Dropshipping and Suppliers?

[civil4life]

Hello,

I have been throwing around various ideas for side hustles for a very long time.  Never pulling the trigger on anything.  Recently I have been looking more into drop shipping as one of my better options.  I still need to do a lot of research.

If I do it I was planning on going on the advice of one drop shipper that only sells one item.  I have been browsing whole sale suppliers trying to find the right niche item to possibly give it a try.  The concern I have is it appears that the vast majority of drop shippers are in China.  So any purchase for the US would take a month or two to be delivered.  I know that with all the competition out there that would be an unacceptable option.  However the only way I see around it would be buying a large number in bulk and either fulfill orders myself or FBA both would then take the automation piece out of the equation and way less passive.  Does anyone have any suggestions or share how they do it?

Any general information about drop shipping is appreciated as well.

Thanks

[CareCPA]

Your best bet is not to Google dropshippers. It's not going to be the most profitable way.

Dropshipping is not my preferred e-commerce method, but if I were to do it, here is how:
1. Decide what niche I want to be in
2. Figure out what products to sell within that niche
3. Find manufacturers in this niche (this is the hard part, good luck)
4. Contact the manufacturers, and ask if they private label/dropship/whatever business model you're going with
5. If they do, then setup the store, and figure out the logistics of getting the data to them when a purchase is made

If you look at the major dropshipping markets/software options online, you come up with three categories: cheap stuff made in China that takes 1-2 months to get here, expensive stuff made in the USA, cheap stuff made in China that is being warehoused by someone in the USA and marked up.

It will take a lot of digging to find a profitable and quick manufacturer.

[NorthernDreamer]

There are ways of shipping from China that are quicker. There is a method called ePacket, it's typically fairly cheap for light items, and it ships to North America in 1-3 weeks, and I think pretty much the same to Europe/Australia. Not sure about elsewhere.

[tralfamadorian]

However the only way I see around it would be buying a large number in bulk and either fulfill orders myself or FBA both would then take the automation piece out of the equation and way less passive. 

The majority of the time the products are not ready to go to FBA straight from China (need individual protective packaging to survive amazon prime shipping and barcode/safety labels) so the products go manufacturer-->3rd party FBA prep-->FBA/3PL.