Drop Shipping As A Side Business
Chances are you have bought something from a drop shipper before. Drop shipping is used when someone sells you a product that they do not own or manufacture, or keep an inventory of. When you place the order, they fill your order directly with the manufacturer and have it shipped to you. Hopefully they turn a small profit in the process. Drop shipping is something people can do from their home or online as a way to build extra income.
Advantages of Drop Shipping
There are many advantages in using the drop shipping technique but online stores benefit the most from this amazing shipping tool. Since drop shipping method does not require the retailer to actually keep the products being sold on the shelf, the latter saves plenty of storage space because the wholesalers take care of this business aspect. Warehousing can be costly for any retailer but through drop shipping, this could be eliminated and would even expedite the overall delivery time of the requested item because it will ship from the nearest distributor directly to the identified location of the buyer.
The advantage for people like you and me is that we get to sell quality products that we don’t have to manage.
Successful Businesses Using Drop Shipping Methodology
Many e-commerce companies and auction sites such as e-Bay, Amazon.com, and uBid.com enjoy the benefits of utilizing the drop shipping technique. Each purchase made on these online businesses is shipped directly by its distributor or wholesaler, so the primary function of these e-commerce platforms is just to provide the details on the availability and significant features of the products they offer to consumers. The longevity of these sites affirm their success in using the method of drop shipping.
Companies with Drop Shipping Programs
There are several companies that have excellent drop shipping programs like Doba, Shopster, and SaleHoo. Doba partners with many wholesale suppliers and manufacturers throughout the United States who drop ship items for Doba members. All you have to do is become a Doba member to take full advantage of the company’s drop shipping methodology. It does not matter if you only have a small business or home-based firm, Doba will provide for your drop shipping needs. Shopster, on the other hand, provides a simple solution for online auctioneers by providing drop shipping services for the 700,000 products that the company keeps in its inventory. You sell Shopster’s products and the company drop ship your order from its warehouse and pays you afterwards for making the sale. SaleHoo is another company that provides excellent drop shipping service due to its partnership with over 8,000 legitimate wholesalers and suppliers worldwide. Currently it has total membership of over 75,000 sellers which proves the legitimacy of SaleHoo in the drop shipping arena.
Tips for Success
To be successful in selling your products online, you must find a legitimate partner that can drop ship your customer orders and even warehouse your items. Do not just sign up with anyone because there are many scammers with empty promises. You may try the companies mentioned above since they are already proven in the drop shipping industry. With proper and thorough research, you will not fail in selling products online. There are tools available for you to utilize so you will not be on your own.
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Great article. I’m new to dropshipping myself. I tried one of the companies you mentioned, Shopster. I’ve been using their free service for 3 months now. I only had time to really fix the store last month. I’ve already made my first two sales. It’s all very exciting to me. So I really appreciate this article. I know I still have so much to learn.
That’s awesome Leigh, glad to see you are making things happen. Keep us updated with your progress.
Interesting article, but not much real information. I had a membership with both Doba and SaleHoo. The problem with most dropshipping providers like Doba is they are the middle man. You end up paying more than wholesale and the margins are too thin to make any real money. I had an account with a wholesaler who was also listed on Doba. This company’s products cost $5.00 more through Doba than from the wholesaler directly.
As for SaleHoo, I was looking for wholesalers for specific products. The companies SaleHoo found for me were either sites from China selling fake copies or companies with very limited inventory and low quality.
Shopster may be different, but in my experience you are better off finding a product with good potential and then contacting the manfuacturer directly rather than going through a middle man.