drop shipping recommends? Its a minefield.. (6)
Hey,
Just thought I'd ask the question on here, as dunno where this topic would fit..
My wife wants to start a small store.. to keep her busy now kids are both older and at school.. I suggested drop shipping so she has no stock issues (well storage/overheads)..
Anyone got any experience in this area?
I had a good Google for her today.. and it looks like a bit of a minefield.. a fair few shady reviews on some wholesale companies etc..
Any good reputable sources for her to start with?
I have a good decade of experience with websites and seo / managing content etc.. But never even dipped my toe in the drop ship pool before.. so a bit lost on advice for her.
She's not made her mind up yet on products to go for.. But she's leaning towards furnishings, accessories, (I want her to do electronic gadgets!) or anything "girly".. lol
Cheers!
DS
Before joining STM, I was building up a few ecommerce sites. Currently have 3 drop-shipping stores live, I got started with http://dropshiplifestyle.com. Another very good resource is http://ecommercefuel.com. They're both legit resources.
Thanks mate.. I'll have a good look at these tonight 
appreciate it!
Andrew at ecommerce fuel is a great guy ! I was in the beta for it and they have a cool course.
Make sure to avoid any networks or pay to play websites that promise you a list of off the drop shippers. The best way is to go 100% direct to the manufacturer and work it out that way. You can find out manu's that are most likely drop shipping by inspecting competitors in your niches and see what manu's they use. Check wayfair.com for your product than search all the suppliers they use and direct contact them.
They get alot of calls asking about this so what I suggest is picking your niche and makin a temp/mock website. It doesn't have to be super pro but what I did was just put up a couple of fake suppliers. so I had fake supplier on with a bunch of products (even though i didnt have a deal with them yet) but it made my site look legit. When I contacted dropshippers it gave me a bit more pull and made it seem like i wasn't just space talking. once you get a couple of actual suppliers take down the temp ones and you are rolling.
this is all outlined in those courses. drop shipping is hard now cause amazon owns it all, you have to have a unique selling angel. usually the only way to compete with amazon is picking something you can provide awesome information / customer service. or make your own propritary product.
those two courses will cover everything and way way more
thanks for the info guys..
I'm cool with mocking up a site, no issues..
I think the main thing is ^ as said by bshimmer, picking the niche to domintate.
My wife is an avid pinterest, instagram and FB user.. so building decent content on those will help her..
Andrew from ecommercefuel recommends against electronics, because there is so much competition. He also suggests that you pick a product between the $100-200 price point.
He wrote a good post about picking a niche on this link here (which also links to his free e-book):
http://www.ecommercefuel.com/anatomy...fitable-niche/
Here's another good resource for your wife on dropshipping:
http://ecommerce.Shopify.com/assets/...opshipping.pdf
Hope this helps! 
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