Consider Drop Shipping for your WAHM Home Business

Have you considered drop shipping for your WAHM Business?

One method for making money from home that allows you to work exclusively at home is to sell items from a drop shipper. The very first step in any sales process is deciding what product to sell.

WTF is a DropShipper?

Drop shipping is a method whereby you sell a product and it gets shipped by the drop shipper directly to your client. It’s an easy and excellent way to make money, but there are some precautions.

How does drop shipping work?

First, the basics. Let’s create a scenario so you can see how this works. You sign up with a drop shipper and choose several of its products to promote and sell on your website or online store You may begin selling the products on Ebay just to test the waters. You can use photos and you provide a good description of the item.

Someone buys one of your items and you send an email to the distributor or manufacturer and inform them of the sale. They in turn ship the item direct to your client. You don’t have to keep an inventory or pack up items or ship them. You simply manage the sales and returns and let the distributor or manufacturer handle the rest.

You can determine your profit margin when you sell drop shipped items. As an example, if you sell candles that you pay $5 each for wholesale and that cost $3 to ship, total of $8. You then charge your client $10 per candle, plus $3 for shipping, Total $13. Your net profit is OK, making a profit of $5.

Margins are slimmer, it virtually eliminates inventory risk, which is a quite a feat to most retailers just starting out. Drop shipping is also a smart way for retailers to test the waters with new products. Instead of buying inventory upfront in bulk, you can list items on your site and see what sells, which is worth it even with you break even or lose a little

Advantages of drop shipping

There are many advantages to drop shipping. While the manufacturer or distributor handles the product inventory and shipping, you can handle just the sales and returns. This gives you time to build a website, market the website, and even post eBay listings. You can spend more time marketing the products.

For people without a lot of space for inventory or money to buy in bulk wholesale, this method is ideal. You can provide many choices in product and give the impression that you have solid inventory, but you don’t actually have to deal with the inventory.

You can offer many more products for sale than you might be able to offer if you had to store your inventory and you can also offer products that are unusual and unique, often coming from artisans in other countries.

You can also skip the hassle and additional cost associated with having to ship inventory. There are no boxes to store, no tape to buy and no shipping companies to deal with. You can save money this way.

Many successful dropshipping businesses are run from a home office or from just about anywhere with an internet connection. As long as you can communicate with suppliers and customers easily, you can run and manage your business.

Disadvantages of drop shipping

The main disadvantage of drop shipping is the risk you take with the distribution company or manufacturer you choose to use. Some are unreliable and will ship items slowly or not at all. If they run out of an item, they might not inform you fast enough so you will continue to sell it without knowing that your customers are not receiving the item. This can seriously damage your credibility and sometimes egg on your face.

Other problems can arise from product quality and overall reliability of the drop shipping company. Good research and do your own due diligence into the company itself can help you head off many of these problems.

Major drop shipping suppliers and fulfillment services are primarily based in the USA.

Since 2006 many drop ship companies have emerged in China, many of which offer wholesale and drop shipping services to both companies and individuals. This is largely due to the increasing ease of e-procurement and the growing part that the internet is playing in e-commerce. Drop ship suppliers based in China have increasingly been able to compete with same-country distributors because of improved logistics for small packets and the easing of trade barriers.

How to choose drop shipping company

Do a lot of research before you choose a drop shipping company. You want to know how long the company has been in business and what kind of customer satisfaction the company can boast about. You want to know that the products for sale are good quality (you can check on this by ordering a product for yourself).

Some drop shipping company offer a monthly service to be a member of their program. or anything else.

As with anything, please do your own due diligence and research, try it out a bit and then make sure (through regular quality checks) that the drop shipping company is the right company for you.

I have supplied a few good links below