Shipping and Drop-shipping... - Business Wholesale Distributor Products Forum

01-18-2006, 11:24 AM

Hey everyone,

Some of you know the differences of regular shipping vs. dropshipping however I figured I'd explain it and give my view points on them.

Shipping - Everyone know what this is. I think less people do this when they first start out there business because they don't have the money or space to have companies ship them products that they can't guarentee they can sell yet. Most people do dropshipping(explained later) because you don't need much cash on the side to start out with. Shippings good if you have something that you have created yourself as well. Whether that be a new product (patent) or something else, it works well. Even if you do a service (like carbon fiber work, or painting objects) shipping works for you. I just think this is best and you shouldn't use dropshipping if you own a store/shop. It would be odd for someone to come into your store and want something, and you tell them "oh ok, what's your address? I'll just send it to you. It will take about five days by the way." If you do that, it will scare tons of customers away.

Drop-Shipping - This for example is when you buy off a supplier, and instead of the supplier shipping you the products to put in your warehouse, the supplier sends the products to your customers. This is what most people do, and it is very popular. It benefits you because you can do this in your house, and each item dropshipped is sold(paid for by customer) leaving you cash to pay for the item + profit + shipping. It is very simple. I would recommend this to anyone because you really can't go wrong with this if you have a supplier that is legit, has been in busy for a long time, and has done dropshipping before. Most suppliers even put your logo or any type of information you want on it so they don't know you drop ship. Some may ask, Why do suppliers do this? My answer would be that suppliers do this because of two reasons. One reason would be that some suppliers if they are going directly from the manufacturer have to move so much products a month. Having extra help from different locations helps them move products more easily (there original customers + your customers = two locations). Secondly, Moving from different locations = more profit for them. They can't get everyone in the world to buy from them, so if they come from different locations (the customers) then it will expand to help the supplier as well. Also, if the supplier makes the product(makes some of the products rather than buying from manufacturer) that also gives them more advertisement. People will see there name on more than one store/website and they will see the popularity in it.

Everyone has there own view points/decisions. Some may prefer to stock up on products because they have no doubt they can move them, while others may prefer dropshipping. I think dropshipping is best for starters, however this wouldn't be a great idea if you own a shop/store. By then you would want to stock up, and if you had an online store you could do dropshipping for that if you needed. Whatever you decide, just make sure it fits you, don't go off of what others want you to do because you want to be sucessful and not having crap that wont send, or overstocking stuff. Goodluck to you all.

- Devin

Boro97 · 08-12-2006, 01:32 AM

Good post.

schumi · 09-03-2007, 04:00 AM

as the retailer, is that they don't have to buy anything until after you've sold it - eliminating the 'risk factor' of buying in bulk,plus,it demands less starting up fees,becoming more popular now.

macio · 02-04-2008, 11:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TurboAddiction

Hey everyone,

Some of you know the differences of regular shipping vs. dropshipping however I figured I'd explain it and give my view points on them.

Shipping - Everyone know what this is. I think less people do this when they first start out there business because they don't have the money or space to have companies ship them products that they can't guarentee they can sell yet. Most people do dropshipping(explained later) because you don't need much cash on the side to start out with. Shippings good if you have something that you have created yourself as well. Whether that be a new product (patent) or something else, it works well. Even if you do a service (like carbon fiber work, or painting objects) shipping works for you. I just think this is best and you shouldn't use dropshipping if you own a store/shop. It would be odd for someone to come into your store and want something, and you tell them "oh ok, what's your address? I'll just send it to you. It will take about five days by the way." If you do that, it will scare tons of customers away.

Drop-Shipping - This for example is when you buy off a supplier, and instead of the supplier shipping you the products to put in your warehouse, the supplier sends the products to your customers. This is what most people do, and it is very popular. It benefits you because you can do this in your house, and each item dropshipped is sold(paid for by customer) leaving you cash to pay for the item + profit + shipping. It is very simple. I would recommend this to anyone because you really can't go wrong with this if you have a supplier that is legit, has been in busy for a long time, and has done dropshipping before. Most suppliers even put your logo or any type of information you want on it so they don't know you drop ship. Some may ask, Why do suppliers do this? My answer would be that suppliers do this because of two reasons. One reason would be that some suppliers if they are going directly from the manufacturer have to move so much products a month. Having extra help from different locations helps them move products more easily (there original customers + your customers = two locations). Secondly, Moving from different locations = more profit for them. They can't get everyone in the world to buy from them, so if they come from different locations (the customers) then it will expand to help the supplier as well. Also, if the supplier makes the product(makes some of the products rather than buying from manufacturer) that also gives them more advertisement. People will see there name on more than one store/website and they will see the popularity in it.

Everyone has there own view points/decisions. Some may prefer to stock up on products because they have no doubt they can move them, while others may prefer dropshipping. I think dropshipping is best for starters, however this wouldn't be a great idea if you own a shop/store. By then you would want to stock up, and if you had an online store you could do dropshipping for that if you needed. Whatever you decide, just make sure it fits you, don't go off of what others want you to do because you want to be sucessful and not having crap that wont send, or overstocking stuff. Goodluck to you all.

- Devin

Thanks Devin that is great advise.
Macio