Drop Shipping, Ebay And Home Business

We'll come to the point. The secret of eBay power sellers and eBay "wholesale" product sourcing is the acquisition of low cost goods. By "low cost," we mean prices below wholesale. The real secret, the naked and unadorned secret to this is buying in bulk quantities. The larger the bulk, the better because the greater the quantity, the lower the price. Not everyone can buy in large bulk quantities, however, and that can make it difficult for newcomers to compete with Power bigger eBay businesses. And yes, this does have something to do with why drop shipping may ruin your eBay business.

The Best Business Model?

Here is the question: Is drop shipping really the best business model for your eBay business. Notice that I said, "your eBay business." The answer will vary depending on seller and also depending a lot on the kind of goods you want to sell. If you plan on selling the same sort of products for which there is already a lot of competition, like cell phones, then, most likely yes. The prices for most items on eBay are very low, and if you take the time to really study the marketing, you will see that most items are already selling at or below wholesale prices. This means that if you purchase good from a drop ship company, such as Mega goods or Dropshipdesign.com, then you are buying retail goods and marking them up to sell on eBay. When you add the cost of drop shipping, you are left with very little profit if any at all.

Something else to bear in mind is that many of the big drop shipping aggregators, companies such as Megagoods.com, Dropshipdesign.com, Shopster.com, and Doba.com are not themselves true wholesalers. True wholesale outfits require that you present your sales tax permit before they can sell to you. These are the companies who distribute wholesale goods and determine wholesale prices. Companies such as those I just mentioned may offer wholesale prices, but they are retail companies selling goods at discounted retail prices. Such items may be hard to sell on eBay where the prices are already low. One other thing to keep in mind is that many retail drop ship businesses charge a monthly or yearly recurring fee. Generally, true wholesale business do not charge recurring fees to business with them.

Not that you can't do it, but to make it work you have to carefully research specific products and painstakingly compare them to products being sold on eBay. I guarantee you that on eBay, you will not be able to break even trying to sell "thousands" of products via any of the sites mentioned above without giving very careful thought to exactly what you are selling. Keep in mind that I'm talking specifically about the eBay selling environment. Drop shipping, even with the sites above, can work very well in an ecommerce venue. So how does this all fit together? Our resource box below can help you find out.

Take time to consider what product line you want to sell as this is important to any business success. EBay is great for selling almost any product, but if you are going into business, it is normally considered standard practice to confine your selling to a particular niche; not that you can't expand from their or switch niches entirely later on. Remember, you can always experiment and change your products around, but as mentioned before, at some point you will want to focus on a particular niche. As you persist and maintain good customer service and a consistent professional presence, you will see return business, and keep in mind that happy, return business will talk to other potential buyers, and that is invaluable. Remember, trust and loyalty can be everything. Not all products will perform equally well using a drop shipping model.