In Buying leads,  there is an inquiry that said :   

We need a drop ship supplier for ......

what kind of supplier is it,  please advise, thanks before.

Ergenia, we need to talk.  IM a bit unsettled by some things I found while doing a business/business credit verification requested on your business by another alibaba member.  IM not going to put them here by any means. 

We havent even always agreed on things ourselves.  I can say this though I have to agree with Aussie on drop shipping provided you can verify the drop shipper.  My wife sells jewelry both on-line and from a Brick and Mortar shop.  If a request comes for an item not in stock she will have the item drop shipped by her supplier in Thailand.  This is something they do for her because of the long business relationship they have.  At the end of the day isn't International Trade about forming long lasting, honest, professional business relationships?  

So as it seems you check here regularly please send me a TM message as appears you have me blocked. ?????  

Ranger I have certainly not blocked you on TM so am not sure why you cant get through but feel free to contact me at the following email address info@ my website address. I have a pretty good idea of the missing information that you are looking for and have no problem providing you with that.

Regarding drop shippping as I stated earlier I think that it can be a good model for the right buyers and sellers. My point, as I thought I had pretty clearly stated, is that most manufacturers in Asia do not drop ship. Even other sellers such as trading companies in Asia do not generally do drop shipping. The whole business is all about quantities.

My concern is that newcomers may mistakenly think that dropshipping is a feasible option from legitimate manufacturers in China - when in reality it is only possible under certain very specific circumstances. As these newcomers beat their way around looking for a source of product here based upon that model they will quite likely end up finding those places that do offer dropshipping from China - and that we all know as the scammers. Not every drop shipper is a scammer of course, but just about every scammer will offer drop shipping.

To put this in perspective perhaps you and/or Aussie can answer this question - In your opinion what percentage of legitimate suppliers in Asia would you say would offer per piece drop shipping to a foreign customer on his/her first order?

Quoting from [Oneuni]:

In Buying leads,  there is an inquiry that said :   

We need a drop ship supplier for ......

what kind of supplier is it,  please advise, thanks before.

Well that was a good question. 

I know of 284 specific dropshippers in the China, HK, Taiwan, and Thailand that will dropship the very first order.  I did not say however that these were brand name products, because they are not.  But this is the choice that these business have made.  Drop shipping to a sellers customer moves alot of goods albeit that there is not much profit margin in it but it does establish a partner system without a large initial cash layout by the re-seller.  Emergency drop shipping between trade partners only strenghtens the bond between the supplier and the reseller.  For a new re-seller the amount of items moved by them usually results in better profit margins until such time the re-seller can afford to buy large quanities from the supplier.

Aussie may not want to remain a drop shipper for ever in the EU but one thing he is doing is establishing relationships with re-sellers who may or may not prove to be beneficial to the overall growth of his business and its success. 

Look at it another way.  What better way to know that the supplier can deliver on promise without spending a significant amount of money to buy and hold inventory.  If the reseller is moving the suppliers items.  The supplier is going to give better prices on large orders of stock because the supplier now has a record of items moved within a specific time frame.  More orders less handling for the supplier better profit margin for both trade partners.

Something else to look at.  Some of the big discount online retailers offer affiliations whereby they pay the affiliates commisions ranging from 2% to as much as 6% for driving business to their site.  Not bad if you have a blog thats read by vast amounts of readers or a website business thats gaining in popularity.  It can pay for your sight as well as make you a significant amount of money.

Like I have said before theres the box and then theres thinking outside the box.  When establishing a new product such as Aussie is doing he needs to figure how he can gain the most exposure quickly.  Drop shipping for re-sellers is a means to that end.  Dont get me wrong here I have not discussed with Aussie the reasons for offering drop shipping.  But everything I have mentioned above leads me to believe that this is the aim of his business, and business model.

Ranger

I know of 284 specific dropshippers in the China, HK, Taiwan, and Thailand that will dropship the very first order.  I did not say however that these were brand name products, because they are not. 

That is really not a very high percentage considering the total number of suppliers in those four countries, but it is still certainly many more than the number I was expecting. Interesting.

I am not talking about brand name product either so we are on the same page there.

I suppose the thing that I have overlooked is that different industries do things differently. My guess is that most of these suppliers that you mention above are in consumer electronics and related products. Does that sound about right?

In many other industries including the products that I deal with drop shipping from manufacturers in China does not exist. Considering however that a large percentage of the new comers that come to alibaba are looking for consumer electronics perhaps it has more relevance than I initially gave it.

I still strongly feel that any newcomer that is basing their international trading plans upon the drop shipping model is going to have a hard time of things. But I should and do concede that if they happen to be buying products that do feature drop shipping suppliers that it is possible.

Ranger out of curiosity about how many of those suppliers you mention are China based manufacturers? And are they dropshipping on a per piece basis?

 

 Egernia if you mean pet supplies I know 12 that will dropship or send in light bulk and yes they are 1~100 pcs.  Cheng Du has a few .   Like I stated earlier my wife sells jewelry.  So you cant say that this highly regarded business in Thailand is going to be the only one that will drop ship.  Think of all the countries where items are manufactured and you will find a drop shipper even if they don't advertise they are a drop shipper.  Think of it this way.  If your selling on-line say with ebay/your own website and you have 1000 sold  in a month any company is going to embrace that re-seller.  Lets not forget about where a site comes up on a google search have you ever heard of Alexa ratings?  Show a supply company a rating above a certain point and they will drop ship the moon for you.

Ergenia, there is a difference and I'am really not trying to be mean here.  But your thinking is always in the box and never outside it.  To be competitive in any business is to keep re-inventing the small things about your business.

People make dumb quotes all the time (not saying you) in these forums like "dont sweat the small stuff."   Thats the problem though, it is the small stuff that can make and break a business.  If you take a chance on something small and it works you can build on it, but if it doesnt work you can always pull back without it costing you significant damage to your business.  The same is true for any supplier and direct supply manufacuturer.  They may not advertise but they may take the chance and not advertise.  They may want to sell you 100 at a time but if you can move the same or more in a month and they are making the same profit wheres their loss?  There isn't one.  Im also not talking about products that need a host of certifications either to gain entrance into other countries but yes many of the medium size suppliers do this because they do have the certifications.

When I started my company In the early 80's and then sold it in 2005 I built it up based on the fact that there were other ways to do business outside the norm.  $2500.00 in hand and a roundtrip ticket.  One supplier got me started not because I was a big company or even a successful company.  It was the fact that I took a risk and offered something different outside the box.  I guess it Intrigued the business owner in that country.  My company evolved from buying and selling to a buyers agency because there were so many SME's looking to do what I was able to accomplish and did.  If I would have thought conventionally I would have never switched what I did.  I didnt drop the buying and selling untill the small changes allowed my business to take a new direction.  I do consulting now and still offer services as I'am semi-retired or should say I was from 2005 til late 2007.  I have since established a company in Germany and an LLC in the U.S. that has nothing to do with buying, selling or acting as an agent. 

 

I will say that the Joint Venture AG company in Germany was not started based on the conventional way of doing things it was thinking outside the box and convincing some other companies and investors to make the leap with me.

Back to the topic!  Drop Shipping is viable to any company willing to build their business.  In fact there is an American Fortune 500 company that is one of the biggest drop shippers in the world.  Lets not confuse companies that offer drop shipping as those companies make their money by charging minimal fee's like $2.00 a purchase with the real drop shipper.  Those kinds of middle man drop shippers just cost you more money but they have the connections to the real drop shipping companies.  In fact any large manufacturing, or retail corporation that has a website is a potential drop shipper.  How much product you can move will determine your margin and your future margins.  Also since many of these companies have mirror companies in other countries there may be no involvement with customs at all.  That isnt information that no one knows.  Its just information that no one pays attention to.  

Heres another scenario for you.  Some new small sized appliance retailer in Australia wants 100 new GE washer & dryers.  That company comes to you to source them.  What do you do?  Do you look for an appliance distributor or do you contact GE direct?

1. Contact GE directly
2. GE gives you the distributor in Australia or they take payment themselves.
3. GE instructs the distributor in Australia to package and ship to the retailer.
4. Deal is done its just what you do to keep the seller from the buyer via MFPA and NCND contracts that will keep the buyer coming back to you.

GE moves their product ,The Distributor is in business to move products.  Nothing crosses thru customs.  If the buyer has the GST exemption then thats not paid till the items sell.  Thats the biggest form of drop shipping in the world.  So to say that drop shipping isnt viable is just ludicrous.  Did anyone ever look at sourcing as finding drop shippers.  Thats name brands.   Name brands are never cheaper to buy outside the supply chain.  Fulfillment centers are drop shippers.

For several years, what I imported went directly to an independent warehouse.  The orders came to me and I sent the order to the warehouse where they packaged and sent the items to the buyer.  The buyer could contact the warehouse all they wanted but the warehouse owns no goods they just store them.  Now then if any buyer wanted proof of product I could supply that as well.  They could meet me at the warehouse or send their inspector to check the goods before ever paying a dime.  Hint Hint to my D/P question.  Now after all this do you still feel that there are very few dropshippers in the world and that D/P is not viable and safe?

Step outside the box, make your business transparent and you may become sucessful far beyond your dreams.  It worked for me I retired the first time at the age 49.

Ranger

My earlier questions were not specific to my products. I was seeking a couple answers to the earlier information that you provided so if you want to answer those questions that would be helpful.

I am just curious to know the break up of the figures you provided, and in particular how they relate to China. China is where my experience lies and in my experience out in factories on an almost daily basis I am yet to find a single factory that would entertain an ongoing dropshipping relationship with an overseas customer.

My definition of dropshipper is perhaps a bit different to yours but I use the definition that I feel is relevant to this board i.e. individuals or small companies often with a home based business looking to sell on ebay and have a supplier deliver one or two pieces of product to their customer.

So when you mention suppliers that will dropship 1-100 pieces I am not surprised about the top end of that scale but I am surprised about the bottom end of that scale. For many factories anything over 50 or so pieces of one product would be considered a small order and I don't doubt that they could accept that. I do doubt however that the average dropshipper on ebay would be lucky enough to have too many customers purchasing 50 or so pieces of one item per color etc. Which as I say calls into question for me the basis of the model for a newbie looking to purchase from factories in foreign countries.

I just think that this issue is being filled with information that is not really relevant to the question that has been raised in relation to my earlier comments here.

The question to me is whether dropshipping (per piece basis from factory to customers customer) is a valid model for newbies purchasing from manufacturers overseas and certainly in China. Assuming that the figures you have provided are accurate (I believe that you are not being dishonest but your figures just dont fit with what I know from on the ground experience here) then you are talking about perhaps 1-2% of factories in any given industry here in China that would consider the idea.

Assuming though that the person could find that factory then there are a whole host of other issues that would need to be dealt with:

• low quantities would mean higher prices,
• delivery costs would be high,
• payment method?,
• production time + delivery time considering that most manufacturers do not keep stock;
• quality issues as product is delivered direct to final customer,
• consistency of supply concerns as factories generally place small orders last,

Most of these problems can be avoided by dropshipping from a local distributor or wholesaler which is why I think dropshipping is a good model in the right application and I am not knocking dropshipping in general.

So Ranger in all honesty and considering all of the above do you really encourage a newbie to start looking for factories in Asia to supply them on a per piece drop ship basis?

Quoting from [Oneuni]:

In Buying leads,  there is an inquiry that said :   

We need a drop ship supplier for ......

what kind of supplier is it,  please advise, thanks before.

Quoting from [Oneuni]:

In Buying leads,  there is an inquiry that said :   

We need a drop ship supplier for ......

what kind of supplier is it,  please advise, thanks before.