Better Than Sliced Bread? Drop Shipping, The New Home Business Craze

Home
>
Online Auction
>
Better Than Sliced Bread? Drop Shipping, The New Home Business Craze

Better Than Sliced Bread? Drop Shipping, The New Home Business Craze

Many of you will probably remember the days when the only way to start a successful home business was to join some sort of multi-level marketing program or sell makeup at parties. In those days, people would have to buy a membership in the 'program' along with an inventory of sample products that they would then sell to friends and coworkers at 'parties.' Most people were not very successful at this and made very little money and usually alienated their friends and family. In the 1990's however, all of that changed for the better with the advent of the Internet and a retail delivery method called wholesale drop shipping.

Wholesale drop shipping is when a wholesale distributor or manufacturer agrees to send out single unit products to customers for a retailer. Many will also even include the retailers name on the invoice so that the customer is never even aware that they got it from anyone else but the retailer. This, along with the Internet has changed the whole dynamics of home businesses in America, making it easier and more cost effective to start your own business.

Home business owners are now able to launch a business without purchasing any inventory up front and are able to open a 'store' without ever having to find a place to setup shop. Millions of Americans have setup ecommerce sites on the internet selling everything from Personal Computers to lawn care equipment all using wholesale drop shipping. As a matter of fact, according to eBay over forty thousand people make their full time living on their auction site alone; many of these are using drop shipping as their main method of product fulfillment.

The only problem for today's small business owner is how to find wholesalers to drop ship. In general wholesale distributors don't make it a habit of getting out there and advertising; obviously the whole reason they are in wholesale and not retail is to get away from doing all of that work. So it makes it very difficult for someone who has little or no business experience to make contacts with distributors when they aren't even sure where to start looking.

To help out those small business owners I'd like to offer some advice for finding wholesale distributors:

Look for trade organizations and magazines to help you make contacts. Many trade organizations out their produce some sort of listings of their members, many of whom may drop ship.
Contact manufacturers. People don't realize that if you call the manufacturer they will provide you with a list of their distributors; so if you are looking for a particular product, ask the manufacturer. The down side of this route is that they may have hundreds of distributors that you may have to contact before you find one that is willing to drop ship.
Find wholesale chat rooms and message boards. There are many message boards on the Internet today that are devoted to a wide range of discussions. You may find boards on wholesale, distribution, supply chain, etc. All of these may lead you in the direction of a wholesale distributor.

However, if you want to get up and running fast, or just don't have the time to go on a search for wholesale distributors much less ones that drop ship, then the way to go is drop ship directories. These are usually pay services that search out drop shippers for you then give you access to their contacts; there are many of these on the Internet today, and many are very good. As with anything on the Internet you must be very careful of the scams out there. Many drop ship directories will end up giving you an outdated list of wholesalers, or when you contact them you will find that they are a true wholesale distributor but they do not drop ship.

Here are some pieces of advice when looking for a quality drop ship directory:

Stay away from the cheap ones! Obviously with everything else in this world you will get what you pay for. If you find one out their for three dollars, you probably are not going to get a good product. In general the one's that offer the best information are charging $60 or more for a six month membership.
Look for one's that will do specialty searches! If you get into a drop ship directory and find that they do not have any products that you would like to sell, or think you can sell, then make sure they will go out and find it for you. If they do not do specialty searches then you will end up being stuck with whatever listings they have no matter what.
Find one with a Satisfaction Guarantee! There are several drop ship directories out there that offer a guarantee that all of their listings are true drop shippers, but in my opinion this is not enough. If you get into their directory and find that they have five hundred listings for widget suppliers and they are all real wholesalers you are out your money and only have access to one product. Make sure they guarantee your satisfaction with their product no matter what, especially if you are going to shell out seventy dollars of your hard earned money.
Look for ones that are going to help you out as well, not just give you a list. Do they offer articles and help material on starting your business or are all they just going to give you listings and nothing else.

However you choose to find wholesale drop shipping, keep in mind that as with anything else in this world knowledge is power. Try and find out as much as you can before you jump in to get your feet wet. It will make your startup smoother and help you get the profitability stage much faster.

About The Author

Tony Keeler is the founder and publisher of The Drop Ship Connection ? www.dropshipconnection.com - The web's only drop ship directory with a step by step guide for the home business owner. He is also the owner of MAR Services which publishes these great sites:

2DollarSoftware ? www.2dollarsoftware.com - marketing, advertising, and internet software.

DingleHopper.com ? www.dinglehopper.com - Funny Name, Cool Products.

tony.keeler@dropshipconnection.com

In The News:

Staten Island Advance - SILive.com
The Slot-Auction Saga Continues
Wall Street Journal Blogs, NY - Oct 10, 2008
The slots would then be put up for auction and claimed by the highest bidder. Federal regulators are hoping to force airlines to use larger planes hauling ...
US Completes Its Plan to Auction Slots at Airports New York Times
DOT Expands NYC Air Auction Plans Despite Mounting Opposition Business Travel News
Auctions of Airport Landing Slots Set ; Port Authority Will Seek ... RedOrbit
The Associated Press - RedOrbitall 513 news articles

Reverse auctions cheap way to buy the basics
Stuff.co.nz, New Zealand - 3 minutes ago
David Sheppard, who advises New Zealand Trade and Enterprise's Industry Capability Network, says reverse auctions are now being used extensively by public ...

4-Friends Gifts & Crafts: Christmas Gifls/Toy Auctions
MaineToday.com, ME - 19 hours ago
Christmas Gifts\Toy Auctions, starting October 12th at Melody Ranch in Fairfield. A 50\50 raffle will be held every night. Admission: $1 per person. ...

CCTV
Sales Underwhelm at Art Auctions
New York Times, United States - Oct 8, 2008
Adding to speculation about how the worldwide economic downturn will affect next month’s big auctions in New York, two sales abroad drew disappointing ...
Pop Goes the Bubble in Chinese & Indian Art BusinessWeek
Sotheby's Shares Drop After Disappointing Asian Sales ARTINFO
Sotheby's Hong Kong Art Sale Misses Target Amid Slump (Update1) Bloomberg
Artnet - Reutersall 54 news articles

No sale as buyers shun auctions
The Border Mail, Australia - 12 minutes ago
THE decision to cut official interest rates failed to inspire confidence at auctions across the Border on Saturday. Not a bid was made at three auctions, ...

Guadalajara Reporter (subscription)
Mexico auctions off more foreign reserves for peso
The Associated Press - Oct 10, 2008
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico's central bank has auctioned off another US$3 billion in foreign reserves, its third auction of the day in an increasingly ...
Mexico's Peso Declines for Eighth Day as Global Markets Plunge Bloomberg
Mexico sells more foreign reserves to boost peso Forbes
Mexico's central bank sells $6.4 bln to boost currency Xinhua
The Associated Press - Bloombergall 210 news articles

AuctionBytes Blog
Amid the Gloom, an E-Commerce War
The Ledger, FL - 13 hours ago
John J. Donahoe of eBay is shifting the company away from auctions. As the online auctioneer’s revenues and stock price kept climbing, one of its primary ...
Amid the Gloom, an E-Commerce War New York Times
NYT Chronicles Amazon's Inroads against eBay AuctionBytes Blog
Holidays critical to e-commerce sector United Press International
all 17 news articles

China Daily
Lehman Credit-Default Swap Payout Could Climb as High as $365 Billion
Washington Post, United States - Oct 10, 2008
Auctions earlier this month to unwind Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac credit derivatives resulted in much lower settlement amounts, south of 10 cents on the ...
Fannie, Freddie Debt Valued as Low as 91.51 Percent (Update1) Bloomberg
FACTBOX-Lehman CDS settlement auction timeline Reuters
Lehman derivatives auction described as 'smooth' MarketWatch
Financial Times - TheStreet.comall 224 news articles

Treasurys Slide Ahead of Auctions
Wall Street Journal - Oct 9, 2008
By MICHAEL S. DERBY NEW YORK -- Treasurys were off to a mostly negative start Thursday, with a big wave of government debt auctions ahead. ...
Treasury Trade Choppy Amid Turmoil Wall Street Journal
all 2 news articles

Edward auctions royal portrait to say thank you to hospital
Crewe and Nantwich Guardian, UK - 7 hours ago
He has drawn a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II that will be auctioned off to the highest bidder over the next week. “I was recently treated for an abscess ...

auctions - Google News

Your Ad Here

Better Than Sliced Bread? Drop Shipping, The New Home Business Craze

Online Auction Online Auction