Member Avatar for Matthew Anton

I've been researching into buying products from Globalsources.com and Alibaba.com. I have the capabilities of ranking websites, and I'm in a specific home appliance niche at the momement (testing in progress). My question is if I buy products overseas at a "relatively low cost", can I expect to sell them through Amazon and/or my website? I don't want to be giving away "X" for Christmas to family members (surplus of product!) if I buy from a supplier, and I also don't want razor thin margins and possible customer complaints with drop shipping. We can seo with BacklinksVault.com but not sure if that's going to be enough to make this worth while. Look forward to thoughts.

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If you want to test overseas sourcing without ending up with a garage full of slow-moving stock, treat this as a staged experiment rather than an all-in bet. already has the advantage of SEO skills; use that to drive low-cost, highly targeted traffic for a short proof period, then scale only the SKUs that convert reliably. Take the “small test” route: samples, inspection, a short paid push, then a small replenishment order if metrics look good.

A simple landed-cost framework will quickly tell you whether to hold inventory or dropship. Calculate:
Landed cost = unit price + (shipping ÷ units) + duties + packaging + inspection + per-unit returns reserve.
Then add channel fees and marketing to get your true cost-per-sale. Use that to decide acceptable retail price and target margin. If the math shows razor-thin margins after Amazon/advertising fees, don’t assume SEO alone will make it profitable — reduce costs, raise price, or drop the SKU.

Fulfillment strategy matters for home appliances. Long overseas lead times and poor packaging destroy reviews and returns rates (as warned). “Ship yourself” (stock & dispatch from your warehouse or a 3PL) gives control over packaging, QC and returns; dropshipping minimizes inventory risk but reduces control and lengthens delivery time. Consider a hybrid: keep a small FBA or 3PL buffer for best-sellers, dropship slower SKUs while you validate demand. Third-party forwarders or consolidation (the route hinted at) can cut per-unit shipping and customs hassle during scaling.

Quick checklist: order and test samples; get written QC and safety documentation for electrical appliances; calculate landed cost and required margin before listing; list a tiny quantity on Amazon and your site, run a short paid test, and track conversion/CAC; if it works, negotiate MOQ, set reorder triggers, and consider FBA/3PL for faster delivery and fewer complaints.

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Member Avatar for jessicarobort

I have an idea about drop shipping but ship yourself ? I want to know also but is shipyourself means you ship/deliver your products yourself to others?

Member Avatar for chrisschristou

drop shipping is you buy to the suplier only when your customer buy on your webstite and the suplier don't shipp to you he direcly shipp to customers it it's very good business but don't use paypal for it ;)
shipp by yourself mean you buy from your suplier and suplier shipp to you after you shipp to your customers look loong term and customer will loose confidence if he don't receive in 2 week or you must buy all what you want sell and when your customers buy you have just to shipp. IMPORTANT
-Dropshipp will help you to save money on shipping charges and time but you must very good relation with suplier and customers.
-If you have money buy all what you want sell and and directly shipp when your customers buy.
hope it help you

Member Avatar for meziamus

use forwarding solutions like MyUkmailbox

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