I was excited to learn about a new service called Doba the other day. Doba is a drop shipping company that anyone can sign up with and use to start their own business. It sounded very promising, so we decided to check it out.
As my wife runs a drop shipping business, I was pretty excited to see that Doba offers a huge array of products - more than 250,000 of them - including a number of products that complement items we are currently selling.
Doba offers a 7 day free trial, but the reason we signed up for it was because their web site said they carry one specific product that we needed ASAP. One of our good international customers asked us if he could order that particular item in quantity, but the manufacturer has not been responsive or easy to work with. So Doba seemed like a good option.
Here are some comments based on our experience trying the service:
1. There is no way to sign up for the cheap membership option as advertised. The web site says there are two monthly membership options, either $29.95 or $39.90. But when you sign up for the free trial the fine print says you will be billed $39 per month and does not offer any other option. Even after you sign up there is no way to choose the $29 monthly option (aside from maybe calling them on the phone), but you can upgrade to an annual membership. It seems like false advertising to me - is as if they intentionally omitted that option from the web site even though it is listed on their membership options page.
2. Doba’s prices are often more expensive than you can find elsewhere. Since Doba buys in bulk, we expected that they would have good pricing. But in many cases, we could get a better price if we just took Doba out of the equation and bought the items elsewhere. Some of the items are actually cheaper if you buy them from Amazon.com - and Amazon includes free shipping and does not charge a drop shipping fee. For example, one product we were interested in is being sold for $39.95 on Amazon with free shipping whereas Doba charges $55.52 when you add in their drop shipping fees and the cost of shipping. In another case, the manufacturer was selling the product directly to the public for $29.95, but Doba’s pricing was $38 plus shipping and delivery fees.
There are some products we found that have potential. It will probably take a week or more for anyone to sift through all of the products they are interested in and find the few gems that they can actually work with.
3. Many of the products in Doba’s inventory are either out of stock or only available in limited quantity. Virtually every item we were interested in had less than 10 units in stock. This is no good for any eBay seller that wants to avoid getting negative feedback when someone buys a product that suddenly becomes out of stock.
Doba even carries iPods, but when I checked every single iPod was out of stock! (Check out this screen shot.)
The whole purpose of a drop shipping company is for them to maintain the merchandise inventory so you don’t have to. If they can’t keep the items in stock, you can’t fulfill orders when you get them. So what’s the point?
For the record, this is a common problem when working with companies that do drop shipping and so Doba is not unique in this regard. But they are the only drop shipping company we have worked with that charges a monthly fee and drop shipping fees.
I would like to point out that this is another thing that is kind of hit or miss with Doba. The smaller the item, size wise, the more units they seem to have in inventory. Some items literally had more than 3,000 units in inventory, whereas some of the items we were looking at had less than ten. It seems like they bought their inventory based on dividing up warehouse space instead of anticipating demand and planning accordingly.
4. Some items are listed on their web site more than once, with different SKU numbers, prices, and MSRPs. I suspect this is because since Doba uses different suppliers they have included all of the merchandise from each even though the data is different. In one case, a particular product was available at two different prices (about 5% price difference), but the suggested retail price for one was $299 whereas the other was $411.
5. Doba carries popular items like iPods, but in addition to being completely out of stock, it costs more to buy it from Doba than from Apple directly. For example, Doba charges $304.59 as a wholesale price for the 30 Gb iPod and claims the retail price is $746, but Apple is selling it on their web site for $249 right now! Apple sells the 4 GB iPod Nano for $199, whereas Doba’s “wholesale” price is $287 and they claim the MSRP is $451.25. Ridiculous.
The bottom line: Doba is a great idea in theory, but its not so hot in practice - yet. With the monthly subscription fee and additional drop shipping fees, we’re not sure if it would really pay for itself unless you find some real gems amongst the hundreds of thousands of products that they do carry. Especially since many of their prices are not competitive. What they need to do is go to manufacturers directly and negotiate lower prices since they will be buying in bulk.
If you think Doba will let you open up shop and buy popular electronics at wholesale I’m afraid you are mistaken. That kind of market is very price competitive and Doba just can’t compete.
All in all we have decided to not use Doba, at least for now. If they had the one product we wanted to buy ASAP - the one our overseas customer is asking us for - then we definitely would have. That product was advertised on their web site before we signed up, but once registered we learned that it was out of stock!
Doba might work for you. But we are going to pass.
April 16th, 2007 at 8:19 pm
What dropshipper is your wife currently using?
April 18th, 2007 at 12:06 am
Hi Eric,
We work with a number of manufacturers and each one does drop shipping on our behalf.
Thanks.
April 18th, 2007 at 11:51 pm
any manufacturers in particular you recommend?
April 19th, 2007 at 8:47 am
I think it would depend on your niche. If you want to sell car stereos, contact a manufacturer or distributor of car stereos.
In our case, the manufacturers we work with each sell a very limited range of products - because they manufacture them.
One advantage of going with a service such as Doba is that they carry a lot of merchandise and make it easy for anyone to start a business (once you pick a niche). If you don’t have the resources and/or don’t want to put forth the effort to establish a relationship with a manufacturer, then that could be the way to go.
It took a lot of time to contact each manufacturer and convince them to let us sell their products and for them to drop ship on our behalf. One thing about drop shipping in particular is I think that everyone makes it out to be a lot easier than it really is. In our case, it took over a year before a particular manufacturer would even talk to us and consider letting us carry their line of commercial equipment. (Doba does not carry any of this particular manufacturer’s products.)
Sure, a service such as Doba does make getting started pretty easy. So if you are new to drop shipping it probably would provide you with a good opportunity to get started and learn the ropes.
May 5th, 2007 at 2:25 am
i have tried doba for about 1 month and i sold 8 items only to find out 6 of them are out of stock, i got negitive feedback, the whole thing was a nightmare. I now use http://www.mkenterprise.com and they seem very good. I have so far sold 3 items and they have been shiped out within 2 days.
May 6th, 2007 at 11:21 am
Sam,
I just checked out their website and signed up for the free to see the prices. Some things are hit or miss with the prices compared to eBay resale numbers. Did you sign up for their Drop Ship program?
May 12th, 2007 at 7:08 am
We did the whole Sign up for a Doba Free Trial
While they have a nice site and all, if you want to cut out their markup you have to go to the source for dropshipping
I dont think you can beat WorldWide.
May 12th, 2007 at 8:15 am
sorry for the double post. It showed an error after the first one so I didnt know if it took or not.
Double sorry.
June 1st, 2007 at 9:45 pm
I am very new to this is there a website you can lead me to?
June 12th, 2007 at 2:45 pm
Hello. I’m eBay seller from Thailand. Now I’m considering in Worldwide Brands. Did anyone ever use it?
July 4th, 2007 at 12:18 pm
Hi MacroArt,
Sorry, but I’m not familiar with that service.
August 7th, 2007 at 12:33 pm
I also buy from http://www.mkenterprise.com they are very good so far, I have sold about 30 phones and apart from 1 that was out of stock all delivered to my customers within 3 days. I hope they keep up the good service. Just my 2 cents.
August 9th, 2007 at 11:36 am
Thanks for the write up. It helped me in my descision to not got with Doba.
I think there is something not being understood here though.
Doba does not dropship and they do not wharehouse anything.
They are simply a middle man that connects you with the wholesalers and they make their money from the monthly fees.
This is from their “about Doba” on their website:
Doba does not warehouse any product. We create relationships with suppliers and manufacturers all over the United States that agree to drop ship products for Doba members. Because of Doba’s large member base, we are able to work with some of the largest and best wholesalers in the nation. Many of these manufacturers would be extremely difficult for most small and home-based businesses to work with, but Doba provides the services that allow you to work with them instantly even during your free trial.
August 19th, 2007 at 12:48 pm
Excellent review on Doba! I think I get asked about Doba once a week or so. I remember around 2000-01 companies like Doba were popping up everywhere making similar promises of below wholesale pricing. Most (if not all) went under or began operating under another name.
Doba’s slick web site with eBay’s logo smeared all over is enticing many people looking to start an eBay-based business. But I’ve found countless reviews like this one about Doba, so I’m just not too sure how much longer they’re going to be around without a major service overhaul. In the meantime, most eBayer’s are only going to see real money if they buy wholesale (bulk), sell, and ship their own goods. Or use a company like Worldwide to find really tight niche products to drop ship on eBay. Although MKEnterprise seems promising for some, I’m thinking to stay away from these “drop ship with monthly fees wholesale connection” companies. bizlobby.com
August 21st, 2007 at 7:24 am
I am not quiet sure how Doba claims they dont markup products. They do not buy anything in bulk because they stock no inventory. They may process orders in bulk when their memebers sell products for them (since they have the accounts with the suppliers) but this doesnt mean the discount for the price (as you can see above goes to you. it looks like it would go to them. Also, they seem to add a markup to the fees and prices. For example one of the outdoor sources looks like Moteng…and they name the program after some stone…..and the products look to have a 6% or so markup plus they have a markup on the dropship fee for that particular source. If you sold directly from the supplier source then you would not have the dropship fee or the higher prices. so if you sold direct and had a 10% markup…that profit would be yours but if you sold it at the same price through doba you would only have 4% margin and from that they would take out the higher dropship fee.
Have you tried InventorySource.com?
They have a free account (which does not end with some trial period) which lets you find good supplier sources and work with them directly. Then if you need additional data services for your supplier catalogs they can provide that to you on a month-to-month basis. You dont even have to get a store from them if you like your own. They can apply the service to your own website or a market place like price grabber or amazon. (one side note….i have been able to sell more dropship products on PriceGrabber Store Front compared to anything i have done on eBay….has anyone else tried this or have a better market place to use for selling dropship?)
August 21st, 2007 at 7:40 am
Almost forgot…..WWB is a great source for product programs…but it is more then some people want to spend to find products. I think they do still have a free preview of their database program thought. I use to use it. They have a large collection of bulk wholesale programs down to smaller dropship programs. One tip: they have a real good affiliate program payout…which is why you see it on forums and such a lot. You might be able to join their affiliate program first, then click your own link to then order the program. Might as well get a payout from your own affiliate link rather then someone elses
Oh…and from one of the post above:
” I remember around 2000-01 companies like Doba were popping up everywhere making similar promises of below wholesale pricing. Most (if not all) went under or began operating under another name.”
Yes…even Doba did this under the name Wholesalemarketer or something like that, but they rebranded to Doba.
September 14th, 2007 at 5:50 pm
I signed up with them and it’s working great for me, I don’t understand why people are having difficulty with it. I think it’s the best drop ship company out there.
October 10th, 2007 at 12:26 pm
I tried Doba for a week and it does not ship out my item until AFTER THE 7TH BUSINESS DAY! (BUT MEMBERSHIP EXPIRES AFTER THE 7TH CALENDAR DAY!) They force you to join at least 1 month and like others said, there is only the $39/mo option and the sales people will keep calling you and bug you to upgrade to the annual fee. The SUPER SLOW shipping is making my customer mad. I decided not to join Doba anymore!
October 10th, 2007 at 12:28 pm
Tim - The reason the Doba link is linked back to other websites is because this page, http://www.wealthjunkie.com is creating the Doba link itself. Like my post above, I did not create any Doba link, but just tying the word Doba, this site is making the link.
This is not fishy. WE are really having bad experience with Doba, not of other reasons.
November 17th, 2007 at 9:18 pm
“I think it’s the best drop ship company out there”- They dont ship your products though….so you dont know what the real supplier has instock…just what the latest info Doba has gotton from them for your product…you also dont know what the wholesale price is…since you dont know who the wholesale supplier is. You can find the same products offered by the supplier through the inventorysource or worldwide brands and other good sources. when you are selling dropship you are really selling information, since the supplier does the product shipping. If you dont see the wholesale price being listed by the true wholesale supplier source (the one that ships the products) or where it is really comming from then what kind of information do you really have? Its hads to have a “supply chain”…if you dont link directly to your supplier.
January 12th, 2008 at 11:03 am
I signed up for Doba’s free trial and then the $39.95 per month plan. My idea was to try the service at $39.95 until I got a real feel for the thing. Sales calls started to get me to join under an annual plan.
I was able to get an annual plan and talk the rep into spreading my annual costs over a few payments. I am starting to make money via an Ebay ProStore. I would suggest before joining Doba or any other group a person must get an understanding of how things work.
You can not make money on Ebay or anywhere else by trying to compete on price only. I would suggest finding something to sale that you really know about. If you’re a stay home mom, you know something about what would make a stay at home mom’s life better. If you’re truck driver, you would a better idea what truck drivers need.
Recon Doba or any other drop ship outfit, see what they have, research the market, make your business plan and get started. You may not see the prices of items you plan to sale but you will at least get an idea of what is for sale.
Who ever you decide to go with, you will not be able to jump in and start selling for big profits right away. Research, research, research before joining any plan with any company. And remember, Doba like any other company is a business, TRY to negotiate with and see if you can spread your annual payment out.
February 1st, 2008 at 2:35 am
This was very informative as we are just starting out if anyone else has any drop ship info please email me at csgrhonda@peoplepc.com. Thanks!
March 12th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
I tried Doba and I thought it was a total scam. Hardly anything was even close to Ebay prices and I lost over $200 on listing fees. Only one thing sold out of 120 listings. I do not recommend Doba and would safely call it a scam!!
March 18th, 2008 at 7:25 am
Thanks to Wealth Junkie, i almost join doba thanks goodness that i did some research…
any manufacturer that you would recommend?
Thanks in advance.
April 21st, 2008 at 6:07 pm
Doba can be a great dropshipping option if used effectively, as in , you learn which type of products bring in the greatest margins and focus your selling on those types of items. Many of the popular electronics are just too competitive to make it worth the time and bring in little to no profits.
~Mike
May 6th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
We tried Doba and didn’t like it. We tried it for 2 months but it seemed like the market was just over-saturated and we couldn’t make a decent profit. We switched to a different service and we’ve had so much better results. If you get a chance, do look at switching and don’t waste time with Doba.
July 3rd, 2008 at 1:43 pm
Have anyone ever used simplx.com?
On their homepage they say that they are the best. Doba says that they are the best. One of the drop ship review web-sites says that Doba is the best (http://www.dropship-review.com/), but do not even talk about simplx.com
However, seems like simplx is much bigger than doba.