What is Dropshipping ?
Dropshipping is not a new term, it has been around for quite some time. But there are also misconceptions on what drop shipping really is. I know dropshipping and I understand it. However that doesent matter because most likely your here reading this to get a better understanding of drop shipping, its process and how to put some serious money in your pockets.
So, the question, what is dropshipping?
Let’s start with terminology. I hear many people state they want to dropship and start a drop ship business. This is wrong! They really mean that they want to be a retailer that uses drop ship suppliers.
Dropshipping is a service offered by (some, not all) Wholesalers. When you use a Wholesaler who offers Drop Shipping you don’t have to worry about stocking or shipping products. Instead, when you get an order from a customer, you contact your wholesaler and they ship it to your customer for you. This means you, as a retailer, can sell a variety of products without ever having to stock any inventory whatsoever. This makes drop shipping very appealing for new, small, home-based online businesses.
How DropShipping Works
No matter where you plan to sell products online (eBay, Amazon or Shopify) if you are starting a business selling products from home then you probably don’t want to carry much, if any, inventory. Most people who are starting their first online business via auctions or online stores don’t have a lot of money to buy a bunch of products or the space to warehouse and store the products they want to sell online. This is where drop shipping comes in and saves time and money.
As stated earlier, a real Dropshipper is simply a Certified Wholesaler who offers dropshipping. Not all wholesalers offer dropshipping. In fact it’s quite difficult to find genuine certified Wholesalers who will dropship and work with online sellers especially new online sellers.
For online sellers, working with a Dropshipper is pretty easy. You find the Dropshipper you want to work with (the one who has the products you want to sell.) They will then give you access to their product images so that you can post them on your store. When a customer orders the product, you then order the product from the Wholesaler and they ship it to your customer, that’s it.
Dropshipping is an amazing source of extra income.
There are multiple success stories of people quitting their jobs and going full time drop shipping.
If your seriously considering drop shipping, one of the most lucrative platforms to begin your drop shipping journey on is Shopify, while having your products sourced and shipped through Oberlo.
If your new to dropshipping. You could be considering opening a store on eBay or Amazon, or some other buy now and auction sites. However, those sites have what are called listing and seller fees. Which means your often charged a fee for listing a product then charged an additional fee once the products sells. Those fees can quickly eat into your profits. If your considering selling on eBay or Amazon. Please keep this very important fact in mind, you can get banned. That’s right you can have a successful drop shipping store on eBay or Amazon. And still get kicked off those sites for a number of reasons. Just search google, there are many horror stories of successful stores on eBay and Amazon being shut down for minor or even unexplained reasons.
Remember you don’t own your store on eBay or Amazon, you cant sell it and it can be taken away from you in a blink of an eye. So the solution is Shopify and Oberlo. A Shopify store with suppliers sourced through Oberlo, has proven time and time again to be one of the safest and most successful ways to start dropshipping.
Unlike selling on eBay and Amazon you avoid selling and listing fees and moreover you actually own your own store. No one can ever take that income away from you. Better yet once your drop shipping store is successful you can choose to sell it for a big profit via a site like flippa. Because you know how to drop ship and create profitable drop shipping stores you can always repeat the process.
So here a quick overview of one of the most effective ways to drop ship, using Shopify and Oberlo.
So what is Shopify?
Shopify is a easy to use ecommerce platform which give you the ability to set up an online store. The ecommerce platform lets you organize your inventory, design your storefront, accept payments via credit card, respond to customers and track orders — with just a couple clicks of the mouse. Shopify is perfect for drop shipping.
What is Oberlo?
Oberlo is a Shopify app and Google Chrome extension automation tool that helps you run your Shopify dropshipping business more efficiently. The app can import hundreds of Aliexpress products to your store in minutes – and after you receive an order, have it shipped directly to your customer. Oberlo will update your inventory and monitor any price changes from your suppliers to assure your are profitable once an item sales. So Oberlo basically automates your products and order management, which allows you to spend more time on growing your business. Here a video I created showing an example of how Oberlo works.
The owners over at Oberlo understand the time and investment it takes to start a successful dropshipping business so they created Oberlo which has become a game changer in the drop shipping community.
Oberlo Starter Plan Is Free
One of the best things about Oberlo is that you can get started for free, that’s right free. Oberlo starter plan is 100% free. No risk, no fees, just free. The free plan allows you to list up to 500 products and process 50 orders per month. which I’m sure you can do just click in the link below get the free eBook and follow the instructions. If your not using Oberlo to automate your Shopify store your just wasting time and money period.
Before you start drop shipping I want to highlight some pros and cons of drop shipping.
Using a certified Wholesaler that dropships is a low-cost solution for people who work from home, don’t have money to spend on inventory and want to sell products online. Drop shipping does work and it works very well but you do have to be careful with a few things.
First, you can’t just sell any product you want and expect to be able to compete with drop shipping. When you have a product dropshipped, you are buying and selling one product at a time. That means your wholesale price is for one product when you have it dropshipped. Wholesalers always give discounts to retailers when they purchase in bulk. That means your wholesale price for one product (drop shipped) can be higher than a competitor who is buying in volume from the wholesaler…which means they can sell that product much cheaper than you can, and in some cases, even cheaper than your wholesale cost!
So how can drop shipping work?
Easy. You have to pick the *right* products to sell; the right kinds of products to dropship. You can’t assume that just because you might think a product is a ‘good idea to sell’ that you should jump in and start selling that product. Especially with dropshipping. Doing a little bit of market research before you start selling is critically important. You have to find the products you can have drop shipped that you can compete with in the current online market. But by doing a little bit of niche research first, you can be very successful with dropshipping!
The Pro’s of Drop Shipping:
– You don’t have to buy or store inventory
– Very Low Startup Cost (Oberlo starter plan is free)
– Easily Add or Change Up your product offerings (easily done with Oberlo)
The Con’s of Drop Shipping:
– Not all Wholesalers offer dropshipping (solution Oberlo)
– Wholesale Cost is based on 1 product only
– Must spend time researching to pick the right product(s) to sell
Hopefully this article has motivated you to start dropshipping. So to all you who ask what is drop shipping, my answer is to try it out for yourself and you will quickly notice that dropshipping is one of the simplest businesses to start. Shopify and Oberlo makes AliExpress drop shipping a perfect model for first-time entrepreneurs. Please do your self favor and get started drop shipping today. To get started click here.
