[Kriptik]

Hi all,

I'm looking to get into entrepreneurship and I was thinking of starting with dropshipping but I don't like affiliating with Chinese companies like AliExpress.

I'm EU based and I'm looking to sell only at national level (because I don't want to deal with Taxes from other countries).

Now I'm not asking you to spoon feed me with suppliers (although I wouldn't be against if any of you wishes to share such information with me).

What I'm really asking for is, how should I go about finding the suppliers based in EU for example? I want to sell products that are a bit unique, not something everyone else is already selling in the dropshipping business.

Coming to my last point, I see a lot of dropshippers talking about "building a brand"? Not sure I understand this, can someone explain how it would be possible to build a brand in the dropshipping business? Because as far as I know, the products you sell have their own brand... So how can you possibly make this your brand?

Thanks a lot!

[Miles Teller]

No clue on finding a supplier in EU other than from networking or google searches. As far as building a brand, it's more or less just finding a generic product and "branding" it yourself.

Examples: You start a one product drop shipping store for a lint roller product. You call it "Kriptik's Roller" or something. You then make a website like "The Kriptik Roller" dot com or something and then thats your product. You also pay your supplier to put your logo on the products.

Sorry if that isn't what you are looking for I typed it super fast and its a very broad explanation but hopefully you get the general idea

[froodle]

I have few sites I used, and never had a problem with them. All depend, what you are actually looking for to dropship. Where are you based?

[SpiritualDose]

What makes nike stand out to you? Is is the Swoosh logo? Is it the voice in your head that says "Just do it" ?

That's the brand. It's what the eyes see, the ears hear, the brain remembers.

[Kriptik]

Thanks for all the answers so far, as for the niche I didn't decide yet but I guess it will be something which is profitable. I still have to find the right one though.

[johndoeman805]

no offense but isn't drop shipping (more or less) saturated? others can chime in :)

[Mercury]

If you have capital, I'd advise against it. Though it is possible to profit from dropshipping, I've found alot more success in establishing my own inventory first. Buyers are alot more likely to give their money to the seller who can beat those shitty one month lead times that come in tow with ordering from China.

Finding suppliers depends entirely on whatever it is that youre looking to sell. Depending on what it is, manufacturers have specific criterias that they want their sellers to meet. This isn't always the case but it's very common when it comes to quality products. Keep that in mind.

[Dennis]

no offense but isn't drop shipping (more or less) saturated? others can chime in :)

One of the companies I work for started 2 years ago. Did 14 mil in revenue last year, this year already surpassed it.
And they are only a small player in their niche.

Drop shipping cannot be saturated. Some niches may be worse than others.

[The Joker]

Well, dropshipping works well if you buy from a manufacturer. That's exactly why people buy from Alibaba, etc.
Since you buy directly from the manufacturer, you get the product at a far lesser price than the competition.

Building a brand means, you buy a brandless product and ask the seller to deliver the product with your branding. Most manufacturers do this. This ensures you have your own brand.

[Joel]

Spoiler (Click to View)

Dropshipping fucking sucks, if you're starting out you want to stay as far away as possible from Dropshipping, Dropshipping requires a lot of infastructure and a fuck ton of money.

It's much cheaper and easier to import then re-sell. And you will 100% be buying from China whether you like it or not, most 'EU' companies just import from China then resell to you at an increased price of 50-150%, so skip the middleman.

And most platforms collect taxes for you on your behalf and relay them to the correct governing bodies so that isn't an issue. Most platforms have an 'IOSS' number inside the EU, and this lets customs know that taxes have been collected/paid easing transport through customs. Although this doesn't cover Import Taxes, but most shipping companies will let the customer know by Text or Email that they have Duties to pay, this isn't on you and I wouldn't worry. I'd definitely have it written somewhere on your store though and depending on the price of your products this might not even come into affect, for me personally like 1/500+ orders requires Import Duties to be paid by the customer, most countries have decently fair limits before they charge Import Fees. In the UK its £135.

I recommend going on Alibaba and getting in contact with people who sell products and talking them into ordering stuff for you from Taobao or 1688.com, this is how you get 'Chinese' prices in the EU, you will also need to find a Freight Forwarder that can import your products for you. You will usually be paying by the KG and always make sure you have a rough quote from the importer beforehand, there are loads of horror stories of people getting their products into their importers hands then they just turn around and ask for insane amounts of money, basically blackmailing you, always make sure a company is established on Alibaba before you deal with them and always look up reviews if possible, aim for an absolute minimum for 3+ years of operation in my opinion.

Most people selling on Alibaba are reselling from 1688.com etc, my current arrangement with my supplier is I offer him 10% of whatever the total is on 1688 but with a minimum of £15. So even if I ordered £50 worth of Goods I'd be paying £15 + VAT on that £15 since it is a service. I also told my supplier that he isn't liable for anything that is damaged/missing from the parcel, but if something is missing I still let him know and he can usually collect a refund on my behalf. I have worked with my supplier for over 4+ years and he started off by selling me very specific products that his own company creates/sells then I asked him if he could handle orders for me every now and then and he agree'd under the circumstances posted above.

And this is going to come across as very racist but I truly mean it, don't trust 90% of the Chinese people you deal with, they will nickle and dime scam you, make sure you weigh your parcel when you get it, verify all the contents are inside, Chinese people scam Chinese people constantly so even if you're buying from a Chinese market like 1688.com theres still a very large chance something is missing. Chinese people operate on the methodology of 'Only refund/apologise if the customer realises' its honestly quite pathetic but China is a morally bankrupt country under it's current dictatorship so everyone is fighting for every penny even at the expense of other Chinese citizens.

Also avoid creating your own website at the start, it's completely pointless, eBay/Etsy/Amazon all offer access to some of the biggest audiences in the world with great search algorithms, I don't pay a penny on advertising, I just utilise organic SEO on these sites and it's more than enough to make a living.

If whatever you decide to sell does start to do well I'd maybe open your own website then. Also make sure to buy from people who are already selling the products you want to sell and see what they are doing, how they package things, what shipping providers they use, what the average cost of the product you want to sell is etc. I actually recently upgraded my packaging based on something I received from another seller and I realised he's a genius, he can fit more products in that packaging for the same cost as much smaller packaging inadvertently increasing profits. More products into the packaging at the same shipping rate = more profit. This was all because I spent £10-20 buying from competitors and it's made a very strong change in my business.

ECommerce at the start is basically a game of who can source the product the cheapest so you can get sales, only once you have feedback you can start to raise prices because people will be willing to pay more if you're trusted.

My Stores
Spoiler (Click to View)
My eBay


My Second eBay (Made as a test to see if I could duplicate my success, I can, I just don't do very much on it anymore since I focus on my main store instead)


My Etsy


On my Etsy store to give the illusion that I created the products myself I actually paid someone on HF to 'rough sketch' some of the products I already had so I could pass them off as my own but the reality is they are all sourced from China, but since my reviews are really good and I don't take advantage of prices I feel like this is morally okay, but this is up to you and how your own moral compass, personally I think I'm too forgiving/nice with my customers but I value feedback very highly.

If you were to buy fake Ebay/Etsy reviews you're looking at nearly $5-20/each so I value each interaction I have with a customer at that value.


And one final note, everything I have said is based on my experience on years of growing my small ecom business, there are people who are far more successful than me, probably have better profit margins, lower import costs and are just much more successful in general, but this is the way I have carved out my own path. Copy others to get your start, but eventually you'll find out the way you like to do things/handle things. I also code my own tools and stuff to try automate a lot of the manual labour since I handle literally everything myself.
Spoiler (Click to View)

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Well, dropshipping works well if you buy from a manufacturer. That's exactly why people buy from Alibaba, etc.
Since you buy directly from the manufacturer, you get the product at a far lesser price than the competition.

Building a brand means, you buy a brandless product and ask the seller to deliver the product with your branding. Most manufacturers do this. This ensures you have your own brand.

Alibaba is very expensive, it's not generally reflective of the real costs. It's basically the Amazon of Asia, Aka they are reselling products from 1688.com/Taobao at massively inflated rates. But a lot of the time having something branded comes with a large MOQ meaning you have to kinda go 'all in' in a sense.

For example the products I used to buy from my initial supplier on Alibaba are $0.80/piece, but on 1688/Taobao they go for $0.25-0.40/piece.

[manadasosa]

i wont recommend to buy off stuff from temu and shein, long delivery time + overpriced

[SIM-4446504]

I tried dropshipping with alibaba once, barely made profit on top of the items, or buy in bulk and I didn't wanna warehouse all that

[RangoWorld]

To anyone who's reading this. Drop shipping isn't worth it at all. The amount of time and resources you'd be putting in to build a running drop shipping business. If you put the same effort into some local business with integration of online stuff. (E.g. making reels about it on social media). You'll get much more return than with drop shipping.

[Oh_Well]

Prepare to give lots of money for marketing.
And make sure you sell something that someone is willing to wait for - not something he'd need in an emergency.

If they can find something at a similar price or a bit above but with a 2-day delivery, they won't buy from you.