Is Dropshipping legit – or just another scam? In this blog post, we got in front of the camera to address one of the most common questions we get asked.
Click below to watch the video:
(Click here to watch on YouTube)
It’s not rare to see a person comment “scam” under our YouTube videos.
- “Dropshipping is basically lying to customers”
- “The stuff you sell is useless piece of junk”
- “SCAM SCAM SCAM”
But is it really?
I want to answer this. To do this, I’ll be addressing the most common questions we get around Dropshipping being a scam:
- Aren’t you tricking customers by “marking up” the prices of items you dropship?
- Aren’t you scamming customers by selling them cheap, useless junk?
- Isn’t it wrong that we don’t buy test products first?
Let’s get started.
Question #1: Aren’t you tricking customers by “marking up” the prices of items you dropship?
Some people think the idea of listing a mug in your store for $20, when they could easily have just gone to Aliexpress and bought it for a fraction of your price, is morally wrong.
Basically, the AliExpress price was the real price, but we just took their product and trick customers into paying more.
To be quite fair, it’s easy to understand why some people may think this. However, this conclusion completely clouds the efforts of marketing.
In a nutshell, there are 3 main stages through the process.
Stage #1: Production of raw materials. The producers sell them at a profit to product manufacturers.
Stage #2: Product manufacturing. Taking these raw materials and turning them into items for consumers. Then selling these items to dropshippers like us for a profit.
Stage #3: This is where we come into play – the marketers (or retailers). We then market these items directly to consumers. Again, for a profit.
Here’s why our role in this stage is crucial: Manufacturers on AliExpress work with us so that WE can take care of the marketing for them. They don’t want to do it! It’s like doing two jobs at once… and not even really being skilled at the second one.
This is a BIG DEAL. What you don’t realise is, marketing is generally the most expensive part of this WHOLE process. On average, we spend anywhere from 20-50% on marketing.
Now, I’m sure that in a magical fairyland with unicorns that lay $100 bills, consumers would love it if we could get rid of marketing because it would cut product prices DRAMATICALLY.
But we can’t.
If we didn’t do marketing, then most people wouldn’t know that these products exist in the first place and would never buy them. No one intentionally goes on AliExpress to buy a camera lens mug… or ‘cat’ coffee spoons… or an avocado slicer.
Chances are, they found them through a sponsored ad on Facebook.
The people that buy the items from us are people that didn’t know that they existed in the first place. And they were never, EVER going to buy them from AliExpress.
Why? Because AliExpress suppliers are NOT marketers!
Instead of imaging marketers as blood suckers who are only trying make money for their own benefit, understand they are actually a crucial part of the economic food chain.
Us retailers, with our marketing, help consumers know about items that will help improve their lives that they wouldn’t otherwise know about.
Which brings us onto the next question…
Question #2: Aren’t you scamming customers by selling them cheap, useless junk?
What’s a common stereotype your hear about products from China?
“They make cheap junk”.
Shockingly though, you’ll realise that most of our high-quality goods we enjoy in daily life are created by Chinese manufacturers. 98% OF THEM!
China are king at producing every day common goods. And it’s not just the low-cost goods: China are the working force behind the production of expensive, high-end electronics like iPhones.
Would anyone call an iPad a piece of junk? I don’t think so.
On the other hand, you have people who also label AliExpress items as “useless”. Wrong! While items sold in Dropship stores aren’t made to “do the job” – it sure does inject the added sense of joy and luxury into people’s lives. And this is a BIG deal (if it wasn’t, then why are SO many stores making six figures out of these products?)
Question #3: Isn’t it wrong that we don’t buy test products first?
While it is good practice to buy a sample product yourself before selling it, you can’t just give the green light and say “all is good”.
What about the other 200 products? Are they the exact same quality as the one that arrived at your door?
The only way to really find out isn’t by inspecting a single sample… but turning to SOCIAL PROOF instead.
What’s the best way to get social proof? REVIEWS!
Reviews give you a much LARGER perspective on how well a product is being made. If people are giving positive reviews about their experience with the product and showing images of how great it looks, this means customers are happy with the quality.
And CUSTOMERS are what’s most important, right?
Besides, quality control is a constant issue with manufacturing – in EVERY business. What you really want to see isn’t that the mug you received is high quality. What you want to see is that your manufacturer is producing CONSISTENTLY GOOD PRODUCTS.
And guess what? With AliExpress, you have REVIEWS to do that for you. You can go to an item listing and check if the reviews for it are consistently good or not. This is a much, MUCH better indicator of whether a manufacturer can be trusted to mass-produce great mugs for our customers or not.
And if you’re not sure if you can trust the reviews on Aliexpress, you can always check to see if the product is on Amazon and see what customers have to say about it on there as well.
Whereas one sample product? Not statistically relevant.
To summarise:
- It’s not morally wrong to sell a product on Aliexpress for a higher price in your store. Marketers need to account their costs too, to make a profit. Plus, if it wasn’t for us – people wouldn’t even know some of these items existed!
- It’s not every Chinese manufacturer who produces poor quality products – this happens in EVERY country! And if you were to pick at such an argument, China should be last country as your example. They account for creating most of the goods you see on the shelf at supermarkets!
- On the surface, it might seem reasonable to buy the product before you sell it – but this is also naive. Not every product is created equally and getting a bird’s eye view over quality control – is a much smarter option to find out whether items are being made of a good quality consistently. This can be easily done by looking at reviews.
Before you go, here’s something I think you’ll love.
Six steps to building a six-figure Dropship store:
In it, I’ve included:
- How just one “winning item” can earn $10k/month. Yep. A lot of people don’t realize this… but most stores make the majority of their money from just a handful of items!
- The right way to choose AliExpress suppliers. Picking the right AliExpress dropshipper is crucial to drastically reduce things like refunds. Learn how to pick the right suppliers.
- Why long shipping times DON’T matter. A lot of people are scared to start Dropshipping because of “long” shipping times. You’ll learn why this doesn’t matter inside.
- Why their stores take 2 hours a day to manage. You’ll learn how they utilize apps like Oberlo to make their stores semi-automated… making managing orders super simple!
Click Here to Access the Free Book