30 replies to this topic

[dandempsey]

cs378, on May 28 2006, 05:04 PM, said:

Man, it's really hard to find a drop shipper or wholesale

The ones i found online all have very bad ratings.

h t t p : / / w w w . d o b a . c o m (don't want them to this forum in search) was the only one that i cant find any reviews on it. the only ones that say they r good is trying to get refferal credits.

Has anyone here used them before?

they have 7 day trial, n EXPENSIVE monthly fee
but im a starter, make little is okay with me


if u guys have better one, plz post their review

thx

Yes, I have used them. I had an e-commerce web site hosting solution provider that offered them built in, and had upgraded to capability to have over a hundred thousand products in my domain, before I decided I was not getting traffic (my own fault) and stopped trying to do a store. However I still have a domain parked and may start up again later. I also had tried eBay and even an eBay ProStore (DOBA product can be "pushed to marketplace" into a ProStore) but eBay fees were killing me, and eBay kept trying to stop my auctions in the middle and saying they did not believe I could deliver the product so go and prove it now, but meanwhile they were charging me bucks - and I Stopped trying to sell items on eBay and canceled the Prostore too. I have a full-time job in the computer field and just do this on the side, so did not have full time to deal with hassles like that.

Without sales I also canceled the merchant account I had, for which I had been paying around $45 - $50 a month for (counting the fees for minimum charges with no sales anyway, plus the Authorize.net Gateway, plus $5 for AMEX each month.)

Lately I am beginning to appreciate how important the e-commerce site integration solution for DOBA was. (Now I am back to the original e-commerce solution provider again, not eBay or eBay's ProStore.) I really did not realize it at the time, but I see others have posted the question is there a free plug in for osCommerce and when I looked I did not see one easy to find. The provider I had actually had done extra programming to let you select which DOBA suppliers to fill your catalog with (with supplier nick names like Ruby or Diamond), and later they enhanced that to allow you to select by categories not just supplier name, and you could select (check) a large number of products in a list at once. You loaded the catalog structure, creating new categories to load into as needed, and this provider actually pulled in inventory counts and so forth. I did not have to save the data and images etc from DOBA and upload it myself, it was done for me. Then my DOBA account was tied to the e-commerce site (they charged me then paid DOBA direct), since then I broke that connection and paid a second year myself, but never did get another site up yet. I just now logged into my DOBA account, which is about to expire in end of July for the second year now, and I see when I clicked on a link to view all partner offers they actually have an ad link to this e-commerce site as a DOBA solution, captioned "Partner Spotlight". (Hint: the name in the logo starts with a '3'.)

The e-commerce hosting solution site's scripts were also good when the sale happens. You go and see your orders, see what is ordered and can trigger the DOBA payment for the order by clicking a button while in the e-commerce site still reviewing the order, as I recall, so did not have to log in to DOBA to do it. Also the inventory counts would update automatically for you, the e-commerce solution provider pulled in refreshes so they were really doing a number of things to work for you so you did not have to. I should mention, they did start with the osCommerce cart, so it is definitely osCommerce cart based.

I spent my money building the huge site and had none left to buy traffic, so there was my pitfall. I should have started smaller and put the money into target traffic to start. Hindsight is great. Also I see other posts here have recommendations that seem to make sense, going direct to a supplier - but they would take more work so probably best for smaller number of products - which might be fine for targeting a "niche" site anyway....

Now I see (searching today for osCommerce add-ons) there is an osCommerce add-on to make SEO-friendly URLs too, that would have been nice too.

A word of caution if you were to use DOBA and this e-commerce solution site I am talking about: when selecting product keep an eye out for what the mark up is and what the profit margin can be. There was a time when the feeds were bad from some supplier(s) - which was finally fixed, a long time ago now - and another one of the things I saw was I could actually take a loss selling some things even at full price, oet alone if I did a mark-down (fixed or percentage) or mark-up (ditto) pricing.

Did you ever get your solution going? I see this post is from a long time ago now....

Daniel

[sparkyszone]

dogtails, on Nov 12 2007, 08:55 PM, said:

If you know which brands or products you want, contact the companies directly (like others were saying). Don't be shy, just have a business registration # (whatever your state calls it) included in your email. Many companies don't advertise it, but still do it if asked. Some will say no, and some will direct you to the distributor. Look up Skip McGrath as well. I have received alot of good information from this. I look at other site for manufacturer names and start searching.

1. Be confident in your email
2. Make your email look professional
3. Give them information about your company
4. You need to be honest with them if you are new, you're new
5. Many are all for getting a business going
6. Leave contact information for them to call or email you
7. Sign your emails professionally

Find one at a time. Don't be in a hurry to find 13 at once.

[charmed-imsure]

I used to be with one Company who provided many drop shippers to you, you pay a small fee & they give you an instant website with access to the drop ship supplier. However, they sold out (or changed hands or something) and sent a rather disturbing email to all clients (bar their own drop ship suppliers) to say "We have now been taken over. We don't have to provide you with the service you subscribed to but we decided we would if you want, if not, just give 30 days notice". Well I got screwed over with this... I paid a small amount & twice a day they pull through an RSS feed on your site so you don't ever need to worry about stock checks etc, it's all done for you. I got notification by email every day twice a day. Since they got taken over, they kept taking money but ceased the service!! However, I can happily give you the names of a couple of the best dropshippers I ever dealt with & they use oscommerce!!! It couldn't be simpler! So cut out that middle man I used........

As long as you don't mind this subject, this was the most profitable & you can make up to 400% on an item:
dropship.sexshop365.co.uk/catalog/login.php]
(It is an adult product site but they do not sell porn on there although they will offer non UK clients the option for a site if you dig further into theirs) This one sells things like lingerie, lingerie for larger ladies, mens things, toys, etc. you can browse their templates for an idea.

For gifty type items try these:
www.puckator.co.uk/wholesale/index.php
You could do well ready in time for Christmas

These were my two most profitable but since the Company I went through pulled out (DPBUK), I closed all my shops & just kept my current individual oscommerce site. DPBUK are still actually advertising these online shops (not sure why because they will take money but do not provide the service)

Edited by Jan Zonjee, 13 August 2009, 17:15.

[jallanmck]

Is anyone familiar with Salehoo? If so what is your opinion?

[ifuncity]

cs378, on 28 May 2006, 22:04, said:

Man, it's really hard to find a drop shipper or wholesale

The ones i found online all have very bad ratings.

h t t p : / / w w w . d o b a . c o m (don't want them to this forum in search) was the only one that i cant find any reviews on it. the only ones that say they r good is trying to get refferal credits.

Has anyone here used them before?

they have 7 day trial, n EXPENSIVE monthly fee
but im a starter, make little is okay with me


if u guys have better one, plz post their review

thx

[ifuncity]

i do drop ship.

but i am mostly here to find a new structure for my site. which will be easier for my vendors to input their orders.

[ifuncity]

gunjack07, on 26 February 2008, 11:46, said:

also specify shipper address... have shipper address on your packing slip instead of your website's address etc....... having several orders shipped to different addresses and pay them altogether etc.... there's a free contribution on this site anyway for that.... and with a few tweaks it's quite good.
edit: i found that commercial module for dropshipping.. that's why i was asking if there was a free module instead... anyway i found one on the site...

what is the free module you find?

[Oldblue66]

I have over 4000 products in my catalog and use about 5 drop shippers. This is a good thread. But Id really like to know what people are doing about shipping from multiple suppliers. I cant figure out whats best for my store and what to charge.

This is an OLD thread but probably more relevant in todays world..

Edited by Oldblue66, 05 April 2011, 22:01.

[kymation]

I use MVS to set the shipping for each drop shipper/location, since that's what it's designed for. It all depends on how you run your store.

Regards
Jim

[dale-cannon]

Many drop shippers available either huge or small with different business like cloths, general store inventory, medicines, stationaries, general hardware, computer hardware and electronics and so on. First you decide which type of drop shipping you are looking for. As Moonlight discussed don't go for huge companies but find small suppliers and manufacturers probably around you. Email them or contact them b phone many drop shippers don't charge fees.

Best Luck!!!

[Oldblue66]

dale-cannon, on 06 April 2011, 07:05, said:

Many drop shippers available either huge or small with different business like cloths, general store inventory, medicines, stationaries, general hardware, computer hardware and electronics and so on. First you decide which type of drop shipping you are looking for. As Moonlight discussed don't go for huge companies but find small suppliers and manufacturers probably around you. Email them or contact them b phone many drop shippers don't charge fees.

Best Luck!!!

Great advice. Exactly what I did with most of my store.