Post: #1

I need to know how to set up and execute a successful e-commerce business with dropshipping. Any and all feedback will be greatly appreciated: costs, reputable dropshipping options, realistica income potential, time investment, training/education needed to do it, et al. Any anecdotes, examples, articles, etc would be great also. thanks a lot my compadres. Look forward to seeing your feedback.

Post: #2

I'm interested too.

Post: #3

(03-11-2013 04:22 PM)Prince X Wrote:  I need to know how to set up and execute a successful e-commerce business with dropshipping. Any and all feedback will be greatly appreciated: costs, reputable dropshipping options, realistica income potential, time investment, training/education needed to do it, et al. Any anecdotes, examples, articles, etc would be great also. thanks a lot my compadres. Look forward to seeing your feedback.

domain .com $10/yr
hosting $10/month - $200
ecommmerce platform - zencart, magento, etc free- $200 a month
ssl certificate - $50/ yr

the rest is up to you, income potential can be from $20 a month to $2,000,000 a month depends on what you sell, competition and profit margins, demands, customer returns, customer service cost.

but 99% of the success is getting traffic to the site, which companies spend thousands, and millions doing , if you dont get much traffic your site is nothing. Also need to learn about keywords, backlinking and SEO search engine optimization.

start with a small niche, like bird cages (one site makes $300k a year), toasters not electrionics or ipads covers that you will be competing with the big companies.

also NOBODY is going to give your their dropshipping suppliers, it takes awhile to find good ones and they usually dont have websites, so its alot of work involved.

its not easy but once you get it going 1-2 years can be very passive.

google is your friend

Post: #4

Hey thanks man. Good info. I will get on google and begin looking definitely. But I guess if the good ones (dropshippers) are not on the web anyway then that part will have to happen offline. Any good places offline to look in terms of finding quality dropshippers? thanks again.

(03-12-2013 10:17 AM)txbeachbum Wrote:  

(03-11-2013 04:22 PM)Prince X Wrote:  I need to know how to set up and execute a successful e-commerce business with dropshipping. Any and all feedback will be greatly appreciated: costs, reputable dropshipping options, realistica income potential, time investment, training/education needed to do it, et al. Any anecdotes, examples, articles, etc would be great also. thanks a lot my compadres. Look forward to seeing your feedback.

domain .com $10/yr
hosting $10/month - $200
ecommmerce platform - zencart, magento, etc free- $200 a month
ssl certificate - $50/ yr

the rest is up to you, income potential can be from $20 a month to $2,000,000 a month depends on what you sell, competition and profit margins, demands, customer returns, customer service cost.

but 99% of the success is getting traffic to the site, which companies spend thousands, and millions doing , if you dont get much traffic your site is nothing. Also need to learn about keywords, backlinking and SEO search engine optimization.

start with a small niche, like bird cages (one site makes $300k a year), toasters not electrionics or ipads covers that you will be competing with the big companies.

also NOBODY is going to give your their dropshipping suppliers, it takes awhile to find good ones and they usually dont have websites, so its alot of work involved.

its not easy but once you get it going 1-2 years can be very passive.

google is your friend

Post: #5

http://www.igorsoshkin.com/post/24499157...-drop-ship

Wayfair does One Billion in Sales using Drop Ship Suppliers

The owner of Way Fair first started from his living room. He relied on dropship suppliers, and he had websites in several different niches. He then took all of his 200 niche stores and merged them into one big store called Wayfair. Wayfair deals with thousands of dropship suppliers, all of whom drop ship 95% of the products that Wayfair sells on their website. Wayfair sold over a billion dollars worth of products last year. How is it possible for Way Fair to succeed while so many in the drop ship business fail?

Yes, there is something they know that you dont. There are several critical points that must be addressed that is out of the control of your software provider, and that is

a) Product Selection – 10%

b) Product Price – 20%

c) Inventory Levels – 35%

d) Profit Margin – 35%

e) Leverage the Risk of Advertising – Your Bet

f) Get Traffic to your Website – Your Result

Before you read on, I want to emphasize on one point, if you get B, C or D wrong you will most likely fail. If you load products on your website without knowing the inventory levels, you are relying on a chance to succeed in your business. Let me give you a formula to follow to succeed.

If your “a” (product selection) is greater than 20,000 and your “b” (Product Price) is the same as your biggest competitor (ex: Amazon) and your supplier has good “c” (Inventory Levels), then you have a high chance to succeeding.

You need to make sure that you only display and sell what your supplier has in their inventory, remove everything else (Shopping Cart Elite can automate this).

The final step is implementing d, e and f. You can implement Google Shopping or another organic source of traffic to run a test. You can also consider using eBay Terapeak to get your result. The result your looking for is to get a sales conversion percentage for your business. Sales conversion is how many visitors browse your website versus how many visitors will buy something from your website. So if, 200 visitors came to your website and only two bought something, this means you have a one percent sales conversion. You can try to improve your sales conversion by implementing my strategies here http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5...ature=plcp

Once you get your final sales conversion number, you need to implement “e” and “f”. Take your “d” (Profit Margin) and divide it by half to see what you can do with “e” (Leverage the Risk of Advertising) in order to gain at least 200 new visitors for “f” (Get Traffic to your Website).

For example if you make twenty dollars in net profit for every 200 visitors that browse your website, then you want to find a way to get your next 200 visitors for ten dollars so you can make ten dollars in net profit after advertising.

Believe me, when I say that it is all a numbers game. Its been and always will be a numbers game. Its just a bit more complex for an average Joe, which is why if you get it right you can be all the way on the top of the pyramid counting cards without anyone ever knowing how you do it.

Once you do your math, and you realize that you cant make any money, you will know what you need to focus on. Maybe you will need to find a new product, new supplier or new niche. If you run your business like a statistic, instead of wishful thinking, you will succeed. See whose doing very well in the market right now, check their prices, work your numbers and see where you need to be to make your business work. The second you work your business as a hobby, experiment or wishful thinking you are leaving it up to chance to succeed and thats a very risky way of playing the game where the super majority of entrepreneurs fail.

Wayfair made it because they got their formula perfect. They have the product selection, price, inventory and profit. Then they just invest their profits in a very careful and calculated way on advertising to gain more customers, more sales and more revenue.

Post: #6

Awesome feedback. That's what I'm talking about. Full of data, concise, informative and sobering as to the reality of dropshipping. Just what I need. I will look into all these things you mentioned so as to determine its feasibility for me. Thanks a lot and if you have any other feedback, it is much welcomed as well.

(03-12-2013 01:49 PM)calihunter Wrote:  http://www.igorsoshkin.com/post/24499157...-drop-ship

Wayfair does One Billion in Sales using Drop Ship Suppliers

The owner of Way Fair first started from his living room. He relied on dropship suppliers, and he had websites in several different niches. He then took all of his 200 niche stores and merged them into one big store called Wayfair. Wayfair deals with thousands of dropship suppliers, all of whom drop ship 95% of the products that Wayfair sells on their website. Wayfair sold over a billion dollars worth of products last year. How is it possible for Way Fair to succeed while so many in the drop ship business fail?

Yes, there is something they know that you dont. There are several critical points that must be addressed that is out of the control of your software provider, and that is

a) Product Selection – 10%

b) Product Price – 20%

c) Inventory Levels – 35%

d) Profit Margin – 35%

e) Leverage the Risk of Advertising – Your Bet

f) Get Traffic to your Website – Your Result

Before you read on, I want to emphasize on one point, if you get B, C or D wrong you will most likely fail. If you load products on your website without knowing the inventory levels, you are relying on a chance to succeed in your business. Let me give you a formula to follow to succeed.

If your “a” (product selection) is greater than 20,000 and your “b” (Product Price) is the same as your biggest competitor (ex: Amazon) and your supplier has good “c” (Inventory Levels), then you have a high chance to succeeding.

You need to make sure that you only display and sell what your supplier has in their inventory, remove everything else (Shopping Cart Elite can automate this).

The final step is implementing d, e and f. You can implement Google Shopping or another organic source of traffic to run a test. You can also consider using eBay Terapeak to get your result. The result your looking for is to get a sales conversion percentage for your business. Sales conversion is how many visitors browse your website versus how many visitors will buy something from your website. So if, 200 visitors came to your website and only two bought something, this means you have a one percent sales conversion. You can try to improve your sales conversion by implementing my strategies here http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5...ature=plcp

Once you get your final sales conversion number, you need to implement “e” and “f”. Take your “d” (Profit Margin) and divide it by half to see what you can do with “e” (Leverage the Risk of Advertising) in order to gain at least 200 new visitors for “f” (Get Traffic to your Website).

For example if you make twenty dollars in net profit for every 200 visitors that browse your website, then you want to find a way to get your next 200 visitors for ten dollars so you can make ten dollars in net profit after advertising.

Believe me, when I say that it is all a numbers game. Its been and always will be a numbers game. Its just a bit more complex for an average Joe, which is why if you get it right you can be all the way on the top of the pyramid counting cards without anyone ever knowing how you do it.

Once you do your math, and you realize that you cant make any money, you will know what you need to focus on. Maybe you will need to find a new product, new supplier or new niche. If you run your business like a statistic, instead of wishful thinking, you will succeed. See whose doing very well in the market right now, check their prices, work your numbers and see where you need to be to make your business work. The second you work your business as a hobby, experiment or wishful thinking you are leaving it up to chance to succeed and thats a very risky way of playing the game where the super majority of entrepreneurs fail.

Wayfair made it because they got their formula perfect. They have the product selection, price, inventory and profit. Then they just invest their profits in a very careful and calculated way on advertising to gain more customers, more sales and more revenue.

Post: #7

Good post calihunter. But PrinceX, by far the absolute best way is get on a plane to China. Nothing beats going in person to the actual factory, meeting and being treated to fancy dinners/lunches/karaokes with hot babes being thrown at you by the factory's owners with them fighting for your business. Why go through a drop shipper? Instead, deal directly with the source, the factory.

Post: #8

Storecoach.com

Post: #9

Thanks for the info. Here is some info about storecoach.com http://www.warriorforum.com/internet-mar...coach.html

Post: #10

Great info man. So do these factories do the shipping piece for you too? Lemme know.

(03-12-2013 11:57 PM)Vacancier Permanent Wrote:  Good post calihunter. But PrinceX, by far the absolute best way is get on a plane to China. Nothing beats going in person to the actual factory, meeting and being treated to fancy dinners/lunches/karaokes with hot babes being thrown at you by the factory's owners with them fighting for your business. Why go through a drop shipper? Instead, deal directly with the source, the factory.

Post: #11

(03-13-2013 01:02 PM)Prince X Wrote:  Great info man. So do these factories do the shipping piece for you too? Lemme know.

(03-12-2013 11:57 PM)Vacancier Permanent Wrote:  Good post calihunter. But PrinceX, by far the absolute best way is get on a plane to China. Nothing beats going in person to the actual factory, meeting and being treated to fancy dinners/lunches/karaokes with hot babes being thrown at you by the factory's owners with them fighting for your business. Why go through a drop shipper? Instead, deal directly with the source, the factory.

Sounds great if you can afford their 5,000+ minimum order, they not going to wine and dine you for a $100 item you want drop shipped one at time, and most of the factories will not drop shop anything, they sell in volume, plus shipping fees, custom brokerage fees, storage fees, fulfillment fees.

most stores start out with dropshipping to avoid having inventory, then move up the wholesale ladder. start small until you find a niche and see what sells, and how to market it. then i would go to china, and avoid 99 percent of the junk on warrior forum most of it is just to sell to noobs, nobody who is running a successful ecom store would offer to coach someone for $50/month when they can make much more running the store. check out 4 hr work week the chapter on building a muse will help.

Post: #12

Dropshipping is how Rock Auto works. They don't inventory anything and have gotten pretty damn big. Can find seemingly any part available for any car on their site. It was started by a couple brothers in a basement as I recall.

I tried finding where they are sourcing the stuff but had no luck.

Post: #13

Before even thinking about starting an ecommerce business, you have to understand and master SEO and paid advertising.

Seriously, it sounds like you have no background in internet marketing nor ecommerce. Unless you're VERY dedicated and motivated you won't succeed. There's a lot of talented competition and already thousands of dead ecommerce stores out there, because they have no traffic.

Also, Google is about to increase the difficulty. Read this recent news: http://www.seroundtable.com/google-merch...16477.html

Post: #14

thanks for the info dotbiz

Post: #15

Btw, I didn't want to stop the OP from doing it. It's just a fair warning.

Time to provide some value:

If you want to test the waters, I suggest you build an Amazon affiliate store:

• No need for dropshipping connections or a warehouse.
• No need for payment gateways and processors.
• No hassle with customer support and returns.
  

People can put the products into their shopping carts and once they want to checkout they get redirected to Amazon where they can finalize their order and you get the commissions.

Create a good category structure, add selected products and write or order unique content for category and product descriptions.

Next try to get some traffic to your store.

If you start making sales you can still replace the Amazon store with a real ecommerce store, with the added bonus of knowing it will have traffic and bring you sales.

This way the entry barrier is lower and you can find out if this is for you without spending too much time and money.

This is the Amazon affiliate store script (click on the top banner for video & features): http://bit.ly/YdBHLq
Disclaimer: It's an affiliate link. IMHO it's the best Amazon script on the market.

Post: #16

Guys I'm really inspired by the level of entrepreneurship among some of you. What keeps me back is that I currently make 80k on a 40h/week job so the starting grind for pocket change is difficult to motivate.

Post: #17

No pain, no gain.

I tell you what motivates me:

- Being my own boss. Nobody tells me what do do nor do I have to argue over what's the right way to do something.
- Working from anywhere in the world and surfing in France, diving in Mexico and taking thai box classes in Thailand while doing so.
- Growing my own business. Not growing another persons business while earning the same. There's no incentive.
- Earning more.

And btw, I walked away from a 140k job.

Post: #18

(03-14-2013 02:56 PM)dotbiz Wrote:  And btw, I walked away from a 140k job.

How many hours were you doing then and how much are you making now?

Post: #19

Back then: 9h dayjob plus 3-8h working on my own business at night

Now: 3-16h, totally depends. But I definitely work more than the average Joe. But it's kind of a hobby to me. I love what I'm doing. Not every part of it, but most.

Post: #20

Here you go - a thorough, no-nonsense guide to dropshipping http://ecommerce.shopify.com/guides/dropshipping

This guy isn't trying to do a hard sell, he simply presents it how it is.

Now for product categories and finding a niche -- any tips?

Post: #21

what kind of shit do you want to dropship? there are specialists for everything. knowing what you want to do is a good first place to start. I can guarantee if its something you're NOT interested in and just solely do it for the profit$, you're not gonna be successful. You at least have to enjoy what you're doing someway.

Post: #22

(03-14-2013 02:46 PM)Vicious Wrote:  Guys I'm really inspired by the level of entrepreneurship among some of you. What keeps me back is that I currently make 80k on a 40h/week job so the starting grind for pocket change is difficult to motivate.

Just think of it as a long-term investment. Put a little bit of time into it consistently and over time you have the a small possibility of seeing exponential growth or possibly passive income if you plateau somewhere along the way. At worst you'll learn a lot about how search works and master a new skill.

PM me if you want to throw around ideas. I know quite a bit about e-commerce, have some good resources and am sketching out a bunch of ideas right now.

Post: #23

Dotbiz!!! Man you a hater!!! Nah, just playing. LOL. You are exactly right. I have no background and need to learn. Thanks for the honest feedback-you are adding SERIOUS value to this thread and I appreciate that. I think I will look into that amazon affiliate store thing to start and build from there. Looks like I have a lot to learn and tackle so I better get busy. Thanks again for the realist viewpoint and hard facts. That's just what I needed. Keep it coming.

(03-14-2013 09:51 AM)dotbiz Wrote:  Before even thinking about starting an ecommerce business, you have to understand and master SEO and paid advertising.

Seriously, it sounds like you have no background in internet marketing nor ecommerce. Unless you're VERY dedicated and motivated you won't succeed. There's a lot of talented competition and already thousands of dead ecommerce stores out there, because they have no traffic.

Also, Google is about to increase the difficulty. Read this recent news: http://www.seroundtable.com/google-merch...16477.html

Post: #24

Caligula, great feedback bro. I appreciate the candor and reality-based value you guys are giving here. Much needed. I will be shooting you a PM on this.

(03-14-2013 05:44 PM)Caligula Wrote:  

(03-14-2013 02:46 PM)Vicious Wrote:  Guys I'm really inspired by the level of entrepreneurship among some of you. What keeps me back is that I currently make 80k on a 40h/week job so the starting grind for pocket change is difficult to motivate.

Just think of it as a long-term investment. Put a little bit of time into it consistently and over time you have the a small possibility of seeing exponential growth or possibly passive income if you plateau somewhere along the way. At worst you'll learn a lot about how search works and master a new skill.

PM me if you want to throw around ideas. I know quite a bit about e-commerce, have some good resources and am sketching out a bunch of ideas right now.

Post: #25

(03-14-2013 02:46 PM)Vicious Wrote:  Guys I'm really inspired by the level of entrepreneurship among some of you. What keeps me back is that I currently make 80k on a 40h/week job so the starting grind for pocket change is difficult to motivate.

So if you're not inspired with the money, then how are you inspired?

Also judging by your flag you are living in Sweden, 80k in Sweden is decent, but not that great, it's one of the most expensive countries on Earth.

Also dropshipping is a great mobile business. I would rather be making 40k living in Thailand then 80k in Sweden

Just sayin