eBay : What is DropShipping ?

There’s a lot of buzz online about dropshipping these days. Some rather shady individuals and businesses claim that it’s the “best way to get rich quick on the internet” while other cynical forum posters cry, “Stay away from dropshipping! It doesn’t work.” The truth is, of course, somewhere in between.

In the simplest terms, dropshipping (or drop shipping depending on your preference) is the shipping of merchandise from a supplier directly to a retailer’s customer. This process minimizes the retailer’s inventory and administrative costs and opens the supplier up to a whole new market.

Dropshipping is a great way to start an online business or supplement an already existing business; however, it is not a magic button solution that will somehow transform you or your business into a dominant internet sales force that can beat out anyone else’s price while still garnering healthy profits. Dropshipping has several pros and cons and the key to being successful using the dropshipping business model is to understand both the good and the bad and know how every aspect affects your specific business.

Dropshipping

Pros	Cons
You DON'T have to have a lot of money to start You DON'T have to assume risks common to most businesses You DON'T have to carry inventory You DON'T have to buy shipping/packaging materials You DON'T have to replace product returns You DON'T have to create shipping labels You DON'T have to buy the product until after it has sold You DON'T have to deal with physically shipping the product	You DON'T have complete control over your inventory You DON'T have control over shipping times and methods You CAN'T take advantage of bulk discounts You DON'T always get the best pricing You CAN'T always brand your packages, inserts and, shipping labels

By knowing what you’re dealing with, and more importantly, how to deal with it, dropshipping can be a great method of making money. Many people have used the dropshipping business model to create profitable businesses with considerably less time and monetary investments than traditional businesses require.

We hope that by reviewing several dropshippers and dropshipping related companies, we can give you a head start to using dropshipping in a way that makes you successful and makes your business profitable.