Shipping from Alibaba to SA?

[rylan_mdly]

Hi Broadbanders,

I am thinking of starting a dropshipping business in SA but cannot crack the code on how people are bringing stuff in without incurring significant shipping costs. Does anyone have any experience with importing/buying from Alibaba and methods to do so that actually work? I've been down the route of searching reddit, this forum and YouTube but all resources dont end with a clear way of doing this. Help would be appreciated!

 

[Tman*]

You can run a successful drop shipping business if you have access to a cheap reliable postal service.

Couriers such as DHL, UPS diminish any potential return.

Or, I suppose it can be profitable if you order in very large quantities (a shipping container) an you have a highly desirable item that you can sell at high margin.

 

[Not_original]

Or, I suppose it can be profitable if you order in very large quantities (a shipping container) an you have a highly desirable item that you can sell at high margin.

Someone with a mature network is already doing that then. Unless you have the time and space to undercut them, I would not go that route. Small time import doing it on the side, sure, but containers are expensive.

 

[captainplanet0]

Someone with a mature network is already doing that then. Unless you have the time and space to undercut them, I would not go that route. Small time import doing it on the side, sure, but containers are expensive.

Most definitely, lots of items I find on Alibaba or Banggood are already available on stores like Takealot & Bid or Buy, marked up obviously. The main thing would be to find that niche that nobody has touched yet. Looking to spend ~2k including shipping and try to sell here somewhere just to start and feel the market. The 'proper' dropshipping route (shopify, advertising etc.) requires at least 5k to start up properly and even with that, if you don't make any sales or take off within 14 days of creating the shopify account with all added extras, you're gonna be paying big bucks

 

[Not_original]

Most definitely, lots of items I find on Alibaba or Banggood are already available on stores like Takealot & Bid or Buy, marked up obviously. The main thing would be to find that niche that nobody has touched yet. Looking to spend ~2k including shipping and try to sell here somewhere just to start and feel the market. The 'proper' dropshipping route (shopify, advertising etc.) requires at least 5k to start up properly and even with that, if you don't make any sales or take off within 14 days of creating the shopify account with all added extras, you're gonna be paying big bucks

True. I did it too for a while, the markup you can put on some items are insane, but if you don't run a storefront in a place with proper foot traffic (or sell on something like Takealot or your own site with a high advertising budget) , sales move at a slow pace. I did it out of my house and relied only on FB.

That is, till I realised I would be making more money simply by organising some overtime instead of waiting on promises of people of picking it up Saturday which never rang true and then wanting me to drive 15km to deliver a R100 purchase, all for free of course.