Internet trading can take many different, sometimes very original and unusual forms. One of those is dropshipping. With the development of Internet technologies, this way of selling goods is gaining momentum and attracting more and more beginning entrepreneurs. Some of them really manage to earn enough money to start something more serious.
Read about dropshipping and how it works in our article. Here we will present the most interesting examples of this method of sale, and also describe how to begin to engage in it even for those who have no experience in Internet commerce at all.
The problem of online trading
Not considering the task of finding customers, the next main problem of online trading is the delivery and storage of goods. Indeed, in order for the client to receive your product, it is necessary to have it available in your warehouse and at the same time be able to organize its delivery in the most convenient way for a person as soon as possible. If you have any store and you have sufficient resources for that, there will be no problems with this. However, for individual entrepreneurs, the process of purchasing large volumes of goods and their savings can cause considerable difficulties. Given that such products may not be sold at the fastest pace, the process of their implementation may take a long time. How to be in such a situation?
Everything is very simple - transfer products from the supplier directly to the client! If you understand what this is about, now you know what dropshipping is.
Sending direct to buyer
It is on the basis of this simple scheme that we can illustrate the operation of this method of selling any product on the Internet. Instead of buying products and spending money on their preliminary purchase and delivery to your warehouse (oh yes, you also pay for the rental of that warehouse), you can simplify the scheme of transferring purchased items, allowing the supplier to send them directly to the final consumer. As you can see, this approach has both significant advantages and some disadvantages. Nevertheless, thousands of sellers around the world work on this model. There is no doubt that such a dropshipping movement has become very active in all areas of online trading. And the reasons for this are the positive aspects of this scheme. We will talk about them in this article.
Dropshipping Pros
We begin, of course, with a description of the positive aspects in the operation of this scheme. So, the obvious benefit of this approach is cost reduction. You do not buy goods in advance, do not spend money on their delivery, do not pay for storage facilities and for people who will serve this entire process. All this makes it possible to work easier and with less investment.
Another plus is the low entry threshold. You can start selling expensive goods for the purchase of which you yourself would not have the means; the main thing is that the client pays for them. Thus, without incurring economic losses, you make a profit.
Also, do not forget about the opportunity to learn, learn more about what dropshipping is and how to organize its work as efficiently as possible, from the point of view of your business. If you are a beginner and have never been involved in Internet commerce before, this is a great opportunity for you to test your skills and gain new experience and knowledge.
Cons of dropshipping
True, the model we are describing also carries a number of negative features. The first and most important of these is the need to link the supplier and buyer.If some kind of, conditionally speaking, malfunction occurs in this mechanism, all the risks and responsibilities lie entirely with you. Imagine that a customer has paid part of the cost of goods and is waiting for him on Monday. At the same time, the supplier delays the shipment of products, because of which the goods will arrive only on Friday. Naturally, the client is outraged and wants to return his money. Satisfying his request, you are left with unredeemed goods. If we are talking about such items that are not amenable to re-implementation (for example, something individual), for you these are direct losses.
The same situation can arise in the case of the banal non-purchase of things by the client. Suppose that the goods arrived on time, but the buyer did not pick it up at the post office. In the end, you must cover the costs incurred by the supplier.
Product Categories
In fact, there are a huge number of categories of goods that can be sold through the dropshipping system. Watches and jewelry, clothes and shoes, household goods, souvenir and gift products and much more. All this you can offer your client directly from the supplier, without having to invest your money in the goods and their delivery / storage.
It is important that the products are as “running" as possible. Thus, if no one redeems your product, you can pick it up for temporary storage and sell it according to the classical scheme.
You can search for products that will sell well according to the dropshipping system (it will be watches, shoes or dumbbells - it does not matter), by a simple analysis. Pay attention to which product category is larger; as well as which ones sell best. Remember: if in one section or another more goods are presented than in the rest, this means that the demand for these products corresponds to such a proposal. Therefore, you can safely try your hand here using dropshipping.
Suppliers
However, besides the organization of communication, you need to take care of another important point - the organization of interaction with the supplier. Indeed, for example, in the case of receiving money from the client by mail (upon receipt of the goods), the funds go directly to the supplier, again bypassing you. This means that you must be sure that you will receive your part and in the future you can repeat the work according to this scheme. To do this, you must be sure of the honesty of the supplier.
As a rule, organizations themselves indicate that they are ready to cooperate under the “dropshipping” scheme. Suppliers (most often) do not see anything complicated in the organization of work in this way and, on the contrary, are interested in helping start-up entrepreneurs. Moreover, additional sales are part of their interests.
There are even various directories on the network where dropshipping providers for online commerce are represented. By default, they have cool mechanisms for interacting with an intermediary (which you are speaking in this situation), so there should not be any difficulties in establishing cooperation. The main thing is to discuss all the points of interest to you and find out what rights and obligations each of the parties has.
Payment
An important question remains how the calculation will occur between you and the client, as well as between you and the supplier. In this case, dropshipping stores (suppliers) in Russia may allow different options: someone will be happy that the money will be transferred to them, after which your share will be returned - the part that exceeds the cost of goods paid by the buyer. There are other options, for example, an advance payment on your part for the fact that the goods will be sent to the buyer and as a guarantee that you will not disappear suddenly after the products are not purchased.
How to look for suppliers?
There is nothing complicated in finding a manufacturing company or just a major distributor of the products you are interested in.It is enough to decide which brands you are interested in (or what you would like to do, for example, it may be children's clothing). Dropshipping makes it possible not only to work with any product, but also to combine different categories. The main thing (and the most difficult) is to make sales. You need to be able to look for customers in any business, no matter what you sell. Whether it is car parts or baby clothes already mentioned above, dropshipping exists to sell.
You can find suppliers on the Internet. Fortunately, there are many directories and forums where companies provide descriptions of their products, terms of cooperation and the benefits of working with them. You just have to choose the most suitable and contact them.
And yes, another point is the choice of the form of sale of goods in quantitative terms. Nobody forbids you to sell both units of production and entire batches of goods according to the dropshipping scheme. Wholesale will be of interest to you when it comes to quantity, and retail - to a larger payoff.
Total
Now each of us can become a successful entrepreneur if he has a desire to learn this and conduct such activities. The main thing is to experiment, try something new and try to surpass the results achieved earlier. And you will succeed!
