Latest Guide: How to Dropship on eBay (Include Suppliers List)

What is eBay drop shipping?

For many online sellers, eBay is the most reliable platform to start their drop shipping business. eBay dropshipping is where you can sell any product you want without having to buy and store it prior. eBay drop shipping allows you to buy inventory from your suppliers and ship it directly to your customers.

Anyone with an eBay seller account can start drop shipping. One needs to decide what products to sell, where to source them from that can guarantee quick and reliable shipping. Because the goods are shipped directly to the customers, the drop shipper simply acts as a middleman between the supplier and the consumer. Drop shipping is allowed on eBay, as long as the seller assures delivery within 30 days of the end of the listing. eBay places full responsibility of shipping time and item quality in seller’s hands.

Once the product listing on eBay is completed and the sales start coming in, your next priority is to build and maintain a good reputation with your customers. eBay drop shipping policy comprises that sellers may charge certain drop shipping and managing fees for handling and packaging of products.

Advantages and disadvantages of drop shipping on eBay

eBay is the by far the best online tool for selling goods. It is the largest auction site that is attracting many consumers from US. Although it has been overshadowed by Amazon and many may think of eBay as a website they used to visit, there is still a loyal and very large existing user base support today. However, there are few pros and cons to drop shipping on eBay rather than creating an e-commerce store:

Advantages

1. Simple to start – The first question that arises is how to dropship on eBay. Drop shipping on eBay is as easy as making an account and setting up your first listing. There’s no need to face the hassle and costs of setting up your own online store or e-commerce website. It is simple, easy and reliable tool which works for consumer benefit and minimizes the risk factor. Drop shipping with eBay offers easy accessibility and listing of products and helps you in building up your own online store without any investment of huge capital, thereby making it convenient for the consumers.

2. Less marketing time and expense – eBay has millions of user accountability. When you list any product, your listing will be showcased to a large number of buyers. This would save you lots of time, money and energy that you would be spending in promoting and marketing your own brand.

3. More traffic for less effort – As mentioned earlier, due to eBay’s large user base it becomes quite effortless to reach your target segment and sell your products. The best part with this kind of business is that you do not find the target segment instead the target segment finds you. An extensive range of audience is attracted to buy your products and you don’t really need to make extra efforts in selling your products. eBay helps you in promoting your brand and it will also generate traffic to your e-commerce store. Larger the number of audience, wider the sales aspect ratio and hence it will be more easy to get best price for your auctioned product.

Disadvantages

1. Listing fees – eBay charges small drop shipping listing fee for each product. And this applies even if the product doesn’t sell. As well as they charge up to 10 percent of your total sale price known as a “final value fee”. Due to excessive competition, profit margin per product is tremendously low and due to drop shipping of products, these charges can further add up to the cost thereby making the product more costly. In order to boost drop shipping business, one has to increase the quantity of the product.

2. Less customization – One of the biggest problems with eBay drop shipping is restrictions on customization of products. Although eBay is a huge platform to start your drop shipping business and set up an online store but eBay does not offer drop shipping of custom products and as a result it is getting difficult for eBay to stand out against their competitors. Choosing eBay might restrict your creativity in marketing your product. Customization is an important aspect of drop shipping business and since eBay imposes restrictions on customization of products, it has resulted in customer divergence.

3. Frequent monitoring needed – In order to make money through eBay and do a profitable sale, it is necessary to stay on the top of your listings. And thus, frequent monitoring and supervision is essential in order to reorganize the listing process.

4. Feedback and history – While drop shipping with eBay, it is obligatory to make sure that your product is not out of stock. You are supposed to update your data so that customers can have correct information about the availability of products and moreover once the consumer buys your product, it is your duty to make sure that the product is delivered on time. Late delivery often imposes negative impact on the consumers and in order to avoid this eBay need to collaborate with trusted supplier sources.

5. Lot of buyers with less number of sellers – Once you list your product for selling, it attracts many consumers every day. But the question arises- Are there many sellers on eBay as compared to buyers? There are lots of buyers on eBay. Each product has approx 20 buyers but there are less number of sellers so this leads to less product availability. Consequently, competing with other sellers becomes a big challenge for eBay. Every e-commerce company now days are selling products at cheapest price which can be easily afforded by the customers so if you are not able to give balanced competition to these companies then it might hamper your sale.

Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide where you want to invest more of your time and effort when selling wholesale products online. However, for most of the sellers, drop shipping on eBay is a simple and effective way.

How to dropship on eBay

Now that you have understood the process of drop shipping at eBay as well as the advantages and disadvantages of drop shipping on eBay, let us discuss the steps on how to dropship on eBay. There are millions of products on eBay, but most of the sellers never actually keep stock of the items they sell online. They source their products from a separate online seller, at a wholesale price, and list the items in their eBay store. Once an order has been placed, the drop shipper will fulfill the order through their drop ship company, who will ship the item to the customer.

Step 1: Find a supplier

The most important aspect of successful eBay drop shipping business is to find right supplier and then focus on product quality and offering best customer services. These wholesale suppliers can be easily found online but if you want a smooth start for your drop shipping business, it is required to choose a trustworthy and reliable wholesale supplier.

When choosing a supplier, consider these key factors:

1. You must check the shipping methods used by the supplier. Shipping is an important aspect of drop shipping business and if a supplier is not using advanced shipping options then it will ultimately hamper the delivery process.

2. Keep a check on that time taken by supplier to ship your product to the consumer. Suppliers you cannot deliver products on time often leads to customer dissatisfaction.

3. Find a reliable dropship supplier who operates globally and can ship products worldwide. This will help you in expanding your drop shipping business and promotes global customer interaction.

4. Quality check should be the topmost priority while drop shipping any product. 100% verified quality products leads to customer satisfaction and it will also attract widespread audience from all across the world but poor quality products leads to poor customer experience. Thus, it is important to confirm about quality control methods before choosing any supplier.

5. You must confirm with the supplier if you are allowed to use the photos, text descriptions and product information from their source material into your own product listing description.

After you find a reliable and dependable dropship supplier, ask him to become your retailer which will ultimately help you in boosting up your sales.

Step 2: Choose your products

You might choose your product even before choosing your supplier, depending on your wish. You might already have a thought about a specific product niche in mind, or you might need to conduct some research to determine what’s selling in the market right now. In order to build up a successful online store you must be specific about your product type and range. High quality products always grab attention of buyers at a mammoth scale. If your store has extensive availability of products then it might generate high traffic to your store.

Step 3: Set up your eBay seller account

After choosing your product, you need to set up your eBay seller account. It is important that you pay attention to minute details that many online sellers overlook which can be any impediment to your drop shipping seller’s account.

1. There are many useful links and guidelines available on eBay seller’s information center that you need not overlook. These descriptions will ultimately guide you in setting up your online store.

2. Being in a professional environment when doing an online business, you need to choose your account name wisely. Offensive usernames might drive customers away and might also violate eBay username policy. However, peppy or catchy names might lead to better sales.

3. In order to set up an eBay sellers account one may require a tax ID.

4. In order to run a successful eBay dropship sellers account you must pay attention to modes of payment. Customers often look for easy modes of payment via cash on delivery or e-payment either through credit card or PayPal.

5. For a creative seller’s account you need to create your profile page and update the products descriptions. You need to mention details about your store and its refund and return policies. Providing details about your store can be beneficial for customers as they’ll get easy accessibility of product and I will attract certain markets such as electronics, cosmetics etc.

Step 4: Create your listings

It is important that you list each of your products on eBay.

1) You can do this by utilizing the information provided by your supplier, and some of them like chinabrands.com even have API that you can import product desciptions to your eBay store in just one click. Amazon and eBay provides information about product quality, description, price, auction and other product detail. So you are required to do bit of product research on eBay and then create your product listing accordingly.

2) Next step is finding the products that can be posted as multiple items listings. It will help you in listing the product once and look after the process of smooth running of fulfillment and handling returns. This will not only reduce your work load but also simplify your product listing process.

3) In order to avoid re-listing of products you need to properly list the products all at once.

4) Timing is the most crucial part in eBay listing. Listing on eBay around peak traffic hours seems to be the most obvious solution. If your store is attracting widespread audience that means you are generating higher traffic and there are thousands of potential viewers who are ready to buy your listed products. This will ultimately boost up the sales and provide retailers better profit margins.

5) High traffic also leads to high competition. If your site has high traffic that means buyers in large numbers are creating traffic and buying your products, this will eventually slow down your site speed.

Step 5: Manage and maintain

Now that your listing is done on eBay, it is time you reap the benefits. This is the time for you to fulfill orders, build a positive reputation as quickly as possible, check with your supplier on a weekly/daily basis to make sure everything is running smoothly. Make sure to remove the listings for discontinued or out-of-stock items and replace them with new products regularly.

The most important is the customer service. It is of prime importance that you respond to customer complaints. This will create better user-friendly relationship with your customer and infuse a positive vibe.

3 best eBay dropship suppliers

Following are 3 best drop shipping sites for ebay. They are the companies that will drop ship a variety of both specialized niche products as well as some popular consumer products. In case if you do not find about drop shipping programs on the website, you may contact them personally for more information.

1. Chinabrands

Chinabrands has availability of wide range of products and as a global drop shipping platform they are efficiently able to list those products. There is no difficulty in the listing of out-of rack products as intensive research is conducted before displaying any product on the store. Also, the wide range of products available on the platform makes easy order fulfillment. China has augmented their business potential and technical know-how. The drop shipping merchants emphasize on quality and at the same time also cater to the bulk market demands. Products that are produced in China can rival out the other competitors on the benchmark of global quality.

Chinabrands has a wide-ranging products portfolio and retains prominent suppliers and remarkable brands. Attaining cost efficiency on wholesale with the support of their product and distribution network, Chinabrands has been able to offer its customers a cost effective purchase benefit and discount. Their products are updated constantly and they provide enough supplies for each category and update new products constantly. The Chinese bulk suppliers and wholesalers offer the best price-quality connectivity rates to receive maximum profits. Chinabrands has been into product selling with a variety of more than 60000 items covering apparel, automotive, sports gadgets, toys, entertainment and computer accessories, garden equipment, prized watches and still counting with new arrivals and niche products, thereby making Chinabrands one of the best drop shipping sites for eBay.