Stepping up my Game

I’m adding a new side to my business

I’ve been doing RA and Pallet buying

Before moving to the USA from my longtime home in the Philippines, I had already decided I wanted to do RA (Retail Arbitrage), and reselling in general. Another thing I had decided before moving was that I wanted to do some liquidation arbitrage as well.

I have been doing RA by buying products at several different stores within an hour or so from my home in Indiana. I started doing this in March, as I recall. It started out pretty slow, but for the past 2 weeks or so, the business has really picked up a lot. I have been investing more money into it by purchasing more items, and larger quantities of what I do buy. It’s paying off!

The other thing I have been doing in my reselling business is purchasing pallets of goods for resale. Mostly I have bought customer returns from several of the “big online retailers”. I am not allowed to name which stores I am buying returns from, but I am sure you can guess.

Now I will try… Dropshipping

Dropshipping is the rage these days.

What is Dropshipping? Here is what Wikipedia says (slightly edited):

Dropshipping is a supply chain management method in which the seller does not keep goods in stock but instead transfers the customer orders and shipment details to either the manufacturer, another retailer, or a wholesaler, who then ships the goods directly to the customer. As in retail business, the majority of retailers make their profit on the difference between the wholesale and retail price, but some retailers earn an agreed percentage of the sales in commission, paid by the wholesaler to the retailer.

I have always, always said that I will never do dropshipping.

Why did I avoid dropshipping?

The reason that I have been anti-dropshipping in the past is that I, personally, would not want to sell a product that I can’t inspect, don’t know the reputation of the person I am buying from, etc.

I would not want to take somebody’s money and not have control over what they are getting or have never seen it myself. With the company I will be using for dropshipping, though, I know it is a reputable business, I can walk into their stores (and I do about once a week or so) and look at the products that I am selling, etc.

I feel comfortable with that if I am also within the terms of service of any venue where I sell the products.

When will I start my dropshipping business?

Actually, I started earlier today, after several days of mulling it over and finally deciding to proceed.

So many people are into dropshipping now, and I admit that it is so much easier than handling the merchandise yourself, taking care of shipping, etc.

Also, there is the matter of investment. When you are buying a bunch of inventory for resale, that money is tied up until you make the sale (if you do). With dropshipping, you never spend a dime until the item is already sold.

So, there are multiple advantages to getting into dropshipping.

Some of my friends will be happy

I have several friends who are into the dropshipping lifestyle and have been doing it for years. Each of these friends has also been after me to get into dropshipping for many years, and now I am going to try it.

I am sure those friends will be happy to hear this.