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How To Make Money Dropshipping On eBay

How To Make Money Dropshipping On eBay (Simple Steps)

Starting your own business to make good money on your terms seems like a great idea at first. That is until you see just how expensive buying inventory and renting space would be before you could achieve even a penny of profit. But learning how to make money dropshipping on eBay could be the secret to actually making an income in online retail.

Buying up thousands of dollars worth of inventory just isn’t viable for most people. With dropshipping, you can sell products on eBay without the need to store a ton of inventory, invest in products people may not want to buy, or mess with shipping.

Here’s everything you need to know on how to make money dropshipping on eBay.

Dropshipping On eBay Explained

A dropshipping business sounds like a complicated model to learn, but it’s one of the easiest ways to run a new business. It gives you the freedom to quickly expand and market your company without having to spend time dealing with the product yourself.

Buying and Selling Stock

The whole process gets initiated when a customer makes a purchase. You get the money upfront, which means that you’ll rarely have to dip into your own savings pool to keep your business running. 

Using the customer’s money, you just need to purchase the product from a supplier you trust and have it shipped directly to the customer. You never even have to touch it! 

The only reason I’d recommend having it shipped to yourself first is if you want to put the product inside a bag or packaging that’s specific to your company. After this, it gets sent to the customer, and you gain some profit!

Shipping and Delivery

This step is crucial for any online purchases to be successful, but when dropshipping, you don’t have to worry about it! Your suppliers handle the shipping and delivery of the product so you can focus on growing your business.

This is also why it’s so important to trust the suppliers you’re buying from. You won’t be able to tell if a product is defective or incorrect before the customer receives it, so knowing that your supplier is reliable will be a huge weight off your shoulders. 

Having all of the travel time for your products in others’ hands also means that your location doesn’t matter. As long as you have a way of directing things, you can either work from home or at the local Starbucks!

The Benefits Of Dropshipping On eBay

Learning how to dropship on eBay is an easy way to get a new and lucrative business off the ground. It has several advantages over having a physical store and makes it possible for complete newbies to start on the right foot.

Less Initial Expense

Not everyone has thousands of extra dollars to throw at a new business. Even if you have minimal capital to start with, making money on eBay requires very little from you. 

The main cost you avoid is the large amounts of the initial product. Being able to buy the product as it’s purchased keeps your personal costs low and your profits up. 

Not having to store your products is also a big money saver. While a warehouse or physical store would allow you to keep a more accurate inventory, the cost to rent it is incredibly high, as opposed to dropshipping. 

Ease of Management

Less to worry about means more time to focus on business aspects like marketing and customer service.

Not having a warehouse or storefront to maintain is a big time saver and keeps your focus on the customers. The time I initially spent keeping my store in working condition, I used to spread the word of my business to help its growth. 

You also don’t have to worry about shipping concerns like tracking inventory or handling returns. Making money on eBay is as simple as becoming the middleman for these transactions. Any issues with the products will end up falling on your suppliers. 

Flexibility

Learning how to make money dropshipping on eBay will lead to one of the most flexible jobs you’ve ever had!

Since everything runs from your computer, your location only requires a wifi signal. You can work from home, on vacation, or even outside the country. Your physical presence isn’t required at any stage of the process, so there’s no need to make big moving plans or finding a workspace.

This also applies to the products you sell. You aren’t buying your stock upfront, so what you sell can change and evolve as customer’s interests change. There will be no leftover stock to worry about, and you can always provide what will give you the most profit. 

How To Make Money Dropshipping On eBay

How To Make Money Dropshipping On eBay

While dropshipping is a pretty easy way to make money online, it’s not as simple as slapping a product on your business sell page and hoping for the best. There are plenty of trade tricks and pricing details to keep in mind if you want to make the most of your new company.

Step 1: Make Your Store

This is an incredibly simple way to set up a business. Just create and register an account with eBay, and you’re good to go. The only time you need to pay eBay is the seller’s fee whenever an item gets purchased. 

Step 2: Picking a Product

Your products will be the main draw of your shop and the items you’ll have to find suppliers for. There are two main options for when it comes time to pick the bulk of your shop.

Passion

Selling a product that you have a passion for can make your job a lot more fun and fulfilling. It will be easier to find suppliers because of your previous interest, and answering customer’s questions or pushing the product will be a breeze.

The only downside is that your passion may not be what other people want to buy. Not every interest is marketable, so keep that in mind if your profit margin is tight after a while of selling your preferred product.

Trending

Another option is to research what people are looking for on Google and sell that. This option guarantees that you’ll have a customer base and will keep you adapting with the times. 

The main downside is the amount of competition you’ll have. Other people know what popular products are, so you’ll have to do something to stand out from the crowd. It will be a bit harder to consistently sell if another business lowers prices or adds deals without you knowing.

Step 3: Keeping Track of Your Competition

From personal experience, I can tell you that the odds of you selling something completely unique on eBay are just about zero. Being aware of how you stack up against others selling similar products is essential if you want to make a decent profit. 

Pricing

Pricing competitively is a natural part of selling a product, and many customers will examine several shops before deciding where to make their purchase. Making sure they pick you is a big part of becoming a successful business owner

If you go too low in an attempt to appeal to more frugal shoppers, your profit margin will suffer. If you go too high to try to increase your profits, many potential customers could look elsewhere. Finding a good middle ground may take some tweaking, but prices are easy to change on a whim. 

It would help if you also kept in mind how your supplier is pricing the products. Price your product decently higher than the supplier if you want it to be worth the trouble.

 It will take some time to find the right price that gets customers to commit, so don’t be discouraged if it doesn’t immediately take off.

Quality

Not every customer is obsessed with the price tag. When comparing products, the quality stands out quite a bit. There will be plenty of cheap knockoff versions of whatever stock you choose to sell, but the key is to not stoop to that level. 

Part of this is ensuring that you have a solid supplier. Selling poorly made items will paint your business in a negative light, so make sure to acquire high-quality products from your suppliers. This will also let you price them a bit higher. 

Step 4: Confirm the Supply

You can’t sell what you don’t have. Securing your suppliers is necessary before you attempt to begin selling to customers. Getting a good supplier isn’t difficult, but you need to know what to look for.

Trustworthy

You’re relying heavily on the supplier to both provide a quality product and ship it out correctly. While a faulty or late product doesn’t look good on them, it doesn’t help your case either. If someone is going to leave a bad review, they won’t forget who sold them the item. 

Communication

It’s critical to ensure that your chosen supplier has a solid communication chain that will help both you and your potential customers. The supplier handles returns and issues, so you want the customer to receive the best experience possible even if their initial product wasn’t up to par.

Is Dropshipping On eBay Legal?

While this business model may initially appear like you’re doing some shady work for the mafia, it’s completely viable and legal. 

There are some rules and regulations to keep in mind when dropshipping on eBay, and breaking them can result in your entire shop being taken down. 

The item needs to be shipped within a certain timeframe, so you shouldn’t waste time after the customer has made their purchase. You also can’t sell items bought from another retailer that can ship directly to the customer, such as Amazon.

Follow these rules, and you’ll have no legal issues creating your successful business.

Is Dropshipping On eBay Still Worth It?

In one word? Absolutely.

Even if you prefer running a physical business, learning how to make money dropshipping on eBay is a fantastic way to get started. Paying out of your own pocket is a hard commitment when starting a new business, so getting the required funds first is ideal.

The core process of dropshipping is the middleman. Find trustworthy suppliers, post your product in your eBay shop, then ensure that it ships to the customer in a reasonable time frame. 

Dropshipping is a great business model for newbies. It allows you to save on expenses like buying products in advance or renting out a space for storage. This is also a very flexible way to earn income, as you can manage your business from anywhere with a wifi connection.

You’ll have to pick whether to sell what’s trendy at the moment or go with what you’re passionate about. Either one can succeed, but you need to ensure high quality and competitive pricing if you want to get ahead. 

Using dropshipping as a startup isn’t the only option. Many people make great money purely off of running their business on eBay. Making the right decisions and putting in hard work leads to desired results.

Dropshipping is very much an evolving business model. New rules and changes can pop into effect at any moment, but they are mostly to avoid chances of fraud. Normal business owners should have no issues. 

It is a bit difficult to build a significant following doing dropshipping. The profits will be a perfect substitute for a full-time job, but if you want to expand the business into a much bigger mold, you’ll have to take it off of eBay at some point. 

What Next?

Learning how to dropship on eBay is a fun and fulfilling way to take your income into your own hands. It’s easy, cheap, and can lead to bigger endeavors. 

Dropshipping is a legal and viable way to start a business or just get some income flowing. Keep in mind that if you truly want your business to expand and grow, you may have to invest in a physical store or begin handling your own merchandise. 

But giving it a try doesn’t take a ton of startup capital, so dropshipping could be the quickest, easiest way to make money from home.

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AUTHOR

After being forced to shut down my brick and mortar business, I built my online business Be Your Maverick from scratch. Wasted way too much time researching ways to make money online. My mission is to help ambitious individuals cut through the scams and make better informed decisions getting started with an online business.