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PREVIOUS POSTS & CLIFFS - Skip if you've been with us the whole journey!Part 0I'm going to start a dropshipping e-commerce website with a large number of items & a (hopefully) unique value proposition. I'm using this as a test post to see if you guys would be interested in taking the journey with me.Most importantly: I'm not now, nor plan to, sell anything or benefit from this directly by any means. I won't be posting my website, linking to my blog, or offering a course at end (if I start making money). The reason for these posts will be: to gather my thoughts into words, to regurgitate what I'm learning (teaching is the best way to learn new concepts, etc etc) and most importantly to get input from you guys. I'm hoping people may learn from what I do, mistakes I make, things I read/summarize, etc. and that I can learn from your guys' experience.My rules for myself & my customers - I won't use dropshipping from overseas as an excuse for lack of quality. I will only put up items that I have faith in because of reviews, orders, and vendors. I will spend the time to make sure my customers are not "fooled" - upfront on shipping times, easy returns, etc. I will not con people for the sake of making a sale. With transparency & honest interactions I hope to limit my returns/problems & keep recurring buyers as well as take pride in my products & websiteQUESTIONS ANSWERED:I have a question. I've seen some dropshipping sites based on franchise merchandise. Harry Potter, Disney, etc. Are there legal risks? Is there any risk of being shut down or sued?Question - if you ship from aliexpress, how long does it take for your customers to receive the product? A week, a month?How will you address the fact that most customers will probably feel cheated when they order something from your website and then it turns up as a package from some "random" Chinese retailer ?Part 1First and foremost: thank you all for your kind support in this thread... not only the responses, but the dozen+ messages. Some of you just wrote to say you're interested, some even offered to help out. I'm grateful and hope you all keep along with me on the journey - rain or shine.The idea: I debated whether to get specific with you all or not, but.... here goes. If you can do the idea better than I will, congratulations :) The website will be a variety of items curated into collections for gift giving. For example - a curated list of items for college graduation for someone who is into automobiles. This custom curated list will include car tools, unique car items (one real example: an anti-glare sun visor), maybe a battery charger, etc. This gives me two target markets - for the gift giver, and the gift getter. It will have a request feature ("wishlist") but will be marketed towards gift givers ("hey sister of a college graduate, no idea what to get your brother? check out what our staff recommends"The problem(s): it's broad. But what's the biggest problem I forsee? Gift giving isn't always thought ahead of time. It's not something you plan a month in advance (because, you know, dropshipping). Shipping times, shipping problems, shipping times, shipping problems. We'll tackle it. Our marketing will have to be top-notch.Marketing PlanApps & ProgramsChoosing ProductsFinancialsQUESTIONS ANSWERED:Newbie here. Question for you: why did you start your business with shopify? Why not sell your product on amazon first, build up some sales $, then expand into your own webspace? The way you're doing it seems very daunting to someone who has never done this before (me).How do you decide on product pricing ? Do you have a formula you use ? Does it take into account the possibility of returns and the upfront cost of purely the operating cost ? Id love to know more of what kind of margin you shoot for and how you take everything into account to come up with a price.I have a question about how drop shippers become successful at all with the shit turn around time. Unless it's a really niche item I can't get anywhere else I would close any website so fast if I saw 20 day shipping time.Part 2The Website: is more or less finished. I have about 20 products left to finalize (choosing pictures, editing description, etc.) & finalizing some of the categories.The Legal Stuff: This is the major sticking point before I'm ready to launch. A lot of you guys mentioned that my idea of using an LLC & a DBA was overkill and I looked into it further. I decided on bypassing the LLC for now, and just starting as a sole prop w/ a business bank account & credit card and using a DBA. When/if we start making some money, we can move to an LLC (not a single-member one though because it's pretty useless, as far as I've read). I decided against an LLC due to the tax, record keeping, etc. & the fact that in my state the fees for an LLC are about $500 minimum.The Marketing PlanQUESTIONS ANSWERED:Will you reach the merchants from aliexpress before placing an order or you will just place the order without contacting them directly? How do you know they are up for dropshiping? If a client want a refund, they will send the item back to china, you get to pay them (the client) then you ask for the money from the merchant? I really want to know how refund works in this business.How do you know that your customers won't realize you're drop shipping and then order directly from your supplier for a cheaper price?I have a question about how drop shippers become successful at all with the shit turn around time. Unless it's a really niche item I can't get anywhere else I would close any website so fast if I saw 20 day shipping time.1 - WE ARE LIVE, LADIES AND GENTLEMENThe website launched earlier this week, once I finished up all my paper. Here's a cliffnotes on what I did before launch -DBA: Registered DBA instead of using an LLC or starting a new company. We're gonna start as a sole prop and see where we go.Mailbox: I purchased a 3 month plan @ the local UPS for a large sized box for returns, paperwork, and to be able to register for official paperworkBusiness Bank Account: I went with Chase. Easy and smooth. I'm even considering moving my personal accounts over because I liked the experience so much better than my ~15 years of experience with Wells Fargo.Business Credit Card: I applied for and got the Spark Business Card from Capital One. They offer 2% cash back and $500 cash bonus. Got a $10k spending limit off the bat. Thank you Dad for teaching me about maintaining good credit @ 16 years old. I did however run into one problem with Capital One.... they made me go to visit a branch in person to be able to authorize my card. They're only open 9am-4pm on weekdays, and the closest one to me is 50 miles away. That was a shitty day. Totally unncessary... but I guess fraud protection brings about weird things.Sales tax: Did a little bit of research, talked to a few friends, shit is confusing. First filing date is next year, so we got some time to work it out. For right now, Shopify is taking care of determining the sales tax for customers in my stateAliexpress account created, all social accounts made, products finished & updated, and the website framework is complete.2 - What the Website Looks LikeHomepageHomepage2CategoriesProduct PageTracking PageAll the pictures are free use stock photos from https://unsplash.com/3 - Wait - we have sales?Of course we have sales! Unfortunately.... they're all from family :( During the first few days of launch, I wanted to work on the tracking pages, practice ordering from Aliexpress, looking at the e-mail templates for ordering/shipping/payment, etc. We have a variety of outcomes....Order 1: 2/3/17 (2 items)Item 1: Processed (purchased on Aliexpress) 2/4/17, shipped 2/6/17 from China, arrived in USA 2/9/17, expected delivery 2/11/17 = ONE WEEK TURN AROUNDItem 2: Uhoh. Processed 2/4/17...... quiet. Quiet. Nothing from vendor. Where is it? Messaged vendor 2/7/17.... bummer. Cancelled. I've heard about some vendors who put ePacket as an option but do not actually offer it. This company had TONS of orders & good feedback, as well as the top star rating, but still had this issue. Kind of scary. For the future, if this comes up again I will tell the customer that the item is backordered and the ship date will increase, and ask them if they prefer to receive a refund or accept the increased shipping time. I will then be removing the vendor and all their products off my list.Order 2: 2/5/17 (1 item)Item 1: Processed (purchased) 2/5/17, shipped 2/6/17 from China, arrived in USA 2/9/17, out for delivery 2/10/17 = FIVE DAY TURN AROUNDSo....Ordering via Aliexpress using Oberlo is a BREEZE. Orders easily, uses customers address, pays easily, leaves pre-written note, attaches information to Shopify when order is placed, and easily updates tracking. All done via the Chrome extensionUsing three different vendors, I had three vast experiences. The first item processed & shipped reasonably. The second item I heard NOTHING until I reached out, and then had the epacket issue. The third item, I got a message from the vendor very quickly saying they received the order and will be shipping soon - processed quickly and no problems.4 - Wait.... wtf is this Merchandise section?You may have noticed in the screenshots of the new MERCHANDISE section. I know this T-shirt Dropship Thread by /u/W1ZZ4RD got lots of hate on this subreddit (the people on /r/juststart were much nicer....) but I ran across it and I was inspired. I see why a lot of people are skeptical - he's selling his b2b software, he's not talking much about how to actually MAKE the sales, and he seems to have an invested interest in teelaunch. I looked into it heavily and here's why I decided to pursue a similar (if not same) approach to add to my website:Yes he's promoting his b2b program. He doesn't shy away from it. He answers all the questions in the thread, and knows what he's talking about. I can appreciate the honesty, and I definietly appreciate that he's still answering questions 1 month laterThe biggest hiccup people will have is finding a designer - I already have one. My best friend is a designer, and we've decided to work on it together. He designs on his spare time, and we'll split up profits from merchandise. I don't need to do any work on that end.The biggest deal for me: my products felt sparse. I had ~230 products at the moment from Aliexpress, but each of the categories felt light because it's spread so thin. I found this opportunity to be a GREAT way to increase my inventory list easily - and without maintaining a huge 500-750 product list from Aliexpress.The fulfillment & following up could not be easier using teelaunch. I have found their customer service & information lacking, but as long as they follow through with their promise of fulfillment I have found it great so far. I've placed one test order for myself, and the app deals with the fulfillment, the payment, shipping, e-mailing, tracking, etc.Using a second sales channel on Amazon will be a great way to boost income - I hope. Since it's pretty easy to transfer information from Shopify to Amazon now that they're integrated, I think there could be a lot of space for additional income streams. Unfortunately, I could not post any of the Aliexpress items on Amazon (for obvious reasons), but custom merchandise I can. Let's see how it goes.Here's a screenshot: http://ift.tt/2lyhT8a - I'm still working on adding all the items to Amazon as well as to the website itself. This will be a continual process but one I have great hope for.5 - So what's next?Over the next month, I will be introducing a few new products from Aliexpress, lots of custom merchandise products (whenever I get designs from my designer, basically), and then spending the majority of the time on marketing & advertising now that the framework is set in place. The plan:$100/month on Google Adwords (plus a free $100 thanks to Shopify's coupon thing)$100/month on Facebook Ads/Facebook Likes$100/month on the remaining ad spend - Reddit? Instagram? Social Influencers? Etc.Now that the majority of the website framework is done, the next post will cover the marketing plan & advertising. I will include my plans, my ads, my results, what I've learned, ask for advice, all that good stuff. I'm looking forward to analyzing the ROI and sharing the results with you all.The last remaining part of the website to do is SEO - keyword analysis, content creation, backlinking, etc. That will be a continuous process that I will explain further along w/ the marketing in the next postHere's a few links I'll be reading and using over the next month.... http://ift.tt/2ltlAjB http://ift.tt/2lyexCb http://ift.tt/2c2kClY http://ift.tt/2l0vFUE - Financials & AppsBusiness Expenses so far (approx 2 months):DBA Register: $23.00DBA Newspaper Posting: $23.00Shopify Theme: $58.00Namecheap Domain & Email: $14.06 (1 year)Instagress Payment: $9.99 (1 month of "time", mostly for testing)UPS Mailbox: $150.00 (3 months)Shopify: $106.88TOTAL: $384.93..Monthly Costs Moving Forward (including Shopify Apps):Mailbox: $50.00Amazon Professional Account: $39.99Shopify Monthly: $29.00Consistent Cart App: $4.99Fomo App: $19.00Oberlo App: $29.90 (/u/kalvel please give me free stuff)Trust App: $0.00HelpCenter App: $0.00MailChimp App: $0.00SocialShopWave App: $29.00 (these guys had the best wishlist app, and their customer service was AMAZING. they helped me for hours via chat. I love them. /u/Kalysbek you are a baller, thank you.)TaxJar App: $19.00Teelaunch App: $0.00Trackr App: $0.00TOTAL: $220.88/month..So, let's try to make $250/month profit to start off with. Cool?THE END. Please let me know any questions you have, any suggestions you have, any advice you have, and let me know if you guys like the layout of the posts. More info? Less info? More screenshots? More explanation? More TL;DR? Let me know.P.S. I will respond to posts & messages as fast as I can, but please be patient. Thanks. Thanks for your kind words, thanks for your help, and thanks for your love.

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