Avoiding Drop Shipping Scams

So you're thinking about starting a business that relies on drop shipping. Congratulations on making an excellent decision. You probably already know that drop shipping can save you a ton of money on your inventory and storage costs. But now you face the problem of trying to find a good drop shipper. If you search the Internet or eBay you'll find many people selling "lists" of wholesale drop shippers or "memberships" in drop shipping sites. The problem is that many (maybe even most) of these sites and lists are scams!

"Review" sites - the latest scam The latest scam seems to be, so called, drop shipper review sites. Some of these are legitimate, but I have recently become aware of at least one that was setup by a drop ship membership site. I can't mention the name of the drop ship membership site in question, but it is one of the largest and most well known. This site registered a separate domain name and put up a review of drop ship membership sites. Well, guess which site came out on top of that review... If you dig deep enough in the site you'll discover exactly who owns it.

How to Avoid the Scams How can you avoid drop shipping scams? First, never purchase a "list" of wholesale drop shippers. I have purchased dozens of these lists and have never found one that delivers. Most are out of date and many provide lists of retailers.

Second, think twice before joining a drop shipping membership site. These sites typically aggregate drop shippers and allow you to purchase a large variety of products from one source. This might sound good in principle (and might work well for certain businesses), but think about it in practice. These sites markup the wholesale price. Think about why they won't let you see their price list before you join. If their prices were so great, they would let everyone know.

Third, if you want to find legitimate wholesale drop shippers, stick with directory sites that have a good reputation in the industry. These sites include, World Wide Brands, Aid and Trade, and Hienote.