I just found out a 'customer' is drop shipping my product

[Veloman]

I'm curious about your desire to "squash" it though. Do you feel like you lost something? This person gave you money, the amount of money you asked them for. If they benefit, how is it your loss.

You can raise your price if you want. You can list on Amazon if you want. Why hold animosity though? You have a customer who is teaching you something about pricing, and teaching you that you can be a wholesaler and a reseller. I would send them chocolates, and think about whether I wanted to do all the marketing, or have them do it and just supply them.

I agree, I'm not 'losing'. It's good to have the sales. I did read that he is going against Amazon's policy though, buy purchasing from another retail (who ships) to drop ship.

It's really just a kick in the butt to get on Amazon like I've been telling myself.

 

[Veloman]

If possible, why not value skew the attributes of your product so much so that people are willing to pay extra for your product over your competitors?

I've made it very clear to buyers on ebay that my product is superior (which is the truth), yet my competitor still gets a similar number of sales. It is annoying when there are days I have no sales and he gets a few.

The drop shipping guy has done this 4 times now. I am setting up my Amazon account now. So this will be a good thing - forced me to take action.

 

[Veloman]

I see it as great business by him and laziness by you. I guess I have a question, since you set your price at x, why do you want to lose his sales? Apparently you are making money so why mess that up? Personally, I see it as different avenues of business. Why not just continue what you have with him and you get your @ss in gear to run your own business and not worry about him? You will never control 100% of the customers for that product, as you have seen on Ebay. You tell the potential customers on Ebay that your product is superior to your competitor yet they still buy from your competitor...... that's what you said. So, sell to him wholesale and you sell for your own self retail..... sounds great to me! What's mine is mine and what's yours is part mine ......is how you should look at it.

Well, I want as much of the market as I can get. I acknowledge that I was lazy and should have been listed on Amazon a while ago. I saw this coming. Good on him for seeing that opportunity, but it's not going to last. Once I'm listed on Amazon, he either won't get sales, or his profit margin will dwindle as we compete on price.

 

[Dan_Fastlane]

if you know who it is, dont take any order from him anymore??

 

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[shubham525]

Start an Ebay sale , lower the price and force him or his customers to buy in bulk now. Later on offer even cheaper price on Amazon.

 

[Fastlane Liam]

Is he actually making sales on Amazon?

 

[Tourmaline]

So I shut these 3rd party sellers down pretty quickly by purchasing the product and then purposely not fulfilling their order when it comes through.

That's quite crafty!

 

[Veloman]

Love this thread. Are you able to tier your product and make a cheap and expensive version for ebay? Then post both on amazon for more since there is no competition

Good idea, but my product won't work for that. Many customers already think the price is high (but they still buy because there is no cheaper option). I wouldn't want to go to a lesser product. Mine is a good quality and the customer wouldn't understand the difference. So a cheaper product would just take away sales from the more profitable one.

 

[Lee H]

Good idea, but my product won't work for that. Many customers already think the price is high (but they still buy because there is no cheaper option). I wouldn't want to go to a lesser product. Mine is a good quality and the customer wouldn't understand the difference. So a cheaper product would just take away sales from the more profitable one.

It seems to me you have 3 choices -

1. Stop selling on eBay at the price you're at - increase or withdraw.

2. Do your own listings on Amazon and compete with your customer.

3. Put up and shut up - sell your product for what you're asking on eBay and accept your customer is selling on your product - it's called capitalism! ;-)

The fourth option is to reach out to the guy and see if you can do a joint venture?

It's worked for many businesses in the past and might be a great move for you.

 

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[Rabby]

Good idea, but my product won't work for that. Many customers already think the price is high (but they still buy because there is no cheaper option). I wouldn't want to go to a lesser product. Mine is a good quality and the customer wouldn't understand the difference. So a cheaper product would just take away sales from the more profitable one.

If this is true, your business is vulnerable to cheap knockoffs. This would be a good time to figure out how you differentiate, and make it clear to the customer that yours is better for them in some way, compared to any knockoff that comes up.

I've mentioned this elsewhere, but I sell a class for $695 that someone else sells for $100. I know, it's not a physical product on ebay, but bear with me. I'm sure many a customer's first reaction is "OMG... the classes teach the same subject and meet the same requirement, why is of them is $600 more?!" But then they spend 2 minutes reading the details, or calling the office, and they find out why, and they buy my class. I sell more of that class than the person selling the "same" (but not really the same) class for $100.

"The customer won't know the difference between my product and a shitty one" is not a good operating theory... it's your job as an entrepreneur to communicate the important things to the customers. You're the expert on the product at this point, right?

 

[Champion]

Dont be angry... this is what a free market is.

Just register your product brand name at a patent office and you will be able to kick the guy off your listing!

Best,
Champion

 

[Xeon]

Since he buys from you and then drop-ships your product, how about offering him a deal where if he buys more products from you, you can offer him volume discounts?

This reminds me of those B2B guys who sell their own stuff on Amazon, but their actual business is offering private label / wholesale programs to those who're interested.

 

[Xeon]

Listing on Amazon has been a very good idea.

I assume your product margins are pretty high? I looked at the Amazon FBA rates today and it's just insane.
There's many sellers with low cost products (under $9); I don't even understand how they can make any profit.

 

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