Drop shipping is an online listing and sale of product that you do not have which you as intermediary then place an order on your customer behalf on your supplier’s website. This is an easy and affordable business model that requires no capital except internet access, which you can get in your local library, café, or restaurants.
You create value by making your listings of popular, cheap and quality product conveniently come up on the search so customers do not have to look to hard in order to find the product they are looking for.
There are some problems with this model but they are an easy solve. Problems can include;
- Item Out of Stock
- Delay With Order Processing
- Wrong Item Sent to Customer
- Wrong Quantity Shipped
- You Were Billed Wrong
- Orders Got Confused
- Item Arrived Damaged
- Wrong Tracking Code
These human errors are fixable by knowing the supplier’s return policy and placing the same return policy on your listings and by talking the customer if the product is late, damaged, or out of stock and offer an alternative product.
Great post Najib! The problems that you outlined in this post really revealed to me some of the risks involved with drop shipping. I wrote a post a few weeks ago about drop shipping and i only talked about the pros of using this internet business model. I think you captured some of the realistic risk involved in trying to start a drop shipping business even if it seems safe, in reality it may not be.
Hey Naj! Great article man. If you want to check out some negatives on drop shipping and why some companies are taking a stand against it, check out one of my old blogs!