I was contacted to provide drop shipping of my T-shirts for an online company that sells complimentary products. The company is fairly new and i have no idea how popular the site is. Does anyone have experience with this? Is it worth it? How does it work? Thanks.
Ive done drop shipping in the past with other companies. The problem I faced with drop shipping is that you have no control on what the product that is being sent out. Second if someone orders a product and it is out of stock you face looking bad to the customer. Luckly when this happened to me I was able to provide an alternative. Not sure what type of drop shipping you mean but if they have a consistant supply then it may be a way to go if your selling the product on your site and not on ebay.
I was thinking the other company wanted to post our products on their site. I did not think of the supply issue. It sounds like it could be a hassle. Do you need some kind of contract with the company? I wonder if setting up a link exchange would be a better way to go.
I will look to "Automate" my On-Line T-Shirt Business so I too will do some serious R&D in this area. I believe there is a way to do drop-shipping and still make it a great business model
We have a Preprint line and drop ship for a lot of people who post our shirts on there website or even ebay, Its a win win for us. The way it works is we give them our gifs, they post, sell, collect etc. They email or call us with the order. They prepay us with credit card for $XXX (flat rate) for the shirt plus a $XXX shipping charge (flat rate) if we are out of stock they have to call there customer back and ask if they want to wait until its printed or pick another design. You don't need a contract as it a pay as they go deal.
If your doing transfers or DTG it sounds perfect. We screen print and stock our designs in YS - XL but it took years to get to this point, the drop shipping we do is just gravy for us. We ship UPS or USPS our choice not there's. Hope this helps, John
Thanks. That does help. Maybe I will give it a try. Sounds like it may be pretty simple and a better alternative to an affiliate program (which they also suggested). I have read about pros/cons of affiliate programs, so I decided to against that. I will may a proposal and see what happens.
If your doing a drop ship program what I did with one company is only drop ship products for sure I know they have plenty in stock with. I wouldnt completely elminate the concept but make it an add on to your business model.
Maybe use the drop ship option as a follow up(include a flier of the drop ship shirts) with any shirts you sell that you made and sold on ebay. This way you still have control of what is sold on ebay but provide a backend way to make a second sale with a flier with the product sold.
This way you get the positive feedback on your ebay.
Like Uncle John said, it's gravy on top of your regular sales channel. But on that end so is an affiliate program. Basically your paying for advertising after the fact when you already have the sale. You should consider both.
I'd echo the sentiments of others here Heather. I have about 10 drop shippers worldwide selling my tees from their own sites or via eBay, etc... and I do have a simple contract drafted up with each (fire me a PM if you feel like taking a look)...
In a nutshell I give all dropshippers a flat rate (a tad higher than typical wholesale) and a flat rate shipping per piece, and they are free to sell however they like. They pay for all orders via credit card on the day I ship and I send them a complete detail invoice monthly recapping what I shipped and how much they paid.
Typically most of my dropshippers just want me to ship in a simple plain bag/box, but I do have one that I have provided upgraded shipping for and use custom labels for their business and special mailers and charge them an additional fee for the service.
It is all definitely "gravy" and probably only comprises about 5% of my overall sales, but definitely worth consideration
I might give it a try, now that I have some ideas to propose. I like the idea of a simple contract at least to indicate the items, prices, time frame etc.
Thanks.
For the drop ship customers, we just put There name with our address in the ship from box on UPS label or from on the Stamps.com label, It shows its from them so there happy but if theres an error or bad address we get it back. We use the mailing bags like SureLoc for up to 3 shirts, they cost us $0.10 ea., for larger orders we use a stock box from someone like ULine thats about $0.34 ea.
We have a Preprint line and drop ship for a lot of people who post our shirts on there website or even ebay, Its a win win for us. The way it works is we give them our gifs, they post, sell, collect etc. They email or call us with the order. They prepay us with credit card for $XXX (flat rate) for the shirt plus a $XXX shipping charge (flat rate) if we are out of stock they have to call there customer back and ask if they want to wait until its printed or pick another design. You don't need a contract as it a pay as they go deal.
If your doing transfers or DTG it sounds perfect. We screen print and stock our designs in YS - XL but it took years to get to this point, the drop shipping we do is just gravy for us. We ship UPS or USPS our choice not there's. Hope this helps, John
hi there, i've been approached by someone about this. What would you say about prices? Should you charge more than your standard wholesale price or keep it the same?
I don't do tee shirts, but I do sell them. I even dropship them. And I've been selling other dropshippers' goods for years.
Here is how a "true dropshipper", also referred to as a "tier one" dropshipper operates -
1 - they have their own inventory, they are not just middlemen or brokers
2 - they will ship one item at a time at their normal wholesale price
3 - they ship "blind" with any and all labels, packing slips, etc. bearing the name and address of the seller. NO promotional material back to the dropshipper - YOU - should be enclosed.
4 - the dropshipper - you - never, ever, no matter what, contacts their customer's customer. You never directly contact the end buyer. You do not add dropship customers to your mailing list.
This is a matter of trust. You are receiving, as pointed out, gravy. You need to be honorable in your fulfilling your end of the deal. Ship blind, no followup or ads.
It does take a bit more effort to change the paperwork. Charge a buck or two if you feel you must, but don't take advantage of these sellers, they are like free sales reps for you.
.
I don't include any paperwork and use the sellers return address. If the seller wants to send their customer an invoice, they do via mail. I also do not do flat rate shipping. I charge actual shipping to the buyers door, which is calculated on the website when the seller places the order.
Drop shipping experience? 
