
pupsandpets looking great now..pleased to hear
all going well.
Let me know when Fleece Blankets arrive please..
could do with new one.. might be summer, but my
doggies still love their soft blankets

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Hi There.

My experience of dropshipping has only been favourable. I dont use the large dropshippers unless I have researched thoroughly to see who is selling what and what their prices are like.

Not all businesses who agree to dropship advertise themselves as dropshippers. Many are wholesalers who will dropship if you ask them. Also, smaller businesses will dropship so it's unlikely you would be in competition with thousands of othe sellers.

Like anything else - I have noticed most of the complaints about dropshipping are from people who have never tried this or didnt do their research before taking the plunge. I have lost count of the people who have thought they were going to make a fortune in dropshipping then found their totally dodgy cheap imported dvd boxed sets get them negative feedback.

The companies I work with have been instrumental in my being left lots of positive feedback for sending things quickly and well packaged - I have emailed the dropshippers and thanked them for making me look good

I think the biggest mistake peopole make when dropshipping is their lack of research of a) the dropshippers b)the products.

I dont have an on-line store - too complicated for me as I only want to work part-time and I have no-where to store stock that doesnt sell.

As an aside - dropshipping is a great way to test products - list a few items and when they look like they are a fast seller - buy a bunch of the same items (dropshippers often have wholesale sites too)and send them out to customers when they sell

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