Who here runs mainstream online retail sites?
 

If you're selling mainstream hard goods online do you use drop shipping or do you actually buy/store/ship your products to customers?

do online shoppers care if a product is drop shipped by a supplier and not direct from you the retailer?

If you have the right drop shipper your customer should never know they've been drop shipped.

I store and ship all inventory, main reason is I can inspect the products before I ship them + I like the control and not having to worry about someone stealing my customers or their information.

Customers don't care I suppose as long as they get the items. If you are in the US you can often get deals with suppliers/manufacturers to overnight you whatever orders you have and you can then ship them next day to your customers.

I sort of do that now, I stock over 300 products and sometimes we run of something and I can have it overnighted and the customer does not know the difference.

Lots of stores that have a large product line operate in this way, and can offer way more products as "in stock" then they really have.

Another thing to think about is shipping cost. If your order volume is low, it is quite possible that a drop shipper because of their high volume can offer you a lower overall rate. It is also possible to get a much better rate than a drop shipper. Fedex and UPS will both significantly lower your rates once you meet a certain criteria.

well that's what i'm thinking of - i need a wide selection and if had to buy and store the products it would be hundreds of thousands of dollars. The suppliers do all have drop shipping but the top stores in this retail category claim they are shipping direct to you, that they have their products in their own warehouse ready to ship. Me personally, I probably would feel better ordering from a company/store that maintains their own inventory - if i saw it was drop shipped i'd assume it was some housewife or dude in his basement just playing middleman.

do you import products from China? i've found products that sell for ridiculously cheap prices from Chinese factories that even when you add in the shipping costs and the high import duties still significantly beat US wholesale prices.

Only thing now I import from China is a few plastic items. Be careful though with China and do your research on who you are dealing. Lots of people who are willing to sell small lots of what you see on alibaba requiring very large orders, don't really have anything and they will try to rip you off, adding delays, saying the factory is behind etc.

Its not worth the headache IMO because you might end up with counterfeit and sub-standard shit.

You are better off dealing with the official distributor in your country for the items you want to sell. Focus more on having good customer service or whatever. My experience is if people are impressed with your service and fast shipping or whatever they will pay slightly more.

I had, by chance, a post office open up right next door to me. Now, any order comes in and it is at the post office and in the system 10 minutes later. Customers go crazy for this.

:thumbsup Exactly

We have every item in hand Mutt , like BJ said once you do volume with Fedex/Ups or others you can negotiate really low rates

I sell a specialized medical product and I drop ship it. I haven't had any complaints so far. I focus on service and knowledge, that's why people have been buying through me instead of the manufacturer.

For more regular products, I'm not sure how well it works out.

not really an option for me, it would be hundreds of thousands of dollars in inventory to run the type of shop i'm thinking of.

I think they will care whether the product arrives or not. They will also care about delivery fees.

in my area in mainstream they actually do care if it comes directly from me or not... kinda of goes with the niche... but they do...

I did once do some fishing/tackle sales and used a combo of drop shipping and stocking... There are a lot of drop shippers in that general area...

Hell even walmart drop ships...

I dropship my products because otherwise I would be in the same boat you are. 100k grand in inventory.

My customers never know they are having their product drop shipped, in fact my drop shipper uses my address for returns on the packages. His UPS rates are also much better than I could ever get. I pay 6 bucks per 1lb ground package anywhere in the US. This allows me to offer my customers free shipping as an incentive.

I'm looking at setting up a site that sells hard goods myself. I originally wanted to warehouse the products and ship them but it would be cost prohibitive. If I can locate a drop shipper I think I'll go that route to start. Initial investment would be a lot less.

For those of you who drop ship would your shipper include for example a promotional letter, thank you letter, future discount coupon, etc , if you wanted?

About half of the products I sell are drop ship. I contact individual companies and ask them to drop ship as opposed to using one of the drop shipping services since they all seem scammy and don't have real wholesale prices.

No most customers don't care if something is drop shipped. Most people are just consumers and have no idea what drop shipping even means.

You usually have to pay a small drop ship fee to the supplier.

If a company tells you they do not drop ship just tell them "that is too bad as one of your competitors drop ships for me all the time". They might just set up drop shipping on a case by case basis".

Sloppy drop shippers can hurt your online reputation because they might send to the wrong address, delay shipping, or send the wrong items.

They don't care but they want it FAST.