Lets make me money drop shipping?

[nvanprooyen]

I could alway use some serious input. These are serious business ideas.

Ok. Here's the short version since you asked so nicely on a few of your points.

1) Shopify is actually very customizable. You just need to know what you're doing. Right now, we are running 7 stores on it...from large to small. I recently finished a migration from NetSuite's SuiteCommerce Advanced over to Shopify Plus that required all sorts of custom stuff, for a store that does over $50M a year and over 15,000 SKUs.

Wordpress + WooCommerce is a magnet for malware attacks. The footprint is big, and you're self hosting. Unless your a sysadmin type who wants to pay attention to maintaining all of that, go with a hosted solution and focus on the shit that actually drives the business (product, marketing, ops, etc). Unless you are running an e-commerce business with very specific functional requirements, and the vast majority of merchants are not.

2) Product - differentiation is key if you want long-term and sustainable growth. Research. Read reviews. Figure out how to source a better product. Drop shipping is bullshit as far as I'm concerned in the medium to long term. You need to figure out how to add some value, and branding. Source it small. Test. Fulfill out of your garage or spare bedroom. Marketing/customer acquisition is fucking expensive. Maybe look at Amazon FBA to tap into existing markets. Yes, lots of fees associated with that, but you're also not on an island trying to capture new customers from scratch. I'd recommend looking at something like Helium 10 for research into the Amazon FBA/FBM world. Then try to build a brand around it. We have some stores that are 10% Amazon and 90% Shopify and some that are the inverse of that.

I'm leaving out a TON, I could write a book at this point. But if you ask good questions, I'll try and get you pointed in the right direction (time permitting).

 

[Urblock]

Nvan just killed Fozzy and his dream. Funny stuff.

 

[Ares]

Nvan just killed Fozzy and his dream. Funny stuff.

https://imgur.com/73AK4cB

Colin Farrell = dream

 

[MDB111™]

Nvan just killed Fozzy and his dream. Funny stuff.

He could still wear those panties if he wanted though? Someone might buy them. Not so sure this startup is cash positive though?

 

[KittiesKorner]

what was @FozzyBear doing when he got the CBMB shut down thanks to his porn spamming? I don't get the angle

 

[Ares]

what was @FozzyBear doing when he got the CBMB shut down thanks to his porn spamming? I don't get the angle

I am still trying to figure out if we're supposed to pretend he isn't Aussie.

 

[KittiesKorner]

I am still trying to figure out if we're supposed to pretend he isn't Aussie.

I pretend he is Jim Caldwell hocking glade plugins on eBay

 

[FozzyBear]

Nvan just killed Fozzy and his dream. Funny stuff.

How did he kill mah dream M8? If anything he confirmed my take on da drop shippings. Confirmed The work Id have to commit to host me own shit. My awareness of the branded game and how that is the real game. as noted, ive looked at stocks to rebrand, nothing interests me. my awareness of the product and the more important marketing game is there. I said i didnt want to go all in FBA, but he mentioned that, cause it seems like the scaled up process i said that made sense using me current model of the stock.

What he did make me aware of is shopify being more customizable than it looks. Being that Ive never truly messed with it fully and since i have real experience with the word/woo creating and supporting say a multi million dollar company (their net was 2.7 mil last quarter) for years before passing it on, so shopify seemed lacking from the outside. Will dig deeper into shopify.

Also, my dream is not what you think it is. Just looking for an avenue to replace me side hustle thats been stagnant the last few years. Looking for something with minimal effort. Only looking for minimal returns. Ebay had been good for years as a semi passive income stream, with minimal work. BUT the global shipping $ over the last few years has eaten away at the margins i played with. I could actually list shit and compete directly with the ebay china price points and not have the customer deal with china ship times. China prices, with local domestic shipping was the solution I offered. I provided value to the market.

The chinas have also evolved over this time period and have scaled up onshore warehouses to provide domestic shipping. However most have raised the china prices a tad.

 

[FozzyBear]

Ok. Here's the short version since you asked so nicely on a few of your points.

1) Shopify is actually very customizable. You just need to know what you're doing. Right now, we are running 7 stores on it...from large to small. I recently finished a migration from NetSuite's SuiteCommerce Advanced over to Shopify Plus that required all sorts of custom stuff, for a store that does over $50M a year and over 15,000 SKUs.

Wordpress + WooCommerce is a magnet for malware attacks. The footprint is big, and you're self hosting. Unless your a sysadmin type who wants to pay attention to maintaining all of that, go with a hosted solution and focus on the shit that actually drives the business (product, marketing, ops, etc). Unless you are running an e-commerce business with very specific functional requirements, and the vast majority of merchants are not.

2) Product - differentiation is key if you want long-term and sustainable growth. Research. Read reviews. Figure out how to source a better product. Drop shipping is bullshit as far as I'm concerned in the medium to long term. You need to figure out how to add some value, and branding. Source it small. Test. Fulfill out of your garage or spare bedroom. Marketing/customer acquisition is fucking expensive. Maybe look at Amazon FBA to tap into existing markets. Yes, lots of fees associated with that, but you're also not on an island trying to capture new customers from scratch. I'd recommend looking at something like Helium 10 for research into the Amazon FBA/FBM world. Then try to build a brand around it. We have some stores that are 10% Amazon and 90% Shopify and some that are the inverse of that.

I'm leaving out a TON, I could write a book at this point. But if you ask good questions, I'll try and get you pointed in the right direction (time permitting).

Thanks for the input. If I have more specific types questions, I'll def will ask.

 

[FozzyBear]

He could still wear those panties if he wanted though? Someone might buy them. Not so sure this startup is cash positive though?

We get to find out.

what was @FozzyBear doing when he got the CBMB shut down thanks to his porn spamming? I don't get the angle

Fozzy was probably doing fozzy things. You know theres a CBMB conspiracy theory thread you can post these questions in. Like how CSS bucks benefitted from CBMB shutting down. You have more IRL direct ties to CCS right? Motives M8?

 

[FozzyBear]

Requested some quotes on bundle g strings. Gonna start with 200 various sizes and colors. I could rebrand at these numbers. I should rebrand them to my site name. Dont feel like it though. Can sell these unbranded new on ebay for 12 times the cost. OR try and sell them USED for 110 - 220 X's the cost. Just think, if i can sale 1-3 pair USED, depending on the level of scent, I can recoup these stock cost. Comes down to shipping if Im gonna go bulk. Havent qutoed bulk in a couple of years. Gstings are small, even the XL ones for the BBW i got in the quote. Next go round XXL-XXXL. shipping costs shouldnt be too bad on thongs. I have an angle on why panties will be similar across collections. Already thought of.

Worst case, I unload these on the bay in lots for 2x cost if I cant sell them USED.

Basic undies can be had locally for now. Basic 5 pack cotton shit and other shit. Local will eat in to margins slighty on those types of panties. If I can sell shit, will bulk order these too. Def need to broaden the panty collection. May have to hit op shops up.

Gonna be hilarious when I walk in a store only buying panties. Maybe I should make the wife buy them. Naa, I want to surprise her with the business plan after a box of hundreds show up and see the look on her face.. will be a priceless moment. lol.

 

[nvanprooyen]

@FozzyBear - you can sign up for a Shopify Partner account here:

Bring the world's businesses online by becoming a Shopify Partner

Many high street businesses across the UK are looking to move online in response to the COVID-19 shutdown. As a Shopify Partner, we give you the tools & resources to build ecommerce stores for this new client base.

www.shopify.com

And create as many dev stores as you want for free if you want to fuck around and kick the tires:

Development stores

Development stores allow you to test your app, preview new features, and create test orders.

shopify.dev

Dev docs start here. Guides for building custom apps, themes etc

Shopify Developers Platform—Build. Innovate. Get paid.

Compose, customize, and extend every part of the commerce stack, and create unique experiences for your brand or millions of merchants around the world.

shopify.dev

 

[FozzyBear]

Did the numbers on dropshipping and the dildos.. its looking limp. when looking at the market/sales data, ppl are playing with slim margins as is to be ultra competitive and the advertising required for the dropshipping model would skeet all over that shit. I mean some ppls margins look like 3-10% to draw ppl in hopes of selling 3-4 bigger ticket items.. you might break your dick in the process of the dropshipping the dildos. Perhaps if you had a unique dildo to sell and hit the market first... maybe you could ride that initial wave but ......... death awaits.. unless you brand/improve etc and blah blahs

So looking at the stock model again. This legit sourcing model shit is bogus. Better to scale. Def not buying 50k dollars worth of dildos n vibrators though.. Looking at gernes Im not familiar with Id have to play in that 25-50% range, probably on the lower end to compete.

One of my former Countersus KO accounts and old sales booths had certain winners with profit margins @ 97.2 %.. guud profit. Anywho I ve moved on and am turning a new leaf. If I want that audi R8 imma have to sell 24k cheap vibrators @ 50% and not pay tax on that. or look for higher ticket items and focus on low volume. or high ticket, low cost, high volume used fucking panties.....

I do have a clear ebay 100% rated ebay account too.. 1000 rating. Ive only done about 2-3k profit on it this year flipping op shit when i come across it. no imported shit. that account is basically dead. BUT I got a trusted account I can load up with legit stock.. thats a head start.. just dunno if I want to grind on products I dont care about or have no interest in.

@nvanprooyen what kind of margins are you working with. Im sure you have winners and dogs.. but whats the avg? 15k skus.. high volume low margin model?

 

[nvanprooyen]

Did the numbers on dropshipping and the dildos.. its looking limp. when looking at the market/sales data, ppl are playing with slim margins as is to be ultra competitive and the advertising required for the dropshipping model would skeet all over that shit. I mean some ppls margins look like 3-10% to draw ppl in hopes of selling 3-4 bigger ticket items.. you might break your dick in the process of the dropshipping the dildos. Perhaps if you had a unique dildo to sell and hit the market first... maybe you could ride that initial wave but ......... death awaits.. unless you brand/improve etc and blah blahs

So looking at the stock model again. This legit sourcing model shit is bogus. Better to scale. Def not buying 50k dollars worth of dildos n vibrators though.. Looking at gernes Im not familiar with Id have to play in that 25-50% range, probably on the lower end to compete.

One of my former Countersus KO accounts and old sales booths had certain winners with profit margins @ 97.2 %.. guud profit. Anywho I ve moved on and am turning a new leaf. If I want that audi R8 imma have to sell 24k cheap vibrators @ 50% and not pay tax on that. or look for higher ticket items and focus on low volume. or high ticket, low cost, high volume used fucking panties.....

I do have a clear ebay 100% rated ebay account too.. 1000 rating. Ive only done about 2-3k profit on it this year flipping op shit when i come across it. no imported shit. that account is basically dead. BUT I got a trusted account I can load up with legit stock.. thats a head start.. just dunno if I want to grind on products I dont care about or have no interest in.

@nvanprooyen what kind of margins are you working with. Im sure you have winners and dogs.. but whats the avg? 15k skus.. high volume low margin model?

Gross or net?

 

[Ares]

I've bought all my dildos from @nvanprooyen FTR

You want high quality and this man knows quality in a dildo.

 

[HeHateMe]

I've bought all my dildos from @nvanprooyen FTR

You want high quality and this man knows quality in a dildo.

@The Hawk. Looks like you got some serious competition...

 

[nvanprooyen]

@The Hawk. Looks like you got some serious competition...

Sigh. I'm out!

 

[Chief Walking Stick]

Sigh. I'm out!

Can you please approve my name change request in the mod panel?

 

[nvanprooyen]

Can you please approve my name change request in the mod panel?

Done

 

[FozzyBear]

Gross or net?

Gross. Well it would be sweet to know what kind of ad budget youre pushing at 50 mil in sales.