Drop shippers

Wholesale drop shippers are essential to your ecommerce business especially if you're a home based business and don't want to carry any stock.

eBay has been a great source of home based income for many years now, but did you know that many of the successful sellers there don't actually have boxes and boxes full of product in their garages?

In fact, they never even handle the products that they sell, all they do is market and sell items.

Drop shippers provide an email based ordering and shipping service, removing the need to maintain a product inventory.

This is turn greatly helps the cash flow and risk assumed by somebody who is starting a web based business.

You never touch your physical product and you don't have to buy it before you sell it on.

You simply sell at a price above the level that the drop shipper is charging you.

Once a sale is made, you pay wholesale price for the goods and they are dispatched directly to your customer from the warehouse/supplier.

You pocket the difference between your sale price and the wholesale price and you assume no risk ... no stock, no staff, no posting, no packaging ... though you do have to deal with your customers if things go wrong.

Get some good advice before you start

Like all areas of the web, this trading in wholesale goods is a specialist area and you should do plenty of reading up on the topic first.

An established company like salehoo.com not only screens supplying companies and products on your behalf, they also provide information, guidance, support and a users' forum so that you can get immediate answers to questions.

In the case of this particular company, you normally get a few good e-book manuals and guides thrown in for good measure, so it's a great way to get started up quickly, but in a supported way, so you don't go making any blunders.

They also have the credibility and status to link up with suppliers all around the world and cen help you to get your hands on brand named products if that's an important part of your business strategy.

Some tricks of the trade for a drop shipper

Here are some tips and things you should know:

# It's normal to pay a membership fee to find good companies to deal with. You can go it alone, but that way you may have lots of unhappy customers to deal with before you realize that you've hooked up with a bad supplier.

# It's all about your customers. If you use bad suppliers, you'll have to deal with the complaints and it will become one big headache. Don't go for a 'quick buck' ... reasearch good partner companies and develop happy relationships.

# Your suppliers are your most important business partners ... pick them wisely.

# Check payment arrangements with the company you deal with. Are they charging to much for the product? Do you pay upfront or quarterly? Are payment transaction costs involved, and will these reduce your profits too much?

# What's the product quality like and will you be dealing constantly with breakages, complaints and returns?

# Can you deal with overseas markets if you want to spread your wings and if so, at what cost? What will reliablity be like?

# Is supply good? Nobody wants to order goods that aren't in stock.

All of these points lead me once again to recommending that you don't go it alone as a drop shipper with your at home business, find a reputable directory which will warn you off the bad business prospects but make you aware of the excellent business partners.

As part of the next steps process after selecting business partners you should find out how to sell on eBay and also consider selling your products via a free resource like Zen Cart or other popular and free ecommerce options.

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