Business today looks nothing like it did a couple of generations ago.
In those days, the biggest businesses owned the most assets. Today, access is far more important.
Uber does not own any cars, and Airbnb owns no hotels. The same idea can work for any new business.
This is where dropshipping comes in.
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| What Is Dropshipping And How Does It Work?: eAskme |
What is dropshipping? Simply put, it is the capability to serve as the middleman, providing products to customers without ever taking stock of them yourself.
Various companies like Wix can give you all the functionality you need, from order forms to supplier connections to logistics tools.
Here's what you need to know if you are new to the world of ecommerce, dropshipping, and all that it entails.
It will be worth your while to get familiar with all of the features available today.
What is dropshipping?
Dropshipping is a way of running an online store in which your job is finding customers and suppliers.
Instead of buying stock and selling it to customers, you make the connections.
- You choose from a range of products from available suppliers to sell to your customers.
- You set the markup. And you make the sales. Then, logistics companies pick up the products from your suppliers and ship them to your customers.
- You never see the stock as it is never in your possession.
- You don't pay for it, either, as it belongs to the supplier until the customer buys it.
Can you make money through dropshipping?
The answer is that it depends.
The companies that stand to benefit from dropshipping are not using it as their primary means of business.
Rather, it adds value to their current business model or allows them to try selling products risk-free.
Who uses dropshipping?
Do you own a business that provides a service?
For example, let's say you run a physiotherapy practice, and your "product" is what you offer as a service provider. Customers pay for sessions with you or your staff, and you don't sell physical products.
However, there are physical products that your customers may benefit from.
Exercise bands, muscle relaxing gels, and cold packs will be useful to many of your customers at some point.
Rather than shelling out funds to buy stock of these products that might take ages to sell, you can use dropshipping.
On your website, you will give customers the option to buy these products.
When they purchase, according to the price you set, you earn the markup while the cost price goes straight to the provider.
The cost of shipping goes straight to the logistics company.
Your customer receives the product through your business without you doing any work or paying for inventory.
Alternatively, many entrepreneurs benefit from dropshipping as they get the hang of running an ecommerce store.
They get the chance to market products and see how well they sell without taking out a loan to get access to the products in the first place.
Dropshipping has other uses. For artists and designers, it works somewhat differently.
Dropshipping for artists
Have you ever had t-shirts printed for an event?
Many millions of people have done this, sending their print through to a t-shirt company and getting a batch of freshly created products.
This is essentially how dropshipping works for artists, except that the opportunities span far beyond t-shirts, and there are no minimum sales.
When dropshipping through Wix, you print your products on demand. In other words, only once a sale is made does your artwork get printed.
You don't need to order a batch or ever even see the product (although you almost certainly want to!).
This is great for up-and-coming artists who don't have the resources to buy stock of their work.
It doesn't matter whether you have one fan or a thousand fans; you can provide your artwork to every one of them on demand.
Instead of waiting for your following to grow to start sharing your work, you can do so immediately.
What is Modalyst?
Finally, when you get started on dropshipping, you will come into contact with the Modalyst marketplace.
This is where you find your suppliers and their products.
Modalyst connects you to these suppliers, all of whom have signed up to be a part of their dropshipping operations.
There are millions of high-quality products available on Modalyst which you can supply to your customers.
Search for what you want to sell or browse to see what's available.
Conclusion:
Dropshipping allows you to provide products to your customers without ever having to buy stock.
You connect your customers to the suppliers, and the entire process is facilitated for you.
It is an easy way to better serve your customers without laying out funds you don't have.
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