Dropshipping investigated
55I have looked very carefully at drop-shipping as a way of earning a little extra cash using my PC and the internet.
So, what is dropshipping?
In simple terms you advertise products and sell them without having to hold stock. You get paid, then you pay the dropshipper who then posts the goods on your behalf. You keep the difference between what you sell the item for and what you pay the dropshipper for it.
You can sell the items wherever you like, for instance e-bay, Amazon, your own website or blog.
There are many organizations that drop-ship and it is quite easy to find them by using a search engine. I would steer clear of those directory-type websites that ask you to pay for a list of drop-shippers.
As drop-shipping is becoming more and more popular, some dropshippers now offer ready-made websites that list their products. You sign up, pay a fee and the website is yours. It will only contain that particular dropshippers products but may be a good way to start.
If you have your own website or blog, or just want to sell items on shopping sites then it is possible to sign up for a number of drop-shippers thereby increasing your range of products.
A couple of draw-backs I came across were:
(1) Regularly checking stock levels with the drop-shipper to make sure the items I was advertising were still in stock. This was time-consuming with products from more than one drop-shipper.
(2) Some dropshippers have different levels of membership accounts; the more you pay, the better prices you get therefore you make more profit. This allows you to lower your selling price to attract buyers. Remember you will not be the only one selling the items. It is always worth checking out any items you are thinking of selling, say on e-bay, to see what other people are selling them for and if the item does actually sell.
To find dropshippers, type “dropshipper” into a search engine. You can then visit their sites and decide which one(s) have the products you would like to sell.
Check out the dropshippers before committing and spending any money. If you use a search engine to look for a particular dropshipper you may come across good or bad reports that other people have put in blogs or forums. When you do find one that you like, test them by ordering something to be delivered to a friend and you can see how efficient they are and how quickly the order takes.
A useful forum I found is dropshipforum.co.uk. There are a lot of useful discussions on the site and people share their experiences, good and bad.
You can find more information on my website.
