Amazon is a retailer giant so mighty you just can’t help but wonder if you could profit from its popularity. And if you are considering a wooCommerce business, a platform this big can feel like a secure option. Dropshipping with Amazon is, of course, a thing — with many people attempting to make money from it to this day.
But is it really safe or worth the fuzz? The short answer is: not really. Dropshipping on Amazon is quite a headache with not much of an outcome — and we’re going to explain why.
Dropshipping For Amazon: Convoluted and Messy
The whole scheme goes like this:
- Dropshippers list items from their store on Amazon, as sellers. A buyer purchases a certain product from that list.
- Once the buyer’s transaction is carried out, dropshippers order the same product from the supplier, giving them the buyer’s delivery information.
- Amazon sends the purchase directly to the buyer.
- The seller gets a profit margin from dropshipping for Amazon.
So what are the main pitfalls here? First of all, Amazon dropshipping opportunities can be seriously restricted by the platform’s policy. Dropshippers try to bend the rules and make some money out of it but it’s a lot of scheming. Some obstacles are as follows:
- High costs AND high competitiveness. It’s not easy to pick products for your first listing that would have been high in demand but don’t have many competitors. Especially for dropshipping beginners.
- You will need to be constantly alert, making sure the supplier isn’t mentioned in any of your documents/packages. For similar reasons you won’t be able to dropship branded and trademarked products, missing a ton of opportunities.
- Your margin won’t be that high even if you manage to sell anything through Amazon dropshipping. That’s because you won’t be able to buy products in bulk and therefore will have to pay more per item.
- You will be completely dependant on your supplier. This means that if the quality of their products worsens or the item someone purchased from your Amazon listing is out of stock, you won’t be able to know beforehand. And you most likely won’t be able to provide the 2-day shipping Amazon is known for. This ending up with furious customers who will report you to Amazon support.
- You will have to keep your 2-month Order Defect Rate under 1%, your Lite Shipment Rate under 4%, and your Cancellation Rate under 2,5% to avoid Amazon’s suspicions. Non-dropshippers using the platform can do it relatively easily, even at the very start. Dropshippers, not so much.
If you import Amazon products to your online store for reselling, remember that their policy forbids:
- Promoting those products outside their platform, aka putting links to your store in emails, PDFs, other web documents.
- Quoting Amazon star ratings and positive reviews for promo outside their platform.
- Not using their Affiliate Disclaimer on your store.
- Using link shortening/cloaking for Amazon links.
- Advertising products on search engines.
- Not making sales in 90 days.
- …and more.
If you don’t follow the precautions, Amazon will eventually terminate and deactivate your account.
So, What’s The Alternative?
When it comes to dropshipping, it’s better to stick with the classics: AliExpress and eBay. Those platforms are very dropshipping-friendly — check just a couple of advantages:
- With eBay and AliExpress you can simply automize the order placing. So when a buyer purchases your store, the order goes directly to the supplier who ships it out. Your involvement is not needed nor do you have to buy any stock products in advance. But you can’t do that with Amazon, as it demands dropshippers to sign their FBA. That program requires every seller to send products to Amazon before they start trading. This means you will HAVE to spend money on the stock, not knowing if you’ll be able to resell.
- Neither AliExpres nor eBay cares about you promoting and linking your online store elsewhere (unless you’re doing illegal stuff, of course.)
With advanced and user-friendly dropshipping software like Ali2Woo and eBay2Woo, you can set up a store in several easy steps. The perks include:
- Easy stock import and synchronization.
- Full automatization such as placing orders, updating prices/inventory, and more.
- Content filtering.
- Product customization.
- And more.
To start your dropshipping business, check:
Avoid Amazon dropshipping in favor of those reliable methods and let your business thrive. Our team will also help you launch, creating your dropshipping store, setting up design, suggesting a profitable product niche, and provide step-by-step guidance.
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