Why Dropshipping Is a Great Way to Start Your eCommerce Career

One of the oldest business types in the bricks-and-mortar world is to buy products wholesale and resell them at a higher price. The retail business model has been around for thousands of years, and will likely continue to be a great way to make a living. You don’t need a brick-and-mortar store to sell products in the age of the internet though. You can adopt an eCommerce business model instead.

The term “eCommerce” basically just refers to selling things on the internet or doing other forms of transactional business online. It’s a fairly simple concept that covers a lot of internet-based business types. It can also apply to selling both physical and digital products. And it applies to an eCommerce business concept that involves selling physical products with the convenience of selling digital products. This concept is known as “Dropshipping”.

The Advantages of eCommerce Dropshipping

The problem with the standard retail business model when selling physical goods online or offline is that you need to store the goods. When selling online you also need to arrange and manage the shipping for them. All of these problems go away when you switch to a dropshipping eCommerce business model.

With dropshipping you basically act as a type of agent for the dropshipping company. You chase up the orders from customers for the goods involved in the transaction, and then the dropshipping company supplies and ships those goods. You don’t have to warehouse or handle the goods at all. You just need to manage the interactions with the customer.

Because you are selling the goods at a higher price than the dropshipping company is charging you for them, you make a profit on the margin. This is better for you as you don’t have the overhead of handling the goods. It’s also better for the eCommerce dropshipping company as they don’t need to work to find customers for their products. The symbiotic nature of dropshipping means that everyone benefits from it, including the customer.

Often the dropshipping company will provide a white-label service that lets you use your own branding on all packaging material and documentation for the transaction. This means that for all intents and purposes the customer thinks that they are buying from you. This lets you retain the customer and keep them as a future prospect. If you are smart you will also be encouraging the customer to sign up to your mailing list so that you can sell more products to them in the future.

How to Make Dropshipping Work

Dropshipping only works if both the retail agent and the dropshipping company behave like competent professionals though. If you are thinking of doing business using this business type then you need to do your due diligence in order to find dropshipping companies to work with who have good products and provide good service. If they let the customer down then you will be the one who takes the blame for that as you are the customer’s point of contact in the transaction. You also need to act professionally in both your dealings with the customer and the dropshipping company. If you let either down then they won’t want to do business with you anymore and you will develop a bad business reputation.

If you are looking to get your feet wet in eCommerce then dropshipping is a great way to introduce yourself to online business. If you approach it with a professional attitude and take a careful and honest approach in your dealings then your eCommerce adventure is likely to be a pleasant and profitable one. So do some research into dropshipping companies and see if this business model is something that you think will work for you.