When it comes to dropshipping on Amazon, it comes down to this:
Should you spend your precious time selling on Amazon, making good money for an unpredictable amount of time? Or...
Spend it building an eCommerce business that will last and continue to bring you money years into the future?
Which sounds better?
In this article, I'm going to cover why dropshipping on Amazon might not be the best way for you to build your eCommerce business on.
The (REAL) Truth About Dropshipping on Amazon
There are a lot of different ways to drop ship, but the one I get asked about the most is Amazon dropshipping. To help answer whether you should use Amazon to drop ship, let’s take a look at some of the pros and cons of selling on Amazon.
First up, are the pros to Amazon
Pro: Very Large Audience
A lot of people are very concerned with traffic, and how to get it to their store. After all, traffic is the cornerstone of any eCommerce business.
One of the best parts of Amazon is that it has around 2.5 billion visitors each month that are looking to buy.
Now this doesn’t mean that all that traffic is going to come across your door step… But it does mean there is already a pool of people ready to purchase, which is hard to pass up.
The good news is Google PLAs have even more reach, so if you do what I teach and build your own dropshipping store, you’re going to have a rich pool of people to market to.
Remember, with Google PLAs you’re only targeting those who are likely to buy. Rather than hoping that the right people show up to your drop ship Amazon store.
Pro: Easy Set-Up + No Hosting
A lot of barriers to starting your own dropshipping business are technical ones. People think they have to be web developer to have a beautiful storefront.
With Amazon, you aren’t registering URLS, working with a hosting company, and doing a bunch of back-end work on your site.
Instead, you just use their process and list products on their site. It is a lot less daunting to people who believe the myth that you have to know a lot about technology to create something that sells, something professional looking.
Selling on Amazon Pros:
- Very Large Audience
- Easy Set-Up
With that being said, let’s take a look at the cons of selling on Amazon…
Con: Not A Sellable Asset
One of the most exciting things about building your own store is that you’re building a sellable asset. It’s something that people new to eCommerce overlook. After you find some success, your store has a real value if you ever want to sell it. That’s because buyers are interested in finding dropshipping stores that are already successful.
With Amazon, you don’t have a sellable asset. It’s almost a flea market type structure, where you pay for a booth. You don’t own the flea market, you’re just a vendor in it.
Con: No Access To Customer Data
If you’re new to eCommerce you may not know that having customer data is crucial to growing your business.
With data and emails you can build a meaningful relationship with your audience, which you’ll use to sell new products. It’s called the Lifetime Value (LTV) of a customer.
With Amazon dropshipping, you aren’t privy to the customer data… leaving you with no way to scale your business.
Con: Your Store Could Disappear Overnight
Now Amazon can use that customer data that I previously mentioned to discover what new niches are profitable and then expand their very own line into your niche.
This happens more often than you would think and pretty much shuts down your store overnight. Since Amazon owns every part of the transaction, they can offer a better price than you’ll be able too.
Not to mention they will have their product rank above yours because it’s their site after all.
Con: Suppliers Won’t Work With You (Especially Local) if you're an Amazon Dropshipping
With the flea market nature of selling on Amazon, a lot of suppliers won’t want to associate their brand with you. Instead, if they want an Amazon presence, they will just set up their own store. Basically there is very little upside to work with you.
Selling on Amazon Cons:
- Not a Sellable Asset
- No Access to Customer Data
- Your Store Could Disappear Overnight
- Suppliers Won’t Work With You
Now that you have some pros and cons, I want to talk about how you get products to sell on Amazon.
How to Drop Ship Products
The main goal of this article is to help show you why drop shipping on Amazon might not be the best way for you to build a real brand that provides real value to your customers and your bank account.
Let’s first start by taking a look at the three different ways you can make money– from literally anywhere in the world– using the drop shipping business model.
Arbitrage
Arbitrage is the first way to drop ship, and it’s the most common way to drop ship on Amazon. Basically, this model consists of buying from one place to sell to another.
So in this example, especially selling on Amazon, a lot of people try to source products from a company like Walmart. These drop shippers try to find products with low prices that sell for more on Amazon! In this scenario, Walmart would be the supplier.
AliExpress Dropshipping
Another method of drop shipping is using AliExpress– a Chinese marketplace.
With this drop shipping method, you are sourcing products from Chinese factories to ship to customers all over the world. Drop shipping from China may sound like a good idea, considering many factories are located in that country.
However, what is tricky about this method is that most people use Oberlo, which is pretty much a middleman app. And as you may know, using a middleman is a huge mistake I see new drop shippers making.
Domestic Dropship Suppliers
The third drop shipping method I want to discuss is selling for suppliers in your home country. With this method you are building a drop shipping business, and selling for suppliers in your home country.
For example, I am from the States, my businesses are in the States, and I am selling for suppliers that are located in the States.
If you are drop shipping from Australia, you would look to drop ship for Australian suppliers. That’s how domestic drop shipping works.
Amazon Dropshipping: What Works?
So, in case you were wondering, no you don’t need to use Amazon with the above drop shipping methods.
Since there are a lot of different drop shipping strategies, here’s a quick example of the shopping experience.
Let’s say our customer’s name is Sarah. She’s on the internet, sees your ad, and lands on your Shopify store.
Once she places her order, you have a few different options for fulfillment:
- Arbitrage Model: You could go to Amazon, buy the product, and have it shipped to Sarah.
- Use a Middleman: You could also have Oberlo linked to your store, which would be fulfilled from a third party supplier (most likely AliExpress).
- Domestic Suppliers: The last option is working with a domestic supplier, which means they are based in the country you’re doing business in.
Again, these are the main ways that most people actually run drop shipping businesses to use as a fulfillment method.
Amazon Dropshipping Using the Arbitrage Model
Let’s tackle the arbitrage model using the same scenario from above. Now, here is the thing - can this work? The answer is, yes.
However, one of the biggest problems here is that you have to make sure these products are always in stock.
When your orders are coming in on Amazon and you have to fulfill them, you are not working with the supplier who is telling you how much inventory they have.
You are going to another website, buying these items, and then shipping it to the customer that bought from you on Amazon. Not to mention, the packaging is going to come from Wal-Mart, and that starts to lead to serious customer service issues.
Even though I know people are using this method and making some quick money doing so, I have two reasons why I would never recommend this model.
Problem #1 Customer Service
Arbitrage requires quite a bit of manual work. When you order the products from Amazon, you have to private message the sellers and ask them to not include any slips, invoices, and packaging from Amazon.
Otherwise, your customer will receive something from Amazon, becoming confused and angry. This isn’t a good business relationship, which leads to problem #2…
It’s not a business.
Problem #2 It’s Not a Business
Plain and simple, with this model of drop shipping on Amazon you are not building a sustainable business. You are building a quick project, trying to flip a product to make a couple of bucks.
Maybe you can get $10 if you score a large enough gap between the Wal-Mart price and the Amazon price...maybe.
The arbitrage model could be a hobby or something to experiment with for a short time, but stay wary.
Issues with Dropshipping from Amazon:
- Not sustainable (not consistent selling products)
- Too much manual work for small profits (lots of private messaging to customers)
- No barriers to entry means lots of competition
- Customers will occasionally receive Amazon packaging on accident (leading to frustrated and angry complaints)
Dropshipping with AliExpress
If you are still set on drop shipping with Amazon, your next option would be using a website that gives you a bit more freedom– like AliExpress. AliExpress allows for more freedom by offering private label products.
For example, instead of selling branded Sharpie markers, with AliExpress, you could sell a ‘private label’ product, such as Anton’s Famous Orange Marker. This leaves you with a little bit more control.
TIP
A private label product is manufactured by a contract or third-party manufacturer and sold under a retailer's brand name.
Yet, using AliExpress to drop ship isn’t without its flaws. If you want use AliExpress to drop ship on Amazon, you are going to run into the issue of long lead times.
Even the fastest ePackage shippers on AliExpress– we’ve tested all of them just to see– take weeks to deliver the item to your customer!
If you are familiar with Amazon, you know about their impressive shipping speeds. Most of the world is used to Amazon delivering packages in two or three days, not two to three weeks.
And guess what? On top of that, you are almost guaranteed to get negative reviews, and returns will be a bigger headache than your customers even imagined.
If your customer returns the product, it’s not going back to China. Thanks to Amazon’s very lenient return policy, all of these products are returned back to YOU. Because of this, I do not recommend this model if you want to drop ship on Amazon.
How to Make Money on AliExpress
The way AliExpress drop shippers usually make money is by selling on their own Shopify stores. On Shopify, you can get away with a less-than-perfect customer service experience. Bad reviews won’t break the bank.
On the other hand, if your customers on Amazon aren’t happy, they tell the world, and you could get banned from the site.
If you are drop shipping with your own store, maybe you can get away with not having the best customer service. That’s the category a lot of these AliExpress drop shippers fit into.
Issues with Drop Shipping from AliExpress:
- Always trying to catch the latest trend
- Inexpensive & sub-par quality products
- No MAP policies
- No branding whatsoever
- Long lead times
- No barriers to entry
How to Use Amazon to Drop Ship Domestically
The third method of drop shipping on Amazon is how you can actually build a real business.
The best example I can give you would be if I sold a simple paddleboard in my drop shipping business. If I had a good business relationship with the paddleboard suppliers, I could ask, “What's my cost, what's my wholesale cost, what's my MAP cost, and what's the MSRP?”
Then I sell the paddleboard and the company fulfills the order. We’re all familiar with this process!
This model is one that works well to drop ship on Amazon.
Now, I am not saying it just because it's what we do. We use this model because it's what works.
Think of it this way: basically you are selling these products that are on Amazon, and your supplier is in your home country. When an order is placed, you tell your supplier to ship them out. A few days later, your Amazon customer gets their product.
After that, they are either happy with your product or they are not. Either way, if it gets returned, the product goes right back to your supplier. Now you can start to see the benefits with a model like that.
However this method is not perfect and has issues of its own...
Issues with Domestic Dropshipping on Amazon:
- You need to do market research
- You need to build a website BEFORE you apply
- You need to earn the trust of top-tier suppliers
- It takes real work to get started
Finding Suppliers for Amazon Dropshipping
I have been in the eCommerce industry for more than a decade, and I have learned a lot of things along the way. One of the biggest being that about 70-80% drop shipping suppliers and brands will forbid you from selling their products on Amazon.
This is all part of what makes a good drop shipping supplier, well... a good supplier.
The reason many drop ship suppliers don’t want you to sell on Amazon is because there isn’t much of a benefit to sell there. The last thing these suppliers want is 20 different companies like us having a price war on Amazon or eBay.
So if you’re reading this, you are probably thinking, “Thanks Anton, I just read a huge blog post only to find out I can’t dropship on Amazon??”
Well, that’s pretty much true. However, you can get suppliers who don’t mind if you sell on Amazon. And if they don’t mind, it may be well worth your efforts to give drop shipping on Amazon a shot.
If You’re Still Set on Amazon Dropshipping, Consider This...
If your suppliers tell you NOT to sell their products on Amazon, here is what I recommend you do: Get approved with the individual suppliers in your niche. Then sell their products as their brands making you the retailer.
Think about it: when you go to a Walmart or a Target, they don't sell their own products, they sell products for different brands.
In your case, you would have five different brands. Then you build a Shopify store with all of their products listed on your website. THEN, you drive traffic to your website through Google. Check out a few of our example stores in our Ultimate Dropshipping Guide.
The idea of selling on Amazon is attractive because there are so many people shopping there every day.
But get this... Google Shopping and Google Product Listing Ads have even more people searching around for products to buy!
So...Should you be Selling on Amazon?
I hope you found this explanation helpful. If you were excited about drop shipping on Amazon and I just burst your bubble, I’m sorry. But this is the truth– whether you like it or not.
I am telling you this from my experience in the business. This is how we have consistently been able to drop ship profitably. It's not drop shipping on Amazon. It's not drop shipping on eBay. It's not drop shipping from China. It's not doing the arbitrage model.
It's working with legitimate brands, developing real business relationships, building a real business, and using Google as the primary driver of sales.
If you got something out of this post, please leave a comment below. If you have any questions, throw them in the comments! I'm more than happy to get down there and help you out.
I want to sell specialty items for show dogs.
Hello Anton, Your education and information regarding dropshipping is generous and valuable, thankyou. I am curious though, why do you sell courses to drop ship when you are already very successful with your own dropshipping stores.
This was so helpful as I was so convinced by drop shipping
Very good Anton! Thank you. Youve saved me a ton of wasted effort on Amazon Dropshipping. I thought Oberlo was defunkt now though? I was thinking about using Alibaba private white labelling though, but I know the issues with dealing with China and the long leadtimes and shipping issues. Anyway thank you very much.
You’re welcome Andrew! And yes, Oberlo has been phased out and replaced with an app called DSers. Either way, I do not recommend dropshipping from China and instead would encourage you to source drop ship suppliers from the USA (or from whatever country where you plan to do business).
I have heard that GoogleAds is suspending accounts that use drop-shipping models. What is the way to avoid being suspended? This is important especially since the course uses GoogleAds.
Google Ads has not/is not specifically suspending dropshipping stores. However, they have always suspended accounts that violate their policies (of which there are many) and any business (including dropshipping businesses) will have to comply with the policies before having their accounts reinstated.
This is why we have an entire lesson in the Blueprint about compliance and what to do before you even create a Google Ads account.
Hope that helps!
Amazon allows drop shipping. They simply require that you be the seller of record for your products, ensure all packing slips and other info identifies you as the seller (not the drop shipper), and you process your own customer returns.
* Amazon Dropshipping Policy (you’ll need seller account to access this page)
Am I allowed to use Prime account for purpose of resale?
Prime members are not permitted to purchase products for the purpose of resale, rental, or to ship to their customers or potential customers using Prime benefits.
* Amazon Prime Terms
We recommend using 3rd party warehouse services to be able to identify yourself as the seller of your products on all packing slips / control your inventory / handle returns & to be able to put your own branding on the box.
I live in the USA and the supplier is here in the US. They do the drop shipping in USA for me. But they also have a company in Canada. I asked them if they can drop ship to customers in Canada. but they said that I will have to get a business license in Canada in order for them to drop ship for me. Any suggestions? Thanks
Hmmm… I’m sorry but I’ve never heard that from any of my suppliers before.
So are you using Aliexpress right now? Thankfully, I find this article, I was thinking to buy an amazon website costs thousand something while aliexpress only hundred something. Please give me a guide whether I should stick on Aliexpress. Thank you
Nope! We do not dropship from China. We only work with domestic suppliers. I cover why in my training webinar here: Free Training From Drop Ship Lifestyle
You cannot dropship on Amazon. If you are fulfilling as a merchant (the only way this is possible), Amazon will eventually complete due diligence and ask for proof of product possession, if you can’t provide it you will have your account suspended.
Agreed!
Very impressive and interested
Awesome! Hope to work together soon 🙂
Great Post. The real truth behind Amazon dropshipping!
100%! Glad you enjoyed it, Bane.
I get it now X out the middle man and go directly to the source and the source is the real business that will give you the keys to success@
Yes! Getting approved directly to be an Authorized Retailer for the brands which you want to sell for is a major key 🙂
Good to know 🙂
Thanks, Chris! Hopefully this helps you out on your dropshipping journey 🙂
I was trying to learn about dropshipping on amazon as having researched shopify, etc. the biggest obstacle I have bar none on anything online is that I don’t do social media and have very few contacts. I wanted something that shoppers can find easily. I wanted to start with amazons personal level of under 40 sales per mth. and try to learn at that point more. And it likely goes without saying that online knowledge is not my strong suit, and SEO even less. I built a wordpress website and have learned the hard way, but do really realize my personal challenges in this. Trying to find an online source of income that my lack of techy abilities can handle. I spend a lot of time trying to learn, but this stuff is really hard for me. So, trying the KISS philosophy.
Hey M,
I understand where you’re coming from. I had to learn this all “the hard way” too.
If I were you I would lean away from SEO for now and focus on paid traffic (what I teach in Drop Ship Lifestyle).
The reason is that SEO can take a really long time to kick in and even then, nothing is guaranteed.
I really like it but I’m not ready yet
When you are ready, we will be here!
Hey Anton,
Thank you for your article it really make sense, I am new to the ecommerce business and many things did not make sense to me until I read your article.
Now, I have two question really and I am hoping you help with them:
– The first one is where to find or look for domestic suppliers?
– The second is that say I wanted to purchase products from china through Oberlo and have it shipped to me them sent it to Amazon and utilized their FBA program while also using my own shopify store to sell the items and have it shipped through Amazon, would that actually be a good business model?
Thanks for your time and help.
You’re welcome, Omar!
and here are the answers to your questions:
1) We find them by reverse engineering our future competitors. I will talk more about that on this webinar: Drop Ship Lifestyle Webinar.
2) That’s not a bad business model. It just takes a large amount of capital to secure the amount of inventory for which you would need to turn any real profit.
Hope that helps!
Anton
I am in the process of product sourcing. I’ve found several suppliers in my niche that will drop ship and so far three of them have approved me as a seller. My question is this… how does one handle shipping costs if a buyer places an order for products that will be fulfilled by various suppliers? The only option I see is to incorporate a shipping cost into each product price. Do you agree or have a better option? Thanks in advance.
Hi Jennifer,
Happy to hear you’re making progress!
Here’s how we handle shipping from multiple suppliers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RF9ywJHYPH0
Thanks!
You can use Walmart for product sourcing
Eh, I wouldn’t recommend that. You always want to go straight to the source and work directly with the brands you sell for.
Hi Anton,
Which tools would you recommend to link your website with your supplier website, kind of Oberlo but for domestic dropshipping.
Thanks
Hi Paul,
We built our own app for order forwarding. It’s called the Drop Ship Lifestyle Shopify App, but it’s not in the app store. It’s a private app for members of our premium coaching programs.
Hi Anton, I am doing my research in regards to starting a drop ship business when I came across your article. My questions are, how do I use google to drive my sales? What is your business model for ecommerce? what has worked for you and how did you go about it?
Welcome to Drop Ship Lifestyle, Rod!
Here are the answers to your questions:
Q) How do I use Google to drive sales?
A) There are a few different ways, but the most profitable is to run Google Product Listing Ads. You can learn more about them in this article.
Q) What is your business model for eCommerce?
A) I focus exclusively on drop shipping expensive products from domestic suppliers (aka brands).
Q) What has worked for you and how did you go about it?
A) Too much to type in this reply! If you’re serious about getting into eCommerce, I’d highly recommend you check out this free webinar that I’m hosting. Here is the link:
Drop Ship Lifestyle Webinar
Hope that helps!
Thank you Anton. I’m really not looking to waste time with middle men. I want profit and soon. I want to do my business the correct way and have ideas on what to niche and might need multiple stores. Do you have a class sooner than August 8th?
Hi Christine,
If that’s what you’re looking for, you’re definitely in the right place!
And I’m sorry, but I’m not hosting any live webinars until the 8th.
However, you may be able to catch an encore here:
Free Training From Drop Ship Lifestyle
Thank you!
Anton, you say that our own web store is the best way to go and I agree wholeheartedly with that,…. to a point. While I have had several web stores/sites in the past, some successful, some not, I always have the initial startup issue with advertising funds. I have used the Free Adwords credits that come with some hosting plans, but quickly burn through them, even with great keywords & high quality ads. After that it’s very hard to sustain without dipping into my personal funds and I don’t want to do that anymore. I have looked into an Amazon store & can deal with the monthly fees but the additional fees are hard to swallow with such low margins on my products already. What advise would you give in this situation as I am going to make another go at this but want to dip into personal funds as a last resort. What would you do?
I too would like a “Dropship Lifestyle”, lol.
Hi Mark,
My advice is: DO NOT DROP SHIP ON AMAZON!
If you’re brand new to my Drop Ship Lifestyle system, I’d highly recommend getting started with my free online training.
Here’s the link:
Free Training From Drop Ship Lifestyle
Enjoy!
Hey Anton, Thank you for this wonderful post and it seems very interesting and information. I appreciate your efforts to explain things in such effective way.
You’re welcome, Leo. Always happy to share.
Thanks for the knowledge. I am looking forward for more information about drop shipping, like
*Step by step instructions to start drop shipping.
*What do I need to start this business.
*Risks that I should take care of.
*What are the government regulations I must factor in?
*Low hanging fruits that will give me confidence.
And many more.
You’re welcome,Kritarthajeet!
And if you’d like to access our premium video training courses you should check out this link:
Get Drop Ship Lifestyle.
Enjoy!
What can you say about Dropshipping product cancellation in amazon, how many cancellations per month will cause trouble or how many cancellations
I’m not sure, but like I say in this blog post & video, drop shipping on Amazon is just not worth the time and effort!
Hi Anton,
I just want to say that I subscribe to your YouTube channel and I enjoy the content that you put out. I currently have a Shopify store and am using Aliexpress and Oberlo. I know I know, it’s not an advisable model or your preferred method:) Unfortunately, I built my site before stumbling upon your expertise! I have complete paralysis by analysis with all the overwhelming info out there and have not ran a single ad or had sale because I am afraid of failure. I understand that one of your positions is to use Google PLA and then retarget on FB. But, before I dive into more analysis on how to even do that, I stumbled on this blog. It raised another concern that I have and I don’t think it was Q/A’d here yet. If I’m stuck at the moment using the China dropship model…can I workaround the long ship times by having my products fulfilled by using another person’s Amazon FBA supply? Most everything that is on Oberlo/Ali is already on Amazon due to saturation; therefore, I’m thinking I can have my brand store but fulfill out from Amazon when I can. I know it sounds shady. I just feel stuck. Anyways, keep up the great content! Thanks so much, Jeff
Hi Jeffrey,
Happy to hear you’re enjoying the YouTube Channel!
As you can tell from this blog post and video, I do endorse the drop shipping from Amazon method!
My advice would be to try to find more expensive products within your niche (if possible). Then you can add them to your site and remove the cheap products from China.
If you’re really starting from scratch I’d highly recommend joining my live training webinar. It will answer a lot of your questions + more.
Here’s the link:
Free Training From Drop Ship Lifestyle
Talk soon!
Anton
What do you think about from Amazon to Amazon dropshipping? For example, from Amazon.ca to Amazon.com. It’s trouble-free because It’s easy to refund, fast delivery, and satisfied customer. It’s not high profit margin as from Aliexpress as but more faster and secure than it.
I’ve never heard of anyone doing that before… I’d honestly say that even if there’s an opportunity there it sounds more like exploiting a short term loophole rather than building a long term business.
What’s the benefit for those local companies to have you drop ship their products?
Hey Hernan,
The types of companies that I am referring to almost never sell direct to the public. They focus on creating great products and branding and then look to retailers (like us) to sell their products.
Hope that helps!
Anton,
Here is what I do. I’m buying the items in bulk on Amazon and forward them to the warehouse and selling them thru my Shopify store. Why am I buying from Amazon instead Alibaba? Well weird but there might be a chance to find a better deal on Amazon.
My question is, can I use Amazon for dropshipping? I read somewhere it’s ok if you don’t use Amazon Prime? what do you think?
Ps. Sorry if you cover this subject before.
Thanks,
Max
Hi Max,
If you’re buying items, having them shipped to your warehouse, then shipping them out, that’s not really drop shipping…
If you have a warehouse and you are OK with fulfilling orders yourself them my advice would be to find a sourcing agent in China that can meet or beat the prices that you’re already seeing. Upwork is a good place to start for finding this person.
Anton,
Yes I know, It’s not dropshipping but what if I buy from Amazon and forward the item to my customer address? Is it complaint with Amazon policy?
Thanks,
Max
hmmm… I don’t want to answer that because I don’t have a definitive answer. I would recommend contacting Amazon Seller Support.
That’s not weird Max, it’s genius. At any rate, I just belly laughed for 10 minutes straight. Best laugh I’ve had in years, that’s probably weird! Your “this is what I do” just got me because in all this talk, the real dropshipper is Amazon… who woulda thought!
Hey, your post did help me out. I’m running the idea around in my head to start drop shipping, right now I’m just trying to learn a little bit about it before I jump too deep in it. And personally I’d like to use Amazon (no particular reason, just a preference for now, which could possibly change in time)
Where exactly do you suggest looking for suppliers that would be ok with drop shipping in general? And possibly those that are ok with Amazon.
Thanks so much.
Hey Ryan,
Glad to hear that this post helped you out!
Regarding suppliers, that’s a pretty loaded question which is hard for me to answer in a comment reply… I would highly recommend you check out this blog post I wrote on this topic:
How To Find Dropshipping Suppliers
Hi Anton,
Tks for the wonderful video, very knowledgeable.
I am from India, can I have your mail Id pls.
Regds
Jasmin
Hi Jasmin,
You can send any questions to anton[at]dropshiplifestyle.com
Thank you!
In your opinion, would it be best for beginners to start with marketplaces such as Amazon and eBay or their own shopify site?
Best,
Chris
haha, watch the video at the top of this page 🙂
Hi Anton,
Thank you for the wonderful post.
I am considering to start drop shipping. Do I have to get shopify or can i setup my own website using WordPress and Wocommerce? I already have a domain and hosting. Also where can I find a seller?
You can use any eCommerce platform but my advice is Shopify. They’re hands down the best platform for the type of stores we build and they take an even bigger lead on their competition every year.
Regarding how to find drop ship suppliers, check out this blog post as a starting point:
Domestic Dropship Suppliers
Hi Anton,
Thanks so much for theses posts and feedback – perfect timing.
There is much being said about selling on Amazon, especially with Amazon due to open in Australia in the near future.
Many Webinars and seminars with training being offered, which all look attractive.
Especially FBA on Amazon, as it seems there is so much free traffic.
I have been following you for a while, and found your article very relevent and timely to my journey.
Thanks so much for the clarity.
Keep up the great work. Thanks a ton.
Jacqui 🙂
Thanks for the kind words 🙂 and you’re welcome, Jacqui!
hai. why using a middleman such as oberlo is a huge mistake?
There’s a lot of reasons… I do my best to sum them up in this video:
STOP Dropshipping From China
I am a brand new “newbie” and I have just created my store on Shopify and I see so many products out there that people are purchasing.I need more guidance on how to make my products seen and if Alliexpress is the best place to do my drop shipping from?
Hi Rico,
You found us at the perfect time! My advice is to stay away from drop shipping from AliExpress and/or China.
Here’s a video I made that shares why:
WATCH: Drop Shipping From China
That should help get you started on the right path.
Always enjoy Antons material! YOu give out so much quality info to us.. I really appreciate it.
Maria.
You’re welcome, Maria! And as always, I appreciate the comment 🙂
Hello,
I am a Thai. I am wondering your beautiful wife is Thai or Vietnamese? 🙂 🙂
Sorry for being nosy!
She is Vietnamese. I lived in Saigon for a few years which is where we met 🙂
Amazon is like shifting deadly sands for many sellers who are not big-time operators.
The best advice I was given about Amazon was that they don’t care about you (unless you are a big seller); they only care about their shareholders and profit.
Amazon has been known to ‘appropriate’ certain top selling products from various suppliers and then make them their own – so that they can make more profit(i.e. monopolize the buy button for the product which is key for conversions and sales) at the expense of other sellers.
Amazon is not to be trusted as a legitimate business partner since they make all the rules (and can change them at will with hardly a moments notice) and you either adhere to them or you can be punted off their platform – for even the most inane reason.
To achieve a decent level of success on Amazon it is often understood you need big bucks and lots of external support.
The best way to go is to get your own web site where you as the owner make the rules you want and do whatever you want. Use Amazon and other platforms only as secondary sales channels to supplement your primary – which is your own web site.
Well said, Jeff.
While there is still a lot of money to be made via FBA it’s a risky game to play as a long term business.
As you stated, they are concerned with share holder profits and that is all.
I don’t foresee them overtaking FBA sellers in the immediate future but I wouldn’t be surprised if they do so within the next 5 – 10 years.
Hello, Anton! I really enjoyed this article and I think I will give Google Shopping and Google Product Listing Ads a try. I’m not getting sales on eBay. Thank you!
Awesome, glad you enjoyed it Christal.
And I do think you should shift your focus to Google Shopping Ads 🙂 I stopped selling on eBay about 8 years ago and I haven’t looked back.
Just let me know if you have any questions!
Hi Anton,
Thank you for clarifying my doubts. I live in the UK and 70% of UK suppliers charge to drop ship. Is this advisable? Can you also tell me more about google PLA?
Thanks,
Ppinex
Hi Ppinex,
I know we have a lot of students who are drop shipping in the UK and as far as I know they are not paying any fees to drop ship. If you’re a member of the Drop Ship Lifestyle I’d highly recommend starting a thread about this on our private forum.
Thank you!
I want to be an independent retailer, I am currently using Oberlo to list products. Finding a drop shipper in The USA is tough.It’s been a year and I haven’t advertised much. I am concerned about giving me store a bad report due to delay shipments.
Hi Jack,
I hear you and I do think that working with domestic drop ship suppliers is the way to go.
Here are two posts I made that you may find useful:
Drop Shipping From China
^^ This one shares my thoughts on drop shipping from China vs. drop shipping from the states.
Drop “Shipping”:
What Is Drop Shipping?
^^ This one shares a 30,000 ft view of what working with domestic drop ship suppliers looks like.
Thanks for this article, Anton. It truly clarifies several points that most courses out there don’t until you have bought them and then realize it’s not as easy (or professional) as they made it sound at first.
Now, here’s a straight forward question for you… considering the high fees of advertising in Google Ads right now, how much marketing capital does one need to truly make this business work, at least at the beginning? I’d like to get a straight answer that says something along the lines of “you need $XXX.XX every week for 3 months until you see profits and then build from there.” I know this is not an exact science but an average would be great.
I have seen/heard of many people that got excited after a webinar and bought the course, only to be left hanging dry because they can’t afford advertising and traffic. Hope to get a frank answer from you.
Thank you!
You’re welcome, Tammy!
Regarding how much money you need to spend to make a profit when drop shipping… it’s impossible to give a fixed amount but to be honest it’s not all that much.
Assuming you’ve got a site that optimized to convert and assuming you’re getting impressions and clicks from good keywords you should be getting conversions very early on.
Most of the ads we run (on Adwords) are direct response. This means the customer will decide whether or not they will buy from our store within 1 – 5 days. If we’re getting traffic and no one is buying within that window it means we are doing something wrong and it’s time to troubleshoot (both our Adwords account and our site).
We do have a checklist that we go through quite regularly if conversions are sub-par. You can find many of these things in the “easy wins” section of the Drop Ship Lifestyle members area.
Hope that helps!
Doing dropshipping on Amazon from another retailer is against Amazon terms of service and you will be suspended or banned. You can only dropship if you are the retailer. Your delivered items cannot show any packing slips from a 3rd party. If you want to do retail arbitrage on Amazon you need to do it by FBA (fulfilled by Amazon) where you send your purchased goods to Amazon fulfillment center.
Dropshipping on Amazon from AlieExpress is not recommended because of shipping delays. When customers complain to Amazon their solution is to suspend your seller account. I am an FBA seller and Amazon’s rules keep changing for the worse and it’s a nightmare considering the tiny profits.
100% agreed that FBA is the way to go if you want to sell on Amazon. Here’s a link to an interview I did with a friend of mine who transitioned from drop shipping 100% of the time to private labeling on FBA as well:
Amazon Dropshipping
With that being said, FBA is a totally different business model than drop shipping and I wouldn’t recommend FBA to anyone who is brand new to eCommerce / selling online.
Hey Everyone,
As many of you already know I created Drop Ship Lifestyle after selling a network of eCommerce stores and then trying to find a community of other store owners to network with… What I found was a bunch of scammers who promised newbies they would get rich quick by following their push-button systems!
This led me to create a new community along with online training that shares how to build a REAL online business.
I’d love to hear what you think… it’s a 2.5 hour dropshipping webinar designed to help you drop ship profitably… all for free.
Be sure to click here to check it out and send me your feedback!
If you go through the How To Drop Ship Profitably webinar and still have questions just contact me and I will help you out.
– Anton
I need to know the price to attend the drop ship lifestyle