For all those considering starting a drop-shipping business, I would consider reframing into a wholesale business. I took a product that most would look to drop-ship, ‘built’ a brand around it (nothing more than a simple webpage), and found myself 3 customers. Those 3 customers however, purchased over 400 units of my product in the last week (I profit just over $30 per unit).

If I would have tried to sell 400 units the drop-shipping way, it would have taken months (at best) and I would have had to spend a bunch of money on ads. I spent $0 advertising, and it took me less than 10 days to sell these.

Stop killing yourself split-testing, sending abandon-cart emails, giving discounts, and grinding it out 1 unit at a time. Get on the phone and sell your product wholesale. It is so much more rewarding.

Sure there are tricks to finding the right product and the right customers. But once you figure it out, you can basically pick up the phone and make money. It’s great. I wish I would have figured it all out years ago.

So I think it’s well established in this sub that drop shipping is a no go zone…so my position is this, I have an idea to sell products in a niche that I think can do well, I am quite confident in branding and marketing (I can also build a nice Shopify store etc), but I do have a pretty demanding full time job that pays well, so I have limited time during the day time manage manufacturing, inventory, posting to post office etc. I do have a bit of money that I can put behind it, maybe $5-$10k (plus I can do my own site, marketing and branding etc)

So in my position, what is the best pathway for me? Is there other better alternatives than dropshipping? If I order the products myself from say somebody in alibaba, would I need to do all the logistics and fulfilment myself?

I am in australia by the way.

Thanks so much for all your help! This sub has been so helpful, learnt so much already.

Hi Wantrepreneurs and Entrepreneurs,

Like a lot of people that use this sub, I'm interested in starting a business retailing a niche product from Alibaba. All these factories are in India and China though ;so drop shipping is impractical.

I don't want to have to sit on a bunch of inventory at my home.. what are some alternatives to drop shipping? Are there not firms that will hold my inventory for me and ship it out to the customer for a fee?

Hope someone with more experience can shed some light on this.

Thanks!

EDIT: Anyone interested in this; I found a useful link in another thread on this sub. This firm is located in China and will hold onto your made in china products and ship them to customers for you.

I started dropshipping recently and have managed to see some success (evidenced by the screenshot), but I've ran into an issue which I feel will greatly impact my ability to scale to the numbers I really want to see.

The issue is fulfillment. So right now I'm using CJDropshipping and it's been a stressful experience. Before selling any product, I ask for pictures and whether the variants I'm selling are in stock. But even after doing my due diligence, I still see it taking 6+ days for CJ to process some of my orders and then an additional 7-15 days to ship and deliver them. Beyond that, if I ever need an immediate answer concerning certain issues, I have to wait until the night to get a response from my agent since China's time zone is practically inverse of the US's. The same issue applies to submitting service tickets in general.

My fear is that if I were to scale to 100+ orders a day and for example CJ ran out of inventory, I wouldn't be notified, and even after noticing and inquiring about the longer processing times, it'd take multiple days to get a response. So then I'm left with 100's of orders that need fulfilling and angry customers. And from what I've seen, if something is out of stock, it can take up to 15+ days for new production to finish, then there's another 2-3 days for the new inventory to be transported to CJ's fulfillment centers, then there's a quality inspection, and then orders are finally shipped.

With all that said, are there any other suppliers that are reliable that I can work with? I feel like I'm not able to say I need a 3PL yet but I'd like to find something more reliable than CJ in the meantime. Is my experience with CJ similar to anyone else's? I also realize that though CJ has problems it might be my best bet and I just don't know that since I haven't used other services.

TL;DR: Are there any more reliable suppliers than CJDropshipping? What's your experience with them been like?

P.S. - I added the screenshot to show I'm taking dropshipping seriously in hopes of improving the quality of the responses I get. I'm trying to do this full-time but need some help.

Hello, newbie here!

I'm starting an e-commerce business, importing and selling skincare cosmetics. I have a shopify website and I'm at that point where I'm not sure if I should order a small amount of products (maybe <100) and fulfill orders myself or should I count on my suppliers.

For context, I don't have an extraordinary budget so I will only have a few products when I launch the store if I decide to stock, I'm scared of that being off-putting for clients. But at the same I don't think I can trust my suppliers to fulfill orders for me, use the right packaging etc. and would rather do it myself. I also hope to shorten the shipping time this way.

Any insight, advices would be really appreciated.

Hey guys,

I have a pretty strong interest in e-commerce since the past few months. I just got 18 and as you can expect my budget is small and i cant allow myself to invest big into this idea currently. I heard that you could try out dropship to test out a product and see if it sells. I found a good product and am now wondering if i should try and dropship it for now. I have a "one-product"- Store in mind. Even tough everyone on this sub is trashing dropshipping, is doing it in this case "justifiable"?

I am currently researching dropshipping and POD to open my own store on Shopify. However, I'm not sure which one is more suitable for a beginner like me and easier to do business with. I have looked into and listed the differences as follows:

- Online Business Model: Dropshipping and POD have different online business models.

- Product Storage: Dropshipping does not require product storage, while POD requires the seller to create and store inventory before selling.

- Shipping: Dropshipping directly sends products from the supplier to the customer, while POD prints and creates products upon receiving orders.

- Product Variety: Dropshipping allows sellers to have more product variety, while POD is limited to printing on specific items.

- Customization: POD provides more opportunities for customizing and designing unique products compared to dropshipping.

- Cost: Dropshipping has the advantage of purchasing products at wholesale prices, while POD incurs separate costs for printing and producing each order.

- Delivery Time: Dropshipping generally has faster delivery times as products are shipped directly from the supplier.

- Flexibility and Startup Capital: Both models are flexible and do not require large startup capital to begin online business.

Based on my research, can we conclude that dropshipping is better than POD? Hmm... that is only based on theory, I need advice from people who have practical experience in opening a store on Shopify. Please help!!!!!

I started dropshipping just over three months ago, and honestly, I didn’t expect to sell anywhere near as much as I have. Last week, I hit 1,000 orders, and it’s still growing! I’m making more money than I ever imagined, and it’s honestly amazing – now I just hope it keeps going!

If you’re looking to boost sales, definitely leverage platforms like TikTok Shop, Etsy, eBay, and Amazon – they’ve been incredibly effective for me.

For those curious, my profit margin is around 32%, and after all expenses, my total profit has reached £18,065.66.

I only dropship from AliExpress, and I’ve seen plenty of people claiming that making money from AliExpress in 2024 is impossible and that the platform is terrible. That’s just absolute nonsense.

Don’t give up – it’s absolutely possible!

Lastly, to Chinese agents and manufacturers: Please don’t DM me. I’m not interested in your services.

I see a lot of anecdotal stories that seem too good to be true: start from nothing, earn 10k per week within 2 years.

• Suppose someone were to start with 1,000$ - will you breakthrough or just end up loosing it all?

• How much money does one have to invest to get the business to run reliably?

• What all do you need? A website, advertising, bulk buying deals etc.?

• What are some very important tips that are often ignored in online courses / Youtube tutorials?

For those that have managed to dropship successfully, I want to hear the real stories that led you there, including all the negatives and potential pitfalls.

Newbie here, been studying dropshipping and researching products on AliExpress and CJDropshipping, but I can’t find hardly any products that are affordable with decent shipping times.

AliExpress has some great looking products at the best prices, but it’s almost impossible to find anything that can be shipped before January.

CJDrophipping lacks product selection, and the products they do have are more expensive, but they offer much faster shipping.

What are y’all’s secrets?? How can I find a good product that allows for some decent margins and fast shipping??

Thank you!

Hello. I hope my question isn't too annoying..

I have a good thing going and I want to open a store. I know I can do drop shipping and whitelabel stuff. That's absolutely no problem to figure out.

But I want to order more customized product, more tailored towards my customer base than is currently available. I'll probably have to order in bulk, like 100 pieces, and will need a place to store it.

Thing is, I don't want to use my home as a warehouse, and I want to order my product to a location that will ship it for me worldwide.

I'm really sorry... I don't understand the terminology for this type of setup. Can someone please point me in the right direction?

When I looked into shopify, it felt like it was just a dropshipping setup, and I didn't feel it would support the type of custom ordered product that I want to do. Am I mistaken?

In your experience, what did you choose for your business? Some of the biggest companies say they grew so much because the focused heavily on customer experience which is something I can only do to an extent out of dropshipping. The customer simply gets the product and all I can do is be as friendly as possible if they reach out to me, but in wholesale I can put a more personal touch through handwritten cards, throwing in free merchandise etc.

What did you choose and how did it work out?

Hey, do you guys think it is still worth to get into dropshipping? Especially if you don't have much money to invest in ads? Since the times where every product blows up are gone.

My understanding of dropshipping is outdated... from 2017.

You find a product from aliexpress/alibaba/etc., create a website. You find a supplier. They have inventory already. Your website is a source for traffic. When a customer buys from your site, the information is relayed to your supplier who ships from China directly to the customer. You have no inventory andno direct cost of goods

Is this still what dropshipping is?

I'm confused because I'm reading from people is that now, to be successful, you need to tweak the product or make your own product. Isn't that no longer dropshipping because then you'll have extensive upfront cost (the supplier would have to create the product and hold inventory for you, but I assume they wouldn't just do it for free. You'd have to pay for the product first).

So I'm confused. Can someone clear this up for me? Is that still dropshipping? or are they just recommending a totally different type of strategy?

Hi expertise enterpreneurs, i've found some negative voice in dropshipping since the beginning of this year. Negative blogs about dropshipping, less people in this community online...Is dropshipping dead？

I am currently using spocket to find suppliers for products which I will dropship on my shopify store. However, I was wondering if there are any another platforms similar to spocket that may be a better alternative. I know about Zendrop, but from my experience and from other opinions of others, it is not that good of a platform. Open to any ideas or thoughts about this.

I see a lot of post from people who want have their site rated. Some of them have barley functioning sites or not very well designed sites.

Would be interesting to see how a site that's performing well looks!

Edit: Lol, Posted, went to bed, opened reddit to see that everyone thinks I want to duplicate their site. Well that's on me. I got the message loud and clear lol, Keep your card close to the chest!

I’m not a dropshipper myself, I work with web design and marketing and I lurk here because I'm fascinated about the phenomena. But I'm not built for the hustle of customer support, suppliers, taxes, shipping and all that goes into dropshipping.

I see a lot of people struggling with their stores; unengaging images, videos, copy, color pallets, graphic profiles, convection points, responsive design and so on.

What would be interesting is having a discussion from a reference point, a site (clearly not yours, lol) that is performing well, and discuss the UX/UI choices that were made.