Ebay Dropshipping

[quashiecorp]

Any good beginner tips for dropshipping on ebay??

[momcqueen]

Tips? Yes. Don’t.

[momcqueen]

And your postage costs....

Where are the items actually located?

[reallynicestamps]

You are competing with dozens if not hundreds of other dropshippers who may have lower overheads than you.

You have no idea of the quality of the items you are selling. If they are garbage, you get the Disputes and the negative feedback.

You have no idea if the item you sell is in stock until your supplier cannot ship to your customer. You get the Disputes and the negative feedback.

Your listings look exactly like every other dropshipper using the same supplier.

You should also read this--

including the part about 'Tobacco Accessories'.

https://www.ebay.ca/pages/help/policies/tobacco.html

And don't try to be cute. Mamma wasn't born on a turnip truck.

[hlmacdon]

Step 1, don't use google to find an answer. Step 2, don't pay anyone for an "ebook" on how to dropship. Step 3, if you aren't an actual business already, stop. It is far easier to make money off of people who want to become dropshippers than it is to make money dropshipping. Any major category is gated by brands or distributors in question. If a suppliers inventory isn't measured in the tens of millions of dollars on hand, they aren't a real supplier. 

[quashiecorp]

their in China

[quashiecorp]

all items i sell are legal to sell on ebay. thank you for your help.

[quashiecorp]

Droppshipping has been working well for me.

[quashiecorp]

how can you make money off dropshippers and how do you advertise to get orders

[momcqueen]

If your items are located in China, all of your listings need to be fixed. It’s against the rules to misrepresent location and you’ve promised your buyers delivery well before Christmas via Regular Parcel so you’ll lose all Item Not Received cases opened against you as a seller.

[quashiecorp]

i have some of my items here as well.

[quashiecorp]

any ideas to help with my business. it is doing okay but want to make it better... 100/day??

[quashiecorp]

thanks for your criticism and no help.

[cumos55]

After 15 years on eBay, it has been learned that success in selling on eBay is based on....

Knowing what NOT to do.  

[momcqueen]

I’m helping you by telling you that you are in VIOLATION of the policies and will have your account shut down if you don’t fix it before this is discovered by eBay. Fix the item location and set your postal services correct. You’re welcome.

[momcqueen]

Also, sellers growth is carefully managed. eBay won’t allow you to sell 100 items per day on a zero feedback account until you can prove you are trustworthy to all eBay buyers. Read about Selling Limits and if you expect help from us here, don’t start sassing the people trying to help you. Please.

[hlmacdon]

The reality check is that sheisters who litter the internet with facebook/blog posts and youtube videos claiming they are making millions of dollars dropshipping from China are just hucksters who want to sell you a pipedream via ebooks, coaching, etc. At best it is glorified affiliate marketing with a factory or retailer who already sells the same junk on the same marketplaces as you but with a far better margin structure. Any of the major factories or distributors there sell direct on marketplaces and house their own inventory via 3PL services in the US. In fact ebay courts these very distributors and factories and has very cozy relationships with them.

A workable model would be having a China based supplier acting as a 3PL housing your inventory (typically an OEM project that you have paid for exclusivity on or own the tooling) and leveraging China Post's advantageous rates. Even then they'll eventually rip off your product and start selling sideways if it takes off. If it sells well Ebay or Amazon will sell your sales data to another factory there and have them make a knock off to undercut you and arrange for an appropriate 3PL party to provide them with an advantageous logistics solution to wipe out your business. 

If you want to learn about real dropshipping, you'll need to start an actual business and start finding out which North America based distributors handle which categories of product. Even then you are competing against every Tom, Dick, and Harry who republishes an EDI feed at a flat rate markup. Consultants in this space charge lawyer level hourly rates.

[momcqueen · Accepted solution]

https://www.ebay.ca/pages/help/sell/sellinglimits.html

Setting your sights at 100 items sold per day is admirable but many months if not years away.

You need to start by keeping your listings in compliance with policy here and accurately reflecting item location. You cannot promise a Canadian you're selling them something that will ship from Ontario and be in their hands by Dec 18 if it's coming from China and will take until April to get here. That's asking for defects and losses. Your losses: you will lose all cases and the items plus the funds paid to you.

Also, your postage costs are suspect. It's impossible to ship a roll of toilet paper to me from where you say it is located for $9 including postage via Canada Post Regular Parcel. That's not even an insured service, businesses don't use it. It's for gramma sending cookies.

Study this. Your future as a seller in Canada depends on it: https://www.canadapost.ca/cpotools/apps/far/business/findARate?execution=e1s1

My final piece of advice to you is this.... if you really want to make a go of it on ebay, you need to experience the site as a buyer first. Like, an experienced buyer. Otherwise, you're like walking in the door to apply for the fry job at McDicks and expecting to be given a job handling all the millions of dollars in regional cash at head office. It isn't going to happen that way.

Plus, with zero feedback, you are a magnet for unethical types because you appear to be new. Completely new. It would be very easy for a seasoned scammer to take you for a ride on the rails. And shipping without tracking. From an incorrect location identifying delivery-by guarantees that are probably MONTHS not even days too short. 

And do not believe anything you see on youtube. They're not Canadian sellers and that advice does not pertain to the realities of selling in Canada. Plus, if they were so smart, they wouldn' t have time to yap at themselves in the camera, they'd be too busy fulfilling orders. 

You will be better served by the advice of people here on ebay Canada Community who actually know the scene and are willing to share advice and experience altruistically. 

[lachnrd]

I wouldn’t touch drop shipping. If the deals are so great invest in buying a whole bunch of inventory and have it sent to yourself so you can sell and ship it yourself. If it’s not physically in my possession I don’t sell it.

[what-sales-direct]

When I started selling on eBay I sold blue ray I purchased in lots of kijiji and dropshipping. I maybe made 100$ a month doing dropshipping, but just realized it was not worth the time (I could have purchased software to automate) I changed business models.

Making 10% margin really puts you at risk. I assume that the biggest eBay Canada drop shippers are making a max 10,000$ profit a month. But to make that kind of money you would need 1000,s of skus and a team.