Drop shipping does refer to order fulfilment method where the seller never keeps items in inventory but does depend on manufacturers and wholesalers when it comes to shipping of orders to their customers. This strategy is known to have several benefits that do make it attractive to most of the online merchants.
Whenever a customer places some order in sites like Oberlo to be drop shipped online, the retailer will receive the payment for the order and after that manually or automatically contact the manufacturer or the wholesaler providing a purchase order for the product together with details and instructions on how the items can be shipped to the customer. The manufacturer or the wholesaler will ship the items as retailer earns some profit. There are several reasons why you should consider drop shipping. Here are some of the main benefits of drop shipping.
Broad Product Offering
Drop shipping will make it possible for most merchants to provide more of their products for sale compared to what might be feasible in case the merchants had inventory for everything. It is important that you consider a retailer who sells tea or coffee in a boutique or online. At times, the physical store might not have enough space for keeping the espresso machines to enable the retailer to offer a couple of models directly from the store. However, in case the retailer has drop shipping arrangements put in place with a couple of espresso machines, the retailer will be in a position to provide a couple of different options.
Having a wide range of options will help marketing since each item can be a landing page, extra page for Bing, Google to index. The additional products act as a method of introducing a higher number of customers to the store.
Get to the Market Faster
Since it takes longer when it comes to posting of a drop-shipped product to any e-commerce site the same way it does to an item that is in the inventory, drop shipping can be of great help to the merchant as it will help the products get to the market faster. Drop shipping will also do away with the wait time whenever the items are shipped directly from the manufacturer or the distributor to the merchant. Drop shipping also makes it possible for the merchant to start selling immediately once the products have been published on the website. Previously, people who wanted to start drop shipping with Oberlo used to fear that they risk losing customers due to the waiting time. However, all those fears did die away with time.
Helps in Exploring of New Lines
Drop shipping will provide merchants with a way of testing new items without the need of bringing inventory. For instance, you can try imagining a retailer who sells tack- bridles, saddles together with other equine related products in what is referred to as the Western riding style.
At times, the online seller will receive English requests for riding apparel or style saddles. Having a drop shipping agreement with the English supplier will make it possible for the retailer to explore how well the items will be selling without having to commit the hard dollars to test.
Helps in Reducing Your Investment
According to points one to three, it is clear that merchants who are using drop shipping method do have to keep their items in the inventory. It is because the drop shipping agreements never require any upfront investment, thereby enabling the retailer to reduce product investment.
Helps in Maintaining Brand Integrity
The drop shipping suppliers to ship ordered products using the merchants branding making it appears as if the package came directly from you. When you work together with the drop ship suppliers, you will always have an inventory in warehouses around the globe. With this, you will be able to have fast ship times that will either exceed or live up customer expectations.
Most customers today expect fast turnaround with services such as Oberlo offering two-day shipping. Customer satisfaction will always increase whenever your suppliers can deliver the ordered products on or ahead of time.
More Time
In any drop shipping arrangement, the retailer never receives, pack, ship, store, stack, or pull products. All these tasks are known to consume lots of time, meaning drop shipping will help save time.
In any start-up e-commerce business where the owner of the store can at times be the box packer, this extra time will be available to help in the selling of products which can be of great benefit to the company. In more extensive operations, saving time can easily result in stabilizing and reduction of labour costs.
You are now aware of the crucial reasons why you should consider starting drop shipping business. However, it is vital that you also research the risks you stand to encounter and weigh between the two. We are sure you will be making the right decision.