Drop shipping - all its cracked up to be?

[jp5000]

Hey guys


Looking at starting a drop shipping company that sells home ware items and accessories in the UK. Got an idea of platforms to use, and where to buy. But still a tiny bit dubious... I work full time, so to get it started would allow me to work around my full time job especially if sites allow automation or working from my phone.

Do any of you guys have experience with drop shipping?

Would you recommend?

JP

[kowalski]

I'm preparing to start online retail but not experienced yet. This week I received certification of the name of my LLC (called an SL over here). So I can open a business account now and so on.


Peace,

kowalski

[dan300]

Originally Posted by Jaz

I believe that drop shipping is so saturated now that it costs a fortune to optimise your site.

Yes it is saturated as fuck, I've been looking into it for nearly a year.

Launching a webstore is easy, you can do it on about an hour. The difficulty then is trying to get traffic, which costs a bomb in Facebook ads etc etc.

You can make it work if you are willing to invest the time, money and effort into testing different products and advertising methods. You might get lucky after 6 months or so, provided you've been persistent.

Fuck all that. I'm just gunna piggy-back off Amazon.

[dan300]

Originally Posted by kowalski

I'm preparing to start online retail but not experienced yet. This week I received certification of the name of my LLC (called an SL over here). So I can open a business account now and so on.

You're registering as a Limited company from the offset, without even having a business yet?

I plan to be a sole trader to begin with. You can always change if the business grows to the point you should become a Limited company.

[kowalski]

Yep.


Peace,

kowalski

[dan300]

Originally Posted by kowalski

Yep.

Any particular reason/s why?

[kowalski]

For reasons of limited liability. I need to keep my monies separate. For now the main drive is: if I get into personal problems (of which there is genuine risk), any money I loan to the LLC is protected. And in the future it'll be the reverse: if I get the LLC into problems any money I have outside of it will be protected... more or less.


Peace,

kowalski

[dan300]

I see.

For me it's unlikely anything will happen in my personal circumstances because my job is secure. So, it's not such a big risk to take a shot at a side hustle. I could lose a few hundred quid but overall it's not a threat to my livelihood.

[ephemeris]

As someone who's done it and has the hole in my pocket to show for it I feel have the authority to comment on it more than most.

I'd recommend only going into it if you have a very stable job with a steady flow of cash, and I don't mean minimum wage. The biggest expense you'll have is facebook adverts, which is pretty much the only way you'll get traffic to your site. You can try with Google but it's hard, very hard!

Building a brand takes a very long time and the people who make the most have generic stores and A LOT of money. You need to research your market thoroughly and test like crazy to see what sells and what the best way to it. When I say test I mean testing 5-10 products a day and spending a shit load of money in the process. It sounds easy but it honestly isn't!

The concept has a very high drop out rate and this is for good reason. People lose thousands easily. They out their life savings on a dream that isn't worth it and most people aren't wiling to out the effort in. The giants have a roughly 3 in 100 chance of getting a hit that pays off, but this requires a HUGE investment of time and money for something you may never achieve. It's a great way to play about with money you have, if you have enough to burn.

The people making the real cash in drop shipping as those providing the services attached such as Shopify and WooCommerce and ClickFunnels, and offering courses and designs. All the ballers also happen to be big into affiliate marketing, which is interesting to say the least!

[ephemeris]

Originally Posted by dan300

I plan to be a sole trader to begin with. You can always change if the business grows to the point you should become a Limited company.

Being a sole trader you pay less tax also but there are ways round this. I was recently offered the services of an accountant that would reduce my company tax bill which is hilarious when you think about it, especially as I'm company-less.

Remember also that if you're earning over £85,000 you'll need to register for VAT. Most people don't realise this, as in think they need to be paying it when they don't.