Ubu, I realize the margins arent the best. I’ll see how much of a price break I’ll get if I buy in bulk. I am looking into manufacturing these myself (hiring a factory). There are only 2-3 suppliers in the whole U.S. I may end up doing B2B instead.

These are selling very well as many of the products ordered are out of stock. Another reason why I may stock them. My competition is also out of stock (Tried to buy from them to fill an order). I’m going up the food chain only to find that the manufacturer is just behind in supply. They can’t make them any faster.

I’ve had 3 orders come in already today for over $500.

You go off biking for two weeks, just when someone orders something, are you comfortable with telling them it’ll take 2 weeks before you can ship their item? Maybe 3 weeks total?

I guess if it were me, I’d hold off stocking items. The supplier may reduce their price if the website is consistently bringing in large numbers of orders. In essence, you achieve the same result but without having to stock items yourself.

You do need to have better margins to keep doing this. The costs will eat you alive over time even though they may not seem bad in the beginning.

If you start stocking your own items, you need to get your supplier to come down on his wholesale price. You need to buy the product for 50% or less, seriously. Just like houses, you make your money when you buy. The dropshipper saves money by not having to package and ship individual items, so that is one reason why you should get a bigger discount. If he can’t supply you cheap, you need to look around. If you are buying name brand items, you can sometimes find the same thing without the name brand for 50% less. (I’m not talking about high end designer items here. I’m talking about lower end “brand name” items. Don’t ever think you are going to get “real” Louis Vuitton for 50% off the cost from a manufacturer/wholesaler because it won’t happen.)