Running an e-commerce store is hard - you need a warehouse where you can put all of your items, inventory, things to which you can pack the products to ship them, etc. To put it simply - it's a lot of work. That's probably one of the reasons why drop shipping has been taking the world by storm lately.
If you haven't heard of drop shipping, it's a retail fulfilment method, in which you don't keep the things you sell in stock. When you sell a product using a drop shipping model, you pay your supplier for it, who in return sends the product directly to the customer. Simple as that. There are many websites that you can browse through if you want to find out something more about it. One of them is Verum Ecom.
But what exactly is the reason behind its growing popularity? Is drop shipping as good as people say it is? Why? Well, if you want to find out, all you have to do is keep reading.
So, without further ado, let's get to it!
The Industry Is Still Growing
You might have a wrong belief that since drop shipping has been so popular lately, there is no space for you in the industry or that your chances of success are very low. You couldn't be more wrong. Studies have shown that no more than 33% of online retailers use drop shipping model, most of them being European companies.
The small percentage of drop shippers leaves a lot of space for the industry to grow, especially since there are places in the world where e-commerce is just starting to become a thing. If you decide to target those regions, you are likely to see the success of your business.
One of the reasons behind that, is that in some of the countries where access to the internet is still not as good as in first-world countries, it is difficult for the population to get certain items, especially if they are foreign products. That's why those people will turn to drop shippers - they will be able to purchase the products they want, and won't pay a fortune for them. If you think your pricing strategy through, both you and your customers can be happy with affordability of the products.
No Problem With The Inventory
The problem with regular shops is that you have to keep track of the inventory and maintain the quality of the products. Since in drop shipping you are not the one responsible for that, you can devote the time you would spend on it on trying to grow your business.
Minimizes The Costs
When you decide to open a store, physical or online, you need a place where you can keep your stock. Most people rent a warehouse for that, which creates additional costs as it is not cheap. When you are a drop shipper, you don't need to worry about that, as you don't come into physical contact with the product you sell. As a result, you can offer your clients more options.
Also, many retailers buy products in large quantities so that they can minimize the costs maximizing the profit at the same time. However, these kinds of purchases often make a noticeable dent in their pockets. As a drop shipper, you can use this money more productively.
Another thing is that drop shipping reduces the amount of money you would spend on shipping the items in a regular store. To do that, you need to have a warehouse with organized and labelled products, that you need to pick, pack and ship with the rest of the orders. Not only does it take money, but also time. With drop shipping, you don't need to worry about that as the shipping is taken care of by the third party.
That is probably the thing that attracts people to drop shipping the most. When you have a warehouse full of stock, you are under pressure of selling all of it - after all, the unsold products mean loss of money for the retailer. With drop shipping, that's not the case. You can start with no inventory, and start making money right away - you only pay for what you sell.
Another reason why drop shipping is good is that you can change your inventory anytime you please so that you can adjust to your customers' needs. If you see that a product is selling well in your competitor's store, you can add it right away to your offer without the need of waiting for your items to arrive at the warehouse.
Conclusion
There are a lot of reasons as to why drop shipping is good - the ones listed above are just a few. Some other things that you could add to the list include, for example, flexibility - you are not tied down to one location or product, you can sell whatever you want from anywhere.
If you want to find out more, you should just open Google and do your research, as many websites offer you a lot of information regarding how to start in this business. All you have to do is look for them. Good Luck.
