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Is drop shopping the kind of business to fight for supporting? That’s all this is.
by notyourwork 3y ago
Is drop shopping the kind of business to fight for supporting? That’s all this is.
- thghtihadanacct 3y agoDude needs to learn how to weld his own fire pits, teach some new employees, rinse repeat
- meetingthrower 3y agoYeah all for < $200 shipped!
- buildsjets 3y agoDude needs to learn how to build his own fully automated robotic fire pit factory.
- hellojesus 3y agoThe complaint here is that someone cannot offer a comparable product for as low cost as their competitor? For all of history we've known that this would lead the least competitive to liquidation.
- jkestner 3y agoDude needs to educate an audience on why they should buy a domestically built $400 fire pit.
- philipov 3y agoDude needs to raise the wages of people who can't even afford a $200 fire pit.
- cbsmith 3y agoYeah, but if you search and replaced the part where the $88 is to pay the manufacturer, and instead say it is to pay they employees and the cost of materials, it's not like that suddenly looks like a viable business.
- TylerE 3y agoAnd saying just don't use FBA is no solution either. Shipping large heavy stuff is expensive, and I best Amazon has much better rates negotiated with the carriers.
- ComputerGuru 3y agoStorage plus shipping through FBA isn’t cheap. The problem isn’t that FBA is expensive, the problem is that selling on Amazon but not via FBA is heavily punished with placement and appearance leading to poor conversion rates.
- starluz 3y agoYes this is the issue for consumers as well. The first 16 pages of every search are nearly identical low quality fba products. Need a search layer to find the small sellers!
- behringer 3y agoI don't even buy from small sellers on Amazon mainly due to terrible resilts. That's what ebay is good for.
- mcfedr 3y agoYea, but be honest, you really only want to buy from FBA because that's the one that will arrive tomorrow
- hellojesus 3y agoThis means Amazon has the most efficient pipeline to consumers. Where is the harm? It seems like a benefit to consumers.
- sneak 3y agoYes. Curation is valuable.
- djtango 3y agoI have done a bit of shopping on Taobao which is basically buy direct from manufacturers and yes, curation is valuable. Both of quality and design.
- jollofricepeas 3y agoWhoa buddy. That’s a hell of an assumption. 1. Manufacturing does not happen in America anymore. 2. The proliferation of counterfeiters does not allow dropshippers to scale to a meaningful size. Everyone is game to Alibaba. Within our industry of paper goods, our manufacturers have to get their parts and raw materials from overseas. The larger FBA mom and pops will design and market their products here in the US using American workers and have them manufactured overseas completely or in-part. The impact of Amazon’s monopoly power on American online product businesses is less jobs that pay well. - Less accounting and bookkeeping jobs - less marketing jobs - less design jobs - less seller fulfilled packing and logistics jobs
- hellojesus 3y agoNothing you mentioned harms consumers. To me it sounds like the situation is as follows: - Amazon offers a marketplace to sellers, which happens to be the largest marketplace with the most potential buyers. - Amazon charges a fee to list on their site. - Amazon doesn't let buyers sell their products for lower on a site that isn't Amazon. (Makes sense; they want to be paid for attracting consumers.) - Buyers are cost sensitive and buy the cheapest product. The outcome seems to be the most favorable condition for consumers. The complaint here seems to be that Amazon is so efficient that people would prefer to buy from them.
- jollofricepeas 3y agoConsumers without jobs can’t consume.
- hellojesus 3y agoThey will get other jobs. The competing helps to efficiently allocate capital. There's a reason for struggling artists: nobody demands their product, so they end up in different occupations that actually provide value.
- thewix 3y agoCept the part about Amazon not letting you sell your goods cheaper elsewhere. That keeps the price inflated and is anti-competitive since it squashes competition from other marketplaces, not because their platform is better, mind you, but because they have all the power.
- pyrale 3y agoThe thing is, an importer adds real value to their clients by selecting the products, taking the risk of moving the goods, etc. You are right that the current state of dropshipping is an abomination, and there's not much left to save of that job. But the reason for that is that more and more of the job and benefits from that business are being taken by Amazon, and the sellers are left with that doesn't really justify their position. What they're left with - being a plausible scapegoat and discovering new products - is not their choice, it's the part that is not profitable to Amazon.