How to Make Money with an Online Dropshipping Business

As we all know, it takes a lot of effort to run a successful business, no matter the type. And, in that light, the key element in dropshipping business is to know how to attract customers and make them buy your stuff. One of those key elements is to have a variety of products to sell. So, there are plenty of questions that needs answering, how can you get ahold of products, where can you find customers, how to sell them your products?

In the vast world of internet entrepreneurship, we can find many solutions that will answer these questions. You could make your own products—but that can be a time-consuming process. Or you could buy a lot of products from a supplier and ship them you your customers as they buy. We also already looked at how much money you can make from a drop shipping business.

All in all, there are lots of things to consider before starting a dropshipping business. So, let’s see.

Advantages

• Easy to sell almost any product!
• Using of the proven business model
• No need to use warehouses or store inventory
• No need for packing or shipping of products
• No need for big investments or large up-front capital

Disadvantages:

• Drop-ship fees that can eat up profit
• Not every company is willing to drop ship for you
• Drop shippers must give you accurate in-stock numbers so you don’t sell items if the drop shipper goes out of stock on them
• Some drop-ship suppliers have slow ship times, complicated return policies

What Drop Shipping is all about? – Starting the Business

First of all, drop shipping is an e-commerce business model where you are able to sell products online, but, you don’t have to deal with the inventory yourself. You basically don’t need a warehouse to store your products – all you need is to organize them online while other companies to the delivery for you.

With drop shipping, you are able to sell just any product in any given niche. The benefits of drop shipping someone else’s products mean that you don’t have to deal with the hassles of traditional businesses, such as:

• Storing your products (it can be very expensive to buy massive amounts of inventory and rent warehouse space)
• Shipping or packaging your products, preparing orders and boxing them up multiple times a day
• Having to put down your money upfront to buy products wholesale to resell, that you aren’t sure if it will work

And, as we can see, you are able to avoid all these issues that we listed above if you decide to start a drop shipping business.

Nevertheless, let’s see how drop shipping works in the first place.

How Drop Shipping actually Works

To start things off, drop shipping works in a way where you do business with a distributor who is offering such service. Now, not every distributor offers drop shipping service, but many of them do.

Next, you will be in charge of all the marketing which implies that you need to step your game up when it comes to commercial marketing. Setting up your website is the first thing you need to do after you contact the supplier.

You can also write numerous blogs about your products, and engage with people that are looking for stuff that you offer. It is also a good idea to do social media and e-mail marketing as well, you can benefit highly from that as well.

As for the supplier, their job is to send the product that you order to the customers address. You will not even be able to hold or to see the package, since the supplier will send it directly to your customer. That is the key of drop shipping.

However, noting is free now-a-days and that means that you need to pay a fee to your supplier. Usually, the fee varies from $2 to $5 per item or per order, but that won’t become a problem if everything works out great in the first place.

What about Products?

As we all know, finding a good product to sell is half of your business. You need to make sure to understand what the customer needs, and, take that as your own advantage. However, the internet is full of different customers, so basically, you can’t go wrong with choosing any product.

But, selling some products will expand your business and allow you to achieve success in this business faster. Anyhow, it is always a good idea to listen to your heart on this one. Namely, if you are fond of something and have a passion for some product, it is always a good idea to go for that.

Not only that you will enjoy the business that you are running, but also, you can earn some serious money. It only gets easier with the fact that there are drop shipping companies that sell almost anything you can come up with.

So, how can you be sure that your product will be something that people want? Well, here are some guidelines about that as well.

• Do a lot of research! – You need to research the background of your product and decide whether that is a good product to start your dropshipping business. Read about everything relevant about your product – get to know the core of the product as well.
• Check for valuable niches on e-commerce sites – This one is easy! You can easily check the most wanted products on the Amazon, Alibaba, or any other e-commerce website. By knowing what people buy the most, you will get a good picture of what product you want to choose.
• Choosing multiple products – It is also a good idea to go for more than one product type or niche. However, you need to make sure that these two products are compatible in some cases. For example, choosing a gaming equipment products goes good in a combination with Indoor furniture like desk chairs for gamers.

Where can I find Dropshipping Suppliers?

Before you start working with a drop shipper, go through the order process yourself from a customer’s point of view. It’s important to see how easy it is to order the product, how long does it take for a product to arrive, and how the drop shipper reacts if any problem occurs.

So, drop shipping is an online business, and the internet is full of scammers, the first thing that you need to know is how to spot a FAKE distributor. Now, there are some things that real distributor would never do, like charging a monthly fee for the right to access their catalog of goods, that’s just irresponsible. Sticking with reputable suppliers like the one that can be found on Aliexpress is a good start.

Also, just remember that genuine drop ship distributors have a goal to sell their products in bulk, and not to charge a monthly fee for some ridiculous membership site. That is why you need to stay away from fake drop shipping suppliers and never risk the success of your business in the first place.

Anyhow, there are lots of strategies that will lead you to success in this field of business, and, they all have some things in common. Now, let’s see exactly what you need to do in order to find a good drop ship supplier.

• Contact the Manufacturer first

Now, the easiest way to start a drop shipping business and find a decent supplier is to call the manufacturer and ask for a list of their distributors. Furthermore, when you get ahold of the list, you can simply contact distributors directly and ask them if they are willing to drop ship.

But, it doesn’t have to mean that you will gain a huge success from the first distributor. Sometimes this type of business is a risk and it can lead to failure. Finding a legit supplier requires a lot of work since only the best suppliers want to work with the best retailers.

• Competitor – Order from them

One little trick for finding a good supplier is to order from your competitor. Once the package arrives at your address, you simply need to look at the shipping label and find a return address.

However, if there isn’t a supplier name on it, you can easily google the address and find out the name of the company that is located in that place – easy as that.

• Use Drop ship directories

By using this type of directories, you can easily find some thrust-worthy names when it comes to suppliers in the drop shipping business.

Anyhow, here is a list of some of them – remember, these suppliers are reliable and great to work with.

• Sunshine Wholesale
• Dropship Direct
• Worldwide Brands
• Oberlo
• Salehoo

If you are lucky, by contacting one of them, you can easily find your decent supplier.

• Go to the Wholesale trade shows

Another great way of finding a great supplier is to go to trade shows and see ‘’from the first hand’’ what you are about to get in. Namely, trade shows are a great place to meet up with different suppliers and see their products and the quality of their work as well.

Key Questions to Ask a Drop Shipping Partner

If you plan on partnering with a drop shipper that is experienced in this field, you can benefit a lot. Now, we already know that you don’t have to risk your money since there is no need to store the products or keep them with you all the time.

And, in that light, finding a goo drop shipping partner is quite a good idea. However, if you partner up with a bad drop shipping partner, you could sink your business in no time. They are out there, so you need to know how to determine which one is a good drop shipping partner and choose to work with him.

The whole process of negotiating is really hard and time-consuming if you don’t know the right questions to ask. Therefore, we have prepared some question that you can take into consideration when you want to find a good drop shipping partner.

• Once a customer has placed an order, how long will it take to be processed and shipped out of their facility?

• What methods of shipping are they using?

• Do they have a tracking system so that you and/or your customers can see the status of each order easily?

• How do they deal with issues and complications when it comes to problems with shipping?

• Are their products under some kind of warranty or guarantee?

Drop Shipping really is one of the Easiest Online Business

In order to summarize the whole discussion about drop shipping business, it is definitely safe to say that this is one of the easiest online businesses. However, you have to put a lot of effort, especially when it comes to advertising, but, the risks are very low.

Simply speaking, drop shipping does not require big investments and it is really easy to do if you have a little will and drive to do it.

Conclusion

In the light of everything we said above, it is only normal to conclude that drop shipping requires a lot of effort, but not that much investment. For example, there are other types of business that generate way more risk, but, with the drop shipping, you are free to explore.

As we already mentioned, finding a good and reliable supplier is the number one priority. However, there are other things that you need to take into consideration as well. Therefore, we really hope that this article helped you to begin your own drop shipping business.