Dropshipping is a business model that you can use to run your shop without ever having an inventory. Once you have made a sale, your supplier will ship your products from their warehouse, directly to your customer’s door. You never have to worry about storing, packaging or shipping your products. The niche you choose should be focused on something that really interests you.
A product range that is not focused will be difficult to market. If you are not passionate about the niche you select, you are more likely to be discouraged, because it takes a lot of work to successfully scale a dropshipping business. A dropshipping business is one where you are able to sell merchandise to your customer without having any inventory. A customer buys an item from your shop at retail price.
You then ship the order to your supplier, to whom you pay the wholesale price. Once your supplier receives the order, they ship the item directly to the customer under your company name while you earn the mark-up. All you have to do is set up the retail website, find customers and manage customer support. Most successful businesses are based on a concept and, around that, the branding, content and product collection is centred.
For many startup and sideline marketers, this concept comes from something they love and are passionate about. Once you have a general concept for your drop shipping business, you are ready to explore the universe of drop shipping vendors and products. Learning how to start a drop shipping business is not difficult, but the direction of your business dictates the type of drop shipping website you need. These marketplaces exist to automate the entire drop shipping process and make it easy for drop shipping providers to get a business up and running.
Oberlo’s drop shipping marketplace features thousands of vendors and integrates with Shopify’s drop shipping features to automate the entire process. Experienced sellers and industry experts agree that drop shipping marketplaces are ideal for startups as well as part-time sellers. A drop-shipping business is a sales model in which sellers accept orders through websites and other sales channels, but do not carry inventory or ship the products themselves. You will need a website to get your drop-shipping business plan up and running, and for that you need an e-commerce platform.
However, everyone agrees that to grow a true e-commerce business, sellers need to look for more cost-effective drop shipping options. Anton is the founder and CEO of Drop Ship Lifestyle, an online training programme for e-commerce entrepreneurs.