HOW DROP SHIPPING WORKS


Let’s take a quick look at how the drop shipping process works, starting with how to sell using just a single product as an example.

Let’s say you decide to drop ship fidget spinners. You choose a model you believe will be popular, and you create a simple web page for the product with a photo, description, basic information, and a link to buy.

When someone makes a purchase from your page, they pay you at the time of purchase. You then order the product from the supplier’s website, paying for it with the money the customer already paid you, and enter your customer’s shipping address instead of your own. 



DROP SHIPPING BENEFITS


You don’t have to use drop shipping to be successful in e-commerce. You can find success with just one simple, inexpensive product with a relatively small upfront investment. 

You can also find success investing a great deal upfront in stock and offering a wide variety of items. It’s totally up to you and your circumstances.



REDUCING RETURNS


Returns are probably the biggest problem you will ever face with drop shipping, because many drop shippers either don’t accept returns, take a long time to ship items, or require you to pay for another item to ship to the customer instead of accepting the item back and then sending out a replacement. 



HANDLING RETURNS


Returns can be tricky when it comes to drop shipping. The customer has already waited for shipping, which can be rather long if you are stuck using a company that ships from overseas. 

Then they discover they have a problem and are unhappy. You want to solve these types of issues as quickly as possible to keep customers happy, but it’s not always reasonable to send out another item before the return comes in, especially if the product is expensive. 



MARKETING YOUR STORE


“If you build it, they will come.”

But unless you are very lucky, people aren’t just going to magically find your store and start buying from you. You have to get out there and bring in visitors.



AVOIDING POTENTIAL PITFALLS


Let’s take a look at a few of the most common problems that might come along, and how you can minimize the potential of experiencing them.



SOURCING PRODUCTS


There are three main ways you can source products for your e-commerce store:

1.    You can use a drop shipper
2.    You can buy through a wholesale company or the manufacturer
3.    You can create the products yourself

Each method has its own pros and cons, and no single method is the best method for every single store, so let’s talk about those factors so you can decide the best way to source products for your store.



CHOOSING A PROFITABLE NICHE


You can create the coolest, best looking, most exciting online store ever created, and fail miserably if you don’t choose a profitable niche. Niche selection is so important that it can literally make or break your success.




REFUNDS & CHARGEBACKS


It is inevitable that you will run into situations where customers will request refunds instead of exchanges, or may even request a chargeback with their credit card provider.

This is obviously not ideal, as you will have to return the customer’s money with no guarantee that the product they send back to you will sell, and some drop shipping companies do not accept returns unless the product was incorrect or defective. 



ECOMMERCE PLATFORMS


So which one is best?

Choosing a platform is purely subjective, of course. It doesn’t really matter too much which one you choose, because any of them can help you achieve your goals, but there’s always one that will meet your specific needs better than the others.