Some things look so simple from the outside, like making money from an online store. It seems like anyone who has a flair for business can make it in e-commerce. After all, there are not a lot of risks involved in this type of business. This unrealistic optimism is why there are many failing startups in real life.
Anyone can write up an impressive product description that sells. The problem, however, is not about selling the products but rather o keeping up with a healthy inventory.
Like a physical store, it is challenging to balance inventories when selling anything online. It would help if you were sensible in deciding how many items to have in stock. Too few, and you risk losing customers for not meeting the demand. While having too much poses a risk of overstocking because of not being able to sell them all.
It is a good thing that with e-commerce, there is a business model called dropshipping. Read along and learn about it, including how to start dropshipping for your e-commerce business.
What is Dropshipping?
Dropshipping is an e-commerce business model that sellers do not keep in stock of their items. Instead, manufacturers and dropshipping companies keep the stocks and ship orders after customers purchase from your website. It is like selling on a usual e-commerce platform, but you focus on selling instead of fulfilling orders.
Why Should You Choose Dropshipping?
If you are undecided on what approach to use when starting an online business, a dropshipping business model is worth considering because of the following reasons:
1. Low Startup Costs
You might be worried about the costs while wondering how to start dropshipping. This is expected because it is a common misconception that there is a need to invest a considerable amount when starting any business.
The thing with dropshipping, however, is that its process is probably the most cost-effective among any other business model. First, you do not need to spend a fortune to establish a physical location for your stocks. Dropshipping companies have their warehouses to store your products. You also save money from not having to hire staff for inventory organization and order fulfillment. Lastly, you never have to handle the logistics. Packaging and shipping items can also cost a lot of money and requires the expertise to manage them effectively.
Little to zero upfront inventory costs are a direct benefit of dropshipping. It removes a large chunk of the expenses when creating an online store, thus lowering the overall risks of dabbling in the e-commerce industry.
2. Manageable Inventory
The trouble of keeping a physical inventory is that you need to have a storage space, check for restocking, and pay for someone else to do it if you find it troublesome to do on your own. Eliminating these things will significantly reduce the management overhead because the dropshipping suppliers do every work.
Without too much stock to manage, you also lessen the risk of damaging goods due to improper storage. It means not paying for insurance, reducing overhead and operating costs further.
3. Flexible
Another advantage of dropshipping is its flexibility in geographical location. You can operate your business anywhere in the world. Managing your business is possible even if suppliers and customers are not in the same country as yours. You only need the internet to communicate, so your business will not be disrupted even if you are traveling.
Moreover, this allows you to accommodate a greater geographical area to increase your customer base. This would give you plenty of opportunities to expand your market and earn more profits.
4. Scalable
When expanding your business, you will increase the workload and operating and overhead costs. This does not happen with dropshipping. You can scale your business up and still have dropshipping providers take care of the needed incremental efforts. They do most of the work to stay on track with your expansion goals.
5. Easier to Grow Business
The e-commerce growth rate is forever expanding, and the dropshipping business model assures you to grow your business without hassle. The upward trend is long-term, meaning an online business has a bright future. Dropshipping facilitates a higher earning potential while maintaining convenience in managing an e-commerce business.
Learning how to start dropshipping allows you to build an e-commerce business without worrying about managing inventories or handling the fulfillment of orders. It is a no-brainer to choose this business model, especially if you are new to e-commerce.
Top 10 Best Dropshipping Companies for Your eCommerce
If you choose to have a dropshipping business, it is a must to choose a partner wisely. This ensures that you have the best products and keep your customers happy. At the initial stages of dropshipping business planning, many people search for resources about how to sell on Amazon FBA. Although Amazon is undoubtedly a popular marketplace for online entrepreneurs, you must know that many dropshipping partners exist.
Let us narrow down the choices to these top ten dropshipping companies that can be of help to your specific dropshipping needs:
1. Oberlo
The wide range of choices on products, suppliers, and shipping options makes Oberlo attractive to most dropshipping business owners. It means having thousands of opportunities to start a dropshipping business.
Although it was launched only in 2015, Oberlo proved to be a valuable source for drop shippers because it offers more than a platform that lets you sell stuff. If you are unsure how to start dropshipping, Oberlo has a lot of resources to help you out. They have online courses, guides, blog posts, inspiring success stories, one-on-one coaching, and a podcast channel about how dropshipping works.
This platform is best suited for those who already have a Shopify store but is also suitable for those who are just about to create one. The best thing about using it with Shopify is that it will be easier for shop owners to streamline the fulfillment process from importing, packaging, and shipping products.
On a tight budget for a startup? Oberlo has valuable features with a free plan for managing up to 500 products. This will let you explore how it works and experience its functions.
2. SaleHoo
Another top dropshipping company is Salehoo which has been in the e-commerce industry since 2005. SaleHoo’s staying power is mainly because they built their business around product quality and supplier reliability. Its website has over 8,000 pre-vetted suppliers of more than 2.5 million products. This allows you to choose what items to sell without worrying about having a bad reputation among your customers.
To give you an insight into how SaleHoo has a sound reputation in the dropshipping business, its products include high-quality items from world-renowned brands like Apple, Converse, Gap, LEGO, and Xbox. A dynamic set of brands backing your business up is a huge advantage. You can sell products with confidence and enjoy making sales.
Subscribing to SaleHoo is also straightforward. You can choose to pay annually or pay one time for a lifetime membership. A quick tip: try to find deals, like a free year, when you sign up for the first year to get the most value out of your subscription payment.
3. Printify
If you are fond of customizing things, then better build a business out of it. Printify makes it easy to sell custom products. There are over 500 items that you can customize and sell to your target market.
The selling point of Printify is its user-friendly features. It enables anyone to start a print-on-demand business for a very minimal investment. You can sign up for a free account and create customizing products you want to sell. The t-shirts, yoga mats, posters, backpacks, and other items are made of high-quality materials, so you never have to worry about building a reputable business online. With regards to fast order fulfillment, Printify has more than 90 printing facilities worldwide. This makes it easier to sell to your customers wherever they may be.
Since you are not burdened with the costs of running a business, managing inventory, or shipping products, you can devote yourself to your entrepreneurship journey and never worry about anything else.
4. Printful
As a full-service print-on-demand dropshipper, Printful makes it easy to build a business by selling custom-designed items. In this business model, all that you need to do is create an online store for your merchandise. It works with most e-commerce platforms, such as Shopify, WooCommerce, Amazon, Etsy, Wix, Weebly, Ecwid. and Squarespace, to name a few.
Aside from adding your custom designs, Printful has options to brand your products with logos, stickers, business cards, and other branding materials for each order. It is free to sign up, and Printful does not collect monthly subscription fees. They charge you for every product you sell, wherein customers pay for the item's price plus your markup. Printful then charges you for the order, print, and ship it to the customer. The price difference is your profit. That’s how easy it is to have your transactions with them.
5. Wholesale2B
Aside from its directory of over 100 dropship partners in the US and China, Wholesale2B is also an online inventory and ordering system that can be integrated across most e-commerce platforms.
It has a long list of features designed to make your entry into the e-commerce industry feel seamless and rewarding. First, it helps you do market research about the products that you are interested in selling. If you want to sell on Amazon, it has excellent features to help you design product pages and improve the listing information. Some features are unique to other e-commerce sites, so the pricing plans will depend on your platform.
With Wholesale2B, you can access many useful tools, such as accounting software, inventory management, and sales tax tools. They also constantly update regarding stock replenishment. You can quickly determine which products are sellable to replenish and maintain your selling momentum regularly.
6. Modalyst
One of the most popular automated dropshipping apps is Modalyst. Although it can be integrated into many platforms, it works well with BigCommerce and gives you access to millions of products ready for any dropshipping business. It is simple to use to start sourcing, listing, and selling the products you want.
Modalyst is very particular at featuring products that are on-hand and are ready to be packed and shipped upon ordering. This assures timely fulfillment of orders to keep shoppers happy.
If you are still uncertain about the products you sell, you can easily switch or add more to your inventory. This will be great if you are interested in expanding your reach to other customer demographics. It is also easy to contact suppliers who are using the Modalyst app. This makes it easier to monitor inventory levels, package tracking, and follow-up regarding the status of the fulfillment process.
7. Spocket
As one of the fastest-growing companies in Canada, Spocket has more than 60,000 merchants from around the world. This dropshipping company has many suppliers from the US and Europe, so it would be best to choose it for both American and European markets. Of course, you also need to consider if you have customers elsewhere who prefer US or European products.
The edge of using Spocket is that it has a variety of subscription programs to fit your current business needs. Its free plan gives you access to its suppliers plus 24/7 email and instant chat support. It is worth upgrading to a premium account since there are plenty of perks to enjoy, like discounted items for a higher profit margin.
It also has automated inventory synching and order processing. You can use the branded invoicing feature to add your business logo and a personal note to strengthen brand recognition and customer loyalty.
Furthermore, it can be integrated into many e-commerce platforms, including Shopify, WooCommerce, Wix, and BigCommerce.
8. Inventory Source
This drop ship network gives you access to more than 150 dropship suppliers. Aside from connecting you to reputable suppliers, Inventory Source also automates the whole dropshipping process. This means an efficient way to find the best suppliers, manage inventory, and automate all services for seamless order processing and fulfillment.
It is packed with features to ease your way into the business. Depending on your needs, it is fully equipped to automate your business and let go of manual investor tasks. It’s like having the option to run the business on autopilot mode.
The ability to integrate third-party software providers makes Inventory Source a lot more valuable than it already is. You can add sales reporting, invoice reconciliation, and other B2B management tools to address different specific business needs.
9. AliExpress
Created by the Alibaba Group, AliExpress is designed to cater to business-to-consumer transactions. Creating a business with a dropshipping supplier on AliExpress is inexpensive, so that you can apply a high mark-up. It has hundreds of millions of different products, meaning you can make an online store with any products you can think of. The wide variety of products also allows you to keep up with the trends and make a profit.
Like other dropshipping partners, you do not keep a physical inventory of anything you sell on your website. You can quickly cash into the newest craze because It is easy to add new items to your virtual inventory.
10. Doba
The beauty of drop shipping is that it is the supplier’s responsibility to do all the logistics in your business. Although many dropshipping companies take care of warehousing, packaging, and shipping of products, only Doba makes sure to keep the costs minimal and almost the same as wholesale pricing.
The designers also did an excellent job implementing a fast website to search and filter products on the marketplace. Other nifty features include proactive inventory alerts, bulk inventory exporting, fully customized data reporting, seasonal supplier discounts, supplier scorecards, and many others.
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The Right Platform Equates to Dropshipping Business Success
There are plenty of dropshipping websites to choose from, so it might be confusing as to which one to have for your business. Your chosen platforms or partners significantly influence a successful dropshipping e-commerce business.
A reliable and reputable supplier, for instance, will help lessen the legal risks of selling counterfeit or substandard products. With a dropshipping partner, having someone who can commit to performing a central role in order fulfillment is more than necessary. Look for an established dropshipping company that demonstrates rapid order processing so as not to keep customers waiting.
Generally speaking, you must ensure that you find the best dropshipping partner for your business. Do some research about drop shipping suppliers that seem to meet your needs. Contact prospective dropshipping suppliers and ask which platforms they usually use and why.
You also need to consider the variety of features, a powerful system to manage inventories and calculate finances, and analytics/reporting features to keep track of the business operations and maintain profitability. You will rely on these considerations if you want to achieve success in dropshipping and maintain independence or have a small staff while running the business.
Conclusion
Many of the benefits of starting a dropshipping business center on how simple it is to build as everything seems automated. As with any venture, consequences are involved, like choosing the wrong companies to work with.
When you are appropriately guided on how to start dropshipping, you enjoy many perks, including a lower starting cost, better inventory management, and excellent business flexibility and scalability.
More than these advantages, you are also given more privacy and autonomy in running your business. You can work in the comfort of your own home while still staying in control of all decisions for the company. Having this sense of responsibility allows you to use your best judgment. It makes you fully responsible for the risks and rewards. The exhilarating and intimidating experience will enable you to appreciate owning and running an e-commerce business fully.
Author Bio: Yen Pedrajas
Yen is a content writer and the full-time lead SEO at Removal.AI - an AI-powered background remover tool used to automatically remove background from images. She is also an eCommerce and digital marketing enthusiast who loves to share and write new insights and perspectives about marketing and growth hacking for startup businesses.
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Thank you for the great info. I didn’t know that there were so many companies that could help you manage your drop shipping business. To me, ,working on drop shipping has been both a blessing and a curse.
On one hand, I get to work from anywhere, which is amazing because I literally work as a nomad. But on the other hand, finding reliable Wi-Fi when I’m traveling is a hassle when there’s a demanding customer who wants their problem sorted like within a few hours. Plus, time zone differences can make communicating with clients a nightmare.
amazing list. As online shopping becomes more and more popular, more and more people open e-commerce stores. However, not everyone can afford to invest and sell products. Therefore, dropshipping is the most suitable option.
Thank you for your comment, but we don't understand what you're trying to say.
Yes, more people shop online, more people open online shops, and dropshipping is available for those who cannot afford to invest. Is that all you're saying? Because those people already know that, so they visit sites like this one to find out more about it.
Thank you for such an eye opening post. Everything you said inspire me because I was new to drop shipping and I didn’t have a clue. But now I know I can get something started. Please can you check my site and give me feedback?
Thanks for your comment Keisha, but what do you mean by everything we said? What did you find “eye opening” particularly? We can look at your website for your but what kind of feedback would you like to receive? Give us some detail. Thanks!