subject: Tips For Getting The Best Price On Drop Ship Wholesale Products [print this page] There are plenty of reasons to use drop shipping, but as many in the wholesale industry have mentioned, it's not all roses. One of the most commonly alluded to negatives of drop shipping is product pricing. Since the wholesaler is warehousing the product for you as well as shipping out each individual order, they are going to charge a higher price than they would for a bulk order.
But are there ways to get the price down? In fact, there are. Here are a few tips to help you bring your costs down and bring profits up.
Sell More Products
This, obviously, is easier said than done. You already have the goal to sell as much as you can, but how can you sell more if your drop ship supplier isn't willing to give you lower pricing?
It's a fact of business that only retailers that can produce a lot of orders get the best pricing. But that doesn't mean that the guy with the lowest prices is always going to get the most sales. Wholesalers understand this, which is why they don't give their lowest prices to just anybody.
All good marketers know that making the sale has less to do with price and more to do with presentation... and getting as many people as you can to look at your presentation.
If you're already getting lots of traffic, but no sales, it may be time to consider a site redesign.
Negotiate
Getting the best price on your wholesale products requires constant contact with your suppliers to continually try and negotiate a better pricing tier. Top retailers hire people specifically for this task.
If you're not in a position improve sales or hire a price negotiator, then using a drop ship supplier integrator might be the option for you.
Drop Ship Supplier Integrators
Two companies that work directly with drop ship suppliers, integrating them into a universally accessible system, include Doba and Commerce Hub. Thanks to the combined purchasing power of the retailers they work with, both companies are able to use their price negotiators to get the best pricing.
One thing to be aware of with Doba is that, although they price products at cost, if you pay with a credit card, resulting in merchant fees, their costs go up -- and therefore your costs goes up. To prevent this, take advantage of Doba's cash payment option which bypasses the merchant fees and gets you the true wholesale price.
Commerce Hub probably has the better integration and they also work with a larger number of suppliers, allowing retailers access to more products. However, while both Doba and Commerce Hub charge a monthly fee, Commerce Hub also charges an initial setup fee that can run several thousand dollars, as well as a per-transaction fee. In other words, retailers pay a fee for every order placed.
These differences between the two companies affect who their target retailer is. Commerce Hub works only with very large, high-volume retailers while Doba focuses mainly on the small to medium-sized retailer or large retailers who don't need the additional suppliers that Commerce Hub offers.
But in the end, only you can decide whether working with an integrated solution is the proper strategy for your business, or if going direct to multiple drop ship suppliers is the better path.
