Blame Yourself!One of my biggest frustrations about this industry is the way people constantly blame dropshippers for their own business failing.

For example on the DropshipHelp.co.uk forum recently someone was voicing their thoughts on a dropshipper and they also said “if i google my own site it comes up with yes youve guessed sod all”, so that’s the dropshippers fault is it? That you clearly have absolutely no clue how to promote a website, you can’t even get it indexed let alone ranking high in Google – and yet it’s the dropshippers fault!?! Wakey wakey!

People doing this is simply a joke. I bet this individuals ‘marketing’ section in their business plan made for interesting reading! In this article I’ve put together a few of the key points people bring up when blaming dropshippers, and how in actual fact people need to look at their own business, not the dropshipper.

The Prices Of Products – eBay Prices

This one crops up more times then I can remember! “I’ve seen their products cheaper on ebay”.
  – For a start ebay has normal people selling things second hand, they will gladly start auctions for their old DVDs from 1p. Clearly you are never going to undercut these sellers!
  – Secondly, ebay also has businesses selling products who buy wholesale. Once again they will be able to sell cheaper then you because they source products cheaper then you.
  – Thirdly ebay is massively saturated with so many sellers that competition is fierce.

So if every time you visit a dropshipper you leave saying “I’ve seen their products cheaper on ebay” you may as well just give in now. Don’t go round blaming the dropshipper it’s their fault prices are cheaper on ebay. The solution is to forget about ebay and sell from your own ecommerce website.

Not Everybody Buys From The Same Place Or For The Cheapest Price!

I love it when people see a product available to buy at a lower price from a retailer then they can sell it for, and all of a sudden that’s it, they can no longer sell it as well because obviously consumers will just go and buy from the cheaper seller, WRONG.

People don’t always buy from the cheapest place. Look at Play.com as a prime example, many many of their products can be purchased elsewhere at lower prices (whether it be ebay, amazon or a small ecommerce company) but yet last christmas on their busiest trading day, December 8th 2008, they processed 1000 orders per minute – they are a big company, and by no means the cheapest! If that example doesn’t make the penny drop for you then nothing will.

To see different prices in action start using Google Product Search, look at specific products and see the big range retailers are selling in. I performed a search looking to buy a ‘Powerball Neon Pro‘ (a fitness product) and the prices range from £14.69 all the way up to £29.99, with many prices in between. Another clear indicator of how many retailers are selling the same products at very different prices.

There Are So Many Influences On Buying Decisions

A lot of factors influence a customers decision to buy. Not just price. When I did my series of articles looking at Increasing Revenue not a single one of them was ‘change dropshipper’. On-site many factors affect visitors. If you have a poorly formatted website not good for visitors which doesn’t give them any confidence you are not going to make sales, that is not the dropshippers fault it’s yours!

Locating Who To Buy From

Consumers don’t just find the lowest price and buy from that seller. Also many consumers only see a select few of the retailers selling specific products. Some consumers will simply do a Google Search to find a product and look at the few sites at the top of the SERPs and pick which one to buy from, they won’t use all means to hunt down every retailer selling ‘bath bombs’ or whatever they are after.

Get your website well promoted and top of the search engines and consumers will see your website, but not some of your competitors. If they can’t compare you with competitors they will buy from you, regardless of the fact your prices are a pound or two higher!

Conclusion – Take Responsibility And Fix The Problem

The products you sell are obviously a key part of your business, and picking a trustworthy dropshipper in the beginning is important. However, in the grand scheme of your businesses life the actual dropshipper you get going with is by no means the ‘make or break’ part of your business – yet so many people seem to think it is. As soon as something doesn’t go right “ooops its the dropshippers fault”, these companies post the products for you, not run your whole business!

Build a quality ecommerce website and market it effectively. Once established if you don’t feel your dropshipper is performing as you would like then you go elsewhere, if you have an established website with decent targetted visitors it shouldn’t be to difficult to strike up an agreement with another company to dropship for you.

So if you are “one of these” people, do yourself a favour and look at all factors of why your business is failing to see how you can sort it. If you don’t get much traffic and your ecommerce website isn’t very good – you know what to do, improve it, don’t blame the dropshipper!

Play.com stat source: feedyourmind.