Drop shipping is all the rage and has been for quite some time… even before ebay. The popularity of ebay though has driven the market berserk and caused some people to choose the easy way and PRETEND to be a dropship wholesaler when they’re really not.
They then take YOUR order and pass it along to the REAL source of the product after taking their cut.
This means they reap the profits of all your marketing efforts and quickly vanish leaving you holding the bag if they’re completely shady.
Here are 3 Red Flags to tell a middle man from the real deal…
From The Home Based Business Blog…
Charges a recurring fee – Legitimate wholesalers do not charge recurring fees for their service. They may change a per-order drop ship fee to cover their cost of providing the service. They may even charge a charge a small administrative setup fee – this is OK. Monthly or annual recurring fees are not OK and are the hallmark of an artificial wholesaler.
Insufficient Information about the Company – Do you have trouble finding information about their company on their website? Is the website full of fluffy sounding marketing but lacking in actual information about the company (such as addresses and phone number)?
Setup Process Too Easy - How easy is the setup process? If they don’t ask for a business license, tax ID, or resale license, you are probably looking at an artificial wholesaler. Real wholesalers will ask for one or more of these documents before doing business with you.
Related Link: How to get started online!
Will on December 10th, 2007 at 11:56 pm
Great tips. There are also too many scam sites selling lists of suppliers….and they dont even list real suppliers. I found Inventory Source http://inventorysource.com/ and they let you create a free account (with no trial ending period) and view products and contact details for real wholesale suppliers…including prices… They also have services you can add for loading the products to your site, ebay listings, amazon, price grabber, google base, etc. and help keep your product price and quantity details matching the suppliers’ latest details.
scam watcher on October 4th, 2009 at 6:40 pm
http://inventorysource.com/ is yet another SCAM website. Be careful!
Jen on January 11th, 2010 at 8:08 am
To Scam Watcher….if you have any questions about how we (InventorySource.com) works, just contact us by phone or email with any questions. We are a strong member of the BBB since 2002. We are recommended directly by many supplier programs to their members not as some affiliate program, but recommended because we have been adding value to their reseller network for years. Some of the largest and most respected wholesale programs in the country like D&H and many others recommend us directly to their member network. We provide a free directory of wholesale programs that we are integrated with. There is no “trial” period…it is a life time free membership with new programs added every month. You can work with the programs directly for free without adding any service from us. We are in no way able to add hidden fees to the prices, shipping, etc. unlike other scam programs. We act like your plug-in IT Department or Supply Chain Management Service. We can work on a variety of platforms (Yahoo Stores, eBay ProStores, Magento, etc) or marketplaces (eBay, Amazon, Nextag, etc). We actually take a great deal of pride in being one of the only services which adds value to a drop ship reseller business at affordable prices while helping our members (either on the free account type or paying service account) AVOID scam website “services” in the drop ship segment.
tony seo on December 9th, 2010 at 1:50 am
The best way to find a real drop ship supplier is by visiting a trade show or go to the small business center. The small business center has a database of all the businesses listed.
What you are also can do is do some research in Google. They may not be listed in Google, so you will have to digg deep.
Use keywords such as drop ship supplier or manufacturer. And browse at least 3 pages further, because real drop shipping companies may not know SEO, so they don’t get high ranking in Google.
The one that I’ve found was http://www.bigdropship.com
I called them and someone was answering the phone. It’s very important that the drop shipping company has good customer service, because what happens if the product is too late or your customer wants a refund?
You need fast respond from the drop shipping company. Always verify your drop shipping company by making a phone call, before doing business with them. Real drop shipping company also verify you. They will call you to make sure you are a legitimate business owner.