When you have an online store that deals with dropshipping products you don’t have to worry about product fulfillment or inventory. All you have to do is to sell the products, take the orders and make some profits. Right? However, it’s not always that easy. Theoretically, dropshipping sounds like a walk in the pack, but in truth, it requires more work than you may ever think. But what is drop shipping?
Well, dropshipping refers to an e-commerce business model where you can sell your products online without having to handle any inventory, without having to deal with shipping and handling and without having to own your own warehouse. In fact, with a free open source shopping cart, you can start your dropshipping business for as little as $5. You only need a free credit card processing and website, and you are just good to go. Does this kind of business sound attractive?
How dropshipping business works
First, you have to partner with a wholesaler or a distributor who will send the goods directly to the customers. As part of your terms, you will agree with him on the wholesale price for the kind of products that you want to deal in. Once there is an agreement, here is how it works.
Customers order for the goods, and you collect the money. Then you send the order and all the shipping details to your supplier and pay the agreed amount based on the wholesale price of the good. Your supplier packs and ships the products directly to the customer as if you are the one who has sent it. You will, therefore, keep the difference between the selling price and the wholesale price.
How to find dropshipping suppliers
Since the internet is full of scammers and dropshipping is quite popular, it’s very important to know how to get suppliers. First, a real wholesaler will never charge you any monthly fee for the privilege of giving you the goods. Genuine wholesalers only act as distributors, and their main goal is to sell their products in bulk and not to depend on the monthly membership fee.
Second, a real wholesaler will never sell the products to the consumers at the wholesale price. Remember, their primary business is a retail shop, and they will go against their business if they start competing with you. In any case, once you are aware of what you want you can start looking for real distributors using the strategies discussed below.
Contact the manufacturer- The easiest way to find a legit supplier is to call the manufacturer and ask for a list of distributors. Once you have this list, you can directly get in touch with them and ask whether they are willing to dropship for you the goods. What’s good is that most distributors deal in a range of products from a number of manufacturers. This means, if you get a big distributor, you can always gain access to a large catalog of goods. But since most legit suppliers only want to deal with legit suppliers, you need to ensure that you are legit. You may even need to have a mock website to show them that you are legit.
Order from the competitor- If you know that your competitor has a dropshipping store online then the best thing to do is to find out who is supplying them by ordering the goods from them. Once you’ve received your package, you can look at the label and for return address. Although the shipping label may not contain the supplier’s name, you can easily find the name of the distributor by Googling the address.
Attend trade shows- Instead of contacting the vendors through phone or email, it’s imperative to find them at tradeshows. Not only does this makes it easier to develop a personal relationship but you can also touch and handle their entire product catalog. Since most trade shows are 100% free as long as you have a business license, you can always attend them.
Use directories- A dropship directory refers to a database of suppliers that are organized according to the niche, and that can conveniently be used to find the products to sell quickly. The main disadvantage of such directories is that products and distributors are easily accessible to other members who sign up to the directories. This means the products that you find may be very much competitive.
Can you make money out of dropshipping?
Making money out of dropshipping really depends on a number of things. Unless you have a reliable core of dropshipping distributors, the time that you spend without having to deal with the inventory will be spent dealing with the customers. Although, there are a few issues about dropshipping many people have been very successful in dropshipping since it works very well with small niche stores.
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