Looking for good drop shippers

aquatix · #1 (**permalink**) 12-15-2005, 07:47 PM

I have been researching a ton of drop ship companies however a majority of them have a bad rapport here: http://www.ripoffreport.com/

http://www.dropshipdesign.com/ - looks the best but is blasted on the the ripoff site

http://www.getestore.com/ - looks good but also gets blasted

http://www.ebiz-u.com/index.html - looks decent and doesn't have a bad rapport but you have to go through amazon!

http://www.smcorp.com/ - some bad reviews but not real bad. doesn't seem to offer a web site

What I'm looking for is a reliable drop shipper that also offers a web site with the products built in. Anyone know any I can trust?

I am aware of the drop shipper direcotry on the net but dont want to pay $70 for a list of companies that may not even be that good.

I would love any help you can offer...

roban · #2 (**permalink**) 01-01-2006, 07:54 AM

My advice to you is to find a manufacturer who will drop ship to your customers and build a site using any of the free carts available like Cube Cart, Zencart or OsCommerce.

southplatte · #3 (**permalink**) 01-07-2006, 03:25 AM

drop shippers are hard to find.

too many resources you find are nothing more than some other person, pretending to be a dropship wholesaler, who in reality is using the actually wholesaler or manufacturer - so they are a middle man.

check out www.wholesaleu.com might have something - I used it about two years ago and found a decent supplier for some items I was into back them.

Best of luck to you.....

sacho11 · #4 (**permalink**) 03-24-2006, 12:10 PM

www.dropship4free.com

I have been using this site for 2 years to sell and to buy. Even the the top products, like the Xbox Premium System are way below the prices anywhere else that I've seen. Check them out, I've been trying to pass the good word about this site ever since I started to use it.

profitier06 · #5 (**permalink**) 09-09-2006, 08:16 PM

I've been using this new sneaker dropshipping program. You guys should check it out :

www.soleexpress.com[/code]

orange655321 · #6 (**permalink**) 10-17-2006, 03:45 AM

Some sites push IPOD's and XBOX's and other "hot" products to get you to join their dropship program, but many of these suppliers are middle men. The issue with IPODs, XBOXs, and some of these other items is they have a MAP price (Min. Allowed Price). This means you cannot control the markup and you will have very little ability to make a profit on these items alone. Selling an XBOX can sometimes even be a loss. The idea is to get you to buy the XBOX and other products with it to make money. If you want to make profits on some of these MAP items, then you would need to buy them in bulk and stock them. After all, the supplier is going to give Wal-Mart and BestBuy a much better deal then to you for posting 2 products a month on eBay.

You can make money on these and other programs, but find a quality program with a good range of products.

nexternal · #7 (**permalink**) 10-17-2006, 07:08 PM

Actually, dropship4free is a middleman, but if it works...

bathgems · #8 (**permalink**) 10-24-2006, 02:05 AM

I import bathroom fixtures from China and warehouse them in support of our retail site. We have dropshipped on behalf of our competitors because our prices are very good. I can tell you though that dropshipping is not all it is cracked up to be.

From my perspective, the rewards are too little and the risks too great. And service on my part suffered until the relationship became strained to the breaking point. So I would be one of those dropshippers who gets bad press except that I realized the limitation of this type of relationship and stopped doing it.

It looks great on paper but when you get a bunch of frantic follow-up emails everyday from customers who expect 1-2 day shipping then responding to the followups takes even more time away from shipping. Or else you are too slow in responding and get in trouble for that. Then the retailer wants me to take returns. Why, I am selling wholesale not retail?

Being a dropshipper is the same amount of work as being the retailer but without the added profit. Usually selling in bulk makes up for the lower profits but with dropshipping you are selling individual orders.

Also, running up accounts receivable on the shipping charges with UPS, which I was not even making money on, was unnacceptable. Then billing was another hassle not worth the wholesale markup.

Anyways, I just thought I would pipe in with the reason these relationships rarely work out so that you will think twice about building a business around it.

Steve

southplatte · #9 (**permalink**) 10-25-2006, 01:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bathgems

It looks great on paper but when you get a bunch of frantic follow-up emails everyday from customers who expect 1-2 day shipping then responding to the followups takes even more time away from shipping. Or else you are too slow in responding and get in trouble for that. Then the retailer wants me to take returns. Why, I am selling wholesale not retail?

Why did they expect 1-2 day shipping, did you tell them that on paper? If not simply point them to the agreement that stated how soon items would ship, what would happen in the event of backorder. That system could be almost automated with a good web site and good programming.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bathgems

Being a dropshipper is the same amount of work as being the retailer but without the added profit. Usually selling in bulk makes up for the lower profits but with dropshipping you are selling individual orders.

You pack and ship the orders just as you are right now, only for lower profit per piece. When you sell in bulk you realize profits because of shipping an enire truck has a lower per piece cost than shipping one item as well as offering near wholesale prices - I will agree with you on that one. However, most dropshippers offer some sort of markup over the true wholesale cost for the simple fact they will lose money if they don't and most people looking for a dropshipper should understand this, and if they do not, the will probably be the ones who have no business being in business anyway, and will also probably be the ones trying to find out where their 1-2 day shipping is.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bathgems

Also, running up accounts receivable on the shipping charges with UPS, which I was not even making money on, was unnacceptable. Then billing was another hassle not worth the wholesale markup.

Why were you not chargint your dropshippers real-time shipping charges? I have not seen a drop-shipper that didn't ask for the final destination zip code in order to provide real-time UPS charges to the end customers zip code. The dropshipper then charges the retailer that charge, and the retailer charges their customer that charge (or more if they feel the need to profit on shipping). A real-time inventory push system from the dropshipper will give the retailer the originating zip, the package dimensions and weight so they can interface directly to UPS on their web site and obtain the most accurate shipping quotes.

bathgems · #10 (**permalink**) 10-27-2006, 12:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by southplatte

Why did they expect 1-2 day shipping, did you tell them that on paper? If not simply point them to the agreement that stated how soon items would ship, what would happen in the event of backorder. That system could be almost automated with a good web site and good programming.

Why were you not chargint your dropshippers real-time shipping charges? I have not seen a drop-shipper that didn't ask for the final destination zip code in order to provide real-time UPS charges to the end customers zip code. The dropshipper then charges the retailer that charge, and the retailer charges their customer that charge (or more if they feel the need to profit on shipping). A real-time inventory push system from the dropshipper will give the retailer the originating zip, the package dimensions and weight so they can interface directly to UPS on their web site and obtain the most accurate shipping quotes.

We did not have any agreement on shipping dates nor would I want to be completely tied to one. Managing the real goods from several vendors is very different than managing the web side of things. You have different goods selling at different speeds from the same vendor. Reordering at the right time is difficult with the two month delay in importing.

Goods get low, someone swings in and buys a block of goods that someone else was considering. The people in ordering at the companies for whom I was dropshipping were completely separate from the programmers. Changes were not quickly made.

I dont think your reponse to the second part indicates you got what I said. It is not about real time shipping but rather that I billed my accounts once a month. I was carrying their shipping charges on my UPS account which caused cash flow problems. That became unacceptable and is part of the reason I dropped dropshipping.

southplatte · #11 (**permalink**) 10-27-2006, 01:17 AM

Well now that you say you carried their shipping charges, that makes more sense - honestly I have never seen a dropshipper do that, so that is a highly value added service, though I can see how it could run you out like it did.

In terms of importing, trust me when I say I understand completely. I work for a very well known company that imports 95% of our merchandise from over seas manufacturers - we have wait times, missed shipment times and all of that. That is the price of saving money by importing. In that aspect, I work closely with purchasing and directors in our company to ensure proper ship dates, backorder dates, and inventory is displayed upon the web site correctly (in other words I may have to change a piece of custom coding to display a special message for an item that is delayed, or has something else happen on it). At the end of the day, I know what goods are in the warehouse, what goods are on the water and what goods are delayed or still in manufacturing process - as the web product manager, web developer, and server admin I have to know this, and keep it updated in my systems, which tie directly to our ERP system. The really fun part is we are actually two companies, and one is strictly wholesale distribution, the other is wholesale distribution with the online retail only component.

orange655321 · #12 (**permalink**) 11-04-2007, 10:48 PM

"What I'm looking for is a reliable drop shipper that also offers a web site with the products built in. Anyone know any I can trust?"

Home - Moteng International

Pacific Cellular Supply, Inc. - Online Wholesale Store Home Page

calitrader83 · #13 (**permalink**) 11-23-2007, 02:52 AM

hello. my name is darren and i am cooperate with many of factory in china, i am currently helping them distribute product to the USA sellers, i am located in usa. i have the tax ID. we may not have the drop ship services yet, because the factory don't agree to ship just one product, because of the high shipping fee, if you are in the business long enough you will know what i am talking about, many of the amazon, ebay seller.. are buying the mp4 product from me, because the price from me are the true factory price, unbeatable, i don't have website but i can provide you with my USA tax id and my verify paypal account. i welcome you to compare the price.

here is my email address.
niceguymrpeng@hotmail.com
please ask darren for more information

thank you

pixma85 · #14 (**permalink**) 01-25-2008, 03:31 AM

dropshippers are overrated and very $$$, best way is to order 1-2k worth of products at a time if your really serious about your business