Quote: (04-15-2014 07:39 AM)GIJOE106 Wrote:
Do you recommend using a platform (bigcommerce) or hiring someone to build a custom site?
Do you recommend using middle men drop shippers (Doba)? Which one?
If not what are some suggestions for finding legitimate manufacturers or wholesalers?
Do you do your SEO manually or use a software?
I am looking to start one or two Ecommerce sites and have been learning quite a bit over the last year, but I am still torn on what is worth the money vs what is worth the time. Google searching for drop shippers and wholesale distributors is a waste of time in my opinion because they are all middle men. Any other tips on the most cost effective launch or operations are greatly appreciated.
In my experience most drop shippers I find when blindly shipping are generally scams or want you to pay to join and don't even have that great of products or prices.
I think alot of people think drop shipping ecommerce is passive income. I'm not that familiar with it. I'm sure you can probably automate most of your business but I imagine you still at the end of everyday have to figuree out what sold and somehow pass your orders and customer info over to the drop shipper. Your still probably responsible as well for answering customers questions and inquiries about shipping status and tracking numbers.
With drop shippers your somewhat giving up some control over your business as well as your relying on a third party.
I would recommend rather than seeking out drop shippers specifically you figure out a product or niche you want to sell in and start reaching out to those companies and seeing if you can be an authorized reseller and have them drop ship for you.
Look at ebay and all the chinese crap mp3 players and junk like that. Those are all from either chinese companies or people using them as drop shippers. How are you going to compete when the source is competing against you as well as 100 other people buying crap products from the same company.
If you reach out to a company indepenently and convince them you as an authorized reseller having them drop ship can raise business for them. Since your not one in a million dropshippers for them you can probably negotiate yourself a better commission or better prices than a structured program. Also you have more products and companies at your disposal since you can reach out to anyone you want. I did this with a longboard company and also a ukulele company in years past.
My current ecommerce business I hold inventory and pack all my own orders. My supplier offered to drop ship for me for $5 per order. On bigger orders this would be pretty lucrative but on smalller stuff which is the majority of my orders it would basically take too big a cut of my profits.