tjurgens Posted June 12, 2003 Posted June 12, 2003 All these stores... is anyone making money? Are you buying in bulk from wholesalers or subscribing to one of the marketing-plan dropshippers? I found a tennis bracelet for sale on ebay ($129.00), at HotDandy.com for $89.00 and on other sites for as much as $249.99... Is this how people are making money? Where can I find real wholesale suppliers in my state--the one that, by law, require me to have a wholesaler license? Any info is appreciated!
seCret steVe Posted June 12, 2003 Posted June 12, 2003 many sites make money....just depends on what they are selling.....as well as you have to do advertising a little to promote your site....
bdaug001 Posted June 13, 2003 Posted June 13, 2003 Well, i dont think any of us would be here if we weren't making money. :? I believe the thrust of your question was 'how do i find a wholesaler that will sell to me low enough so that I can make a profit?', but their are a bunch of question you need to answer before that one such as Do you have a product / know what you want to sell? Is there room for you in the market you want to get into, and where do you fit? Are you planning to do your own fulfillment (processing, shipping, etc) or dropshop only? etc. The answers to these questions determine what type of suppliers you are looking for, and will better prepare you to find them. Good Luck, Ben Daughtry --B
tjurgens Posted June 13, 2003 Author Posted June 13, 2003 First, thank you for responding to my comments/questions. Very happy to hear you guys are making money. "IDC Predicts Nearly 1 Billion Internet Users Will Fuel More Than $5 Trillion in Internet Commerce by 2005. Internet Commerce Will Increase at a Staggering 70% Growth Rate." (This headling from a July, 2001 IDC report). So, I believe there is money to be made. Ebay et al I started looking at Ebay and found so much junk and many of the auctions with no bidders. People are buying merchandise from HotDandy.com and MiTechTrading and reselling it but the profit margins appear to be slim. Dropshipping Advantages - No inventory to maintain - No additional overhead of shipping charges (from my supplier to me) - No hassles of packaging and mailing to customer Disadvantages - Can't buying in bulk or case lots - Some vendors charge a dropshipping fee (flat or percentage) that may cost more than shipping the item to me Any other advantages/disadvantages you can think of? Wholesale License I thought that I could find real wholesalers online--ones that require a state retail certificate. My understanding is once I get this license, I could buy at wholesale prices with the intent of reselling the products. A search of Wholesale suppliers on the web turns up thousands of discount warehouses (HotDandy, etc.). Then I found sites that simply require an email (no state license) to buy at their 'wholesale' prices. Then I found sites that require a monthly membership fee ($19.99) to buy at their 'wholesale' prices. These are not true wholesalers. By the way, does the state (I'm in Illinois) charge a fee for a wholesaler license? After I obtain it, how do I find local wholesalers? Yellow pages or ????? What to Sell? I've been thinking about selling jewelry. High profit margin/low shipping costs. How many people buy a $299.99 ring over the internet? Apparently, quite a few. I checked four Ebay stores selling jewelry. Their combined transactions in the last month were 5, 748, 18 & 624 respectively. The vendor with only 5 sales... total sales from those five transactions was $8,540 averaging $1,708.00 per transaction. That's $102,000k a year in sales. Not a very scientific study but certainly provides a glimpse. Suppliers There are a couple of great websites which list overseas suppliers including asiaco.com and indiamart.com. These suppliers, however, ship in bulk and then I have to worry about tariff fee's, wire transfers, etc. What I need to find is a local wholesale distributor (I'm in Chicago). Any ideas?
loxly Posted June 13, 2003 Posted June 13, 2003 To find out about YOUR state regulations, go to YOUR state's web page or look in your yellow pages under government offices. Your questions are business related, not osc related and YOU need to do your homework and decide what YOU want to do. I'd suggest a night course in small business or entrepraneurship at your local community college and prepare to spend a lot of time with google. Also, get used to the search function here and sit down with a pot of coffee and start reading. Good luck, get a business plan written, then come back with specific osc questions ;) [no external urls in signatures please, kthanks]
tjurgens Posted June 13, 2003 Author Posted June 13, 2003 To find out about YOUR state regulations, go to YOUR state's web page or look in your yellow pages under government offices. I'm awaiting a call back from my attorney. As far as I know, all I need is a retail certificate (it's free). Your questions are business related, not osc related and YOU need to do your homework and decide what YOU want to do. I wasn't aware that this forum is exclusively for osCommerce related technical questions. I looked for a thread with posting guidelines and did not find one. Perhaps my original post should have been placed in the general chitchat forum. But I don't see anything wrong with asking general store-operation type questions. I'd suggest a night course in small business or entrepraneurship at your local community college and prepare to spend a lot of time with google. Also, get used to the search function here and sit down with a pot of coffee and start reading. Well, I don't think I need a night course. I'm currently running a successful consulting business and a web design company (both Illinois corporations). I haven't done retail and was seeking some answers to simple questions that likely 80% of the storeowners using osCommerce can answer. I have been conducting research and having been getting many answers from various forums. No one up until now has been resistant to answering my questions. Have a nice day.
mattice Posted June 13, 2003 Posted June 13, 2003 Moved to chitchat "Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them"
seCret steVe Posted June 14, 2003 Posted June 14, 2003 http://www.statelocalgov.net/index.cfm This site might help anyone looking for state and local government laws.....
seCret steVe Posted June 14, 2003 Posted June 14, 2003 no prob jurgens.....if you need any other legal information im sure i have it booked marked some place in my large database here at my house
moonlitsun Posted April 2, 2004 Posted April 2, 2004 Dropship sources can be messy business. This is especially true considering that the majority of "dropship" brands found within most search engines arent true supplier sources. In fact, most of them are just exchanging electronic data and dont maintain inventory. The best advice I can give is to focus on niche merchandise if you intend to sell via online auctions. Examples: watches, collectibles, tools, home decor, furnishings. You will NOT make money on eBay and other auction sites by selling consumer electronics and/or computers dropshipped by a supplier UNLESS they have direct manufacturer/liquidator partnerships; very few true dropship distributors do! Thx, -Codi P.S. You can go to resellerratings.com to find out the low-down on reputations for the various manufacturers/suppliers! Carpe Carp: Seize the Fish.
New 
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.