Maybe you have heard of the term dropshipping before, but it's more likely you have not. In any case, you have probably come across dropshipping without realizing that it was dropshipping for the simple reason that it looks like any other online store. It is impossible to tell a dropshipping store apart from a regular online store.
Dropshipping is a sales method that can be used by anyone who runs an online shop. The difference between a shop that uses dropshipping and a shop that does not is that people who use dropshipping do not physically own any products they are selling.
Online retail is called e-commerce, and traditional e-commerce consists of items being sold which the seller purchases and is most likely storing in a warehouse. That can be costly because of all the money that has to be spent upfront to acquire the products. It can also be a problem if products don't sell because money was spent to acquire them and because they take up valuable storage space.
The way dropshipping works is much different, and it is guaranteed to save you a lot of money. Unlike traditional e-commerce, you don't need to spend any money buying a product before you sell it. As a result, you don't need to spend any money on storage space for the items you are selling. With dropshipping you simply search for products selling online, and then copy the image and description, and list them in your online shop for sale.
When an item listed on your shop sells, you go to the site where you found it, buy it, and have it shipped to the person who bought it from your shop. The item never touches your hands. The way you make money is by making the sale price in your shop a few dollars more expensive than the sale price in the shop where you are buying the product from. That way your profit on each item you sell is still a few dollars.
There's a simple explanation as to why someone would buy from your online store if the shop you are buying it from has a cheaper price. It is because of marketing. Your marketing will be better than the site you found the item on. Customers will find your store, but they won't find the store where you are actually getting the product from. Therefore, customers will buy from your shop.
It is easy to run marketing campaigns and still be successful with dropshipping. In fact, your store is far from likely to be successful if you do not do any advertising. For example, let's say you put $20 into a Facebook ads campaign. Simple math tells us that if your profit margin for the particular item in the ad is $2, then you need to sell 10 units just to break even. With effective marketing, you can sell more than enough units to recoup your marketing investment, and as time goes on your ads will become more and more effective.
Dropshipping is a win for all parties involved. The person who bought the item from your shop is happy because they got an item they wanted at a price they were willing to pay. You are happy because you made a few bucks, and the person you bought the item from is happy because they sold the item at a price that was fair to them. The person you bought the item from is also happy that they don't have to do much marketing since people doing dropshipping are essentially advertising their products for them.
Maybe you should consider dropshipping as a way to make some money on the side of your regular job. It's great because you don't have to put on any pants if you don't want to since you don't have to leave the house.
