by Neil Stevens

Created on: February 02, 2007   Last Updated: April 04, 2007

DROPSHIPPING - IS IT THE WAY FORWARD?

Dropshipping is the term given to the selling of a product to your customer which is then provided by your supplier without you seeing it. They mail or deliver the product direct.

This concept is not a new one and has been around as long as selling - The most basic example is when a car salesman sells a new car to a customer and arranges for it to be delivered from the manufacturer directly to the customer's house. You are in effect selling a product that you don't have and taking your profit from the process of marketing and sales.

There are thousands of examples of sellers on EBay even now who sell products and then order that product to be shipped directly to the highest bidder from the dropshipper.

There are a number of advantages to dropshipping, these are my top 5:

1) NO INVENTORY: You do not have to invest in purchasing the stock. In fact you don't even have to pay for it until you have the money from the customer.

2) NO PREMESIS: No warehousing costs - storage space costs money. Let the supplier store the item until you want it.

3) NO SHIPPING COSTS: Shipping is paid by the buyer - Instead of paying shipping to have the product sent to you and then you ship on to the customer. You just get the item shipped directly to the customer either in plain packaging or personal branded packaging.

4) SELL, SELL, SELL: 100% Marketing time - Although there will be some element of administration in placing orders with your dropshipper, you won't have to waste time picking, packing, and posting the items. Nearly 100% of your time can be spent selling and growing your business.

5) PORTABILITY: This business has the ability to be run from anywhere using a laptop. If you move you don't have to move the stock. You can run it from your bedroom, kitchen, garage or even on vacation.

CHOOSE YOUR FRIENDS CAREFULLY

When looking for a company that will drop ship your products for you there are a number of things that I personally look for:

1) UNIQUE PRODUCT

Find a product that not many other people are selling. You will probably notice that there are thousands of people selling the same DVDs on marketplaces like Amazon, EBay etc. Some of these will be simply drop shipping the same DVDs from the same drop shipper. The only one who wins here is the customer and the drop shipper as you drive the selling price down in the competition. Try to find a product that fits into a niche market.

2) AGREE PRODUCT PRICES UPFRONT

Be totally aware of the total cost of

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