Are my products allowed here?

[NaturalDesignbyJocelyn]

Hi All: I am new, just beginning to set up my shop, coming over from Etsy. I sell print on demand products that my designs and art are printed on. However, I have my print partners fulfill my buyer's order, I place the order with my print provider. I am reading some info that this may fall under "dropshipping" persay, and not allowed?
I manually place the order, and it is shipped to my buyer once the print partner completes the product, with my design on it. ie: shower curtains, t-shirts, etc.

Thanks in advance for your reply
Jocelyn

[thelivesandlovesofmaggiethecat]

I didn't know drop shipping wasn't allowed. I do know if you are a drop shipper your items will not be fed to Google. I suggest you email ecrater directly and ask them before you go to all the work of setting up and getting no exposure. Use the contact link at the bottom of any page for the email form.

I have also abandoned Etsy so welcome if you stick around. But I've been here almost from the beginning so it's not quite the same.

[NaturalDesignbyJocelyn]

It's more like I am just not shipping from my own location, as I'd need to order the item have it sent to me then ship to my buyer, which is impractical. So, it's not really "a drop shipping business" it's more a print on demand order business, as these are my designs but I'm not the printer/manufacturer of the final item, nor the shipper in 99% of the orders (unless I have ordered something as a personal sample piece).
Google shopping gets me many hits in Etsy (not my own paid, theirs) so I'm not too worried about the Google aspect. I'm sure it'll be fine though I need to fill all that out in my listings once I have more listings, them done properly, and am more set up.
I will contact eCrater I guess, just to be 100% sure.
Thank you!

[SheilaDeesPostcards]

Jocelyn, Welcome to eCRATER and to the eCrater community. Based on your concerns, I'd say you've read the terms for selling on eCrater and you've spent a little time reading the forum. To that I say a great big Thank You!

I really wouldn't call your business a "drop shipper" since it is a print on demand. The terms restrict selling items from one of the major drop shipping networks where you have 500 sellers all trying to make a profit selling the the exact same product with the exact same photos (provided by the drop ship network).

I took a few minutes to browse your shop and it's looking really good. I do have a concern about having to contact your customer regarding size and color. I understand this works well on some other sites, but here the buyer doesn't have an account. If the buyer gives an incorrect email address or simply omits the email address, you could spend a lot of time going back and forth. What most eCrater seller do is have a separate item page for each size and color, so since your T-shirt comes in 6 colors and 5 sizes you would have 30 listings for this one item. When a customer places an order with payment, you can place your order without the need to contact the customer. Also, you'll have more listings in both your store and Google Shopping. Another advantage is the ease of hiding a listing if your printer is out of stock for a color and or size.

Additional listings are easy to create with the duplicate listing feature. It's the button to the right of the item title in your admin that looks like 2 sheets of paper. The Photo will not duplicate, but all other data will so you can simply make changes as needed for the new item.

I really like the fact that you state in your listing that your T-shirt will ship from your USA printer so the buyer knows the shipping location.

[MoonwishesStore]

[NaturalDesignbyJocelyn]

Hi: Yes, I researched quite a bit the last few days

Oh yeah, I know, learned pretty early No Variations So, I will need to copy that listing a couple times (I may just pick common size and colours for now) and vary the image and content so as Not to have Google unfriendly duplicate content. It'll be a challenge and I may be 90 yrs old before I am ever finished lol!

Thanks for your help all. I think yes, I am sort of clear on the difference between me and standard dropshipper type sellers.

[MoonwishesStore]

Google isn't going to get you for duplicate titles as you will have different sizes and different colors in the titles. Be sure they are in the first 60 or so characters and you shouldn't have any trouble. I sell sewing patterns and the earlier ones had each size in different envelopes and I would have sometimes up to ten different patterns with the same garment in them. I've never had problems with doing that. Nor have I heard of anyone here having trouble doing the same thing.

[NaturalDesignbyJocelyn]

Ok, thank you Moonwishes!