Drop-Shipping ? A Great Way of Making Money Online

Using the Internet to sell products and services to ever increasing number of net users is a good way to start your own business. If you are not taking advantage of this great opportunity you are just missing the boat! Consider this: e-commerce, contrary to popular believe, is thriving and increasing at a double digit growth rate. According to Jupiter Research, Online sales during this holiday season in United States are expected to reach $21.6 billion, a 19 percent increase over the same period last year. Jupiter also predicts in the report that 86 million U.S. residents will make holiday purchases online this year compared to 73 million last year, which is an 18 percent increase.

No doubt that this is the right time to get into online business. Building a website for selling products or services is no longer that difficult. You can make your own website by using available sophisticated but easy-to-learn-and-use programs like Macromedia Dreamweaver, Microsoft Frontpage, Adobe Go live, etc. There also exist various online web store builders similar to Rusbiz.com, which allow you to create powerful web stores using simple editors and numerous templates. You can also setup a store with E-bay and sell products through it. Finally, you can hire professional web designers to develop your website. So, the important question isnot how to get online, but what to sell on the Internet?

In one of my articles ? What to sell on the Internet? (http://ezine.rusbiz.com/archivenews.html?nl_oid=19) ? I wrote about selling information products. Although this is an interesting concept, you might think that this is not your cup of tea; and you still prefer to work with some tangible products. In ideal scenario, probably, you want to sell a product of your choice but don't want to carry your own stock and don't want to handle the shipping. Is there a way of doing this? Yes, there is! It's called "Drop-shipping".

What is drop-shipping?

When a manufacturer, wholesaler, distributor or importer, after receiving an order from their retailers, individually pack and deliver the product to the customer of the retailer with retailers address as shipper, this selling technique is called drop-shipping.

The advantages of drop-shipping include:

- You do not have any inventory. So, there is no stock carrying expense involved.

- You pay for the item only when it is sold and you got paid from your customer. You don't need to invest money in buying the product.

- You can sell just one item at a time. No minimum quantity required.

- Your drop-shipper will supply you with necessary product image and specification. You don't have to spend money on creating your own.

- You fix your own selling price of the product. Convenient, when you know your niche market well.

- You can offer various products on your web store from multiple suppliers.

Select a product to sell

Once you decided to go with drop-shipping you need to find products to sell and find drop-shipping suppliers for those products. According to the same report from Jupiter following are the most favorite categories for online shoppers: Books ? by far the most popular category, after that comes clothing and shoes, music, toys, video tapes and DVDs, gift certificates, consumer electronics, accessories, videogames, bed and related items, and bath items. You should also consider that this year, total Internet sales of consumer electronics are expected to rise 32 percent to $7.5 billion, making it the fastest growing group among all retail sales categories online.

The market research wizard developed by Worldwide Brand Inc. is a great tool, which shows in a probability scale whether it is worthy trying to sell your selected product online or not. You can find it over here. (http://www.worldwidebrands.com/?8188)

Locate drop-shipping companies

After selecting the product the next step is to find a reliable drop-shipper for it. This might not be an easy task! The things that you should look into a drop-shipper are the followings:

1. A reputable supplier with drop-shipping experience

2. Ready to ship one item at a time

3. Do not ask for any membership payment

4. Will use your name as shipper

5. Will enclose blank invoice or invoice from you

6. On the packaging there will be no indication that they are the supplier.

You might think that the easiest way of finding a drop-shipper is just to buy one of the numerous lists on the Internet for sale. I won't recommend you to use them for number of reasons. Often, these lists are outdated or carry wrong information. Even if you find the companies through the lists, since many people use these lists, you get into fierce competition for market share not even starting to sell.

Use the following approach instead:

Online search

The first step is, naturally, to use the search engines. Using various combinations of the keywords of your product with words: manufacturer, wholesaler, drop-shipper, dealer, see if you can find the original source of the product.

If several online retailers are already selling this product, do some detective works! Check out the sites thoroughly. May be, you can find a clue, which will help you track down the supplier.

If it is an imported product go to the sites like Alibaba, ecplaza, Rusbiz, trade-india. Locate the manufacturer and get in touch with them to find who you should contact in your country to retail sell their products. If the product is manufactured in North America, the best source to find them is Thomas register.

Trade exhibitions

You should definitely attend the trade shows related to your category of products. This is an easy way to find a number of suppliers, who might be willing to work with you.

Trade magazines

Trade journals and publications are also a good resource for finding suppliers of your products. Although, you might have to go through a sizable quantity of them before you stumble on the right supplier.

Conclusion

Drop-shipping has some inherent drawbacks too. The biggest of them is you have to totally rely on the drop-shipper to fulfill your order and get the product to your customer on time. The others are: you don't have any control over the price or availability of the product. However, a good drop-shipper cares for his reputation since his business depends on retailers like you. That's why you have to be very careful in choosing the right drop-shipper.

Nowshade Kabir is the founder, primary developer and present CEO of Rusbiz.com. A Ph. D. in Information Technology, he has wide experience in Business Consulting, International Trade and Web Marketing. Rusbiz is a Global B2B Emarketplace with solutions to start and run online business. You can contact him at mailto:nowshade[at]rusbiz.com, http://ezine.rusbiz.com/archivenews.html?n l_oid=47

____________________

Advertisement: Honest Riches - Click Here!

Advertisement: Lost AdWords - Click Here!

Advertisement: Get $1 Million A Month In Google Pay-Per-Click Ads Free! - Click Here!

Advertisement: Who Loves Money? - Click Here!

Advertisement: SEO Elite, the GrandDaddy of SEO Software - Click Here!

---

Your Site is all Direct Marketing

This may not be a popular view, but I think writing a web site is very similar to writing a piece of direct mail. I'm not talking... Read More

The Rise of Multinational Virtual Corporations

The virtual corporation is the emerging organisational form, which best combines, a fluid ability to adapt to rapidly changing markets and is able to leverage its skills... Read More

How To Prevent Your 3rd Party Merchant Account From Suspension

What would you do if you were sent an email from your online credit card processor telling you that your account has been suspended or frozen? How... Read More

Building eCommerce Websites That Work - Part 1

You want to succeed at eCommerce? Welcome to a very big family. Right off, let's be clear - there are lots of ways to do business on... Read More

Google to Compete with PayPal?

PayPal is secure in its domination over the electronic payment industry, at least for now.Following reports that Google planned to launch a new Internet payment service (nicknamed... Read More

The Census and the E-Commerce Wave

Understanding business and product sales can sometimes put me in a whirlwind. My job tends to get me involved with loads of different opportunities dealing with all... Read More

10 Second Internet Person, sound familiar?

Some people do not understand the Internet idea of online commerce, but then again some people do not understand themselves either. To fully understand Internet Commerce you... Read More

Intranet Portals ? Collaboration through Team Rooms

Knowledge Management for beginnersKnowledge Management (KM) can be defined simply as the process through which organizations generate value from their intellectual and knowledge-based assets. Knowledge assets are... Read More

Online Business- What Makes It a Success!

Only a few manage to sell everything under the sun over the internet. There are billions of web sites running online business, trying to outdo each other... Read More

Guide To Safe Online Shopping

Online shopping can be a little frightening to people who are new to the internet,but as long as you follow a few easy rules you should have... Read More

How To Sell Websites Fast !

This article will explain in depth the steps needed to sell your website fast in today's marketplace.Step 1 Establish a Reasonable Price for Your SiteHow Much Can... Read More

When Do You Ask For A Refund?

Have you ever asked to have your money refunded after buying something online? Do you do this often? What are the reasons you've asked for refunds? Savvy... Read More

How to Start a Business on the Internet

So you want to start a business? Good for you. Really, I mean that sincerely. I think about the millions of people that let the thought pass... Read More

Grow your Business with Emarketplace - Part III

Increase Company ProductivityAfter years of hard work, finally your business started to pick up. You are selling more products then ever! You have lined up a good... Read More

Dont Get Ripped Off Getting A Merchant Account

Far too many people get ripped off when setting up a merchant account for their online business. The biggest reason is that they don't understand their options... Read More

Web Store - Why Do You Need One?

Internet has opened a new era of business opportunities. Each day, thousands of new consumers are joining the Internet. More and more companies are adopting Internet as... Read More

E-commerce: Is It Right for You?

The birth of the Internet and the mass availability of personal Computers in the late 80's changed peoples life forever, Everyone now has had the potential to... Read More

Cheap Cigarettes, Discount Tobacco and Cigars Online - Is It Legal?

Many people online today still believe that buying tobacco products via the Internet is an experience that is doomed to failure. Either, the package will go astray,... Read More

Old Habits Die Hard in the Third Age Years

I spent a lifetime in retailing and I'm still at it in retirement; albeit virtually.You know how it goes.You put up a web page and throw in... Read More

Ecommerce Comes from Customer Satisfaction

Online shopping is convenient, but many companies whose web sites do brisk sales often leave consumers wanting. That's according to ForeSee Results, a research company that studied... Read More

Google Catalogs - Old Gashioned Mail Order Meets High Tech Search

In addition to Google's Froogle shopping service (still in beta), which features a searchable database of online merchants, Google is also beta-testing their Google Catalog service. Google... Read More

How To Implement E-Business Solutions Successfully

Pitfalls of E-business solutions installation processA large distribution company has decided to use a new online supply chain management solution. The people ? those who were supposed... Read More

Keep Your Customers Happy by Organizing Your Payment Options

Anyone using a slow, or an awkward payment processor had better wake up!There are some very slick ways to transfer money around the globe, in todays, lightning... Read More

Delivering Information Products Through Paypal Automatically

Paypal is one of the wonders of the web. Never has it been easier for individuals or small business to receive payments though the web & to... Read More

Increasing E-commerce Website Sales

With consumers purchasing billions of dollars of merchandise online each and every year, the Internet has become the key to financial security. The e-commerce business has consistently... Read More

7 Questions to Ask A Potential Internet Merchant Account Provider

Recently I went looking for an online merchant account, with disastrous results. I made the mistake of taking information at face value and relying on the ecommerce... Read More