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Dropshipping

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Submitted By sum008
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Dropshipping

Drop shipping is an arrangement that a retailer makes with a wholesale distributor. The retailer sells the product, and the wholesaler then ships it to the customer complete with the retailer’s label on the package. This arrangement benefits the wholesaler who gains retail outlets and sales of a product, as well as the retailer who collects a percentage of the sale, but doesn’t have to worry about shipping or carrying an inventory. Dropshipping is a retail fulfilment method where a store doesn’t keep the products it sells in stock. When a store sells a product it purchases the item from a third party and has it shipped directly to the customer. The biggest difference between dropshipping and standard retail model is that the selling merchant doesn’t stock or own inventory. Instead the merchant purchases inventory as needed from a third party, usually a wholesaler or manufacturer to fulfil orders.
Drop shipping has been used extensively by companies such as Amazon.com and Overstock.com to build up thriving online businesses that require little or no initial investment in terms of inventory. What happens is that you as a retailer set up a Web site that sells products. When a customer buys a product, they pay you for the product along with any shipping costs (example: product costs $20 with $3 shipping). You then notify the wholesale distributor with the pertinent information. The distributor packages it, sends it to the customer with your label on it, and bills you the wholesale price for the product plus shipping (example: wholesale cost $14 plus $3 shipping). You make a 30 percent profit for your efforts.
Benefits of Dropshipping: * Less Capital is Required- The biggest advantage to dropshipping is that it’s possible to launch an ecommerce store without having to invest thousands of dollars in the inventory up front. * Easy to Get Started-Running

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