Don't write off dropshipping as a business model. It only gets a bad rep because of the way most people think of it.
Most people think dropshipping = cheap Chinese products, no value-add, no brand building, no customer support, etc. When really, any physical products business could be a "dropshipping" business if it was arranged as such. Dropshipping simply means that you aren't holding stock yourself as a business, but rather it is shipped directly from the point of origin. This is typically to save on warehousing and shipping costs.
This might blow your mind, but there are many other countries outside of China that have world-class manufacturing. @Walter Hay has been preaching this for years. Vietnam, Taiwan, Japan, USA, Germany, Italy, France, etc. Look inside your own backyard, almost every major North American city has some sort of manufacturing. Most of these manufacturers don't sell directly to the end user.
For example, in my previous business venture, we sourced directly from manufacturers in Brazil, and they dropshipped the product directly to our customers since our products were heavy, large, and expensive ($2,000+), which saved hundreds on each product shipped. We worked with them to create new designs, functionality, performance, and of course our own branding.
There's no right or wrong way to go about it, at the end of the day you are just solving a problem. Figure out the most efficient way to solve that problem, and you will be profitable. If everyone else has easy access to the same products as you (via Aliexpress) the barrier for a competitor to crop up is non-existent. You will be fighting every week to come up with new product ideas because they get washed out with the competition.
Most people think dropshipping = cheap Chinese products, no value-add, no brand building, no customer support, etc. When really, any physical products business could be a "dropshipping" business if it was arranged as such. Dropshipping simply means that you aren't holding stock yourself as a business, but rather it is shipped directly from the point of origin. This is typically to save on warehousing and shipping costs.
This might blow your mind, but there are many other countries outside of China that have world-class manufacturing. @Walter Hay has been preaching this for years. Vietnam, Taiwan, Japan, USA, Germany, Italy, France, etc. Look inside your own backyard, almost every major North American city has some sort of manufacturing. Most of these manufacturers don't sell directly to the end user.
For example, in my previous business venture, we sourced directly from manufacturers in Brazil, and they dropshipped the product directly to our customers since our products were heavy, large, and expensive ($2,000+), which saved hundreds on each product shipped. We worked with them to create new designs, functionality, performance, and of course our own branding.
There's no right or wrong way to go about it, at the end of the day you are just solving a problem. Figure out the most efficient way to solve that problem, and you will be profitable. If everyone else has easy access to the same products as you (via Aliexpress) the barrier for a competitor to crop up is non-existent. You will be fighting every week to come up with new product ideas because they get washed out with the competition.