July 14th, 2007
I never get tired of posting business samples that make their full time living sitting at home and properly employing the full potential of dropship business. Recent posts on this topic:
Baby products organic dropshippers
Drop Shipped Lingerie Site
Search the website and find many more in a lot of niches (sometimes I get surprised myself when I discover thriving dropship businesses that sell so specific sort of products that I could never think of.
But once you browse categories of real dropshippers directories (they offer free previews and free trials) you will get the feeling of dropship business potential.
Today I list another quite specific dropship business:
ATV Online Dealership – Profitable, No inventory – all dropshipped.
• Minimum bid: $2,000
• Buy It Now: $10,000
• URL: westernatvs.com
• Established: 2 Apr 2006
• Monthly Revenue: 900
• PageRank: 3
• Listed: 11 Jul 2007
Description:
What the site does
The site sells ATVS with an emphasis on kids ATV’s, which are very popular in many parts of the country. The ATV’s are purchased wholesale from a dealer, which dropships them to the customer. They can ship anywhere in the continental U.S. The wholesaler is itself just reselling some of the main brands. We have been carrying the Kazuma, a popular low price brand, the dealer’s own in-house branded units, and Jetmoto, a higher cost line.
How it works
Site runs on standard OS Commerce installation. I submitted to Froogle once, but have not had time to keep up with it. Froogle listings last 30 days, but can be renewed forever. On ATV forums I saw a large percentage of sales from Froogle. I also saw other dealers selling a lot via basic viral marketing on ATV blogs etc. Nice thing is each sale is more of a profit margin than selling stereos; downside is you will not sell 100 a week like you might sell stereos.
All the sales so far have been from search traffic, pretty good for big ticket items.
The site has been submitted for SEO for a year by a professional SEO service. The current contract runs until May 2008.
Parts are available from the dealer. I have never listed parts or the other items the dealer has, all of which I could sell (motor bikes, etc). If a customer calls I sell them a part. The parts business is supposed to be big, but I cannot speak from experience.
I have an 800 number for the site. About 50% of the sales called in before they bought and I called them back; they wanted to make sure there was somebody there before they bought.
There is a very slow period Jan-March. Seasonal cities buy in the summer, places like California tend to buy November-December.
History
The site started April/May 2006 under the former owner, who is still available and from whom I occasionally seek advice. He has other big ticket sites, and did not have time to spend an hour a day returning calls, checking on orders, etc. I purchased the site from him with the intention of doing bigger promotion than he did. However, I have a software company which has zoomed and is keeping me traveling on the road several days a week, and I cannot keep up with the site.
Current status (dropship toys)
I get about 3-5 incoming leads a week, but I have not had time to respond to any of them. Former owner says he got only 1-2 a week, so the search stuff is improving. As an example, last week on Monday I got a call from a customer wanting 2 Jetmoto units. I got the message Tuesday morning, and called him Tuesday evening. He had already bought elsewhere. He said he had waited several hours for a callback. That would have been about $900 profit alone.
Both the old owner and I agree the site could easily do triple the current sales if somebody had the time to put an hour or so a day into it. You could also add other items, parts, etc. You could also advertise on ATV blogs, etc., which I never did.
What You Get
You get the site, the domain, the SEO provider account, the dealer info and contacts, all customer history. I will provide any assistance needed via email.
The site easily made $10K profit in a year. Despite the fact that the site could be doing triple that easily, we are not selling based on potential, just on history. The BIN is set to one year’s profit.
It is frustrating us enormously that there is “money laying around” here, and we cannot invest the time to get it. We are open to all offers.
Please be sure you understand everything before bidding. I have purchased 6 sites in the ast 3 months alone at sitepoint, but I have never sold. Other sellers tell me of non-paying bidders; please, only bid if you are serious.
I have a spreadsheet detailing all the sales and expenses for the site over the last year. I actually list each sale in detail, although I only give the customers’ last name (all their info will be provided to the winner, of course.) Post a reply here and I will send you a link to the spreadsheet for your review. Ask questions publicly if appropriate so others can see the answers.
Conclusion: if you are a beginner I will definitely start considering this sort of offers (not those that take much investment), but if you are an experienced dropship entrepreneur I think you will consider this sort of offers (dropshipping toys) as an excellent chance to increase your portfolio of dropship projects to promote them using similar online marketing techniques.
[tags]dropshp toys, dropshipping, drop ship, wholesale, internet marketing, affiliate marketing[/tags]