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

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PatPat

Comments

  • GG57 on 11/04/2019 - 10:49
    +54

    In my view, if you don't agree with the morals, don't do it.

    Regarding the purchase made by your wife, if you are happy with the dress and how much you paid for it, then don't beat yourselves up about subsequent discounts / cheaper options etc. Regrets are not worth dwelling on.

    • amazonaddict on 11/04/2019 - 11:06

      True. But, not many people out there have read books or did self study to let things go as you suggested. They are going to be upset and curse me for dropshipping. And, as a human being I don’t want another fellow human to find out I took advantage of his weakness. I may be just looking here for my fellow ozbargainers to say “harden up. It is toally ok. Start yours and give it a try”. ;)

      • j123b on 12/04/2019 - 13:17
        +57

        This is literally how all products are sold, there is a chain of markup between manufacturer, and seller for literally everything that you buy, regardless of whether it is bought on aliexpress or in a named retail store. Example, nike shoes cost approximately $7 a pair, packaged and delivered to a nike store, and are sold for $150+. The products your wife brought that she saw for 1/6th of the price is just fair game. That is how capitalism works. The person who sold to your wife has to buy in bulk. You cannot purchase individual items from aliexpress.
        That has several implications.
        1) buying in bulk is rightfully cheaper no matter what.
        2) when buying in bulk you take on risk. That is why a business owner takes profit, they outlay money to start a business with the risk that you may lose all of the money that you invest.

        Beyond that, you're talking about this like it's just easy and guaranteed profit. Nearly everyone who tries drop shipping fails. It's not as easy to get products to sell as you seem to think. You have to hit a nieche market, and actually have the ability to outperform others within the same sector. This isn't just free money. The person selling to your wife, bought in bulk, started a business and outlaid money with the risk that they would lose the money they invested. There is a markup from manufacturer in everything. I honestly think your current perspective is terrible. Like I've previously mentioned, this isn't just a free ride to guaranteed money there are people all over the world doing what you think you're going to do.

        You're 6 step process isn't just a recipe to print money, you have no idea. With your current knowledge on the topic, you wont make any money. If you're really interested, put the time in, and actually understand the process. It's a valid business and in no way, shape or form morally wrong.

        • trishmapow on 12/04/2019 - 16:30
          +14

          Agree with all of this, one note: you can certainly buy individual items from Aliexpress.

          • j123b on 12/04/2019 - 17:24
            +2

            @trishmapow: I guess I misspoke on that aspect, there was a reason I thought that the case though? Perhaps it was years ago, when I first looked into it, or perhaps it was another site. Regardless, the point remains seeing that you can't start a business with one item, so you're still encumbered with risk.

            My first comment still barely delved into the basics. He still has to consider SEO, price negotiations, market saturation, product quality testing, dealing with returns in drop-shipping, shipping times, last to market etc etc. No matter what you decide to sell, you're actually almost always competing with amazon. It's actually a common discussion of "whether starting a drop-shipping business is worth it in 2019" due to how saturated it is. By all means, I say if he wants to try it, go ahead, and it can work, and once you're rolling it's often not a tonne of work for what you get out of it, but mostly people fail.

            • Hargain Bunter on 12/04/2019 - 22:48
              +6

              @j123b: You were probably thinking of Alibaba. The sellers there are often manufacturers that deal in bulk sales.

    • shadowangel on 12/04/2019 - 12:57
      +1

      there's nothing wrong with drop shipping, I use it in my business (not aliexpress) . I use local suppliers they fill my orders do all my work, I collect a profit. while I live overseas.

      I tried aliexpress, there is big problems in lead time and shipping time. some suppliers take 10 days to ship the item then epacket can take 2 weeks or more.

      China has plenty of shipping forwarders if you want or need to hold some stock, then you can ship to most places in Australia in 2 weeks.

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

        there's nothing wrong with drop shipping, I use it in my business

        What is your business? (chance for some free advertising!)

      • [Deactivated] on 13/04/2019 - 17:36

        what do you use instead of ali express?

  • ronnknee on 11/04/2019 - 10:54
    +13

    There was a similar thread the other day.

    I am not sure how to title this.

    I suggest adding "(ANNOYED OZBARGAINER)" to the end of title for consistency.

    • amazonaddict on 11/04/2019 - 11:10
      -7

      Ha ha, I have read that post and it made me stop thinking about starting my own store and give it try. I am not regretting, but seeing some sort of unethical opportunity to make money which I cannot convince myself to do because my inner me says “you are not adding any value, so, you are a scammer” . I am here to see if anyone else think it is an ethical way to make money.

      • Never Pay RRP on 11/04/2019 - 15:14
        +29

        It's not a scammer. Anyone can sell anything at any price they feel like.
        If people don't bother to do any research, and just buy the first thing they see, then it is their own fault.

        Think of it this way, if the original seller didn't exist to market their wares the way they did, your wife may never have found the clothes she wanted. When she saw the initial ad, she was happy with the clothes and the price, and decided to buy them.

        FYI the retail mark up in every store in Australia is at least 100% (probably way more), yet we don't label them as scammers…

        how they make 200K profit in 4 months

        This part is the only real scam, there is no way they make 200k profit in 4 months, or anything near that. They make these claims to get you to buy their method, and just take your money.

        • tryagain on 12/04/2019 - 08:32
          +2

          I remember doing some maintenance work at a national chains headquarters and in their boardroom they had products with their buy and sell prices. The sell prices were all generally 10x the buy price. Their retailing costs would be a lot more the the product cost though.

      • shadowangel on 12/04/2019 - 13:49
        +3

        convinece stores like service stations do it all the time, you can go to Coles and buy the same thing cheaper. how about a small bottle of coke being more expansive then a big bottle.
        you make money where ever you can in business, if you can find a cheap product and are able to sell it for 10x markup go right ahead and do it.

        the value you add is service, were a Chinese seller there is none. you could add a phone number, email, message contact options and keep the customer updated.

      • Hargain Bunter on 12/04/2019 - 22:50
        +1

        The drop ship model itself it’s a scam in itself. Creating fake reviews is a scam though.

  • tsunamisurfer on 11/04/2019 - 11:03
    +40

    If you are outraged by mark ups, then you may have to start boycotting Coles / Woolies / any shops.

      • MrHyde on 11/04/2019 - 11:27
        +47

        Drop shippers add value as well. They are marketing the product and taking it to a wider audience.

        • amazonaddict on 11/04/2019 - 11:32
          +5

          Good argument. I have not though this way.

          • tsunamisurfer on 11/04/2019 - 13:45
            +22

            @amazonaddict: Username does not check out.

            • amazonaddict on 11/04/2019 - 14:02

              @tsunamisurfer: If you look into Amazon FBA or FBM (I did look into Amazon and Ebay after this aha moment), resellers' margins are very low after all the fees they have to pay. Since there is no ad cost, the price is not more than double of that at Ali Express. And you get Amazon's refund service and ability to leave a genuine review. It is a customer friendly platform and sellers are not treated the same. I think it is complete different thing.

              • MagicMushroom on 11/04/2019 - 16:17
                +1

                @amazonaddict: Look up items at Alibaba or Chinabrands, things are dirt cheap.

                • [Deactivated] on 12/04/2019 - 07:22

                  @MagicMushroom: True but you looking at bulk pricing with don't including shipping and some import tax as some seller won't put doggy values on packages + insurance etc. Are you able to order 100-1000, if you just wanted one or two?

                  Shipping is quite alot due to fact it doesn't take 3-4 weeks to arrived usually 1 week.

                  Also their don't offer drop shipping.

            • cashless on 13/04/2019 - 17:00

              @tsunamisurfer: Seems like username usually does check out….
              ….before doing full research

  • Diji1 on 11/04/2019 - 11:03
    +18

    Every retailer operates by adding the largest margins they can. Most Australian retailers are doing the same thing while everyone pretends there is some "fair" margin being made just because they cannot see the prices like you did with Aliexpress.

    And about 99.9% of information products about making money online are complete bullshit ie. a scam.

    • amazonaddict on 11/04/2019 - 12:06

      I 100% agree with the scammy information products. This Gabriel kid showed how much he made with his course too

    • ItsMeAgro on 13/04/2019 - 20:30
      +2

      Every retailer operates by adding the largest margins they can

      Actually, some of the most successful businesses now operate by having very thin margins. Look at Costco, IKEA, Amazon.

      It's actually easier to be successful in business without wasting time trying to rip off everyone else involved. Most people underestimate how much more they could ship if they weren't so greedy on the markups. You just need to smart about marketing and such (and/or lucky).

      • superValue on 14/04/2019 - 23:50

        How do you know they are operating on thin margins?

        Even better which highly performing business are you running on thin margins in Australia which is not paying much tax here and/or is an overseas company with bulk buying power?

  • [Deactivated] on 11/04/2019 - 11:07
    +38

    Charging more for something in a voluntary transaction is NOT A SCAM!

    Since it is not a scam, there is nothing morally wrong with it. If people are too lazy to watch out for themselves, why should anyone else care.

    • amazonaddict on 11/04/2019 - 12:09
      -4

      I was worried about a buyer writing me a mail telling, "I found your product on Ali Express for 1/10 of the price, You cheat." :D

      • [Deactivated] on 11/04/2019 - 12:19
        +11

        The majority of retailed goods are not sold directly by the manufacturer.

        Alixexpress has just made it a lot easier for end users to purchase from manufacturers and/or distributors.

        At the end of the day, if you delivered a product at your listed price in a timely fashion, you've provided a service at a cost fully disclosed.

        buyer writing me a mail telling, "I found your product on Ali Express…

        This is what we called an entitled tosser. You'll see a post a day from someone who fits this category.

      • Never Pay RRP on 11/04/2019 - 15:18
        +1

        "I found your product on Ali Express for 1/10 of the price, You cheat." :D

        Did you send a message like that to the seller?

        I highly doubt anyone would do that (including you), since adding a markup is the entire basis of retail trade. If you didn't make a profit you wouldn't bother selling anything right?
        If you feel so strongly though, don't mark up 1000%. You are at your liberty to set whatever price you like

        • amazonaddict on 11/04/2019 - 15:46

          No. That's not my nature. But, I felt pity for my wife though. And, I started to wonder how he has achieved it.

          But, in 2014 when I sold an app on the app store I sold it as two versions. I sold one version as free to play but to continue the story you have to purchase an in app item for $1.99, and another version as Premium full version at $0.99. When some one bought the in app item and then found out about the full version being only $.99, he wrote me harsh mail calling me a cheat and demanded refund. I am still haunted by that mail.:D

          • Never Pay RRP on 11/04/2019 - 15:51
            +2

            @amazonaddict: Wow, sorry to hear that someone got so upset over $1.
            Don't worry about it, you didn't do anything wrong. There are crazy and unreasonable people out there in the world, try not to be affected by the things they say (easier said than done, I know)

          • try2bhelpful on 12/04/2019 - 08:59

            @amazonaddict: I bet you are haunted by it, but only because you chuckle yourself to sleep from the memory.

            I hate in app purchases, I would much prefer to pay upfront for a non crippled app but then there isn’t incentive for upgrades.

      • Bargainbeth on 14/04/2019 - 14:27

        I resell things and get this ALL the time. I barely make any profit now and didn't make much before, only marked 20-40% up. If you don't have or can't develop a thick skin, don't bother with drop shipping. Honestly I got bothered with it like you even though all businesses pretty much thrive this way, by making profit on something they made or got for cheaper.

        How do you think small convenirnce stores operate? They buy in bulk from warehouses/companies and sell higer.

        I'd get snarky public comments like "this is a scam", "this is a rip off", "I can get this cheaper to elsewhere". Like okay, you go do that. I was selling local with quicker post, better service an more secure packaging than the manufacturers though.

        Bottom line, it's not a scam. If they agreed to the price, and find it cheaper than elsewhere later, its just wishful thinking in hindsight. Nobody forced them to buy it for that price.

    • ItsMeAgro on 13/04/2019 - 20:36
      +2

      Charging more for something in a voluntary transaction is NOT A SCAM! … there is nothing morally wrong with it

      I mean if you have to deceive your customer a bunch to make the sale, and you're charging many times the price while adding zero value, then yeah, that's obviously morally wrong.

      If you are clearly going of your way to trick people, "those dummies fell for it, they should have read the fine print" isn't a valid excuse. Get a real job.

  • Fergy1987 on 11/04/2019 - 11:08
    +16

    Do your research on a product instead of making rash decisions based on facebook ads.

    • amazonaddict on 11/04/2019 - 12:14

      When I delved into the world of marketing, I was amazed how much trickery they perform to hunt down naive buyers. Low stock warning(fake scarcity), Coupons when about to close the page, up selling apps, coupon timers etc. Once a store is equipped with all those, it is very hard to escape for a normal FB person. (I don't use FB, by the way)

      • isthisreallife22 on 11/04/2019 - 13:46

        As an aside, you've probably learned some great ecommerce marketing skills which could be applied to any product (not just those dropshipped from aliexpress)

        Would love to see your reading & watching list

        • amazonaddict on 11/04/2019 - 15:48

          There is no such list. As soon as I watched and liked few videos on Youtube, I was bombarded with teaching from Gurus from all the corners of the world. I kept binge watching them all.

  • SnowDragon on 11/04/2019 - 11:08
    +2

    I think it's morally fine. You go to the supermarket to purchase fruit you could just go and get from the local farmer for less.

    A friend of mine set up a shopify shop and has had some success. He spent around $50 in total (for the domain + shopify) and made that back in his first week. I see the items on his website, search for the exact same name on Aliexpress and see it for 10% of the price.
    If you are happy to purchase something from the first website you see, then it's your own fault for not shopping around. You pay for the convenience of time and dealing with a local person.

    Wanna make some money? Wait for the next big trend; fidget spinners, squishies, fortnite? Set up a website selling those things. When the fad dies, jump onto the next big thing. Rinse and repeat.

    • amazonaddict on 11/04/2019 - 12:15

      Just curious, you have seen the proof. Any reason for you not doing it?

      • SnowDragon on 11/04/2019 - 12:53
        +1

        I might if I notice a big trend coming forth.

        But it's a lot of effort. He's spent hours making changes to his website, then he has to market himself on Facebook/Social media. So far his sphere of influence hasn't really taken off beyond his immediate friends. Could be just due to the nature of what he is selling (watches).

        It would be nice to have a passive income, but I enjoy going home from work and doing nothing.

        • amazonaddict on 11/04/2019 - 13:36
          +1

          haha… We all want that extra income so that we could go home and do nothing or do something that brings no money but happiness. But, once you start working on passive income you would want to work more on that so that it makes a bit more money. The loop never ends :D

  • Ughhh on 11/04/2019 - 11:08
    +4

    First, you need to understand the definition of "scam". Woolies apples are a more expensive than fruit shop, does it make it a scam? No.

  • moph on 11/04/2019 - 11:12
    +4

    For decades large companies have been leveraging cheap labour costs and currency value differentials to manufacture products very cheaply in developing countries, spend a bunch on marketing and advertising and sell them in rich countries for sometimes a 100x markup. People didn't mind paying $100 for an item of clothing even though the actual cost to make it was probably $5.

    Drop shipping is the same thing except it's individuals or small businesses doing it, and you can also buy the same product directly from the manufacturer, so you get to see what the price looks like before it gets remarketed in a western country. There's no 'moral' problem, unless you consider that buying cheaply made clothing probably means it was made by people working under very poor labour conditions.

  • [Deactivated] on 11/04/2019 - 11:32
    +1

    I can see both sides. One guy years ago got shareholder registers and offered people below market rates for their shares. Amazingly a lot of people agreed and he made good money. That was deemed illegal, even though it was a voluntary transaction. 'victims' admitted not even checking the proper share price. The law has protected people from their own stupidity.

    • Never Pay RRP on 11/04/2019 - 15:28
      +2

      I think it was illegal (or at least should have been) because he marketed himself as an official buyer which he was not, and also he indicated that his price was the market price which it also was not (and this is very easy to tell).
      He also directly targeted the shareholders (preying on the old and uneducated), compared to a facebook ad which we know is just advertising and we don't feel obligated to proceed.

    • try2bhelpful on 11/04/2019 - 15:36
      +1

      He should never have been allowed near the shareholder registry - which would've been my issue. The guy was absolute scum.

  • try2bhelpful on 11/04/2019 - 11:37

    This is why Google is our friend. When I find something I like I Google the product description around to see what the prices are. The product for Facebook is you; they sell you to the advertisers. We have all been in the position of being ripped off, the secret is to learn from it. Tell your wife to stop beating herself up about it, I’m sure she has got a good few bargains over the years. Any negative feedback you give these guys will be deleted. The other thing to consider is that the cheap version might be a poorly made knock off, as well. Just say “D’oh” and have a glass of wine.

    Thanks for the heads up on how the scheme works.

    • amazonaddict on 11/04/2019 - 12:25

      True. But, Googling is bit hard with cloths. How would you search for a particular design? As soon as my wife joined a mum group, she started getting ads on all sorts of weird mum & kid ads. Patpat should have targeted that group and paid Facebook a lot of money to show the ads. She fell for it, and spent $96(4 items) for what pat pat only paid $17. However, Patpat would have paid $50 to FB. FB is the big winner here.

      • try2bhelpful on 11/04/2019 - 12:56
        +1

        Start with Ali Express :) also don’t follow any link from Facebook, I wouldn’t trust anything I see there. There are image search engines but I’m not sure if they work for adverts. Might be worth a test to see if that works here.

      • Karfaffel on 12/04/2019 - 12:10
        +1

        Use an adblocker to undermine facebook's business model somewhat 😉

  • zonra on 11/04/2019 - 11:45
    +6

    Unlike the recent wave of post tittles suggests, agreeing to buy something at a certain price then found out you could have gotten it cheaper elsewhere is not getting SCAMMED (bold and capped to simulate the dramatic effect these posts tend to depict).

    The purchaser simply hasn't done enough research prior to buying.
    It is entirely their fault and no one else's, not the store they bought it from, not the store that had it cheaper but failed to personally call them directly before hand, not the government's, not their bf/gf/other-friend's, not their pet's, but theirs and theirs alone.

    In regards to the morality of drop shipping, in my view (discloser: I'm purely a consumer, not a store owner) you pay for the convenience.
    It's the same as those gazillion phone case/repairs kiosk you see in every shopping centre, where do you think they source their $20-30 phone cases from? Hint: probably bulk buys from Aliexpress equivalence @ $1 apiece (guesstimate, not actual figure)
    Don't want to pay high prices? Do more research next time, accept that you have to wait for postage, do not shop from the first store you see for instant gratification only to start b!tching about how you see it cheaper elsewhere later.

    • ihbh on 11/04/2019 - 13:33
      +2

      agreeing to buy something at a certain price then found out you could have gotten it cheaper elsewhere is

      … called buyer's remorse

    • [Deactivated] on 11/04/2019 - 13:35
      -2

      Not true. Plenty of telemarketing scams try to put fees on already free services. There are scams for Chinese tour groups being charged fees for going to free beaches and parks. There are scams for middlemanning US green cards.

      • Bargain80 on 11/04/2019 - 14:52
        +1

        but this is not about selling free products/services.
        This is about selling with markup.

        is there any law that states that the markup cannot be higher than X percentages?
        If there is, I'm sure our friend Gary will start campaigning against it.

        • [Deactivated] on 11/04/2019 - 15:43

          I think ticket scalping gets into that territory.

          • Bargainbeth on 14/04/2019 - 14:32

            @[Deactivated]: I think ticket scalping is a little grey. The fact that they sell at such high prices is cruel but I mean, if the tickets are sold out and buyer still wants to badly go, it's up to them whether they want to pay exhobitsnt prices. However, scalpers who buy in massive bulk make it unfair. I reckon if you scalped one or a few that's morally not as bad.

  • DarthAntz on 11/04/2019 - 11:55

    It happened once to you, thats totally ok. And as a result you've learned a lot about modern marketing. There's another problem with aliexpress selling counterfeit clothing from australian designers, for example.

    Take your experience and run with it. There are a few methods, not just the above you mentioned. Some people say that taobao and alibaba are a better source for the cheap products. Next learn how to advertise and create a selling network to cut out the middleman, and get more profits for your BRAND NEW 2019 fidgetspinners.

    edit: it took me close to a year to teach my wife how to use aliexpress and always check products from other online sellers on aliexpress first. In time we're both happy with online shopping research.

    • amazonaddict on 11/04/2019 - 13:16
      -1

      Yeah. Now me and my wife are studying how all this business thing works to see if we can take advantage of this scheme. :)

      • drfuzzy on 14/04/2019 - 11:17
        +2

        So you've gone by being morally outraged by dropshipping to now studying how it works so you can become one yourself?

  • altomic on 11/04/2019 - 12:21
    +4

    Title should be changed to "Capitalism and business - how it works"

    this is literally the business model I run my ebay store from.

    excluding the drop shipping and facebook/instagram stuff.

    buy stuff from aliexpress for $4, sell on ebay for $30. less costs $10 (item cost $4, postage +ebay fees ~$6) = $20 profit

    I sell about 5 a week. plus smaller items that make less money/profit. but profit none the less for minimal work.

    • amazonaddict on 11/04/2019 - 13:26

      Hmm, must be a niche product. Because, I have seen ali express products on ebay with very low margins.

      • altomic on 11/04/2019 - 14:33
        +1

        very niche product

        but popular.

  • mini2 on 11/04/2019 - 12:43
    +1

    Dude, how is price arbitrage a scam? That's basically the crux of capitalism.

    Amazon/eBay's full of them too, now are you going to stop shopping from there?

    • [Deactivated] on 11/04/2019 - 13:05
      +2

      Door to door roof repair by travellers overcharging is a scam. Fixing a washing machine with an overpriced part is a scam. A taxi driver taking a longer than necessary route is a scam. Theranos is a billion dollar arbitrage scam. A chief accusation against Theranos was that they simply used the blood testing that existed prior to their machine. They didn't actually do anything other than middleman.

    • fantombloo on 11/04/2019 - 13:41

      Dude, how is price arbitrage a scam? That's basically the crux of capitalism.

      Perhaps consider that capitalism* itself is a scam???

      (* Yeah yeah, people gonna complain that "capitalism" is simply private ownership of the means of production - if that were true and it was not a whole bunch of other associated crud then the world would be a markedly different place.)

      • Seraphin7 on 11/04/2019 - 13:52
        +3

        Spot the commie.

        • fantombloo on 11/04/2019 - 16:08
          +2

          I hate yellow does not necessarily equal I love red.

  • t_c on 11/04/2019 - 13:03

    The real scammers are the big G's and F's who take the 60% for ads.

    • amazonaddict on 11/04/2019 - 13:25

      From what I learned, It used to be small. But, as more and more drop shippers jumped into the game and started to increase the bid, FB has started to make ton of money. This is the screenshot from the case study. $513K was spent on ads to make $989K in Revenue.

  • orangetrain on 11/04/2019 - 13:07
    +1

    Another one is ordering in bulk. Re-wrap products. Sell with new buzz words.

    And you have Kogan, etc.

    • amazonaddict on 11/04/2019 - 13:30

      Yeah, people use alibaba or 1688 for that. But, bit more risky as there is a minimum order required.

  • plmko on 11/04/2019 - 13:09
    +2

    My wife saw a kids dress ad on Facebook from

    So someone paid out of pocket so that you wife could discover products she would otherwise not have known about and now you're questioning whether someone should get paid for that service.

    By the way drop shipping isn't as easy as you've made out to be, 99% of people fail because they think it is.

    • amazonaddict on 11/04/2019 - 13:29

      True, @MrHyde mentioned in the post, we could consider marketing as a value addition as well. Yeah, there are several videos on why people fail at drop shipping as well. Not something for light-hearted people.

  • Seraphin7 on 11/04/2019 - 13:50

    From raw materials production to processed materials, to goods manufacture, to wholesale warehousing and distribution, to retailing, to drop shipping … with all manner of shipping costs, marketing costs, overheads, etc. through each step … all with a mark up to make profit at each step in the value chain.

    Why is drop shipping "a scam", but the others are not? Is any retailer who doesn't sell at the best price in the market also a scammer?

    • amazonaddict on 11/04/2019 - 21:42

      I think calling it a scam was not right. I had an impression that since the drop shipper did not add any value, he is not doing something morally right. But, as other ozbargainers suggested, the dropshipper puts the prooduct infront of you. We could consider that as an added value.

  • ozeebee on 11/04/2019 - 14:26
    +8

    So buyers remorse is now considered a scam…

  • yoonibear on 11/04/2019 - 14:55
    +1

    Wife ended buying a baby bag on a store set up like this (including the overinflated price). Thought it came from a store in the US but instead came from China. Took it as a $60 lesson and she now makes sure she cross checks the item/price to make sure she doesn't get ripped off again.

    Tbh, I don't see anything wrong it. It's the price you pay when you don't research thoroughly

  • [Deactivated] on 11/04/2019 - 15:59
    +1

    How do you know if it is the same item or a similar item?

    You do realise there is a lot of fake replica clothing on Aliexpress. It looks nothing like what you actually get, usually the material is much different and the stock images are just there to sell the lie.

    Yes, dropshipping is an issue, but just because it uses the same stock images, doesn't mean it is the same item.

    If you order the same shirt on taobao from two different sellers, you can bet that they will be of different quality even though the images and video are the same. lol.

    Cheaper dress is almost always thinner material and more transparent, trust me, been through it.

    The only way to test if you got the real item and not a replica, is to buy both and compare.

    By the way don't go dropshipping without knowing the quality, you'll get burned to the ground when all the reviews are "Yo, the supreme jumper was thin as a t-shirt". Sadly, the owner of the site would likely censor all these comments, so all the new buyers would be blind to this.

    • amazonaddict on 11/04/2019 - 21:49
      +1

      Could be. But, I'll leave it to you to decide
      Pat Pat
      and
      Ali Express

      • kawinuyo on 12/04/2019 - 21:08

        Just weighing in here. I rarely buy clothes online because it's much better to be able to see and feel the material before you buy, having previous things that end up feeling / looking nothing like the picture (not worth the cheapness). Many of these places use the same pictures but end up shipping different quality products. I have bought from Patpat… and other stores before as well. If it's not overly expensive i.e. on sale I would choose Pat Pat because the things I have received from them were actually of good quality… as opposed to places still using nice same / similar pictures but relaly crappy quality. There are videos all over youtube about what people bought / expected to buy and what arrives.

  • [Deactivated] on 11/04/2019 - 16:16

    The situation might change when the US withdraws from the International Postage Agreement/Postal Union Treaty. A lot of drop shipping relies on cheap postage from China and Trump has his sights on ending it.

  • lltravel on 11/04/2019 - 21:00
    +4

    I never knew to be an entrepreneur was a scam

    Every single store in the world is making money off you. They buy cheap, sell for more.. thats how a business works.

    Get in check with reality

    How would this be illegal? Are you actually stupid?

    • [Deactivated] on 11/04/2019 - 21:07
      +2

      Check out the story about Martin Shkreli and Daraprim. If you entrepreneurialise too much, you become publicly unpopular and they take you down with audits and extra attention on other matters. The charges and conviction against him were pretty wishy washy. One victim called to testify admitted they made a profit :).

      • daitro on 14/04/2019 - 07:40

        They all made profits. I remember reading all the filings. He made his investors whole and then some. Some made 300-500K. The judge took umbrage with the fact he lied, but yet all VCs, CEOs, brokers etc lie about the performance of their investment/product. He was a scapegoat. #FreeShkreli. We need his daily investing videos :(

    • amazonaddict on 11/04/2019 - 22:01
      -5

      I was not right to call it a Scam. But, I was only concerned how ethical it is to charge some one 5 times of something that is already available within the reach. When we see a simple product tagged at $35, we assume a product quality and manufacturing standard, but not something that is available in a dollar shop. If we knew that it is something that is made in China and available for $5, we would not consider buying it. Anyway, I am just in the phase of convincing myself to do this, just wanted to see what other ozbargainers think of it.

      • lltravel on 12/04/2019 - 08:30
        +2

        This happens every day

        Just look at Apple. Parts cost around 250 - 350 to make the phone

        They sell it for 2grand. Millions of people have bought the product.

        Same with Samsung and most phones, electronic devices.

        These things cost peanuts to make.

        Another example would be Kogan. Look how cheap he sell his TV's. He still makes a major profit.

        Its just business.

      • Bargainbeth on 14/04/2019 - 14:37

        My gorpo, if I remember correctly from the replacement sheet from jb, cost $150. I bought it for $450. Is that a scam too when there are cheaper underwater cameras out there that potentially do just as well?

  • FW190 on 11/04/2019 - 22:09

    My wife saw a kids dress ad on Facebook from a site called patpat.

    personally, I never click on those ads.

    • amazonaddict on 12/04/2019 - 07:53

      I believe you haven’t thought of this dropshipping either. Though I don’t have a fb account, I rarely click on any sort of ads on any sites. Thats why I have never understood the mindset of people who were actually clicking those ads. That was a huge business opportunity I missed when it was easier in 2016-2018. Now the market is flooded and margins are low.

      So, sometimes I wish I clicked on those ads and analysed what was happening.

      • FW190 on 12/04/2019 - 13:10

        That was a huge business opportunity I missed when it was easier in 2016-2018

        drop shippers has been around for much longer than that, plenty have been selling crappy knockoffs on ebay or setup their own dodgy website for probably 10 or more years, but from what you are saying, looks like it is much easier now.

        Thats why I have never understood the mindset of people who were actually clicking those ads

        same as those who click on ads which tells them they have viruses on their computer, click here to fix it! (and only end up actually get real virus)

  • bmerigan on 11/04/2019 - 22:27
    +1

    I shop around and find the best price for every purchase I make.
    If you don't then you can't complain about paying more than other people.

  • hj0809 on 12/04/2019 - 03:39

    It’s not a moral thing. Opportunistic yes.

    No one guilt tripped you to buy it. Transactions only happen where there is a willing buyer and seller.

    Just didn’t do your research.

    • amazonaddict on 12/04/2019 - 07:59

      I think my tone of post has confused people. I am just curious what ozbargainers think about Selling an item at 5 times the price and what do they think about the customer finding it out later. It seems most of them are ok with it.

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