Can dropshipping make you money?

Sometimes it's hard to believe you can make money online without a website, without a product, and without doing any work. But how true is this assertion?

Dropshipping

To say the truth, this is almost impossible or completely impossible! But  then if there was some kind of money-making opportunities that allowed you

1) Never have your own products
2) Never to ship products to needy customers and
3) Never worry about inventory

Would you jump at the opportunity knowing that all you need to do is worry about getting sales and collecting money?

This is dropshipping, a cool way to earn money online without the need to stock goods in physical warehouses. Drop shipping has been in existence for long,

but is becoming so popular that it is turning into the best way to make money online now.  In fact,  statistics claim that

22-33% of Internet retailers have adopted drop shipping as their primary method of order fulfillment. (E-DSS.org) 

And so thanks to drop shipping it is possible to make money online. Thanks to drop shipping it is possible to have multiple products that can target various groups of people.

It seems the limitless opportunities offered by dropshipping is so mouth-watering that if you are seeking ways to make money online, well you need to look no further.

Drop shipping is your answer!

   Visit: The best dropshipping directory on the web and one of the oldest

But many are getting it wrong

When drop shipping is the answer to making money online, many jump at the opportunity without the necessary knowledge required to start it. They are inspired to start their dropshipping activity in some of the following ways

a)  A youtube video

They watched a video of some guy explaining the step-by-step ways you can start a dropshipping activity from scratch, and then scale it into becoming a business that brings in millions of dollars in profits.


b) Ebooks

Encouraged by the youtube video, they downloaded an ebook that explained a step-by-step easy way anyone can start a drop shipping activity and turn it into a thriving online income-generating business.

c) Social Media

Then they joined a social media group and marveled when they saw earnings from dropship activities in the 6-figure range being displayed. This prompted them to take action immediately and start their own dropship business.

Being inspired is Good, but...

Being inspired to start something is always good. But starting something by what you see presented in a video or written in an ebook can result in failure. This is because you are required to move past what is outlined in the video or ebook and face reality.

 And facing reality requires you to take the extra step and do more than what the videos and ebooks tell you.

This means that being backed by the information presented to you, you still need to do more research on the business or activity you wish to start. Always remember that your need to start a drop shipping activity means you are starting a business.

For you to start a business means

1) You  must have a product

2) You must develop ways to market the product and

3) Your marketing efforts must bring in sales.


If you are going to start a drop shipping business, then just know that you are going to start a business that would require you to market a product and get sales. Getting sales require adopting marketing methods and  strategies that work to bring in sales.

And so to understand the business of dropshipping this blog will focus on the few things you need to know to get started. And so you will know,


a) What dropshipping is

b) How it works and

c) How to approach it

What is Dropshipping?

The dropshipping business is a business model in which a retail business such as an online store sells physical products by third-party merchants without keeping stock of the products. As mentioned earlier, drop shipping offers another interesting way of making an online income by selling third-party products directly to your customers.


How it works


 To understand how the business of dropshipping works, the following example will help you. Imagine for example that you have a physical store where you don't have any physical products that you sell but only stock product samples.

When people pass by your store and want to buy things, you take their orders and the money for the products they want to buy. You then send the money and the orders

 along with the customer's address to a merchant that has the stocks which your customers need. The merchant sends the items ordered by the customer directly to the customer.

If you understand the above example

 then this is essentially how dropship works even for an online store. As a dropship store owner, you have only to take orders, collect money from the buyer and send those orders directly to the dropship merchant.

The dropship merchant or drop shipper, is the one to worry about how to ship the items to the customer.

What are the benefits?

If you are about to enter the world of drop shipping you want to be informed before you make your final decision. And one of the information you really want answers to is knowing if dropshipping has benefits.

Here are 3 benefits of dropshipping

1) Not holding stock
   As someone about to start a dropshipping business one of the benefits of this kind of business is that you do not hold or stock any physical product in your garage or warehouse. All products you sell come from other merchants who own and stock them.

2) Not worrying about inventory
As you do not own or stock products, this means you do not have to worry about keeping inventory and tracking or packaging orders. Everything is handled by the dropship merchant.

3) It is a flexible business model

Dropshipping is a flexible business model and that means you can do it from anywhere in the world with just a laptop. All you need is access to an internet connection and that's it.

How to approach a drop shipping business

The business of dropshipping is still a business. This means you cannot approach it differently from any other business. If you are going to start a dropshipping business then here are a few things to put into consideration.

1) Do research first

Do you want to market a product to online consumers through dropshipping?  Many will tell you to jump into any niche and start selling any product, it doesn't matter. As long as you have everything set up, you'll make sales.

But if this were true then anyone can jump into any niche and get a product from that niche to sell and start making money.

If you want to do dropshipping, then the first thing you must do is research the niche you want to go into or the product you want to sell.

Why you must research

You want to set up a dropshipping business because you want to make money. But you want to make money not just by selling any and any product or by going into any and any niche. Researching a product or niche becomes essential and this is because

you will need to find out if there's a market for your chosen product or how well the niche you are about to enter is doing. After all your main concern is to make a profit once you start and so research then becomes essential.

Check your dropshipping niche

If you know your niche then you can find out ways to market products in your chosen niche by gathering data and statistics on usage. Take for example a product such as an Air freshener. If you were to sell Air freshener products, you will have to know

a) Who would likely use it and where-home or office

b) Who uses it the most-men, women, young people, etc

c) How much they are spending to buy it.

d) What brands are the most sought after and many more other information.

Once you have these details and many more other details at your fingertips, then you can decide to start selling Air freshners.

2) Understand the costs

As a drop shipping business you are about to start, you will eventually have to invest money to start

a) at the beginning or

b) when you have already started.

You will have to sustain costs and these will come in various forms such as

1) Creating a custom store

2) Paying monthly hosting fees

3) Paying monthly subscription fees for eCommerce platforms like Shopify,etc.

4) Paying for additional services to help in the smooth running of your store,etc.

When you know your overall cost per month then you can work towards setting up a budget that will guarantee your dropshipping business never lacks the funding it needs.

One Last Word

If you are about to venture into a drop shipping business, understand it to be a business that you are starting for the very first time. Know that you can drop ship online as well as join a dropship program.

But  as with all businesses, bear in mind that there may be costs such as

a) Startup costs

b) Monthly subscription payment plans

c) Additional service for extra functionalities of your eCommerce shop,etc and many more.

But the essential part of a dropshipping business is understanding what niche you would like to go into, or what products you would like to sell and then do your research before you start.

 Researching your market is vital to understanding how you can market your chosen product. Once you are done you can create your own custom store and start dropshipping

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