Is wholesale drop shipping a viable model for the small, work-at-home based business . . . . ?
Are you seeking a legitimate home-based business selling goods via eBay or from an online store? Have you heard how easy “easy” money is made dropshipping wholesale goods?
Perhaps you are one of the many people who found our site through the search engines and come seeking answers to questions regarding dropshipping physical products or sourcing goods for ebay. The quest for online, home-base income has become a sort of Holy Grail among those seeking greater personal freedom and financial autonomy, and anyone hearing the stories of those who made fast money promoting Google’s AdSense program, and myriad other gimmicks and schemes may very well believe all of the Grail talk to be true.
However, a wise and successful Internet marketer once said that to be successful in business, you have to be good at business. Meaning that quick online income and legitimate home-based business success, online or offline, are not necessarily the same thing. Almost anyone with luck can make some money, but it takes business skill and knowing where the “gold” is to keep your money. In the area of Internet marketing–and business in general–it is important to understand the difference between a gimmick that makes money and a business. AdSense, for example, is a gimmick, but ecommerce–running your own online store–is a business. In ecommerce, a key issue is product sourcing, and so one of the biggest wholesale and dropship so-called “secrets” is where and how to source your products, and that is where wholesale drop ship directories, suppliers, and distributors come in. (Find Out More)
Goods and Services
Wholesale sourcing, drop-ship directories and distributors are a vital element of the equation. Unless you are a scammer, you really only have two things to offer through legitimate home business. Goods or services (or both). If you want to offer goods, then you have a choice of physical products or digital products. Here, we are concerned about physical products, so we can either stock our own inventory and ship from our business, or sell goods that will be shipped independantly by a manufacturer or distributor.
Wholesale Product Sourcing
Wholesale sources will supply our products in the first instance above, where we stock our own inventory. There is a great deal of brouha and noise about how to tell a real wholesaler from a middleman. Let’s get this out in the open right now. A real wholesale business will always require proof of a state retail sales tax permit. Any business saying or implying that it is a wholesaler but not requiring a sales tax permit from you is not a true wholesaler. The term, “middleman” or “middlemen,” generally refers to these sorts of businesses, that is, retail businesses charging discounted prices but misrepresenting themselves as wholesalers.
A moment ago we made reference to the sales tax permit. The sales tax permit, sometimes referred to as a resale certificate, is simply a license granted by your state that allows you to buy goods for resale without having to pay sales tax. Anyone can get a sales tax permit from their state of residence; it is easy to get, and generally costs nothing. So don’t fall for “middlemen” who charge a fee to help with this. (Find Out More)
A true wholesale directory will provide you with a list of companies able to source your business at wholesale prices. Even though you can do the research to find wholesalers yourself, there are some very good directories available for purchase. The best of these update their data base of suppliers on a regular frequent basis and also provide forums so that you always know what the “word on the street” is.
Now, although a real wholesale company will always require you to have a state retail sales tax permit–and you will need this if you have a true home business–don’t reject a company just because it may not be a true wholesaler. The important thing is whether or not the price is right for you to make a profit. There are also companies, such as liquidators and jobbers, who may sell below wholesale price and do not require a retail sales tax permit. Examples of such companies are sav-on-wholesale.com and liquidators.com. (Helpful Hint)
Drop Ship Product Sourcing
A drop shipper is a manufacturer or distributor who stocks the inventory and mails it out to your customer under your company name. You sell the product at whatever price you set, pay the dropship supplier and keep the difference. Some dropshippers may require membership fees, some may require minimum purchases, others may mark the price of the product up from the wholesale price. When researching dropshippers, it is important to establish whether or not the dropship price will allow you to make a profit.
Drop shipping is often touted as an easy way to sell on eBay because the dropshipper is responsible for inventory and shipping to your customers. Drop shipping is still effective, and many sellers are doing very well. However, the eBay market place is so competitive that you really have to research your product and dropshipper to verify that you will be able to make a profit. A reliable drop ship directory can be a very important resource. However, it is vital to do the research on your product, the environment in which you plan to sell, and on the wholesale and drop ship sources you plan to use. Again, the best wholesale drop-ship directories help you out by verifying the integrity of suppliers they work with.
If you are brand new to the area of wholesale and dropship product sourcing and are starting from scratch, you are at a disadvantage because you may not know how to evaluate the information you are presented with, and so you are not sure how to determine what’s good and what’s bad.
With that in mind, we do have two recommendations for you. Neither one will set you back very much, and we think they offer tremendous value for the price. Each requires a one-time only payment. The first directory, Salehoo, allows access to a list of around 800 wholesale, dropship, liquidation-closeout and other low cost suppliers. Through this list of contacts, you have potential access to thousands of products. Also available is the Salehoo forum. The forum may be its most valuable asset. You not only have at your fingertips the forum archives, but you can plug in to a very active network of other buyers and sellers. You can find out more, here:
The second directory is for those of you who know that you want to focus on media, primarily DVD movies. The Jillian Entertainment Guide is still the best list of wholesale, dropship. and liquidation-closeout DVD sources that we have yet to find. And we have looked. The price of the Guide is probably no more than the cost of a movie, drinks, and snacks for you and a date. But if you are considering selling DVDs on eBay or through ecommerce, this will give you wide range of contacts including the major studio sources and the major wholesale houses distributing to retail outlets throughout the United States. These will be the same sources used by some (not all, of course) of the eBay power sellers. Find out more right here:
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Well for any business be it online or offline it is very important to have the trust of your sellers and buyers intact with you. Trust is the primary factor (more importantly in an online product buying and sourcing business) that will drive people to your website to check out your products.
Having said that let me introduce, or re-introduce, a relevant website to all you buyers there, which will help you procure your products at a wholesale price, without making a big dent in your pocket. The website is Salehoo. This is a membership site with an inexpensive onetime fee that can provide access to literally thousands of products. An example of the kind of site you will find is dollardays.com. Salehoo can provide contact leads to many stores just like Dollar Days.
Dollar Days is an online wholesaler and closeout company that helps small businesses to compete against larger enterprises by offering high-quality goods at prices close to those at which large chains purchase.
Although this is less a comment than an advertisement for Dollar Days, I have looked at the site and would suggest that if you are reading this that you check it out. Very professional site with lots of cheap dollar store type items. We also agree with the comment about Salehoo. The membership is low cost once only lifetime fee and has on file many sites with low cost dollar store type items.
For any successful business trust plays a major role whether it is for retailer or wholesaler.
Business is not one day game and businessmen do so much effort i.e. quality product at reasonable price to attain customer’s trust and this trust gives them good returns in terms of sale for life long period ,I have visited some shops and Dollar is one of them.
I’m also a Salehoo member, but I agree that Dollar Days is worth checking out. Some good deals.
tommie and josef,
Thank you for commenting! I’m sure many other readers will also appreciate the tip about Dollar Days.