An entrepreneur starting a dropshipping business has a lot of decisions to make. If you landed here, you probably already know this (and if you don’t get how dropshipping works yet, you can read about it here.). The opportunities to make a full time income online are SPECTACULAR, and even to build wealth through a risk free business… but you need a plan.
One of the biggest and earliest choices you’re going to have to make is about your products! Dropshipping makes running an online store easier and more cost efficient than anyone would have imagined, but you still need to figure out how to find products, dropshippers, and which dropshippers to use. Choosing the right option can make or break the success of your business.
One dropshipping resource that has recently grabbed some attention is SaleHoo. But is SaleHoo the best option? How is SaleHoo for dropshipping?
Let me break down SaleHoo for you, and we’ll weigh the pros and the cons.
What Is SaleHoo, And What Can It Do For Your Business?
So you’ve decided to start your own physical products business online. Maybe it’s your first step into entrepreneurship, maybe not, but you know at least one thing – you need a good product.
With the right set of quality products, from the right dropshipping resource, and of course an understanding of the power and process of branding, there’s nothing stopping you from building a multi-million dollar business. But it has to start with the product.
Well thanks a lot Jordan, we all get that already, right? Well there’s a little more to it.
See, it’s one thing to have a great IDEA for a product, but finding a dropshipper that you can trust to carry and supply your precious cargo is another story.
One thing that frequently happens to many entrepreneurs starting a dropshipping business is that they will find any Chinese manufacteror that carries the right product, super cheap, and simply pick that company to supply their products.
The problem is, there are many wholesale dealers out there that don’t supply quality products. The right products at a low price, maybe, but it can be very difficult to filter through dropshippers to find one that will give your business a good name. People are picky, and a good reputation is much easier to lose than to maintain. When customers are dissatisfied with a product, negative reviews will follow…. this is very difficult to recover from.
The purpose of SaleHoo is to solve this problem. SaleHoo is a directory of hundreds of dropshipping companies that SaleHoo has already pre-screened, and verified to be a quality resource.
Once you’re signed up with SaleHoo, it will instantly set you up with the dropshippers you need on demand.
Can SaleHoo Help You Pick Your Products?
Picking out a great product may not seem like the easiest thing, even once you have an established brand. It’s good to keep launching new products, and increase your range of options, but I’ll be the first to admit that product research can be a daunting task.
Another feature I really liked about SaleHoo is that it provides a resource for you to do market and product research. Not only can you instantly search any given product and SaleHoo will bring up the best available companies to provide the product, but you can also search what products are currently the most popular, what the wholesale prices are, and the kind of profit margins that you can make.
These are some screenshots of how that works:
SaleHoo will help you to find products that are selling well, and markets where you can make a name for yourself. The products above, for example, can be found through a SaleHoo dropshipper for $15.00, and allegedly sold for $69.95 for a $54.95 profit margin.
While this market research tool is a great option, I found it to be far from perfect. The suggested sale prices and profit margins are not always fool-proof – you will often find eBay and Amazon sellers that will be very competitive. Doing some of your own research, as you pick your products and set your prices is still necessary. And you will usually find Amazon (with its eCommerce monopoly) to be the best guage on prices and competition.
Essentially, SaleHoo simplifies your product process. It boils down to these 3 steps.
The Pros of SaleHoo in a Nutshell
1. Assurance that your products and dropshipper are safe, reliable, and quality
2. SaleHoo support is one of the best and most responsive I have ever experienced. I’ve gotten emails back from SaleHoo in under 5 minutes.
3. It only costs $67 for an entire year of use. A small business expense.
4. 60 day money back guarantee
5. Easy fit for selling on Amazon, Ebay, and Etsy
Ultimately, SaleHoo is a great place to start, but a bad place to stay. If you’re just beginning in dropshipping, and looking to start making money on Amazon and Ebay quickly, it’s one of the best resources.
You can look into it more, and even get started right here!
But is SaleHoo the BEST Resource for Dropshipping?
SaleHoo is good for dropshipping. The way that it helps you, as a business owner, to find the products and dropshippers you need is valuable. But with the existance of Shopify, SaleHoo is not overall the best dropshipping resource.
These are the advantages that you have with SaleHoo:
- Having brand names like the ones SaleHoo can connect you with, like Disney or Converse, can make selling easy.
- Amazon and Ebay have huge amounts of traffic, so leveraging your products on those sources can get your products in the limelight fast
These are some of the long-run disadvantages of staying with SaleHoo
- Starting on Amazon and Ebay is easy, but they will take a huge chunk of your profits! Ebay will not only typically charge you to post your products on their site, but will also take a 9%-10% commission on everything that you sell. Amazon will take as much as 15%. This eats into your own profits badly.
- Having brand names seems good at first, but as your business matures you will find that brand names already have a ton of competition, and that you will have less opportunity to make money.
- While you can build a store with SaleHoo for an additional cost, it doesn’t compare to the power of a Shopify store.
The Superiority of Shopify and Oberlo
If you’re not familiar with Shopify yet you can read a more detailed review here – Shopify has revolutionized eCommerce for the fledgling entrepreneur.
At a rate of only $29/month it allows you to build a fast and powerful webstore that looks amazing. It allows you to process any type of payment (even some cryptocurrencies), unlimiterd capacity for products and file storage, a blog, 24/7 support, and the list goes on.
And you get to keep a heck of a lot more of your profit margin.
So why am I mentioning Shopify when you’re looking for dropshippers? Well when you have a Shopify store you have completely free access to one of the best dropshipping resources in existance – Oberlo.
Oberlo is a free app (at least the starter plan, which is plenty sufficient for a new business) that you can include with your Shopify store. It operates a lot like SaleHoo. You can see the similarity below:
The thing with Oberlo is that the products that you can get are unbranded. This means that you can create your OWN brand around the products themselves, which can both help set you apart from the competition, and help you keep more of the profits.
The power of a Shopify store, combined with Oberlo, could make you an effective Jedi master of dropshipping. See for yourself.
The Conclusion? Success Isn’t Far Off!
So how is SaleHoo for dropshipping? Frankly, it’s an awesome resource, and one of the best available. If you already have a business, or a business plan to start selling through Amazon and Ebay, then SaleHoo is one of your best bets.
You cannot afford to have products that aren’t quality, or dropshippers that aren’t reliable. The power of knowledge and access that SaleHoo provides is excellent.
But remember as you scale your business and become more profitable, Shopify and Oberlo will be where you can create the most profit for yourself.
I can confirm that either way you’ll be in good hands.
Hi, Jordan. Thanks for your information on Salehoo. I’ve drop shipped with eBay in my varied and checkered past for a short time. I found what you said to be true, profit margins are tight. That’s why I stopped. I don’t think Shopify was around back then. If it was, I didn’t know about it.
Right now I’m trying to find success with a blog in Affiliate marketing. That said, I’m considering an online store next year. Your post has given me some great information.
Hello Grant! I’m glad you found it helpful! Ebay can be a good starting place for the visibility and traffic, but it’s very hard to make large profits on Ebay unless you’re selling high ticket items with big profit margins. Otherwise the various expenses inflicted by Ebay does tend to reduce your take home cash.
Shopify is fairly new! It’s definitely an advancement. And it also comes with a blogging feature so that you can combine your store with your blogging skills! Affiliate marketing is another great choice. It takes a while to get going and making money, but it’s also probably the cheapest business start in existence, which means when it’s up and running your profits will FAR outweigh your expenses.
Thanks for your nice post really this post is very helpful .Please keep it up your writing
.everybody can easily check this kinds of topic because its about ebay dropshipping,aliexpress dropshipping
.Thanks Hope that we will get something new and best
Thanks, I’m glad you found it helpful!
Great article! Thanks for sharing
Thanks for dropping by!
Great article Jordan!
Glad you found it helpful!