Drop Shipping and The Moral behind It

amazonaddict on 11/04/2019 - 10:40
Last edited 11/04/2019 - 10:46

I am not sure how to title this.

My wife saw a kids dress ad on Facebook from a site called patpat. She bought some nice looking clothes for the kid and showed me the pictures proudly. Then 3 days later she was very upset and when I asked why she showed me a Facebook ad from Ali express with the same cloth on it but 1/6 of the price. - We were exposed to the world of Drop shipping.- Initially I thought it is scam and started to study about it.

So, I have been watching these Guru's on youtube where they show how they make 200K profit in 4 months. I became curious and started watching all i could find. For those who don't know how typical drop shipping works,

  1. Find a product in Ali Express that sells around $2.
  2. Set up a Shopify(A platform where you can create ecom sites within a sec) store and add some marketing apps. (approx $120 a month)
  3. List the product at 4-7 times of the purchase price
  4. Hire people in Fiver & Instagram to create ads and add fake reviews.($500)
  5. Sit in front of the computer all day and tweak the ads (Facebook and Google)
  6. Once you get orders, fulfill via Philippines Virtual Assistants paying $20 a day

And, people are buying. In one of these courses, a 20 yr old kid called Gabriel, sells for over 1million dollars worth of a posture corrector (https://flexposture.com/). Ads cost 60%, 20% is product cost and 20% of is pure profit.

I would not mind the 20% profit that fellow is getting. But, my poor wife who paid 6 times the price and felt cheated for the whole day? Is not this a scam? If this is valid model, how can I convince myself to do this and feel ok about it. Is anyone else here doing it?

General Discussion

Related Stores

PatPat
PatPat

Comments

      • UltimateAI on 12/04/2019 - 10:05

        It’s business 101, the store has lots of additional costs, risks, and obligations in Australia. 6x sounds a lot but look at what the farmers get paid per 1l of milk.

        Wages, AUstralian Consumer Law obligations, credit card charge backs, damages, warranty claims.

      • bongom on 13/04/2019 - 13:22

        The retail mark-up for clothing sold in Australian b&m stores is around 500% of the wholesale price.

  • RSmith on 12/04/2019 - 06:11
    +4

    Business is the art of extracting money from other man's pockets without resorting to violence.

    —Max Amsterdam

    • try2bhelpful on 12/04/2019 - 07:06
      +2

      Reminds me of Pratchett quote about taxation.

      “Taxation, gentlemen, is very much like dairy farming. The task is to extract the maximum amount of milk with the minimum amount of moo.”

      ― Terry Pratchett, Jingo

  • exc3113nce on 12/04/2019 - 07:30
    +3

    Setting up a drop shipping business seems easy but to be successful is not as easy as it seems. Most drop shipped items come from China which require a 3-4 week shipping time. Then add to that if the item is damaged or needs repairs.

    Keep it mind majority of the youtubers you watch are the real scammers with their dropshipping courses usually based on fraudulent sale figures.

    • amazonaddict on 12/04/2019 - 08:08

      True. I don’t trust these Lambo driving Guru guys. But, there are some genuine people too. Seling $1m worth of goods, handling 100k customers, spending all you free time on Facebook ads and writing to paypal every otherday asking to release funds : all this to just to get $200k in profit of which $100k belongs to taxman is not something that attractive. But, we would not know until we test it.

  • idonotknowwhy on 12/04/2019 - 07:31

    What happened in the OP is not scam, it's no different from jb HiFi selling $30 usb cables or airport stores selling $20 headphone splitters.

    There is some kind of scam associated with drop shipping though, but I don't understand it yet.

    I've seen a few people come into discord servers and dump screenshots of some panel showing they're making $250k / year doing this.

    I don't know exactly what they want from us, but I know that if they've really got an arbitrage opportunity earning that much, they wouldn't be going around showing it off.

    • amazonaddict on 12/04/2019 - 08:17
      -3

      I am a thrift buyer. But, I have bought cables from JBhifi for warranty, ease of return and immediate availability. Those are massive values added to the product. I have bought cables from Alibexpress and all stopped working within a month. Actually, when I sell a cable at $35, the buyer assumes the product to be a higher quality, but not something that is available at Ali Express for $1. I thought this is tricking the buyer in to buying something available in his reach at higher price. It seems most of this community are ok with that. So, I don’t mind starting my own as well.

    • shadowangel on 25/04/2019 - 15:22

      need to watch it. its possible to do credit card fraud.

      buyer buys product, purchases off merchant with stolen card ships directly to buyer.

      the credit card owner files chargeback.

  • BuuBox on 12/04/2019 - 08:01
    +1

    I'd be more worried about the dyes used on the fabrics from sources such as these.

  • minklet on 12/04/2019 - 08:59

    I would be very sceptical of peoples claims of how much money they make from this stuff.

  • andyhui01 on 12/04/2019 - 09:35
    +7

    The dropshipper marketed the product in a way so that your wife knows it existed (She wouldn't have been able to find it otherwise). Your wife managed to find the dress she wanted for your kids at a price she thought was reasonable to her at the time. Maybe this was a design that was not easily available in Australia.

    How has this not added value? Also, the person who took the time to bring this to market on the website and do the appropriate marketing for it also needs to be paid. If they just made $2-3 on each order, they would be losing money. The Ad your wife clicked on would have most likely cost $0.50.

    Shopping on Aliexpress is like walking through a market where everything is just on the floor and you have to dig, find someone that won't scam you. Shopping on this website is like going into a shop where everything is well displayed, categorised and at least you won't get scammed.

    There are heaps of things you buy online which are also available from AliExpress at a fraction of the price.

    Why don't you also question your employer (or yourself if self-employed) the moral behind the business you work for on how they make enough money to pay you and your colleagues a living wage so your family can afford to spend $20 on a kids dress.

    EDIT: Just checked the patpat website. It is actually done really well, heaps of good marketing and conversion strategies. I can't understand why you think the entrepreneur who started that business does not deserve to be rewarded well for his work.

    • UltimateAI on 12/04/2019 - 09:57
      +1

      Also they have to abide by Australian Consumer Law.
      Aliexoress and Alibaba are great but not for the novice, a lot of the products are fakes and poor quality. The business op bought from likely invested significant time and cost sourcing suppliers.

      I’ve had some great deals but also shocking experiences with gold sellers!

  • SKiZO on 12/04/2019 - 09:53

    just cause it's in my mind this week….
    posturepals > flexposture
    https://dynamictape.com.au/consumer/shop-aus/

  • ozboygsl on 12/04/2019 - 09:58
    +1

    your asking if its a scam your wife didn't look around????? are you for real?

  • corvusman on 12/04/2019 - 10:03

    Roughly speaking, it costs $20 to make a pair of typical Nike shoes.

    Freight, insurance adds $10
    Marketing adds $10
    Other expenses about $7-8

    Shoes are sold to retailer (think Rebelsports etc) for a $50, so Nike makes $2-3 from each pair.

    Then you buy it for $120, because Rebel needs to maintain a huge logistics chain, stores, army of salespeople etc. And of course make a profit.

    In other words, there is a GINORMOUS chain of middle man everywhere, including drop shipping. It's called 'economy of service'.

    And every single link wants to make a profit.

    Welcome to machine.

    • shadowangel on 25/04/2019 - 15:26

      most people don't get that.

  • Milk tea on 12/04/2019 - 10:25

    Why would this be a scam? Many many e-stores buy things from aliexpress and ebay etc and sell to the consumer for a much higher price. Same thing occurs with brick and mortar stores buying from a wholesaler and reselling them. The only difference with drop shipping is the wait time of receiving the product as the seller doesn't actually hold the product, not all of that other stuff you listed making it sound like a dodgy business model.

  • [Deactivated] on 12/04/2019 - 10:37
    +1

    I don't think it's illegal but I agree it's immoral. But all salesmanship is immoral. The entire industry is based on the idea of convincing people that a product is worth more than it actually is. That (to me) is immoral.

    And this applies to literally everything - cars, houses, artwork, jewellery. Does anybody really think a diamond ring is "worth" $20,000? It's the job of the salesman to convince you that it is. Same for that expensive luxury car, or the 4 bedroom house with marble benchtops. It's all bullshit. None of the stuff is "worth" what they're charging. Somebody somewhere is making massive profits off of the customer's naivety.

    Some people will defend the practise because the salesman is "adding value". They might say the salesman is exposing the product to a wider audience, or informing the customer, or some similar nonsense. In reality the salesman is hiding information from you. In your case the salesman was hiding the true value of the product from your wife, using some gloss and other trickery to convince your wife the product was worth 600% it's actual value, and they're profiting to the tune of $200k every 4 months. How is that any different to theft? They're not adding $600k/year of value. They're just getting rich by withholding information about the product's true worth.

    So yes, unpopular opinion, but I agree it's immoral. The people who do this - all salesman, including advertisers - are scumbags. And it's a shame that capitalism encourages (perhaps even requires) their existence. But all of the alternatives are even worse, so I don't have any answers other than do your homework, shop around, compare prices, and don't impulse buy.

    • [Deactivated] on 12/04/2019 - 12:05

      Hey people, downvotes aren't a dislike button, he asked for opinions, you're not supposed to blackhole opinions you don't like.

    • amazonaddict on 13/04/2019 - 01:48

      Definitely not illegal. But, yes.. I had a bad feeling about this whole thing when I thought I should also start my store. Not sure, if it is because charging a lot for a cheap item and feeding most of it to FB and Google or just felt like deceiving naive people. Anyway, turned out to be a very unpopular opinion. Anyways, thanks for expressing your thoughts. I was really shocked when not a single person had an opinion similar to me.

  • YoungQuan on 12/04/2019 - 11:49
    -2

    its called free choice, immoral would be pressuring people to spend money on the product that does not do as advertised

    profit is what creates jobs, puts people's kids through school and enables us to live in the wealthiest and safest society that has ever existed. Profit is not only moral but a duty. It means you are providing value to other people.

    • [Deactivated] on 12/04/2019 - 12:03

      profit is what creates jobs,

      Uhh, no. Jobs existed before profit. Jobs exist even today without profit. What a strange thing for you to say.

      puts people's kids through school and enables us to live in the wealthiest and safest society that has ever existed.

      Yeah, all that has nothing to do with profit. That all has to do with sitting on trillions of dollars of mineral wealth with a tiny population, a stable government, and relative immunity from war.

      Profit is not only moral but a duty.

      Hahaha. Big round of applause for Gordon Gekko.

      "Profit is a moral duty". Hahaha.

      • YoungQuan on 12/04/2019 - 19:58
        -1

        Da, tovarisch comrade, da. Try and feed your family, fill up your car, pay for your kids school, etc. without money. Profit is what makes society run. Not the government, not a bunch of ill informed socialists like you. It is the businesses that produce value and create profits that make the economy run. Where do you think the tax money comes from? I am sure it just magically lands in the ATO bank account.

        • [Deactivated] on 12/04/2019 - 21:59

          I'm not a socialist and my extended family was murdered by communists so don't say that again.

          Try and feed your family, fill up your car, pay for your kids school, etc. without money.

          Money is not the same thing as profit. Your claim was the morality of profit, not the usefulness of money.

          Profit is what makes society run.

          No. People run society.

          It is the businesses that produce value and create profits that make the economy run.

          No. People create value.

          Where do you think the tax money comes from?

          Again, nothing to do with the morality of profit.

          You've done nothing to prove your claim that profit is our "moral duty". Can you? I have my doubts.

            • [Deactivated] on 13/04/2019 - 14:46
              +1

              @YoungQuan: So that's a definite no, you can't prove your laughable claim.

              Next time try having a clue first. Also, reported for personal attack. Civility is free.

      • Never Pay RRP on 13/04/2019 - 01:34

        Uhh, no. Jobs existed before profit. Jobs exist even today without profit. What a strange thing for you to say.

        Which jobs specifically existed before profit?

        If a company or business entity is not making a profit they can't afford to employee people (at least not in the long term). Aside from government which can subsidise using tax money, everyone else needs to turn a profit to survive.

        • [Deactivated] on 13/04/2019 - 03:09

          Which jobs specifically existed before profit?

          Jobs have existed for over 15000 years - ever since the first civilisations in what we now call the middle-east. Money has only been around since 600BC. So ops claim of "profit is what creates jobs" is flat-out wrong.

          In reality jobs are created by demand. Capitalism uses profit as a "motivator" for capitalists to invest, but you don't need a capitalist to have a job. Plenty of self-employed people are doing fine, with zero profits.

          NB: your income is not "profit". That's not what profit means. Not even close.

          And there are plenty of jobs people still do for things other than profit. Bartering is an example. Pro-bono work. Working for costs. Working for food. Even working for free! These are examples of zero-profit jobs. You might scoff, but millions of people work for free.

          If a company or business entity is not making a profit they can't afford to employee people (at least not in the long term).

          Not true. Some businesses only work at cost, never making profit, and they're still employing people. Humanitarian organisations for example. Some health funds operate as not-for-profit (e.g. HCF). Employees still get paid.

          Aside from government which can subsidise using tax money, everyone else needs to turn a profit to survive.

          Everyone needs to get paid. That's income. Not profit. Don't confuse income with profit. Businesses survive on cash-flow, not profit. Businesses regularly operate at a loss, the exact opposite of a profit, e.g. Tesla.

          I've just listed a half dozen different motivations other than profit, given examples of not-for-profit yet still viable businesses, and shown that a business operating at a loss still creates jobs. Is the point proven?

          This is all getting off-topic. Honestly I just found the ops Gordon Gekko moment to be funny - his religious devotion to The Almighty Profit. I didn't want to turn it into a drawn-out debate.

  • taoz on 12/04/2019 - 11:58

    Strange thread.
    You didn't realise items are sold for different margins.
    Appears your not a kid, so you'd hope you worked in some form a business before ..

    Yea it sucks when you realise its cheaper elsewhere, but that was your call to purchase. No difference to supply of any service or goods

  • weee on 12/04/2019 - 12:02

    for the part people claiming they are making banks, think again, as OP already realized that's the real scammy part, the figure they throw around might be real, but you never know what the profit really is, trust me, if the business is really that good and lucrative, people would try their best to conceal it instead of flaunting around, thats the common pattern of all business, once its getting too louder that average people can hear you know its probably too late to jump in.

    • amazonaddict on 13/04/2019 - 01:50

      True. Same thing happened with the recent Real Estate and Cryptp Havoc. :) I always miss the wagon.

  • Damnsmart on 12/04/2019 - 12:18

    isnt the reason why we are all here in ozbargain, trying to find the best price (possible low margin items) for the product which are being sold at different margin.

    • amazonaddict on 13/04/2019 - 01:51
      -1

      But, I have never seen 5X margins. That was the only problem. Anyway, most people seem to be okay with it. :)

  • desert eagle on 12/04/2019 - 12:35

    ITT: People who don’t understand how capitalism works.

  • Jumpup on 12/04/2019 - 13:30

    Happened to stupid me once. On eBay there are reseller selling Kmart items x5 the price. I bought one and it was dropped shipped by Kmart, then I opened a dispute because the brand was listed as ‘no brand’ but it had a brand. Got most my money back. I reported this seller and nothing happened. He is now on eBay plus and making a killing. He removed my neg feedback as well.

    • amazonaddict on 13/04/2019 - 01:59

      I would always think the person who tricked me like that to be a crook in real life. That's why I have restrained from doing such business. May be that's why I am not rich. :)

  • belongsinforums on 12/04/2019 - 15:22

    Lol

  • MementoMori on 12/04/2019 - 16:46

    Could you say it's only a 'scam' because you perceive that they didn't work 'hard enough' for that money?

    To my knowledge though, the only people making money from drop shipping are the people who sell courses on drop shipping.

    I think there is a fair chance they are working quite hard and not making much… if that helps.

  • abuch47 on 12/04/2019 - 18:52
    +1

    My opinion is that advertising/marketing is one of the scourges of society.

    OPs issue is a mainstay of globalism/capitalism. Buy cheap in developing nations, do sweet (profanity) all, sell for profit due to currency differences. When you get big enough move profits offshore to least tax haven. This is all legal without taking into account, laundering, criminal enterprise, corruption, slave labour or the ethics of your industry.

    • Never Pay RRP on 13/04/2019 - 01:38

      My opinion is that advertising/marketing is one of the scourges of society

      Without advertising/marketing, how would you find out what products are out there?
      You could argue that ozbargain itself is a form of advertising/marketing…

      • abuch47 on 13/04/2019 - 09:44

        At a store. ozbargain is a form of storefont and yes unfair advertising helps certain businesses more than others on ozbargain but at least their is some democracy on what reaches the frontpage. Watch madmen, the ethics of tricking people will expensive campaigns full of lies and mistruths that create stereotypes that benefit business is not great. Eveything has positives and negatives but for me its about the net effect on society and I dont believe its good.

        There lies a difficult middle point atm in society where individuals can grab these products from china, sell on amaz in a marked up society this is not illegal and barely immoral. Big business is allowed much more tolerance so why shouldn't an individual try get ahead to help those they know. one of the biggest downfalls of capitalism is its ability to divide the wealth gap.

  • MessyG on 12/04/2019 - 20:35
    -1

    Dropshipping is as old as the hills in Internet years! These days when these new shops appear on FB or Insta or wherever, I head straight for Aliexpress and buy it from there. I think especially for physiotherapy stuff (i.e. posture supports, bands etc), it's great. I don't think there's anything wrong with buying a volume of it cheaply and selling it for more, that's basic business. I feel for your wife - I've seen the Pat Pat stuff and then realised it was Aliexpress gear - tell her to make up for it she should go and buy MORE of it on Aliexpress to smooth out the cost! ;)

    • amazonaddict on 13/04/2019 - 02:02

      Yes, we are fortunate that AliExpress itself advertised those same clothes within few days. Otherwise wife would have kept buying from PatPat. :D

  • watson4884 on 12/04/2019 - 21:50
    +1

    wow
    this is amazing how much profit they make……..
    https://detail.1688.com/offer/583384888831.html
    Selling @3x.xx (Around¥150)
    ¥ 4.20 ¥ 3.80 ¥ 3.50
    起批量 2-299 个 300-99999 个 ≥100000

    https://detail.1688.com/offer/591371552101.html?spm=a261b.21…
    Selling @2x.xx(Around¥100)
    ¥ 1.00

    But..if you can sell them at a good price..well good on you

    • amazonaddict on 13/04/2019 - 02:05

      Damn. It is very hard to browse that site without knowing Chinese. There are courses on how to hire agents to buy and ship products from 1688 itself. But, thats not drop shipping. Did you look at the screen shot I shared? $513K was spent on FB ads to sell $930k worth of those Posture Correctors. Actually, based on your link, he sold $20k worth of goods for $930K.

      • watson4884 on 13/04/2019 - 06:36

        Set up a website $0+cost of the item(aud 1)+shipping(6-7 aud per package through e-express)+Ads………….
        But still it's not a scam..
        If you are smart enough.you would be able to make money like them…..lol

        For example patpat.com lots of their clothing can be found on 1688.com
        e.g.https://www.patpat.com/product/Baby-Toddler-Girls-Denim-Splice-Floral-Dress.html?is_new_category=1&sku_id=19018910&v=1
        selling aud20.92 on patpat.com

        https://detail.1688.com/offer/39480331628.html?spm=a261y.766…

        selling cny 18-22 (~aud4.5-5.5) on 1688.com

        gross profit:~aud15

        https://www.patpat.com/product/Baby-Toddler-3-piece-Floral-R…

        This is my favorite set
        Selling $36 on patpat.com,$8-9 on 1688.com

        They still need to pay shipping,domain,web design though……..

        • amazonaddict on 13/04/2019 - 11:02
          +1

          Man, wish I knew Madarin. Why should not you consider this? Website design is no brainer. You can buy patpat like shopify theme for $70 in envato market. Need to find content for the home page. May be $1000 for that (but very hard to execute I know, hiring models, agreements, organising shoot). Once you are ready with content then all that is left is FB marketing and bit of weekends.

  • serpserpserp on 12/04/2019 - 23:16

    I knew a guy nearly 20 years ago buying cheap golf clubs in the U.S during their winter on eBay (their stock take season) and then selling them for 20% less RRP on Australian eBay (peak summer season) and making a tidy profit every year. He only stopped because it was starting to become a second full time job when he wanted to focus on his real passion (but made more money from the eBay jaunt funnily enough). Now days you could cheaply and easily outsource the advertising/fulfillment piece to free up your time, but once you hire someone to do this, they'll figure it out and just do it for themselves so what do ya do?

    People buy low and sell high all the time. You just need to find your angle.

  • Blugok on 13/04/2019 - 00:17

    So OP, if I tell you that the price of the same item you saw in aliexpress is 3 times of the price in tao bao.
    Would you call aliexpress part of the scam drop ship world?

    Or would you consider that you were even scammed more?

    Anyhow. Just be happy with the item that you purchased.

    In asia ( its marketplace ecomm world), Same photo ad is meaningless. There is always grade 1, 2, 3, counterfeit, fake, and so on.

  • TtiGeR on 13/04/2019 - 02:44

    Even big companies drop ship. For example, I once bought a device from Officeworks (required by the company policy). The device was shipped directly by the manufacturer. It's perfectly normal.

    AliExpress is a wholesale platform. The only difference is many wholesalers on the platform are willing to:

    a) Sell products directly to consumers (subject to min. qty set by individual wholesalers, could be 1);
    b) Are willing to ship products to consumers on behalf of resellers.

    Dropshipping has its own expenses. A sustainable dropshipper evaluates nearly all products before they offer them on their platform. That costs time and money…

    Now to share with you a real scam: on Taobao, some sellers used to sell a service called "You are guaranteed to pass any test! 100% Refund Guarantee!"

    If you pass, they keep the money.
    If you fail, they refund you in full instantly.

    No, the cost is almost 0 because they don't help you prepare, they "bless" you.

  • athk on 13/04/2019 - 06:56
    +1

    I get the whole dropshipping issue and I respect your view on them.

    But really, your wife should've done her research and as a wife of an ozbarginer and apparent Amazon addict.. she should know better. I feel for her I do we've all been there.

  • missyy on 13/04/2019 - 08:08

    tips for your wife : screenshot items she want to buy and image search on aliexpress (if can't found it, try taobao) then you will found out the "correct" price for that items (aliexpress include delivery to aus), done it all the time for various items

    • amazonaddict on 13/04/2019 - 11:11

      Yes. She has learnt the lesson. But, I created this post to check if it morally ok to take advantage of such naive market. The common answer is Yes. :)

  • soundsdifferent on 13/04/2019 - 08:19

    I would feel annoyed too, I bought a new Macbook Air once and found it 2 days later $300 cheaper. I felt annoyed at myself for rushing into paying full price, did the company who sold it to me do anything wrong? Not a thing. Your wife and you have every right to feel annoyed, but it should be at yourselves.

    • amazonaddict on 13/04/2019 - 11:09

      True. My question was, since you have felt bad and probably have left some curse words towards the seller, would you be willing to do the same to another person?. My post has made and impression that I want to get a refund from the seller. No I am not. I am just in the process of convincing myself that it is ok to sell something keeping a ridiculous margin.

  • wtfnodeal on 13/04/2019 - 10:12

    Maybe the fake reviews part is a scam.

  • JD9151 on 13/04/2019 - 10:16

    People also forget that many Aliexpress sellers are also dropshippers from sites like Taobao.

  • Marrk on 13/04/2019 - 17:34
    +1

    Drop shipping is nothing new, businesses like Kogan have been doing it for years. E.g. A supplier tells Kogan the Galaxy S10 is in stock, so they list it on their website as being in stock. The product sells, the drop shipper sends the mobile to the customer with a Kogan invoice and a free Kogan SIM card (which Kogan sends to drop shippers in bulk).

    In regards to setting up a drop shipping business to take advantage of those who don't do their research - that is up to you. You won't necessarily succeed, and if you do, you need to be able to sleep at night.

  • Autonomic on 14/04/2019 - 00:48

    NPR had an interesting podcast on dropshipping you might find interesting:

    https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?stor…

    • amazonaddict on 14/04/2019 - 07:47

      Wow.. thanks for sharing. A view from sellers perspective.

  • haemolysis on 14/04/2019 - 02:37

    Being a “middleman” is probably the second-oldest career. And there’s nothing wrong with it. That advertising doesn’t come out of a vacuum. Someone pays for it.

    If anything, whilst it might be easier to do things like this with the internet, it’s also by the same token, easier to search for so-called “scams” and look for original suppliers. So really. If you can’t do that… then maybe having middlemen do the work for you isn’t so bad.

  • [Deactivated] on 14/04/2019 - 04:39

    Everything is a scam, everything cost much less to produce, but sell for higher price. That is how it work, do you research , buy stuff that worth the price you going to pay or find alternatives. Great example with be the iphone costing about 1/3 of the selling price to produce. While cheap phone from China do the same job for fraction of the price.
    Is people fault for this to happen, just stop buying expensive items and the prices will start to get lower.

  • thriftybunny on 14/04/2019 - 10:21
    +1

    As people have said drop shipping is legal but I remember back then there was this Facebook ad for savetheoceam.com, free necklaces but you'll have to pay for shipping (where they make the profit), & it felt like such a scam because clearly the company had nothing to do with saving oceans & just drop-shipped necklaces which sold on AliExpress for $1.20 or so. There was a lot of buyers, the post had tons of likes and comments. Maybe it's the pretence of saving the ocean but that did feel like a scam to me.

    • wtfnodeal on 14/04/2019 - 10:36

      Oceam not ocean?

      • thriftybunny on 14/04/2019 - 21:39

        It's meant to say ocean, typo

  • raz11 on 14/04/2019 - 12:08
    +1

    Most people have to make a profit so there will always be some level of mark up. Some people would compare it to Coles and etc but their mark ups covers the infrastructure to provide those products we would not normally be able to buy in the first place. Though the drop shipping markups cover the marketing cost and the cost of bringing attention to the product.

    10% -20% markup? Most customers wouldn't care and just accept that. 500%? That's when they will feel cheated and ripped off when the exact same item and service provided is just a click away. Most people would say that is fine and it is their fault for not researching.

    How much would the markup have to be before you have to question the ethics behind it. Though some people would be fine with it but would you personally be ok with taking advantage over some naive people and charging them potentially thousands of dollars more.

    Everyone has a different markup threshold they would be willing to charge before questioning their ethics so just charge whatever you are comfortable with. Some people would be fine with $10 markup, $1000 markup or even $1m markup. Though the higher you are more comfortable in charging then the more money you will make. I personally wouldn't be comfortable with 5x extra but then again that is why I probably will never be successful at drop shipping and that's fine for me.

    • kronicmacstigator on 19/04/2019 - 13:22

      Average retail markup between Chinese factory and Australian consumer is 1000%… :)

  • Scantu on 14/04/2019 - 15:42
    +1

    Not immoral to make a profit, noone loses out. You make an assessment of "worth" when you click buy, not when you find out how much it takes to make it.

  • kronicmacstigator on 19/04/2019 - 13:21

    If you are shitting yourself based on the aliexpress price… you don't want to know what the factory sells them for (nor buys the raw materials before labour)

  • AlienC on 19/04/2019 - 14:50

    The only "scam" here is people taking advantage of other people who don't have the time or know how on how to research other alternatives which is basically the opposite of a true ozbargainer or experienced shopper.

    Dropshipping is ingenious and if I knew how to do it 100% in and out I would do it myself.

    I feel like there are some extra steps and unnecessary steps and costs in your description but again I don't know all the ins and outs of what is required for drop shipping I honestly thought it was a lot more easier and automated than that with the only extra work being advertising and paying ABN GST and etc I honestly thought the program or business model was all automated from aliexpress to your front "fake" digital shop (also no refunds/returns or after care support is what I thought was believed to be the common or normal practice for this business model - just buy and sell thats it what are these virtual assistants?)

  • ozSupergood on 29/04/2019 - 11:03

    If you don't like it, just refund it.

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