Beware of Drop Shipping 'Agents'

Beware of Drop Shipping 'Agents'!
by Chris Malta & Robin Cowie

http://www.worldwidebrands.com/wwb/main_products.asp?kbid=16376

Using a Drop Shipper is a great way to sell products on the Internet. A legitimate Drop Shipper is a manufacturer or a wholesale distributor who will send products one at a time directly to your customers for you, from the warehouse. You never have to buy inventory up front, and you never have to pack and ship products yourself.All you do is place images of those products on your Auctions or Web Site, and you collect on every sale without ever touching the product. Here at Worldwide Brands, our entire business is dedicated to making sure people have accurate, up to date information about legitimate Drop Shippers and Light Bulk Wholesalers.

As we warn throughout our site, there is one constant thing in Internet Drop Shipping that you need to watch out for. Over and over again, you are going to see companies who do their best to make you think they are real wholesale drop shippers, when they are NOT. Companies who are NOT real drop shippers are middlemen whose sole business is to dip into your profits, by getting in between you and the real drop ship supplier. Drop Shipping 'Agents' are a particularly interesting example of this. You see, they DO provide access to one, two, or maybe a few REAL drop shippers.

However, they are STILL a MIDDLEMAN. There are two problems with using Drop Shipping 'Agents'.They ARE middlemen. They charge you recurring monthly and/or annual fees that you should not have to pay in order to access the real drop shippers they provide access to. You should never pay a recurring fee for the 'privilege' of placing orders with a real drop shipper! You'll find the competition impossible to deal with. Most of these 'Agents' only give you access to one drop shipper. Even those 'Agents' who give you access to several drop shippers (and charge you more for it!) are doing something that can bury your business before it gets started. They are causing intense competition!

They are going to advertise their service all over the Internet. Thousands, or even tens of thousands of people will pay for it. Guess what happens then? YOU, and all of those thousands of others are all trying to use the SAME small handful of Drop Shippers! The competition becomes way too intense, and you'll never sell anything! Let's take a step back and go over the whole issue. A real wholesale drop shipper ALWAYS owns their OWN warehouse. They have offices in, or attached to that warehouse. It's a physical building, with walls, windows, doors, maybe a few trees outside on the lawn. There is a loading dock, where trucks back up and deliver pallet loads of products. They have people working for them in that warehouse. The people who run their web site peek their heads out of the office doors and say, "Hi, Wanda!" and, "Hey there, Mike!" to actual human beings who work there, receiving inventory from manufacturing plants, packaging orders for drop shipping, putting a new filter in the Coffeemaker, etc. Drop Shipping "Agents" work very hard to make you think they own their own warehouses.

There are some who are very good at that. They tell you that you can access thousands, or even tens of thousands of products from their 'warehouse', or from many of their different 'warehouses' in different locations. Again, here's the first important part. Drop Shipping "Agents" do NOT own their own warehouses. They are MIDDLEMEN. No matter how many products or warehouses these people claim to have, they don't have a single one. They're just sitting in a house or a rented office somewhere, thinking up clever web site text and new ways to make you think they are the real thing. Some of them are even more clever. There are 'Agents' out there who will actually TELL you that they ARE 'Agents'. They'll tell you that even though they ARE 'Agents', they don't really make any money by acting as a middleman. Some of them want you to believe the do it out of the goodness of their hearts. Others will tell you that they make their money only from your 'Membership Fees'. However they say it, they usually bury this information in their sites, hoping you won't pay attention to it, and they sugar-coat it in such a way that it sounds really good to you if you DO realize what they are up to.

Here's how they operate: 1. They go out on the Internet and find one, two, five, or maybe even ten real wholesale drop shippers. 2. They contact these real drop shippers, and say, "Hey, send us a list of your products and a bunch of pictures, and we'll help you sell them online through OUR order system". Most real wholesalers know better than to deal with something like that. However, there will always be some who will go along. 3. They create a web site that makes it look for all the world that they are the Universe's Answer to Drop Ship Warehousing and Wholesaling. 4. The small ones simply have one group of products you can order. When you place an order, they will turn around and send that order to the real drop shipper, who will send it to your customer. 5. The bigger ones will tell you that they have a whole bunch of "warehouses" all over the place, with clever names. North Warehouse. South Warehouse. East and West Warehouses. Pink Warehouse. Blue Warehouse. Plaid Warehouse. You get the idea, right? They'll tell you that you can order from any one of those "warehouses", for a price. Some of them give you one or two "warehouses" for your initial 'Membership Fee', and then jack up the 'Membership' cost if you want to order from more of their "warehouses".

Again, these people don't have any warehouses! Their "warehouses" only exist in cyberspace! Each “warehouse” is nothing more than a collection of product images that these middlemen got from a wholesaler that YOU should be working with DIRECTLY, instead of paying some 'Agent' a FEE for the privilege. When you place your orders, those orders will simply be turned around by the 'Agent' to the real drop shipper for fulfillment. Some of these "Agents' will tell you that it's better to work with them, even though they ARE 'Agents' because they are "centralizing" your ordering and shipping. Believe me, we've been in this business a long time, and we've never seen an ordering or shipping issue that was enough of a problem to justify ordering through middlemen. Not ever. Is this illegal? No. Is it a Scam? No, not usually.

It's just a very poor business idea, in our experienced opinion. Think about it the second part of the problem again. These people are offering you an indirect (middleman) route to a small handful of drop shippers. They'll promote that same small handful of drop shippers to tens of thousands of people like yourself. Do you really think you'll be able to compete with thousands, or tens of thousands of others, who are all trying to sell the same products from the same small handful of drop shippers? Not a very pleasant thought, is it!

Would you say it's a good business decision to take a middleman route to a very small number of drop shippers being used by a huge crowd of others? The answer is obvious, of course.



http://www.worldwidebrands.com/wwb/main_products.asp?kbid=16376

What is drop shipping?

http://www.worldwidebrands.com/wwb/main_products.asp?kbid=16376

Drop shipping is a type of retailing in which the retailer does not keep goods/product in stock, but instead passes customer orders and shipment details to wholesalers, who then dispatch the goods to the customer directly. The retailers make their profit on the difference between the wholesale and retail price.

Some retailers may still keep "show" items on display in stores, so that customers can inspect an item similar to those that they can purchase. Other retailers may only provide a catalogue or Internet presence.

Drop shipping can occur when a retailer (who typically sells in small quantities to the general public) receives a single large order for a product. Rather than route the shipment through the retail store, the retailer will arrange for the goods to be shipped directly to the purchaser. This has been made easier since the internet revolution of the mid 1990s.

The book selling industry provides an example. Book retailers typically sell single copies of books to the general public. But a store may receive an order for, say, 50 copies of a book from a company that wishes to buy the books for their employees, clients, or stockholders. The book retailer will arrange for the wholesaler to deliver the books directly to the company.
Many sellers on eBay also drop ship.

Typically a seller will list an item as new and ship the item directly from the wholesaler to the highest bidder. The seller profits from the difference between the winning bid and the wholesale price, minus any selling and merchant fees from eBay.

Yet another version of drop shipping is the practice of using private freight carriers to transport large volume items direct from the manufacturer to a postal facility close to the location of the end recipients (as opposed to dropping the items at a postal facility close to the manufacturer).

This practice is employed for purposes of postal and time savings.

http://www.worldwidebrands.com/wwb/main_products.asp?kbid=16376

Manufacturer vs Wholesaler

Direct From The Factory?
by Chris Malta & Robin Cowie

http://www.worldwidebrands.com/wwb/main_products.asp?kbid=16376

We get email here all the time asking us why Internet Retailers shouldn't just buy the products they sell, directly from the Factory at wholesale.People write and say, "I'd rather go right to the Manufacturer and buy from them. Why should I go through a Wholesale Supplier?One gentleman wrote to us yesterday and said, "I buy things online (as a consumer) directly from Sony all the time. Why shouldn't I be able to buy directly from Sony at wholesale (as a Retailer)?"This has to do with a common misconception about manufacturers, folks. Most people are (understandably) of the opinion that a manufacturer would jump at the chance to sell their products to you and me (online Retailers) at wholesale. You'd think they would see it as a way to sell more products.

Well, that's not the way it works, for many good reasons. To the gentleman who asked about Sony, yes, it DOES seem like he's buying products directly from Sony as a consumer, when he goes to their web site. However, that's actually something of an illusion.You see, manufacturers have their hands quite full just manufacturing their products. That's a very full-time business just in itself.Let's try a little role-playing here. Let's say that you have invented a revolutionary new Eyebrow Plucker. This little machine is really cool. You set it for the shape you want your eyebrows to be, slap it on your forehead, and press a button.

Your invention does all the plucking for both eyebrows at once, and your eyebrows are instantly plucked to the shape you want. Of course, it's a little painful, and one of the settings still leaves your eyebrows looking as if you're suffering from a bit of constipation, but you're working those problems out. You rent a small building, and start manufacturing your new Eyebrow Plucker.In order to do that, you have to go through the lengthy legal process of Patenting your invention. Then you have to find suppliers of raw blocks of surgical-grade steel.

You have to buy and set up machines that will form and stamp out the parts of your Eyebrow Plucker. You have to set up the logistics of creating and manufacturing the circuit board that goes into it. You have to create an assembly line process, work out quality control, and then create some plastic Test Foreheads that you can test your invention on before boxing each one up. But wait! You can't box them up without going to a graphic artist who's going to create a logo for you, then build the color screening that will be printed on your boxes.

Of course, you need the boxes too, so you have to contact a Packaging Expert who will design your box and internal packaging, then have a box manufacturer die-cut the custom boxes and packaging for you.That's just a small sample. There are a hundred other details a manufacturer must work out in order to create a product and turn it out on an assembly line, ready to sell.One night, you're coming home tired and frustrated from working so hard on your manufacturing process. You have a bruise on the right side of your forehead, and half your right eyebrow is missing. As you get out of the car, you run into your neighbor, Mike. Mike wonders why you look so bedraggled. You tell him about your invention, and all the work you're doing to manufacture the product.

Then you tell him that you're even more worried about how to get the product to your potential consumers.Mike's face lights up, and he says, "Hey, I own a Wholesale Supply company. I sell manufactured products to thousands of large chain stores all across the country. I can buy your Eyebrow Pluckers from you in large quantities, and distribute them for you, and you won't have to worry about that part of it at all!"At this point, you can answer Mike in one of two ways:Answer Number One:"Gee, Mike, I don't know. I think I'd rather spend years trying to create business relationships with thousands of retail stores. Then I'd like to pay for another warehouse where I can store my product, and lease trucks or contract with a freight company in order to deliver the product.

I'd also just love to pay a fortune for warehouse employees, a sales force, a sales office, and basically spend a great deal of time re-inventing everything that you've already had set up and running for years, in your wholesale distribution business!"Answer Number Two:"Hey, Mike, that sounds great! You already have the warehouses, the delivery mechanisms, the sales force and contacts with thousands of retail stores. I can simply sell my product to you by the truckload, and you can sell it to the world. I can concentrate on my manufacturing operation, and leave the wholesale distribution headaches to you.

I think we have a deal!"Do you see where we're going here? Product manufacturers have enough to do without re-inventing an entire Wholesale Distribution system that already exists. Manufacturers would have to be crazy to want to take on that kind of additional load! They can sell their products, in huge quantities, to existing Wholesale Distributors, and never have to worry about the distribution process at all.That's why you will probably never buy directly from a manufacturer. If you ever do, it will most likely be from a very small company that either does not make enough product, or is too small in the marketplace, to attract the attention of existing Wholesale Distributors.

Wholesale Suppliers are the place everybody buys from, folks; even the big guys.I said earlier that the person who wrote to me about buying consumer goods directly from Sony was seeing an illusion. That's true. It's a harmless illusion, though, and isn't meant to fool anybody on purpose. When he goes to an official Sony web site and buys consumer goods "directly from Sony", that's not really what he's doing. He's buying from an existing wholesale/retail supply company that Sony either happens to own, or has a contract with. That's why they can use Sony's name. It's a completely separate operation from the "manufacturer". This wholesale/retail operation will be a separate "unit" of the Sony Corp. It will have it's own offices, staff, and delivery system, probably very far away from Sony's manufacturing facilities.

So, why can't you go directly to a manufacturer and buy wholesale products to sell on the Internet? Because it's just not cost-effective for a manufacturer to even want to do that. :o)

http://www.worldwidebrands.com/wwb/main_products.asp?kbid=16376

Risks of drop shipping

As in any business, there are risks involved in dropshipping. One example is back ordering. Back ordering occurs when a seller requests the wholesaler to 'drop ship' but the product is sold out. To avoid such an incident, constant contact with the wholesaler is necessary. Wholesalers are busy firms and must keep merchandise moving. If it is possible to establish a good relationship with a wholesaler, then this should not be an issue.

A good wholesaler will keep retailers updated, but it is a business owner's job to be aware of the quantities that the wholesaler has available. Dropshipping is an easy way to get started in online sales. Many wholesalers have private member areas that show product quantities. This is an excellent feature to keep retailers aware of the inventory supply.

Feel free to post any other risks that I might have left out!

http://www.worldwidebrands.com/wwb/main_products.asp?kbid=16376

DropShip Design | The friendly drop ship wholesaler

"Our company is a legitimate entity registered under the name of DropshipDesign.com LLC with the state of WA. We realize that it is important for you to feel confident about the legitimacy of our company. We invite your to call the Washington State Department of Revenue and inquire about our company. We interact with the Washington State Department of Revenue on a monthly basis since we take the responsibility of reporting and paying for the sales tax on the merchandise that our customers sell. Please note that, as an incentive to our members, we do not chargeback the sales tax, we take full responsibility for reporting and paying all sales tax for you.

All the products that we sell come directly from the manufacturers and/or from legitimate distributors that can provide us with the lowest wholesale prices available online.
The founders of DropshipDesign.com LLC have designed and built this system from the ground up. With over 20 years of experience working as professional IT consultants, the founders were able to make use of their own knowledge and talents to build a fully integrated system wihtout any dependcies on other thir party companies. This is why we can afford to sell such a complete turnkey system at such a low price. We do our best to focus on what matters the most. For example, we provide you with all the tools and services that you need while you focus in on marketing and advertising the products. We do all the rest for you.
Here are more key reasons why you should feel comfortable in committing to a long business relationship with DropshipDesign.com:

We are registered with the Better Business Bureau office in an effort to promote trust and confidence when it comes to dealing with DropshipDesign.com."

• DropshipDesign.com is the only company that provides you with a dropship website plan that is fully integrated with the suppliers. Your website will be updated daily, directly from the suppliers with the most recent content. New products will automatically be added to your website for you.
  
• We do not charge our members any monthly fees. All that we ask is a one time setup fee and a yearly renewal fee of only $49.99, regardless of how many dropship plans and/or features you have.
  
• DropshipDesign.com is the only company that allows its members to add their own products to the website plan with no additional fees. You can list and sell your own products and we will not take any fees from your transaction!
  
• DropshipDesign.com is the only company that will pay the paypal fees and the credit card fees for you on purchases made from the website plan.
  
• DropshipDesign.com is the only company that will report and pay for the excise revenue tax that you earn from sales made on the website plan.
  
• DropshipDesign.com is the only company that offers its members with special incentives to auction websites such as a free PREMIUM storefront (same as ebay store) for one year and no listing fees on up to 1,000 items.
  
• Our eBay ad Wizard will help you list items on ebay with one simple click!
  
• DropshipDesign.com was designed and developed solely by its founders, with over 20 years in professional IT experience.
  
• We offer over thousands of products available to you at unbeatable wholesale prices for you to sell to others.
  
• We constantly make deals with new manufacturers from trade shows in an effort to bring you the latest items to hit the market. Be the first ones to start selling the latest and hottest item on ebay.
  
• We will dropship anywhere in the USA with NO MINIMUM. We also have limited international shipping available on all our jewelry items.
  
• Our program is eBay friendly! The quantity in stock is updated daily so you can choose items that will last until your auction is over!
  
• We handle all the orders for you, including returns! We will not leave you hanging once you buy from us. Since we fulfill all the orders for you, we have a legitimate interest in helping you with your orders and keeping your customers happy.
  
• No need for a merchant account since we capture and process the payments for you.
  
• We take care of paying the sales tax for you when items are sold from your website.
  
• No need to pay up front for inventory, we stock and ship to your buyer for you!
  
• Unprecedented customer service for you and your customers.
  
• An amazing selection of products with REAL wholesale prices.
  
• 24 hours access to our services.
  
• Personalize your website by choosing from a selection of templates and by adding your own HTML code such as banners, links, etc.
  

You can now add your own products to your website. This is perfect if you already have deals with other dropshippers OR if you manufacture your own products. This feature is offered to you at no extra charge and is included in the Website Plan. We will allow you to add as many products as you want to your website!

http://www.dropship-business.com/index.html?aid=181844

MimoUSA | Automotive Drop Shipping Wholesale

About MimoUSA Company

MimoUSA was founded in 2002 by Nick Soshkin and Igor Soshkin, two very persuasive entrepreneurs. The company offers many different product lines that are in high consumer demand for the automotive aftermarket industry. MimoUSA is one of the biggest suppliers to the automotive industry for aftermarket accessories.

MimoUSA mission is to become the direct contact for dealers who are in demand for aftermarket auto parts. MimoUSA New York manufacturing facility produces Dash Trim Kits, B Pillars, Headlight Eyelids and Diamond Plate Floor Mats. We are also of the one of the biggest oversea importers and master distributors for aftermarket accessories in the U.S. East Coast. Our extensive progress leads us to become a wholesale distributor for many new companies every quarter.

We have a great reputation for providing great prices and services to our dealers and distributors. We seek out products that are in demand and prices that are competitive. We have the finest customer service representatives that are always ready to assist our dealers.
Our company is ISO-9001 certified. ISO-9001 is an international quality standard created by the International Organization for Standardization to define quality management and manufacturing systems.

About MimoUSA Products

MimoUSA products have been featured on magazine covers, car shows and even celebrity cars. You can find the custom manufactured trim pieces and diamond plate aluminum floor mats on R. Kelly's custom built car called Zoragy. Most MimoUSA products are designed and made in New York, United States. The quality assurance is spectacular, and you can expect nothing but perfection from MimoUSA products.

MimoUSA has always taken the approach to benefit the public interests. You will find the most exclusive and unique parts from MimoUSA. If it can be manufactured, MimoUSA manufactures it. MimoUSA has an in-house R&D department, where we research new products for tomorrow. We are constantly releasing new and hot products every quarter.

MimoUSA is an ISO-9001 company, receiving multiple rewards in the industry for our products. MimoUSA has sponsored many individuals including a young man on NBC17 Triangle Wishes.

About Us Video

http://www.mimousa.com/?affid=6440

Doba | Premier wholesale drop shipping distributor

Doba offers the simplest and best solution for finding and selling products. You receive an impressive selection of over 250,000 wholesale products that are ready to drop ship, and we provide the technology, tools, and support
"We strive to make product sourcing as painless and easy as possible by providing access to a huge variety of products and suppliers through a single account. That's why we give you product sourcing tools that simplify the process of selecting and selling products. Then we shorten the fulfillment process by providing you with our world-class support"

Doba has simplified the drop ship process even further by giving you instant access to 90 suppliers with over 250,000 products.

1. Choose a product to sell
   
2. Advertise the product via auction sites, an Internet store, or through other methods
   
3. Sell the product and collect payment
   
4. Order the product on their site
   
5. Satisfy the customer and sell again—never deal with the hassles of holding inventory or of having to ship orders

"As your product sourcing service, Doba is constantly on the prowl for wholesale suppliers who offer the highest quality products at the lowest available prices, so you don't have to shop around for suppliers on your own.

If you discover a wholesale supplier who's selling a product for less than one of our suppliers, let us know about it. We'll investigate, and if the supplier is offering a better deal, Doba will extend your membership for two free months and do our best to add the wholesale supplier to our select group of suppliers."

http://www.doba.com/?source=affiliates&kbid=6597