back to all »Success Stories
Pierre Merlin
Member Since: February 2007
"With Doba I sell products without waiting for a quote, payment, delivery, stocking etc… As soon as I decide to sell it, it's there, ready to ship and that's important!"
Where do you currently sell products?
I sell on my own website at www.myhightechstore.com
Tell us about yourself and your online business.
I run my company part time - I'm a senior IT manager for a bank and I needed a hobby that would make me money and I could operate during the winter, we have about 6 months of winter here in Minnesota! I quickly started to make extra money selling products from Doba.
What have you done to make your business stand out and sell more products?
My customers purchase from me because my prices are not too high and I have a good reputation. I feel that I sell to people like me, so I customize my descriptions to my liking.
I always try different approaches when it comes to selling and I make comparisons - for example, free shipping vs. calculated shipping vs. fix rate shipping. It depends on the product on what shipping method I use – eBay buyers love free shipping.
What challenges do you face as an eCommerce Retailer?
My biggest problem is deciding what to sell, when to sell and are the products in stock. Doba makes this extremely easy for me. I am able to find the products I want to sell from their huge product catalog and they let me know the inventory levels of each product. Once I find the products I want to sell I add them to my "Watchlists". Doba's Watchlists helps me manage the products I'm interested in selling and buying. To see how a product is selling or not, Terapeak is perfect to lookup selling points, tendencies etc… These tools really avoid costly guess work and with Doba I don't have to carry inventory.
The most time consuming activity is finding what to sell and being able to sell those products that same day, not in 2 months. With Doba I sell products without waiting for a quote, payment, delivery, stocking etc…
As soon as I decide to sell it, it's there, ready to ship and that's important!
Before you started to work with Doba, what were you hoping to accomplish?
Before using Doba, I started with the idea of selling online then I searched for possible suppliers and signed up for trial memberships when possible. I purchased few items for myself to test the suppliers' response time, shipping time, packing slip (VERY IMPORTANT - one added a note saying: "Next time save more and buy direct at www.whatever.com)
The first product I purchased from Doba was a 100 blank DVD spindle, shipping time was short enough, and the packing slip was anonymous - perfect transaction. I selected Doba as my main supplier and then developed a strategy using Doba's system and training materials.
I think that selling strategies have to be completely linked to your suppliers' capabilities and not the opposite unless you purchase several millions of dollars every month of inventory.
How has Doba helped in the growth of your business?
Doba represents 60-70% of my business - I started my business based on Doba and I'll continue growing it using Doba.
In summer, my store gets about 200-300 orders a month but in winter it can reach 800 especially around the holiday season. Margin wise, I won't complain after all fees paid I'm around 15% which is very good in my specialty of consumer electronics.
Because of Doba's model I can maintain and grow my business - with over 1,000,000 products to choose from I have plenty of room for growth and no immobilized product stock - I can re-invest all the money I earn to grow my business.
Why do you like dropshipping products instead of buying in bulk?
Some don't like dropshipping and recommend to avoid it at any cost but when you dig a bit you quickly realize that dropshipping is not only used by big retailers (Wal-Mart, Buy.com, Home Depot) but also by the same merchants who don't recommend it.
When it comes to choosing a dropshipper, there are several providers, some good, some bad, some very bad, and then ones who stands out of the crowd: Doba.
Doba not only offers 1,500,000+ products, it has a real support team. Doba's services and website are always improving and its supplier list grows every month.
I could not imagine running my business without Doba.
Create your own success story. Start now!