eBay and Dropshipping are two concepts that go hand in hand. To quote a great man, they’re like peas and carrots. Many people are afraid of eBay because it means we have learn how to weigh packages, stand in a line with the box at our local UPS Store, and generally spend a lot of time and undergo a lot of hassle once the listing ends just to get our money. Many others are concerned that if we try to build a dropshipping site, trying to work on eBay is just going to muck things up and cause everything to get complicated and confusing. While these concerns are not baseless, they are also often overinflated.
It is important to realize that even as we work to begin getting things set up with our dropship website and the business opportunities that presents, we can work with most of our suppliers on eBay. This is going to help eliminate ‘down time’ as we wait for things to get approved, and it also a great way to get a good insight into pricing and our market, as well as into the inner workings of our supplier. Not only that, by having a supplier to work with, we’re eliminating the dreaded post office line and shipping conundrum that scares so many people away initially. We get money rolling in, we get some hands-on experience with our supplier, and all from the convenience of our own home. A classic multiple birds, one-stone scenario if ever there was one.
But of course, as with all things it is not so simple a matter as to take no forethought. First and foremost, we have an exercise is proper dealer-supplier communication. We do not want to get our approval and account authorization completed only to jump right onto eBay and start selling; while many suppliers are glad to work with you on eBay, some have had bad experiences to sour them to the idea, and we want to find out quickly which camp our supplier lands in.
It would be very bad for us to start stepping on toes on our very first day with the supplier! We’ll need only communicate with them, be it with our account representative over the phone, or however our supplier likes us to reach them, and find out for certain. If we get the green light, excellent! If we’re told to put on the brakes, best we’re doing it now, rather than down the road and get in trouble.
As we do not carry the products we’re selling on eBay, we have to exercise an extra level of caution when utilizing a supplier for our eBay endeavors. We want to communicate with our supplier as much as possible, so we know where inventory levels stand, and if there are going to be any foreseeable delays. For instance, if the supplier says We’ll be down for two days for maintenance, we want to be aware of that, and plan our auction accordingly. Every bit of information we can get in regards to inventory, shipping times, and all of that fun stuff is going to be crucial in our success: remember, it is we who are responsible for the listing, good or bad, not the supplier.
The worst thing we can do is forget that simple fact, and start holding the supplier at fault for any snags that we run into with the listing on eBay; if we didn’t watch the inventory level, if we didn’t make sure that the lines of communication are open, it is we who are at fault, and it is we who will have to eat the negative feedback. However, with a little bit of planning, and a handy email plugged into our system or telephone number in our phone, we can avoid many of these problems, and reap the full rewards of eBay and dropshipping.
