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How can I help you? (16)

06-08-2017 08:35 PM #1 sapven (Member)
How can I help you?

I've been a member at STM for about a month now, and so far this community has been amazing.

Loads of great people who have reached out to me not only to ask questions, but to offer help and advice as well.

As a "thank you" to the STM community, I'd like to do a 4-week "golden tip" series where I drop 1 golden tip a week on what's working for me.

Would love to have some ideas on what you are all interested in hearing . It can be anything from FB, product sourcing, store optimization, etc.

Let me know how I can help you all!

06-08-2017 10:20 PM #2 matuloo (Legendary Moderator)

I'd like to hear about your experience with the check-out sequence optimization. I've been helping a few e-shop owners to optimize their flow, and we have seen some dramatic increase in order completion when we made the flow more simple and easy to understand - I'm always interested in more tips on this

06-09-2017 06:27 AM #3 pekadis (Moderator)

Great offer @sapven

I would be interesting in hearing how you can get an ecommerce campaign on Facebook that is:
1. Profitable
2. Interesting enough in volume

In other words, how would you start, if you were starting today and were doing facebook as the lead source for drop shipping / Shopify.

Not asking for myself, but this seems to be the most common issue.

I realize this might take more than just one nugget, so if it's to broad, anythin g- from your perspective - from that might help people here get traction would be great.

06-09-2017 06:41 AM #4 manu_adefy (Veteran Member)

Here's one people neglect or forget to ask about til they are way past the danger zone - How do you navigate the legal landscape for shipping worldwide, with all the different sales taxes, custom taxes, etc?

This would be a big topic and probably over 90% of people doing ecommerce, especially the dropshipping model, act like these don't exist.

Basically, there's little point in having an optimized store if you are going to get shut down by the authorities or you are doing a black hat operation from a legal perspective, instead of just lying in your ads. Without dealing with this issue, ecommerce is much more black hat and risky than all the "you've won an iPhone" misleading ads.

06-09-2017 06:53 AM #5 sapven (Member)

Quote Originally Posted by manu_adefy View Post
Here's one people neglect or forget to ask about til they are way past the danger zone - How do you navigate the legal landscape for shipping worldwide, with all the different sales taxes, custom taxes, etc?

This would be a big topic and probably over 90% of people doing ecommerce, especially the dropshipping model, act like these don't exist.

Basically, there's little point in having an optimized store if you are going to get shut down by the authorities or you are doing a black hat operation from a legal perspective, instead of just lying in your ads. Without dealing with this issue, ecommerce is much more black hat and risky than all the "you've won an iPhone" misleading ads.
Great question here - but TBH, I wouldn't be able to thoroughly cover this since I don't know the exact laws in every country (and I don't want to position myself as a legal representative either). I will briefly share my experience below though:

-Sales taxes: I collect and pay sales taxes for customers who order from my home state. If you are dropshipping - the products are from China and go straight to the customer, so it would not be considered a nexus tax because my product is not being stored in the USA. For sales taxes that I do collect, Shopify does this automatically based on your tax settings. And I use an app called TaxJar to help me file sales taxes.

-Customs taxes: Out of more than 10,000 orders internationally, I have not once heard anyone complain or inquire about customs tax. I have it in my policies and FAQs just in case, but have not once heard a peep about it. From my understanding, there typically has to be a certain $$$ amount value of the product to get custom taxed (usually applies to big bulk shipments, not dropshipping single orders to a customer).

Again, I am not a lawyer, legal rep, or tax specialist so I cannot fully advise on this.

06-09-2017 11:26 AM #6 pekadis (Moderator)

I think calling this "black hat" is taking the tax issue to the wrong direction.

There are black hat techniques and then there are legal obligations IMO.

You can be a black hat and still run a business that fulfills its legal obligations 100%. Just means you are using certain techniques that service providers, such as Google don't want to see.

But those are Google's "rules". There's nothing wrong with not following these - there's just a risk involved of being blocked

Legal obligations have to be fulfilled, regardless of how you market whatever you are selling or doing.

I do agree that many are unaware, uniformed or just don't care. Sheep following the herd of people who don't know either.

@sapven is right in saying that it's too complicated to just answer, so best to check. However, I don't - for a minute - think it's the same as a consumer buying direct from Aliexpress.

When you sell something, the "contract" is between you and the seller. So if a consumer buys from you, you have an obligation to that buyer. Regardless of where you ship from (these are add on conditions).
When a consumer buys directly from Aliexpress, the "contract" is between them and the selling party.

The problem is that this contract is often vague (what exactly are you paying for). Which is why terms and conditions are important. Making sure that you explicitely state what's part of the sale is important.

If you're doing small volumes or nothing yet, you can figure this out as you go. I don't think it should be a barrier to just getting started. But don't just forget about it.
Best thing however would be to get specialised help and do at the same time do your own research. as not every accountant knows exactly what the rules are either (speaking from experience).

06-09-2017 11:58 AM #7 manu_adefy (Veteran Member)

Quote Originally Posted by pekadis View Post
@sapven is right in saying that it's too complicated to just answer, so best to check. However, I don't - for a minute - think it's the same as a consumer buying direct from Aliexpress.

When you sell something, the "contract" is between you and the seller. So if a consumer buys from you, you have an obligation to that buyer. Regardless of where you ship from (these are add on conditions).
When a consumer buys directly from Aliexpress, the "contract" is between them and the selling party.

The problem is that this contract is often vague (what exactly are you paying for). Which is why terms and conditions are important. Making sure that you explicitely state what's part of the sale is important.

If you're doing small volumes or nothing yet, you can figure this out as you go. I don't think it should be a barrier to just getting started. But don't just forget about it.
Best thing however would be to get specialised help and do at the same time do your own research. as not every accountant knows exactly what the rules are either (speaking from experience).
Certainly not the same, especially it's not how authorities see it in most states, at least EU and USA.

Currently doing exactly what you suggested and just introducing our tax consultant to the model and asking for advice on everything.

I haven't managed to speak to someone who did decent volume and also had an audit from the financial authorities. Like I said, most people think the problem doesn't exist unless it's at their door step already - out of sight, out of mind.

From the research we did so far:
- USA and Australia have a pretty simple model if you are a foreign company
- Canada I don't understand, not simple to do it right
- EU has VAT (which you are required to register for from certain thresholds even if you are a foreign company - people mostly omit this ), and also customs taxes; all of these vary by country but officially, you don't have free reign to do whatever you want just because you are outside the EU - which seems to be a common misconception for people doing dropshipping.

L.E.:

One clear example is the UK, since it's a big spender and English speaking.

https://www.gov.uk/vat-registration
https://www.gov.uk/vat-registration/when-to-register

The key quote:

Businesses outside the UK
There’s no threshold if neither you nor your business is based in the UK. You must register as soon as you supply any goods and services to the UK (or if you expect to in the next 30 days).
Have you ever shipped to the UK, @sapven?

06-09-2017 03:52 PM #8 lem915 (Member)

i'd like to hear more about how you manage your return policies, do you keep a warehouse, P.O. Box or have it sent back to the manufacturer? Or what ways to do you navigate an unhappy customers that wants to return but still not giving out your own personal address.

also what tools, if any, that you use (something that's maybe better than Oberle) to find sourced products and reputable manufacturers?

06-09-2017 04:46 PM #9 sapven (Member)

Quote Originally Posted by pekadis View Post
I think calling this "black hat" is taking the tax issue to the wrong direction.

There are black hat techniques and then there are legal obligations IMO.

You can be a black hat and still run a business that fulfills its legal obligations 100%. Just means you are using certain techniques that service providers, such as Google don't want to see.

But those are Google's "rules". There's nothing wrong with not following these - there's just a risk involved of being blocked

Legal obligations have to be fulfilled, regardless of how you market whatever you are selling or doing.

I do agree that many are unaware, uniformed or just don't care. Sheep following the herd of people who don't know either.

@sapven is right in saying that it's too complicated to just answer, so best to check. However, I don't - for a minute - think it's the same as a consumer buying direct from Aliexpress.

When you sell something, the "contract" is between you and the seller. So if a consumer buys from you, you have an obligation to that buyer. Regardless of where you ship from (these are add on conditions).
When a consumer buys directly from Aliexpress, the "contract" is between them and the selling party.

The problem is that this contract is often vague (what exactly are you paying for). Which is why terms and conditions are important. Making sure that you explicitely state what's part of the sale is important.

If you're doing small volumes or nothing yet, you can figure this out as you go. I don't think it should be a barrier to just getting started. But don't just forget about it.
Best thing however would be to get specialised help and do at the same time do your own research. as not every accountant knows exactly what the rules are either (speaking from experience).
Thanks for the great insight! What I meant when I said it was the same was regarding the customs tax. As in there would be no difference in the customs tax charged on orders you dropship to a single customer vs. that customer ordering it themselves. From my understanding, customs tax are different per every country but are based on the value of the product that is placed on the shipping bill of the order, and the country of origination (which would be China in both cases).

You absolutely have an obligation to to a consumer who buys from you to be transparent about what's part of the sale, and to actually provide that.

**BOTTOM LINE REGARDING TAXES AND LEGAL QUESTIONS: If this concerns you, please get specialized help to speak to in your home country. I am not an expert in this.**

06-09-2017 04:49 PM #10 sapven (Member)

Quote Originally Posted by lem915 View Post
i'd like to hear more about how you manage your return policies, do you keep a warehouse, P.O. Box or have it sent back to the manufacturer? Or what ways to do you navigate an unhappy customers that wants to return but still not giving out your own personal address.

also what tools, if any, that you use (something that's maybe better than Oberle) to find sourced products and reputable manufacturers?
I can definitely do something around this.

06-09-2017 05:12 PM #11 pekadis (Moderator)

@manu_adefy

For the UK, again it depends on where you are based:
see 6.2 here: https://www.gov.uk/government/public...stance-selling

There is a threshold, but only if you're VaT registered in Europe.

However, let's cut this short here, as we're getting off topic.

06-10-2017 05:09 PM #12 littleblackdot (AMC Alumnus)

2 questions:

1) How do you organize your campaigns and ad sets? Does each individual product gets its own campaign (e.g. PRODUCT_1 - PPE and PRODUCT_2 - WC). Or do you make campaigns for each goal and give each product its own adset?

2) What''s the biggest piece of advice you would give someone just starting out in dropshipping/FB right now?

Thanks man. Appreciate it and congrats on all the success so far

06-12-2017 11:14 AM #13 switchfire (Member)

Hi sapven

My question is about pixels

1- How do you setup your custom conversions? do u set by 'events' or 'URL contain' ?

2- when your store is all ready and you want to start sending facebook traffic, what is your first campaign objective? eg, 'Link click' or 'conversion', If its conversion where in the prepossess do you optimize it for? eg page view, add to cart...

3- for a general store with different product, how do u know which add to cart/thank you conversion is which? lets say i sell woman shoes and iphone cases, it dosent make sense i optimize a campaign for 'thank you' page dose it? or do you use an app to solve this issue?

06-16-2017 02:40 PM #14 Ninja Hedgehog ()

A lot of these questions are great and I'd be interested in answers on most of them, though I'd second a request for an answer on lem915's question about returns:

i'd like to hear more about how you manage your return policies, do you keep a warehouse, P.O. Box or have it sent back to the manufacturer? Or what ways to do you navigate an unhappy customers that wants to return but still not giving out your own personal address.

06-18-2017 08:21 PM #15 qkimhock (Member)

Hello , may i ask , do you do broad targeting or precise targeting on facebook ads ?

Can you share how yout campaign structure is like for testing ? 1 interest per adset etc ?

06-27-2017 10:29 PM #16 sapven (Member)

Thanks for all the suggestions on what to cover!

I'm currently on vacation in Australia and will be back on the 7th. I will post the first tip the week after I come back.

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