Dropshipping: Any of you lot had success with it yet?
Discussion
I have read about its pros and cons. It looks like the challenge is to find actual dropshippers (not another level of middle men who will take your order and pass it on) and finding someone reliable and fast.
I just discovered the FK Automotive's dropship services from Germany. They are a big "tuning" company with a huge logistics system so they should be reliable and fast, right? They cover basically most of the stuff kids now days like (lowering springs, sports seats etc.). I am also in the final stages of building a new startup e-commerce related to car culture, so I have already a design set up which can be easily and very reasonable copied to a new FK Automotive product line dropship-based site in no time.
Concept:
My idea is to "copy/paste" my already existing design of an e-commerce for automotive products and "copy/paste" all the FK Automotive line in to a separate dropship-only shop with a different strategy. My cost would be minimal, mostly marketing towards car kids.
Why shouldn't this work?
I just discovered the FK Automotive's dropship services from Germany. They are a big "tuning" company with a huge logistics system so they should be reliable and fast, right? They cover basically most of the stuff kids now days like (lowering springs, sports seats etc.). I am also in the final stages of building a new startup e-commerce related to car culture, so I have already a design set up which can be easily and very reasonable copied to a new FK Automotive product line dropship-based site in no time.
Concept:
My idea is to "copy/paste" my already existing design of an e-commerce for automotive products and "copy/paste" all the FK Automotive line in to a separate dropship-only shop with a different strategy. My cost would be minimal, mostly marketing towards car kids.
Why shouldn't this work?
Returns are a pain for drop shippers and have a good read of the distance selling regulations. What happens when a customer wants to return £1000 worth of stuff (to you, the retailer). You need to work out if you can send them back to Germany or if you have enough space and cash to hold them in until you can shift them, possibly as B-grade stock at a lower profit. I would imagine that many car items are heavy with expensive postage.
In my first week when I started I was sending things direct from manufacturers (like drop shipping I guess but they were distributors not specific drop shippers) I sold £1000 of HDMI distribution gear, GREAT! then he returned it the same week as he said it didn't work (it did, he just couldn't run a cable properly!) so I ended up with about £700 cost price of HDMI kit in my first week, when I had no money in the business, the distributor wanted to take a high percentage to return it so I kept it (it's now in my house actually haha)
Point being, be careful what value items you start out with, if you jump in listing high end expensive stuff make sure you can return it or afford to keep it.
I now stock and send most of my stuff direct as I got fed up with third parties not being good enough, your whole reputation is based on someone else doing their job and ultimately they might not be as bothered about your order as you are...
Point being, be careful what value items you start out with, if you jump in listing high end expensive stuff make sure you can return it or afford to keep it.
I now stock and send most of my stuff direct as I got fed up with third parties not being good enough, your whole reputation is based on someone else doing their job and ultimately they might not be as bothered about your order as you are...
Never understood why a proper Company would work on the drop shipping model, mainly for the reasons given above.
We've been trading for over 17yrs supplying from stock but also direct ship bulky orders we don't have space to stock or don't sell often enough.
DSR doesn't apply to us so no issues other than trusting somebody else to do your job for you & not try to poach your clients.
We've been trading for over 17yrs supplying from stock but also direct ship bulky orders we don't have space to stock or don't sell often enough.
DSR doesn't apply to us so no issues other than trusting somebody else to do your job for you & not try to poach your clients.
We distribute a number of brands and the vast majority of our sales are to trade customers who we drop ship for. We hold the stock, they promote the products, take the retail sale, order from us, we dispatch direct to the retail customer. Our trade customers don't need to tie up capital in our brands and we provide very reliable and competitively priced worldwide shipping for them. Normal distance regs apply, we take the products back and supply full refund if the end customer doesn't want them. In practice it is extremely rare that we get returns but then we are good at supplying the necessary info so the customer gets sent the correct product for their needs in the first place.
Works well for our customers and ourselves. As a start up the last thing you need is to tie up significant capital in stock not least because, in the car tuning world, you won't have the experience to know what to stock in the first instance. The list of products available is enormous.
Works well for our customers and ourselves. As a start up the last thing you need is to tie up significant capital in stock not least because, in the car tuning world, you won't have the experience to know what to stock in the first instance. The list of products available is enormous.
We distribute a number of brands and the vast majority of our sales are to trade customers who we drop ship for. We hold the stock, they promote the products, take the retail sale, order from us, we dispatch direct to the retail customer. Our trade customers don't need to tie up capital in our brands and we provide very reliable and competitively priced worldwide shipping for them. Normal distance regs apply, we take the products back and supply full refund if the end customer doesn't want them. In practice it is extremely rare that we get returns but then we are good at supplying the necessary info so the customer gets sent the correct product for their needs in the first place.
Works well for our customers and ourselves. As a start up the last thing you need is to tie up significant capital in stock not least because, in the car tuning world, you won't have the experience to know what to stock in the first instance. The list of products available is enormous.
Works well for our customers and ourselves. As a start up the last thing you need is to tie up significant capital in stock not least because, in the car tuning world, you won't have the experience to know what to stock in the first instance. The list of products available is enormous.
I can't help but think this is a downward spiral as its too easy for people to run it from their bedroom.
It's becoming harder to be able to speak to a company who have a item in stock, which is annoying as a consumer, but thats a whole separate issue.
In the website hosting market, reselling became very popular which is very similar to drop shipping. Companies make it easier for new folk to come into it. New folk think what their USP is, obviously they have none, so they do the only thing they can, compete on price. Next new guy comes in and does the same. Eventually you have saturated the market and are earning pennies on each sale.
It's becoming harder to be able to speak to a company who have a item in stock, which is annoying as a consumer, but thats a whole separate issue.
In the website hosting market, reselling became very popular which is very similar to drop shipping. Companies make it easier for new folk to come into it. New folk think what their USP is, obviously they have none, so they do the only thing they can, compete on price. Next new guy comes in and does the same. Eventually you have saturated the market and are earning pennies on each sale.
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