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My Shopify dropshipping experience...

Bryan James

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I gave Shopify dropshipping a try once a while back. I built a site that sold tennis products. I have no interest in tennis myself, but I just picked a niche and used some FU money to fund the Shpoify fees and FB advertising fees. This was, mind you, more of an experiment than something I actually gave a real s*** about. When someone bought a product for let's say $40, I'd buy it from a foreign wholesaler for like $10, and have it shipped to the buyer. Everything was going great, I was making money, but then something started to happen.
I started getting complaints from customers that the products were taking forever to arrive at their door. I overlooked the fact that it takes sometimes over a month for a product to arrive in the states from overseas. I ended up calling it a day and closed up shop.
Personally, I have no real interest in starting it back up. Just hope perhaps some of you can watch out for this pothole or tell me what you would've done differently, or have any similar stories, etc. Thanks.
 
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RazorCut

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This is the problem with creating a low cost, low effort and low control business.

Today I would have the product in my hand before selling and then ship direct or send to Amazon or a third party within my country for them to ship on my behalf.

Actually when I first started eCommerce with physical products many, many years ago it was a lot of fun processing the orders and shipping out the products personally. I made every effort to ship out the same day even if they had made their purchase at 4:30 in the afternoon. Common these days but not so much 15 years ago.

We would often end up going to the post office 2-3 times a day before we got big enough to have warehousing and Royal Mail and courier companies picking up from us.
 
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Roger FS

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This is the problem with creating a low cost, low effort and low control business.

Today I would have the product in my hand before selling and then ship direct or send to Amazon or a third party within my country for them to ship on my behalf.

Actually when I first started eCommerce with physical products many, many years ago it was a lot of fun processing the orders and shipping out the products personally. I made every effort to ship out the same day even if they had made their purchase at 4:30 in the afternoon. Common these days but not so much 15 years ago.

We would often end up going to the post office 2-3 times a day before we got big enough to have warehousing and Royal Mail and courier companies picking up from us.

I recall 2-3 times I ordered from Amazon when it took about a month. Very inexpensive items, wasn't in a hurry to receive. That said, I otherwise rarely purchase Amazon products that are not Prime (ie - FBA), unless there's no other option. And we purchase a lot. Drop shipping would have a major uphill battle, given Amazon putting a 2-day expectation in people's mind.

One Udemy FBA course I had purchased is intriguing, focusing on items that sell well consistently over a period of time, but are not the major top sellers...has a number of interesting parameters to qualify as a product to sell. That said...if everyone who purchased that course is using the same parameters, I can see issues. Ease of entry issues, among others. Which is why I'm still looking.
 

RazorCut

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One Udemy FBA course I had purchased is intriguing, focusing on items that sell well consistently over a period of time, but are not the major top sellers...has a number of interesting parameters to qualify as a product to sell.

There are a lot of Amazon/FBA courses out there from 'masters of the Amazon game' but you have to ask yourself why, if they are killing it in the Amazon arena, they want to teach others how to do the same thing and so compete in their marketplace.

The truth is it is harder and harder to profitably compete in this environment as the market gets saturated by hoards of 'me too' entrepreneurs and Chinese sellers. We've had the same issue with self publishing via Amazon. If you already have a loyal fan base you can succeed as an author but otherwise you will find it really hard to get noticed.

When you are being bombarded with ad's for courses on a subject and the media are publishing got rich quick stories of self published writers or a boy who imported a widget from China, and sold a million in less than a year, you know it is really way too late to jump on the bandwagon. The smart money have moved on or are capitalising their knowledge by selling their hard earned info as courses.

For me the real entrepreneurial money is being earned by the people you seldom or never hear about as they don't want publicity. The last thing they need is others discovering their very lucrative golden goose and getting in on their act. This can be local, national or international.

I live in the middle of a rather large forest. I was contacted by someone some time ago who wanted me to create a bespoke database system for them to manage their wildly profitable business. What did they do? They had a contract with the electricity company to ensured that the power lines that ran through the forest had a clear path, so tree's would be pruned or felled to ensure their was minimal disruption to services, particularly during heavy winds. Run from home and very low key.
 
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Roger FS

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Agreed, esp with the FBA comments. I have been an Amazon customer since 1999, and studying the FBA world has opened up my eyes to behind the scenes...but not in a way that I want to compete with everyone from countries worldwide.
I am intrigued with self publishing, since writing is something I had an interest in early on in my life. Yes, ease of entry is low, but excellence is low as well for the vast majority of books. Considering moreso fiction, working on developing the consistent writing habits first, quantity leading to improved quality. The 5000 Words Per Hour book by Fox has good tips to this end. This is also an area my bookworm family would likely be supportive (typing this as my 2 daughters are sitting by me, focused on their novels.)

There are a lot of Amazon/FBA courses out there from 'masters of the Amazon game' but you have to ask yourself why, if they are killing it in the Amazon arena, they want to teach others how to do the same thing and so compete in their marketplace.

The truth is it is harder and harder to profitably compete in this environment as the market gets saturated by hoards of 'me too' entrepreneurs and Chinese sellers. We've had the same issue with self publishing via Amazon. If you already have a loyal fan base you can succeed as an author but otherwise you will find it really hard to get noticed.

When you are being bombarded with ad's for courses on a subject and the media are publishing got rich quick stories of self published writers or a boy who imported a widget from China, and sold a million in less than a year, you know it is really way too late to jump on the bandwagon. The smart money have moved on or are capitalising their knowledge by selling their hard earned info as courses.

For me the real entrepreneurial money is being earned by the people you seldom or never hear about as they don't want publicity. The last thing they need is others discovering their very lucrative golden goose and getting in on their act. This can be local, national or international.

I live in the middle of a rather large forest. I was contacted by someone some time ago who wanted me to create a bespoke database system for them to manage their wildly profitable business. What did they do? They had a contract with the electricity company to ensured that the power lines that ran through the forest had a clear path, so tree's would be pruned or felled to ensure their was minimal disruption to services, particularly during heavy winds. Run from home and very low key.
 
D

DeletedUser63433

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OP, Bryan james...

When you hit walls, you knock them the F*ck down bro.

You will always hit walls and problems in business. Thats when you get creative and think about how you can overcome it.

Try shipping from countries that aren't china. Theres mexico, the philippines, vietnam, peru, india, etc.

Thats my 2c - Thanks everyone for the information!!!
 

Andy Bell

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Was about to comment then realized this is a 2 year old thread that got dug up...dropshipping is now dead. Just kidding :p
 
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