Out of curiosity, if drop shipping enabled you to quit your job in finance a few years back (<a href="http://ecommerce.shopify.com/guides/dropshipping/about-the-authors" rel="nofollow">http://ecommerce.shopify.com/guides/dropshipping/about-the-a...</a> ) , why are you now 'giving away your secret sauce' by running a website dedicated to teach people how to setup "copycat" businesses?<p>Is it that the drop shipping business has gotten so competitive that there is more money in teaching people about it than the business itself, or were there other reasons?
Your guide looks really good, but you're definitely correct in your 1st paragraph: when I hear "guide to drop shipping" I immediately think back to the days of "MAKE THOUSANDS FROM HOME SELLING PRODUCTS ON EBAY" ... it has a bit of a snake-oil perception to me and I'm glad you addressed that right away.<p>My wife started an Instagram printing business (<a href="http://cheergram.com" rel="nofollow">http://cheergram.com</a>) a few months ago and it's going very well. All products are dropp-shipped from our partner lab so I know it can work.<p>I haven't finished the guide yet, but so far it looks really good.
This is especially ironic considering shopify does not offer dropshipping. I've had multiple people inquire about dropshipping our products but we've never been able to make it work.
This guide has some great information. A dropship commerce store can be a great complement to a software company if you are able to integrate a company's products in with your software.<p>My wife and I develop a cattle management software called CattleMax and began operating two dropship e-commerce stores several years ago. Our stores help us offer customers a full solution (identification + weighing/measuring + management software) and also provide a nice supplement to our SaaS revenues.<p>Our first store, The Cattle Tags Store (CattleTags.com), sells cattle identification supplies including visual ear tags and RFID tags & readers. Our software is useless of the rancher hasn't identified his or her cattle, so good identification is important.<p>Our second store, The Cattle Scales Store (CattleScales.com), sells digital weigh scales designed for weighing livestock. It is a natural fit since our software can import weights from the scales and these scales also integrate with the RFID readers we sell at The Cattle Tags Store.<p>In the beginning, we were hesitant to create the stores but got through that hesitation by saying "OK we will try it out for a few months".
I'm not entirely sure if it's still classified as dropshipping.<p>But I've been told that some postal services (e.g. NZ Post) are able to provide dropshipping like logistics for you.<p>e.g. You manufacture your product in China. The postal service will then manage logistics for you from factory to your customers.
okay, I've never heard the term "drop shipping" before and I read the entire intro page and I still have no idea what it is. I guess you plan to tell me in Chapter One, but that's a lot more commitment than I want to make when I have no idea what you're talking about.
There's a typo on this page[0]:<p>"per-order drop hipping fee"<p>[0] <a href="http://ecommerce.shopify.com/guides/dropshipping/finding-suppliers" rel="nofollow">http://ecommerce.shopify.com/guides/dropshipping/finding-sup...</a>
I just read the section of your guide about finding suppliers. So you recommend supplier marketplaces like Doba? I've heard alot of strong opinions either way on them. Is the pricing you can get there really competitive? Most of their clients appear to be really small mom-and-pop online stores.
Is right supplier best kept secret in dropshipping?<p>It would be nice if you can provide at least one supplier for any product you wish, this would give us fair idea about suppliers.
Does anyone have any experience with pixmania-pro drop shipping? I am specifically looking for a merchant that sell automated vacuum cleaners. (iRobot / Samsung)
Gonna burn karma here but... I read the title as "The Ultimate Guide to <i>Dropshitting</i>" and realized I have a great new name for 2HWW-inspired fly-by-night fulfillment companies :)