Finding a Dropshipping Supplier for Your eBay Business

So many ways exist for locating reliable companies to fulfill orders to your customers, alongside a lot of rogue and bogus dropshippers.

Most important of all, it isn’t just dropshipping companies that actually dropship products to other firms’ customers.  Dropshipping describes a business process, not an actual business format.

So you will find retailers and catalogue owners, wholesalers, craftworkers, even offline auction companies, eBay sellers, and countless other business owners more than keen to fulfill orders direct to your customers.

In many cases, all you have to do is ask.  Surprisingly few suppliers currently know how the dropshipping process works.  Those who do know probably have numerous selling partners already; those who don’t know about dropshipping are the ones you should approach first.  Find them and you have potentially an exclusive dropshipping arrangement with no competition on eBay or elsewhere. 

These are companies that buy stock in huge volume, usually from manufacturers or major wholesalers, who then offer to dropship for resellers.  Some very good companies exist, alongside many more disreputable and frankly fraudulent sellers.  There is good and bad in all, and a few tips will help you find reliable operators:

*  The best companies to approach do not ask a membership fee to access their goods.  There are one or two good ones that do ask a fee, but generally it is to stave off curiosity seekers and people who flit between business opportunities without ever really starting any.

*  Look for companies offering a large range of products, meaning you only need one partner company to satisfy all your product needs.  I work with several companies offering wide ranging products primarily in niche markets like pet products, pewter pins, Masonic jewellery.  The opposite of this 'large range of products rule' is highly specialised and seasonal products such as cut diamonds and artificial Christmas Trees, or manufacturers of high quality, high priced items with niche and limited demand, such as designer teddy bears, hand painted pottery, craftsman hand made jewellery, etc.  Generally speaking, providers of one off and exclusive items, such as rare antiques and collectibles do not fall within the scope of dropshipping.  We are seeking suppliers of regular best selling, high profit margin, repeat product lines.

*  The best, and virtually all personally approached dropshipping partners, offer their graphics and sales materials for others to use to promote the suppliers’ products.  Chances are their pictures and sales materials have been created by professional photographers and writers and way exceed the quality of whatever you or I might create. 

*  Sadly, this is also where countless conmen operate, people who say they are dropshipping companies and charge you a fee to access their sites as well as to use their ‘copyright’ graphics and sales materials.  When you pay and access the site, you’ll find a handful of awful products, over priced, with poor graphics and marketing materials, and goods that are way out of date or end-of-line, perhaps someone else’s unsaleable cast-offs.  I have joined quite a few and been very disappointed. 

*  Most specialist dropshipping companies have their own online dropship operating system, confirming both parties’ responsibilities and typically with their own customised Internet or offline dropshipping order process. 

*  Some are formal, others very much the opposite, and I have some who I just telephone, tell them I have an order, give customer details, and they send the product direct to my customers and invoice me later. 

*  You must make a careful note of user names and passwords for online dropshippers’ sites and maintain up-to-date contact information, product details, and so on. 

Remember, the best deals are exclusive deals, and careful records are even more essential for these arrangements and, because you have probably sourced these people through your own hard work, you may be unable to find them again through traditional search engine procedures.

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