Why do you need to treat dropshipping as a business?

Dropshipping is an order fulfillment strategy where the retailer does not keep products in inventory, but relies on wholesalers or manufacturers to actually ship orders to customers. You can start a dropshipping business with zero inventory and immediately start making money.

Benefits of dropshipping 

First, you don’t need to store your products

What is the main difference between dropshipping and the standard retail model? In the first case, the merchant doesn’t have to purchase the products until the moment the customer pays for it.

Dropshipping does not require large initial capital to start. This is one of the biggest benefits for a start-up entrepreneur. When we talk about capital, big or small, we have to keep in mind that we are saving thousands of money on inventory, stockpiling, renting premises and the associated costs. In this case, you don’t need to worry about warehouse management, order packaging and delivery, inventory accounting, the return of products, stock maintenance. 

Flexibility

An attractive opportunity opened up by dropshipping is to work whenever you want. The internet and phone are sufficient for this method of marketing. If you can easily communicate with suppliers and customers – you will be able to manage your business as well.  Manufacturers also get more flexibility since there is more product movement.

Increase the lifetime value of customers

With the ability to add new and expanded product selections consistently, you can keep your existing customers engaged and returning to see what new items you’ve acquired.

Thousands of vacant niches!

Dropshipping business is still staying at the growth stage. Technologies and automated solutions for its smooth running emerge every year, and new exciting products and product categories appear daily.

How to choose the right supplier for your business?

The biggest mistake new entrepreneurs make, they’re choosing unknown suppliers or even without counting their number.

If you immediately start to work with several different suppliers, this means you will need to supervise not only the production of each supplier, but also to check the pricing, follow news, communicate smoothly with different companies. In the beginning, this is not that easy. Therefore, we recommended to start with one supplier and later increase their number.

How to find suppliers?

Suppliers can be found by visiting the largest exhibitions. There is a perfect place to make imporant contacts for your dropshiping business. Also, this will help you to get to know the different products and find out the first news. 

The big advantage is working with a supplier who goes hand in hand with technology. Features such as real-time inventory, a comprehensive online catalog, an order history, and the ability to accept orders via email can greatly facilitate your daily work.

The location of the supplier is of equal importance. For example, wholesalers in central America can deliver a parcel anywhere in the country in just two to three days. Faster delivery times can not only become a competitive advantage, but also help reduce shipping costs.

However, a successful wholesaler search result is just the beginning. You will take a lot of time to analyze its products, study pricing, negotiate more flexible prices or conditions.

How to choose a product group? 

If the only valuable thing you can offer to the market is the lowest price – the business is doomed to fail in the first year. In price racing, you will limit your own profits.

Here are several groups of customers whose needs can be precisely selected for the product:

• People who invest in their hobbies. That’s why there are so many cyclists whose mountain bikes cost more than their cars, or fishermen who rent a small apartment, but have a large motorboat.

• Business customers. They almost always order in larger quantities.

Experts recommend finding a product whose marketing can be targeted at both individuals and legal entities. Make sure your product group price matches the presale you will going to make. Once you have selected a product group, supplier and pricing, you should put your attention on a marketing plan and create a quality trading platform.

Create online store design is not enough

Even a product in demand will not bring business in success if you make a customer use discomfort e-shop or he or she simply can’t find it in a search engine… For e-shops, nothing is more important than SEO and the ability to find your products by keywords.

Well, you’ll say great! Let’s calculate how much it can cost an entrepreneur to create an online store: a professional product photoshoot, website optimization, and advertising through other marketing channels… A lot! However, if this will be done in poor quality, there is very little chance that your business will move on. 

See you soon,
Team Dropton