I have been an Amazon drop shipper for a very long period, and I love it. Alone amongst the pack of Amazon FBA wolves, I feel as though I am an Amazon drop shipping secret agent! Everybody who does not drop-ship has their own opinions on what is real and not realistic in the dropshipping community. There is nothing more frustrating and more hilarious than when those who do not drop-ship spread misinformation as if it were fact in the world of Amazon dropshipping.
Myth #1. Amazon Doesn’t Like Drop Shippers
Many people think that Amazon does not like people who drop ship on its platform, which is not surprising. Retail arbitrage, private label, or online arbitrage are the things that more of their third-party sellers do. For the most part, all of those are done with the use of Amazon FBA. Merchant fulfilled on Amazon is ever done by people these days. Amazon FBA allows you to pack up a whole bunch of things into one or more boxes and send it off to Amazon for them to fulfill. Merchant fulfilled means that you have to complete every order on your own on the side note if you have no idea about the Amazon FBA versus merchant fulfilled.
To also add in the idea that you will be drop shipping all orders to customers when they are buying ads another layer of mystery since so few people do Amazon merchant fulfilled. Most people throw up their hands and assume that Amazon does not allow rather than seeing whether or not this is allowed on Amazon.
Amazon loves people who drop ship on their platform, which I hate to break to you.
Why would they not? For a lot longer than you think, dropshipping has been around. It is relatively older than the Internet in itself.
They would be missing out on a massive chunk of revenue if Amazon was so hateful of drop shippers on their platform. Alienate people who drop ships on their platform are the last thing that they want to do.
You will notice that it is one of the shortest terms and conditions pages is what at Amazon drop shipping policy you will see.
Myth #2 DropShipis possible from Retail Stores to Amazon Customers
It is not entirely true when I say that Amazon loves drop shippers. Amazon made a change to their drop shipping policy not too long ago. They want you to be the seller of record essentially. So, what is the seller’s record?
On people who were going to retail stores to find products and then drop ship those when they sold was the hammer that Amazon laid down in 2016. When the customers got their products, they also got the receipt from the retail stores is what was happening. They would get their shoes along with the pass that showed that the seller initially paid $30 though they might have spent $100 on a new pair of shoes they thought they bought from Amazon.
Wouldn’t it be the best if you paid a hundred dollars for something that you realize you could have got somewhere else for $30? To handle the customer service for all of these fools, well, Amazon was getting tired. Anyone who was going to try and drop ship the retail items would have to stop immediately as they decided that anyone would try and drop ship the retail items.
Amazon also encouraged the use of accurate dropshipping on its platform by encouraging people to become the seller of record for their products that they were listing with all said. You can become an authorized dealer for those products just like any other retail store is what it essentially means. You are working with the manufacturer or distributor to sell the product on Amazon is what it means. You could now sell a product that you could replenish over and over again is what the benefit here is. You will not be able to drop ship the retail items on Amazon anymore is what it means.
Myth #3 You Can Use Amazon Prime to Drop Ship with Free Shipping to People on eBay and Others
I would always come across the forum posts, courses, and blog posts that spoke about how great it is to drop ship from Amazon to other marketplaces such as eBay with your Amazon Prime account. It is what I got after researching how to dropship on Amazon.
To make a few bucks, why would you ever want to risk your personal Amazon Prime account? You are not allowed to use your Amazon Prime account to get free shipping when drop shipping to other marketplaces is stated in Amazon’s terms of service.
You need not do this!
Myth #4 It is Hard to Get Suppliers to Sell You Products at Wholesale Cost
Why most people use Amazon FBA and why most people who sell on Amazon prefer to do things such as retail arbitrage, there is a reason behind it. The reason is that they think that finding suppliers for wholesale or wholesale drop shipping on Amazon is tough.
It is nothing near to the truth.
On the bigger screen of things, if you contact between 10 to 20 suppliers, usually between 1-5 will say yes as you have to speak to a lot of people, send few emails, and few calls.
Myth #5 If You Can’t Match Up to the Speed of Amazon Prime then Customers Won’t Buy
The customers know that they will wait a while for all who want to buy from my Amazon store. When they can buy from someone else who could ship super fast, why would they do that?
The answer here is quite simple as no one else will be selling this product.
With drop shipping on Amazon, this is one of the enormous misconceptions. Finding one or two products that are selling well as they place all of their time and effort into getting as much profit from them as possible, most people are used to it. You also get their entire pricelist when you are dropshipping. You can sell thousands of their products if your supplier has them.
When you are working with most of the suppliers, the vast majority of their dealers do not buy in bulk, as this is something that you are going to find. It is usually only a few products from their pricelist if they do believe in size. Not all of their products are being sent into Amazon FBA if no one is buying all their bulk products.
When it comes to shipping products, the majority of my competition has long lead times. It is wise to make sure that you leave yourself enough room, or else you might get dinged on your seller metrics as you never know how long your supplier is going to take to ship. You need not ship fast to profit from Amazon, with all being said here.
Myth #6 Your Supplier Can’t Ship Fast, So You are Going to Get Late Shipment Violations
Regarding how they want to dropship on Amazon, I will get someone to email me every once in a while, but they do not know how quickly their supplier ship. We have an easy solution here.
You need not promise your customers that the items will be shipped fast.
When it comes to suppliers, every one of them will be different. Some will ship slowly, some will ship fast, but you do have control over the situation.
On your products, Amazon allows you to adjust the production time. You need to put 15 days as the production time if your work takes 15 days to ship.
Myth #7 Drop Shipping Amazon Sellers Get Suspended for Bad Metrics
For people who are thinking about Amazon dropshipping is the myth that they are placing their account at risk of suspension due to all the scary things that can happen is another excellent roadblock.
Over the last year or so, Amazon suspensions were people who were doing retail or online arbitrage. Have you noticed that? So, who is putting their account at risk here?
Most of the time, you can call all those crazy customers or message them and get them on your side instead of trusting Amazon customer support is what happens.
You need to be bad at customer support, and essential business operation to get suspended from Amazon when you are dropshipping is what I have noticed.
Things such as not having inventory in stock, shipping the wrong item and others, are what people are more scared of. Just some good communication with your customer is how most of these can be fixed. From one of my customers who was frustrated with their product, heck one of my five-star reviews came through the refund that I gave.
It would mean that you are competition for me if you are too scared to take action and are afraid of all of the possible things that can happen.
Myth #8 Amazon Doesn’t Pay You for 2 Weeks So When Things Sell You’ll Need to Fork Up a Lot of Cash
You need to grow up and learn essential business skills such as leveraging and getting a credit card if you are worried about Amazon holding onto your money for two weeks.
Myth #9 If My Supplier Runs Out of Stock, I’m Lost!
A most popular myth is brought up if everyone is timid about Amazon drop shipping when brought up. My account is also going to be suspended if my supplier ever runs out of the inventory account.
It is over, and the world is imploding!
It is not that bad. I have had a handful of occasions where the product has been out of stock over the last few years that I have been drop shipping. How would you be handling this situation is the question that you need to ask yourself.
You would go to your Amazon account and cancel the order would be the worst thing that you can do. It will ruin your metrics right off the bat and also pass off the customer.
There are several ways around this issue. Contact the customer and let them know that the item is out of stock and if there are other variations of the product such as the size, color or if there is a premium version of the product that you can offer them at the same cost or a discount is the first and foremost thing that needs to be done.
You may want to let them know that the item is going to be late and that you will give them a discount if there are no other variations.
You can even let them know that they will get it for free if the item does not cost that much money.
Myth #10 Very Few People are Amazon Drop Shipping, and That Proves It Doesn’t Work
How many people are making money with Amazon dropshipping is something that you will be surprised to know. I have grown to know most of my competitors, and I see them on many of my listings over the last few years.
As there are people who do the retail arbitrage, online arbitrage, or private label, there are not as many drop shippers. I always see new people who are becoming my competitors just about every week. As of yet, in Amazon drop shipping, there is plenty of unique opportunities.
Dilip Tiwari
Dilip Tiwari is Digital Marketing Expert at USS LLC he likes to share Tips on Digital Marketing Services, Google ads management, Amazon ads management, and other blogs ideas.