Introduction to Drop Shipping
Have you ever wanted to open an online store, but lack the extensive funds to purchase the necessary products to stock it up? Today, many people are shifting to Drop shipping as a result of the enormous cost of stocking a store from scratch. With Drop shipping, you don’t have to worry about buying thousands of dollars’ worth of merchandise that may or may not be profitable. Drop shipping is effortless to start, and you do not require a business Degree or business expertise to begin. I will briefly discuss What is Drop shipping , How to get started with Drop shipping and Some verified dropshipping companies that is in my e-book A-Z List of Over 150 Dropship Suppliers for Your Business. This book is available on Amazon for just $4.99.
What is Dropshipping
Drop Shipping is a type of Retail
Fulfillment. Retail Fulfilment can be defined as the overall process of
acquiring, packaging, and shipping orders to consumers, particularly in e-commerce.Drop
shipping is the Retail Fulfillment method where the merchant doesn’t handle the
actual products themselves. The merchant doesn’t keep the physical products
that it sells in stock but rather, once a customer makes a purchase, the
merchant purchases the item from a third party- usually a wholesaler or
manufacturer and they ship the order directly to the customer.The most
significant difference between the Drop shipping method and the Retail
Fulfillment method is that the merchant who is selling the product to the
customer doesn’t have an inventory and instead purchases the products on an
as-needed base from a specified third party.
How Dropshipping Works
1. The customer places an order from a retailer or merchant.
2. The merchant orders that product from the dropshipping supplier with the customer’s information.
3.
The dropshipping supplier, in turn, packages and ships the order directly to
the customer using the retailer’s information. When the supplier excludes its
name from the product, it is called ‘blind shipping.’ Not every dropshipping
supplier blind ships. If this is important to you, request it or choose a supplier who
specifically blind ships.
Niche
Choosing
a niche is the fundamental step to commencing a business using the Drop
shipping model. The concept of a niche can be described as the concentration of
energy to a small but particular portion of the population. You can determine a
niche by identifying the necessities, wants, and requirements that are lacking
from other stores. It is crucial here to choose a niche that you’ll be
successful in and that other stores lack because it will be highly challenging
to make a profit from a niche that is saturated.
Tax ID
The
requirement to set your business in the United States or Canada is a sales tax
ID, also called as retail/reseller’s license, tax ID, resale number, resale
certificate or vendor’s license. You need a tax ID for most states except for
Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, and Oregon. The government imposes a
sales tax on the sale of all goods and services. A merchant collects the sales
tax during a sale and then it is passed on to the government. Sales tax is
typically about 6-9% of the sale price depending on the location.
Selling Platform
You
can sell items on an established platform such as eBay or Amazon, or you can
build an online store. Building an online store will require you to start
from scratch with no customer base that is automatically rendered to you from
an established store like eBay, and you will, therefore, have a disadvantage of
slowed profit, but if you are persistent and strategic in the advertisement for
your store, you will likely be successful. The downside of using eBay or Amazon
is that you are limited in what you can sell and you have to pay costlier
selling fees than if you created your online store, however, you are likely to
gain customers much more quickly using an established platform. Whichever
method you choose, your success rests in your tenacity and advertisement.
Dropshipping Supplier
One method of acquiring drop shipping suppliers is to type whatever products you need plus “dropshipping supplier” into Google. The problem with a google search is that you are susceptible to eCommerce fraud. The second method is to search for your product on websites such as Alibaba.com or Aliexpress.com. The problem with Alibaba and Aliexpress is that delivery tends to be pretty long. Thus, you need a safe drop shipping supplier for your store. In my ebook is a list of over 150 verified suppliers that you can use for your store and is available to purchase on Amazon for just $4.99.
Did you purchase the book and were you able to set up your online store and find at least 1 supplier that suited your need? Comment below or send me an email
