Doba's Dropshipping Blog

Mobile Commerce, or mCommerce, is blowing up. If you’re not in a position to harvest sales from this seismic shift in online shopping, you need to get there in a hurry. Here are some numbers to get your attention:

• In 2012, an estimated one in four Christmas purchases was made on a mobile device. In 2013, that figure is projected to almost double.
• mCommerce sales in the United States overall will grow from $24 billion in 2012 to $38 billion in 2013. By 2016, mCommerce sales are projected to reach a whopping $86 billion.
• The average order value from buyers using a tablet device is almost 25% higher than PC users.
• According to Forrester, consumers prefer the mobile Web to apps, because mobile websites are more easily accessed via search engines or emails viewed on mobile devices.
• 71% of websites are not optimized for the mobile Web, which means you probably still have a significant opportunity to get ahead of your competitors in this area.

What do I need to do to get my website mobile-optimized?

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I’ve often told people that consumer electronics is a viciously competitive market to try and compete in, overwhelming demand has created an overwhelming amount of competition and market saturation. As a result, there’s very little profit to be found in mainstream big ticket items. The margin is in the accessories. In this week’s product spotlight, we once again find this to be true.

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When I first encountered eBay’s mobile selling app for the iPhone, I passed it over, thinking it wasn’t worth my time. After all, why would I ever want to create a listing from my iPhone, with its tiny screen and tiny on-screen keyboard, when I could just use my computer? It seemed silly to me.

Everything changed once I started becoming a more active eBay seller. Read on to see why this is now one of my favorite apps for the iPhone.

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Just a heads up, Doba will be operating a booth at this year’s Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition in Chicago from June 4th through June 7th and we’d love to see you there, we’ll be at booth #1707.

In fact, we can even provide you with a confidential promo code to help you save on the cost of admission; just send an email to irce [at] doba [dot] com and ask about our IRCE discount code, we’ll reply with a link for you to click and save with the extended early bird rate; you don’t even need to have a Doba membership.

If you’re not sure what IRCE is all about, it’s the largest e-commerce event in the world—in addition to providing you with face-to-face access to some of the biggest players in the online retail industry, you’ll be able to participate in workshops and listen to speakers discuss the latest trends and opportunities in e-commerce. More information and full speaker lineup can be found here.

We look forward to seeing you there!

My brother and I were discussing eBay selling strategies after talking about the various items I’ve been listing for sale in that marketplace as of late. The conversation turned to the subject of eBay listing formats, specifically, Auction style versus Buy It Now (BIN) pricing. It seemed to him that more and more people were turning to BIN as opposed to simply listing an item Auction style and setting a reserve price and he asked me why that would be.

I thought this was a good question and decided to dive into the specifics along with a few other questions below about eBay fees in general.

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The other day I was speaking to one of our account managers who mentioned that he had recently sold some Doba products at a hefty profit margin on the side. Curious, I asked him where and what he sold. His answer was interesting enough that I actually thought it might be a good to feature here (with his permission) as a brief success story.

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Rupesh Sanghavi has been selling online for nearly 10 years, but it’s the last year-and-a- half that really caught our attention. You see, Rupesh is the founder and CEO of an online retailing enterprise that has hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of merchandise sourced and drop-shipped from Doba just last year. At last count, this Über Doba-affiliated merchant (active with us since August 2008) has more than 60 employees working for him in three countries, including the U.S. and India.

A domestic and international retailer, Rupesh — who has a degree in chemical engineering — sells on more than 20 online marketplaces, including Amazon.com and his company’s own websites. His business offers more than a million unique SKUs on any given day in three major business verticals — books, general merchandise and services.

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I came across an interesting article over at The Online Seller on being an eBay Consignment Specialist where author Sarah Brown discusses her experience with getting started selling other people’s stuff on eBay.

With a consignment approach, you’re basically listing items on ebay for clients (who could simply be friends and family members) in exchange for a percentage of what it sells for. You make some quick cash while building your online reputation.

For those of you out there who have been curious about starting consignment sales on eBay, I believe the best way to break the ice is by starting at home with friends and family, and let word-of-mouth do the expansion of clientele for you.

When you sell an item that you already have on hand and don’t particularly care what you get out of it, you’ll find it’s much easier to rack up a large number of sales and build up your ever-so-important seller rating. Although this isn’t drop shipping, it’s a great way for newer eBay sellers to develop the experience and positive feedback that is often so critical to succeeding in the online marketplace.

Our featured retailer this week is Kelan Kline (EpicBuyz on eBay), a young man whose parents told him he needed to get a job when he was 14 years old. He did just that, grabbing up stuff around the house and selling it on eBay. After emptying the household of everything that wasn’t nailed down, Kelan says he needed to find other items to sell and that’s when he developed an interest in working with suppliers and manufacturers who drop ship.

He signed up with Doba while attending the State University of New York at Brockport and to date, this now 22-year-old college graduate/entrepreneur has sold more than $70,000 worth of merchandise to consumers through eBay and Amazon using the suppliers found on the Doba platform for drop shipping.

Meet Kelan…

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Here at Doba, we’ve regularly highlighted some of our more successful retailers over the years, publishing their stories on the blog. These stories are often both inspiring and educational, but we also realize there’s a lot of them. With so much information to digest, it can be a bit overwhelming, which is why I thought it might be helpful to identify common characteristics and strategies shared in these success stories. In other words, what do our most successful retailers have in common with each other? Let’s take a look at three of these success factors and examine why they’re so important.

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