Tuesday, 27 August 2013

Dropshipping Fundamentals and Gains

By Amanda Tan


What is dropshipping and how does it work? Is it truly a valid supply chain management model? Can any person take advantage of this method? The reality is that drop-shipping is really a very simple process and an inexpensive entry point to purchasing and selling on the web.

The dropshipping enterprize model works as follows: a retailer finds a product from an organization that is happy to drop ship, and then lists that product on a web auction or an eCommerce website. The retailer, then, is in charge of the marketing of that product and collecting the payment for it, but they are never actually in possession of the item.

Here are the first two advantages of drop-shipping. Doubtless the most significant one is that you never need to stock the inventory yourself. What this suggests to you as the retailer is that you don't have a huge capitol investment obligation when you start your business - you do not have to get all your products up front. You simply list the item that the supplier is pleased to drop ship and then collect the payment. And this is the second benefit of drop shipping: a positive money flow cycle - meaning you receive the money before paying the supplier for the product.

This brings us to the next step of the drop shipping business organization model - collecting the payment and transferring the order. Once a shopper has chosen your product and made their payment (including the shipping costs) you then send the wholesale price and the delivery fee to the supplier, together with the order for the product. The provider, then, is in charge of accomplishment and will deliver the item to the client. As is clear, the retailer is left with the difference in costs, without having to see, package, ship, or store the products.

The benefits from this step should also be clear. Not having any inventory available yourself means that you don't have to worry as much about unexpected shopper or market shifts. You'll never get stuck with rooms full of outmoded clobber because you have never really purchased any inventory. You've only handled the payment and the order. The supplier is the person who handles the other parts of this supply chain equation.

And the part of the equation the drop shipper takes care of is no tiny thing. Drop shipping unlocks big amounts of your time that would usually be taken up with activities such as stocking inventory, packaging products, and standing in a line after line after endless line at the post office.

These are the fundamentals of dropshipping, but there are some other benefits that are a natural outgrowth from those already claimed.

Without the need of a warehouse or other location to store your products you'll cut down on your overhead costs, and without the need to buy stock in big quantities, you can decrease the risks of overshooting projections and getting stuck with unwished-for goods.

When you use the drop shipping model you need to use all this freed-up time to research your market and discover all of the products that may perform the best for your business. Markets and industries change all the time, and a drop shipper will help you be flexible enough to stay abreast of those changes.

Drop shipping also gives you an opportunity to look like one of the "big guys." You can offer as many or as few products as you like. Specialize in a single product or become an one-stop-shop for a big variety of high-demand items.

The products you offer will, naturally, rely on the providers you can find. Some are larger than others, but if you would like to succeed at online selling, trustworthiness is much more crucial that just size. As you start to get to the large potential on the Web, you need to know you'll be able to quickly and reliably fill consumer demand.




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