| |
| |
|
Auction Information |
|
|
|
The Down Side Of Using Dropshippers In The Ebay Auction Arena!
Ok, let me just say right up front that I am not against drop-shipping! I love the concept. If you are dealing with a particular wholesale drop-shipping distributor that is serving your Ebay ambitions well, then hold onto that company with bonds of steel, for truly good drop-shippers are hard to find! Drop-Shipping sounds like the utopian business model. No up front investment in inventory. You don't have to carry packages to the Post Office, United Parcel, or Fedex. All you have to do is set up your own business, auction, or retail website and advertise the products that the company provides. Once the orders come in, you forward it to the drop-shipper and they send the product directly to your customer. But, the devil is always in the details. Dropshipping is best suited for a stand alone E-Commerce website, mail order, or catalog advertising venue. If you are considering using a wholesale drop shipper for your Ebay auction, then you might want to take a step back and let me provide you with some "points to ponder." Back ordered products..The reality is that drop-shipping companies run out of product and will be back ordered. Ebay bidders purchase product in "real time." They are under the impression that the item you auction, is the item they bought, not a product that is subject to shortages. One or two customers might be understanding about the situation, but most will not. If you happen to run out of product on a regular basis then your negative feedback rating will go through the roof, and your reputation will suffer. One way to combat shortages is to buy a pallet of product in advance, and have the drop-shipper store it in their warehouse so that you are assured of an ample supply. This method sort of goes against the idea of Drop-Shipping (buying the product in advance) but if you are selling on Ebay, you would be best served by employing this method. Also, if possible, find a drop-shipper in your area, or within a comfortable traveling distance. If you run into any supply or shipping problems, then you could be on hand to visit the facility, should any shipping or logistic concerns arise. Fees..Some dropshippers will charge you a sign up, or entry fee of about twenty five to fifty dollars just for the privilege of selling their product. You are also charged a "processing fee" for sending the product to your customer. The "price for processing" can range anywhere from seven to twenty dollars per item, depending on the type of merchandise you are selling. These expenses, plus Ebay fees, can take a big chunk out of your bottom line. Finding a product that can bring you a profit, as well as offseting these types of expenses, can be a delicate balancing act. Circumventing your customers..While I do not believe that this is a pervasive practice among drop-shipping companies, anecdotal evidence has suggested that some unscrupulous enterprises can cut you out of the sales loop. They could they easily substitute your return address for their company logo, selling directly to your customers. Market saturation..One of the largest wholesale drop-shippers in the county is the B&F System, BNFusa.com. A lot of Ebayer's started selling their products, one in particular, called Giovanni Navarre leather jackets. At first, it was a profitable item. After a while, everyone started selling the same product. Too much of the same supply, creates market saturation, ultimately destroying profit potential for the seller. The Giovanni Navarre leather jackets are still being sold on Ebay today, but I doubt that they still provide a very profitable return for the seller. Even though B&F carries over 500 products in 14 different categories, they are intimately familiar to the Ebay community. You could probably make a great profit from just about any B&F product if you were to sell them off line, and out of the auction arena. When a company becomes too well known to the general public it becomes almost impossible to make money from products that have flooded the marketplace. In addition to finding a drop-shipper who is close to home, it might be a good idea to find a DS company that is not well known to the Ebay market, or who's products have not been scattered all over cyberspace. These days however, it is hard to find drop-shippers that will cater to the smaller seller. Most will find it more profitable to sell in volume than by the piece. The larger wholesale dropshipping distributors are used by retail catalog operations. To get involved with the larger operations, you would have to be doing a tremendous sales volume. If you still want to pursue drop-shipping as a source of supply for your Ebay auction, then I would suggest that you read other opinions, and become as educated as you can about the drop-shipping company you do business with. A good and inexpensive start to finding drop-shipping companies is the Drop Shipping News: http://www.drop-shipping-news.com . Remember, when it comes to Ebay auction selling, "own what you sell." Never leave customer service, or your feedback rating in the hands of other people!! Robert C. Potter is a wholesale and retail surplus products specialist. He is the author of "The Ultimate Guide To Products For Resale!" Over 300 Wholesale & Surplus Supply Sources For Ebay Auction Sellers, E-Commerce Websites, Flea Market Vendors, and Retail Store Owners! You can find his 160 page ebook at: http://www.productsforresale.com.
MORE RESOURCES:
Auctions - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Is The eBay Fee Increase Actually Good For Business? Fee Increase Leaves Some Sellers Angry, Others ThrilledMuch of my email from readers this month concerned the recent announcement from eBay that it will increase many seller fees on February 18, 2005. Since many business people use eBay's online store system as their primary ecommerce point of sale, it's no surprise that most of the emails I received were of the angry variety. Royal Memorabilia -Smart Trading and Fake Dodging This is my second article about trading royal memorabilia on eBay and other online auctions. We're going to explore just what items are really tradable, how and where to find your stock and mention some definite pitfalls to avoid. Real Estate Auction Action - Buying A Home At Auction Due in part to the popularity of the U. S. How to Sell Your Crafts on eBay Artists, craftspeople and photographers are successfully selling their wares everyday on the online auction site, eBay. According to a recent analysis of eBay sales, a crafts-related item is sold every nine seconds, a scrapbook item is sold every minute, and 40 cross-stitch items sell in an hour on eBay. Auction Sales - Keeping Customers You Worked So Hard To Get! If you've studied business concepts you know that finding a customer can be the most expensive part of the sales process. Once you've got a customer why not maximize the money you've already invested in the effort?This time honored business concept certainly falls under the category of going the extra mile for a customer. Your Junk is Another Persons Gold Saving money can be quite hard to do if you are on a tight budget, but all of us can do it very simply by selling the things that are cluttering up our homes and which we no longer need. I am fairly sure that most of us, if asked, would like some extra cash to help pay off a loan or other debt, or to put towards something nice like a holiday or something else that you would like to save up for. The Top Sellers On eBay & What We Can Learn From Them A fascinating eBay case study is the number one seller on eBay, a little outfit called Marie's CDs, but is better known under its old name "1 Cent CD." Jay and Marie, current ID "jayandmarie", are an institution on eBay and are a big part of what makes eBay such an amazingly popular phenomenon. The Benefits of Buying and Selling Locally Shop at a flea market in Oaxaca, Mexico. Trade with a vendor in London, England. 6 Reasons Why an eBay Business is the Easiest and Safest Home Business to Start Calling internet auctions an "Entrepreneur's Dream" isn't poetic license or part of the get-rich-quick rhetoric. Net auctions are the simplest, easiest way on this planet for the little guy to make money. Losing Sales By Overcharging For Shipping And Handling As a serious seller on eBay you're familiar with their fee circumventing rules. If not, visit: http://pages. Seven Steps to eBay Selling Success More and more people try their luck at selling on eBay everyday. With all of that growing competition it is important that you do everything possible to make sure that you stand out from the crowd. The Secret To Real eBay Success Q. I hear so much about people who started selling on eBay and eventually turned it into their full time business. Learn How To Be A Successful eBay Seller Anyone can sell anything on eBay. Open an account, list your product, and wait for the bids to start coming in. 5 Ways to Drive Traffic Away from Your EBay Auction eBay is a one-stop solution to any one who wants to make money online. Whether you just selling a few unwanted items from around your house or your want to develop a work from home business, eBay removes many of the obstacles for you. From Ebay Zero to Power-Selling Hero: How To Learn New Tricks Without Spending The Internet is the fastest-changing marketplace on earth. Million-dollar ideas from one year ago might not generate a single penny today. Ten Sure Fire Ways To Lose Bidders The way some auction sellers approach their auctions, it's clear there are as many ways to lose bidders as there are to skin a cat. If you spend enough time in the auctions you'll see a lot of basic mistakes, but the question remains: why do so many people consistently make the same mistakes over and over again. Effective Auction Listings - How To Create Them Once you've created the best possible title for your item, you will move on to writing your auction description. Here, you have more space to give a detailed description of the item you are selling in the body of your auction. From Ebay Zero To Power-Selling Hero: What It Takes Have you ever wondered what it takes to be "the best of the best"; to outcompete everyone who tries to do what you are doing--and to keep them guessing exactly what it is that makes you so much better?If you've ever owned a commercial website before, you know who these people are: they're the ones who sell the same product as you, but make $200,000 each year doing it. They have top rankings on search engines, flocks of loyal visitors, and a mailing list with 500,000 subscribers. E Bay.com HTML Auction Templates: Which is Best for Ebay Selling? There are a plenty of free e bay.com free auction template services out there and I would like to help you find the service that will best suit your needs by comparing what i feel is the top two contenders. How To Find Tons of Hot Items Selling On EBay ...In Less Than 10 Minutes There are many ways to start a home business online, and few are easier than eBay - the world's largest online auction site. However, there is one critical condition - you have to know what to sell and how to sell it.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |
