Although this article will focus mainly on Amazon, eBay and Amazon platforms are very similar when it comes to dropshipping products from them – so please bare this in mind as you go through this article.

Amazon and eBay drop shipping websites can be a really great way to ensure successful drop shipping if you know how to make the most of them, they can really boost online sales for just about any business with minimal effort.

You can even use them to make your business appear to be even bigger than it is to potential customers – taking advantage of the amazing Amazon logistics network for example.

We have been in online business and e-commerce since 2011 and in this time we have seen a continuously growing trend when it comes to Amazon and eBay drop shipping businesses.

Before we delve into more detail about Amazon drop shipping businesses, let’s take a look at what it is and how it works…

What is Amazon drop shipping exactly?

How Amazon dropshipping works

Put simply, AMAZON drop shipping is a different type of e-commerce business model where you sell items from Amazon’s vast catalogue of products to customers and then any items sold are shipped directly to the customer from Amazons warehouse – with you never really needing to come into direct contact with the product at all.

Everything from processing, shipping, handling and even any required ongoing customer service is taken care of by Amazon’s staff and your store acts as the ‘middle man’ just ensuring that the customer safely receives the products that they ordered.

How you make money with the Amazon Drop Shipping business model

As a drop shipping middleman, you make your money with AMAZON drop shipping why ensuring that there is a positive difference in price between the amount that you list the product for sale wherever you intend to sell it and the amount that you can purchase it from the suppliers. There should never be a negative figure here of you will not make any money on each sale.

The costs of getting started with Amazon drop shipping

The & pricing fees structure

Fees for Drop shipping on Amazon, very according to specific product categories anywhere from 10 to 15%. You will also need to choose a selling plan with Amazon themselves and their charging for this varies from between $0.99 per unit product sold or you could opt for the professional seller plan which will set you back $39.99 and allow you to sell as many items as you want via Amazon – this is obviously better for higher volume sellers.

The potential profit margins

General Amazon Drop shipping margins will be anything between 10 and 30%. Amazon also takes around 15% of overall revenue and there is no way of being able to get around this as they do play such an important role in the operation of your business.

Is Amazon drop shipping actually allowed?

Amazon does allow you to drop ship on their platform, yes, but they do have a few rules that they expect you to follow:

• You are to be the seller of record for products
• You are expected to identify yourself on material that ships with your products such as invoices and packing slips
• Amazon expect you to have removed any information that could potentially identify a third-party seller such as external packaging or invoices/packing slips
• You are the one to be responsible for any customer returns.
• It is also expected that you agree to follow all of the expected terms within the Amazon Seller Agreement

Amazon Drop Shipping the pros and cons

The Pros of Amazon Drop Shipping

There are quite a few benefits to drop-shipping via Amazon in that anyone can take advantage of the Amazon brand name to essentially amplify their business and its possibilities.

Amazon already have solid warehousing & logistics in place

This one had to be first in the pros of drop-shipping via Amazon because it is one of the most obvious benefits of using Amazon as your drop shipper or supplier. Amazon already has multiple warehouses that are dotted all over the country and all over the world. and a vast logistics network in place.

The power of Amazon’s platform

people come to Amazon for one thing and that is to shop!… it’s not like YouTube where they just come to pass the time and be entertained. When people are on Amazon that more than likely browsing for items to be able to purchase – so they are already in that buyer’s state of mind. Not only this but Amazon will more than likely already have their credit card information stored on the systems ready for the buyer to just be able to click to Buy Now – this is priceless!

Amazon has a much larger audience and so more chance of discovery of your products.

Trying to start your own website from scratch and get your items discovered and known about can be a real task, but when you make use of Amazon, you know that they already have lots of web traffic and millions of people visiting their website every single day possibly searching for the types of items that you have available for sale. So what we need to do next is leverage this traffic and point them towards the items that you have available for sale.

The Cons of Amazon Drop Shipping

A Lack of control over customers’ data

One obvious negative to selling on the Amazon platform is that they control and manage all of your sales and customer data. it is their platform after all and I guess this gives them the right to be able to essentially be the middle man when it comes to customers’ data and other important information that they may choose to hand over to you.

The lack of flexibility and the ability to customise your store

Sellers on Amazon have often complained about the lack of the ability to be able to customize an Amazon sales page. other than unique product images, there is very little that can be done to stand out from the crowded seller marketplace on Amazon. This has often been a major cause of frustration for Amazon sellers.

Upfront funds are required

Another pitfall of Amazon drop shipping business for sale is that you as the seller will often be required to come up with the upfront capital to be able to purchase units of stock and then ship this stock to a fulfilment Amazon warehouse ready for the Amazon FBA fulfilment system – Amazon with then be able to offer your items within their PRIME ecosystem where they are able to guarantee Next Day Delivery to customers.

There are no guarantees

You could end up investing $1000s into products from China and then ship them to Amazon only for the items not to sell and just remain sitting in Amazon’s warehousing not making you any money at all. There are no assurances given that you will recoup any of your money when you deal with Amazon and you may find yourself needing to change direction and try several different products before you finally come across winning products that actually make you any money at all – let alone allowing you to retire financially-free!