Chances are, if you have an online business, you have heard the term – drop shipping or dropshipping. So what is drop shipping and what can it do for you. Drop Shipping is a quite simple process of selling products without the hassle of carrying inventory or shipping the items yourself. It can be mistaken for an affiliate program, but is quite different. This article will tell you all about Drop Shipping.
In a nutshell, affiliate marketing is a referral service in which you use specialized made banners, buttons and website links to attract customers to a specific site. Affiliate programs will then pay you commission for either someone clicking on your specialized link or by a customer making a purchase. You are simple a referral service.
Dropshipping is very different. Dropshipping is for those with their own website and are looking for products to sell on their site. Drop ship programs allow you to sell as little or as many products as you would like without the worry of carrying inventory, hiring help, physically shipping out products or warehouse storage.
Here is a basic guide to starting your own business using drop ship programs.
Starting with your own website, you should begin be deciding what and how much you want to sell. After you have those details worked out, you should begin to search for drop ship partners that carry the inventory you would like to sell. This can be a little hard, but well worth it.
Drop ship programs may charge a monthly or yearly free and some offer their services for free. Free does not always mean better. Weigh the cons and pros before completely dismissing them. Do your homework whether it is a free service or not. Read the contract agreement BEFORE you sign up with a program. All drop ship programs are different and you don’t want to get involved in something that does not suit your needs.
There are certain things you should look for when choosing drop ship programs.