Wholesale Supplier Drop Shipping

Drop shipping is the process whereby wholesale product distributors (“drop shippers”) ship wholesale products to your retail customers after they have bought and paid for the merchandise. There are a few ways to achieve success with the drop shipping business.  Sales can be filled by way of your website, auction or your mail order business.

When you work with a drop ship vendor, you do not have to buy large quantities of wholesale products.  Therefore, you will not have to stack products up to the garage roof until they are sold.  It is also not your job to package up and ship the products.

If you use a wholesale drop shipper from the Online Wholesale Drop Ship Directory,   this means that you are paid the retail price even before you pay your wholesale drop shipper to send the product to your customer.  Therefore, the difference between the wholesale and retail price goes right into your pocket!  The thing that makes this business so sweet is that you do not have any inventory to stock, and you do not have any shipping hassles.  Does this mean that you will finally be able to live out your dream?  It certainly does, but, as with all things, you must do a certain amount of research for this to be profitable for you.
 
Drop shipping is the least expensive and the best way to test the markets so that you retail the very best products.  However, there are a few things you will want to take into consideration:

1. First of all, you have to find a marketable product that will be able to sell in sufficient numbers and at a good enough mark-up price in order to realize a profit.  Make sure you do your due diligence in researching the market for any product that you consider selling.  Try to see how much of a demand there is for the product, what kind of competition you are going to be up against and the price that the competition is charging.  Some businesses have a much lower margin than others.

2. Be careful and choose only a few products to sell.  Make sure that the products are related and are targeted at the same market.  If you have a catalog full of drop ship items, don’t try to sell every one in the book!  You must concentrate your costs and marketing efforts where they will bear the most fruit.

3. Find a wholesale drop shipper who has a good reputation.  Drop shipping has become increasingly popular and so have the scams!  There are bogus lists of drop shippers that are being sold for a whole lot of money.  There are businesses on the Internet that claim to be “turnkey”.   They lead you to believe that they will provide you with a complete catalog of prices, marketing and e-commerce.  However, this will come at a cost!  Either you will have to pay a hefty membership fee or a monthly cost that will be so high that you will never realize any profit.  Don’t let this deter you from your dream of having a drop shipping business, but you just must be aware of everything that is floating around on the Internet.  In order to get started on the right foot, you should check Chris Malta’s directory of legitimate drop shippers.

4. In your drop shipping business you must know how to handle returns and back orders.  These are hassles that cannot be eliminated in this sort of business.  Sometimes you will run into some times when the product you have just sold is not readily available.  There will also be returns and refunds.  Make sure that you and your drop shipper are on the same page when it comes time to deal with returns and refunds so that when the time comes you will know how it will be handled.

5. Treat your online drop shipping business just like any other real business.  You must not spam, use a free or personal web page address for your store, you should make sure to register with the County Clerk, apply for a Tax ID number and be prepared to file your tax returns.  Proceed with the assumption that you will make a very good profit and soon you will find that your profits are on the increase!

Ebay has become very popular and has sparked the interest of many people to start a drop shipping business.  Before plunging in head first, consider some steps that are involved when you want to start a drop-ship e-business:

1. Select a marketable product to sell.  Many factors should come into play before you decide on a product.  These factors were previously discussed in this article.

2. Find a wholesale drop shipper.  Using such research tools as Google or Thomas Register.com you can easily find a company that will drop-ship the product that you want to sell.  Make sure that the product is well stocked so that your product will not have to be back-ordered.

3. Set up a business account with your drop-shipper.  It is now time to set up your reseller account.  This can be done by telephone or online.  Some companies require that you submit a signed application in order to open an account.  Still others may require a business license and a tax ID number.

4. Advertise your product on Ebay.  Now it is time to set up your auction on Ebay.  You must figure the minimum amount that your product cost you plus shipping costs.  If you make less than what it costs you, then you are going to lose money.

5. The product sells.  It is recommended that the business entrepreneur use PayPal since you get paid faster.  This lets you place the order faster, and the product gets to the customer faster.

6. Place the product order with your drop shipper.  He will then ship your product to your customer under the name of your company and address.

7. Follow up with your customer after the completion of the sale.  If there were any problems, see that they are rectified.
     
You have seen exactly what wholesale drop shipping is and how you can run a profitable business with it.  Good luck with your future endeavors!