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I have not used dropshipping services, but I can offer some comments that hopefully may be a little useful.
Firstly, and talking about overseas suppliers, it is very, very rare that an actual manufacturer will offer drop shipping services. The reason being that factories are designed for bulk manufacture, often without the capacity or infrastructure to be offering single lots for sale.
It is therefore most likely than any dropshipping company will be a company that sources product from several manufacturers. This is not necessarily a bad thing as the supplier can have better buying power, but you will not get factory prices.
One trend coming from supposed dropshipping companies in Asia (China/HK especially) is that they will not hold any stock and will only buy stock on receipt of an order. Therefore this has shown to be a real problem with customers getting goods delivered in reasonable times.
The obvious advantage of dropshipping is that you don’t need to have lots of space or capital to buy and hold stock.
Also, having seen what some wholesalers make ouf of some products in Australia, there is potentially some upside in being able to buy product at good prices, and onselling at a competitive price, depending on the types of product you may purchase.
Having said that, there are also disadvantages such as:-
1. You need to spend a lot of time shopping around looking for the right dropshipper. There are horror stories everywhere. I know of 1 dropshipper of electronics (tablets and stuf flike that) who constantly gets good feedback and one dropshipper of branded products in Hong Kong that seem ok, but thats all, over a long period of time in the buying/selling business.
2. You lose control of the transaction. This would be a big factor for me in having someone else providing a product I have sold where I have no control over the product or timeliness of delivery
3. Get the wrong supplier and your returns wil cost more than you make in sales, and if you are selling somewhere like ebay where customer ratings are all important, you are finished before you even start.
4. In some markets on places like ebay the supplier may also be your competitor selling the products directly themselves.
Sorry, some negative comments in there, but like everything else, there are opportunities, just need to spend the time and effort to make sure of everything.
