Drop shipping Companies – How to Find Them

One of the simplest business models currently available that can allow you quickly set up an e-commerce store without having to spend a fortune on stock is drop shipping.

What is Drop shipping?

Drop shipping is a process whereby a wholesale distributor or supplier sends products that customers buy on your website on your behalf. This means you don’t have to worry about renting warehouse space, dealing with fluctuating inventory, paying staff or the overheads associated with having a physical shop.

Searching Online

You can do a simple search on an online search engine like Google, Yahoo or Bing and type in the product you’re selling and add drop shipper. This will bring up a multitude of results and you can pick the first ten to twenty results that come up and call or email the companies. Some of them will respond to your email favorably while others might decline your application either because they have stopped their drop ship program or because you did not fulfill one or more requirements they required to drop ship for you.

Contacting the Companies Directly

After doing your research, you may have settled on a particular product to sell on an online store. If the product is very niche and only sold by one or two companies, you could contact the manufacturer directly and ask if they can drop ship for you. Even if they don’t have a drop ship program they could direct you to a wholesale distributor who has a drop ship program for their product.

Asking Online Store Owners who already sell the Products

This is a very tricky one but I have seen it done. I can attest to this as I receive several emails from people asking if I can drop ship for them or to ask if I know a drop shipper. When sending an email to a potential competitor, be formal, polite and honest.

These are some ways you can find drop shipping companies. There are many companies out there who would like to drop ship for you but you have to be careful to avoid the scams and I would like to show you how.

Mistakes to Avoid when choosing a Product to sell in Your E-commerce Business

We all have assumptions on what will be a good product to sell on an online store. The truth is you never know what product will actually sell on your website until you’ve subjected it to an analytical process.

Many budding entrepreneurs launch their online business with a lot of energy and enthusiasm. If you met them at the early stage of their business, they would assure you of their belief that their webstore would be a success.

However, after a few months of slow sales, their enthusiasm begins to gradually wane. Sadly, most quit after investing a lot of time and energy into a business that never yields any profits. Maybe you’re at the point of starting your own e-commerce business and want to know what mistakes to avoid. I want you to rake note of the  common mistakes most new online retail owners make.

Classic mistakes people make include:

Focussing on Only one Product

This arises when a person can either testify to the quality of a certain product or know someone else who is successful selling this product. There are a lot of problems with this mindset. Firstly, you’re not fully aware of what drives the success of that product in another person’s store. The truth is the success of a business relies very little on the strength of a product (in most situations) and more on marketing and system forces. Also you limit yourself from other products that maybe doing well in that particular niche with better profit margins.

Inadequate Market Research

Most new online marketers under estimate the importance of doing research around a cerain product and niche they want to sell in. this research should include keyword research, competitor analysis and the various cost of advertising.

Selling Products with a specific Profit Margins

I have to admit that I used to be guilty of this. The mindset behind this is of you don’t get back (for example) $100 profit on each sale then you wont sell a product. While it’s good to consider and be aware of your product margins, you shouldn’t let it blind you from having a good product mix that will attract low and high profit margins.

New online (and offline) retailers make these mistakes all the time. It could actually stop you from having a successful online business or limit the amount of profit you make.