Dropship Websites, and UK Dropshippers. How To Start a Dropshipping Business

If you have been looking to start any kind of business online, then chances are that you have come across dropship offers

 
and dropshippers offering to supply you with memberships, and websites. But what exactly is dropshipping, and can you benefit from it? 

We show you how it can be beneficial, and what to avoid in the fascinating world of using the dropship business model. The industry has evolved quite significantly since the early days, when all you had to do, was join a dropship website, throw a few items onto eBay, and you would make sales. It is not that easy anymore, and we explain why.

What exactly is Dropshipping?

 
Dropshipping is a concept that can be understood if you break down the basics. Allow me to give you an example. If you have ever purchase a sofa from one of the large chains, and had to wait for your order, then chances are, that the order was placed with a THIRD PARTY. This third party will be the original supplier, the manufacturer, wholesaler, or distributor.

The actual shop you purchased your sofa from obviously will not create, design and manufacturer the sofa. No, they will simply advertise in their shop all the sofas they have sourced from the SUPPLIER. Then when you order your sofa from the shop, they in turn will then place a third party order with their own suppliers; and this is the reason why your order can sometimes take weeks to be delivered.
 

So where I place the order from are not drophippers?

 
Well, they are dropshippers, but they are not the manufacturer of the product – they do not make them! This is the difference. Dropshipping is basically a supply chain that has been used for many decades.  Another example would be if you purchased a large item from say, Argos, and they then state that the item will take up to 28 days for delivery. They will use the same concept. If you think about it, Argos advertise thousands of products, and if they had to stock of them themselves, they would need a pretty large warehouse.

No, what they would do, is once they have received your order, is again then place another third party order with the original supplier – usually the manufacturer of the product. This saves such companies from having to physically hold all the stock themselves, which would be virtually impossible due to the range they advertise.
 

What are these Dropship Businesses I see advertised?

When you are looking to start your own business, and search Google for example, you will almost certainly come up with endless amount of dropship companies in the searches, and this is because although these companies are not on the same scale as Argos, or those large sofa chains you see advertised all over the TV, they use the exact same concept.
 
The difference here, and it is a BIG difference, is that these ‘dropship businesses’ are then supp
 
lying to yet another chink in the chain – YOU, and this is where you need to be careful. The reason being, that if you start your own dropship business, you are then going to have to sell the stock yourself, and ensure that the products you are selling have enough profit margin, and discount in them to make them attractive to potential buyers.
 

So how does using a UK dropshipper work?

 
The way it works is simple (at least the concept is simple). Basically, you look at all the dropship companies,

and see what products they offer. Many of them will charge a joining membership fee to access their products, and some will actually offer you a website to promote their stock from. When you have decided on the right company to use, which has the product range you are interested in promoting, you join their website.

Then, usually the dropshipper will have some kind of CSV file which will contain all their stock, the trade prices, and the images, descriptions, etc. It will then be up to you to then

go off and advertise this stock, and generate sales. What the dropshipper is basically saying is this:

“Here is a list of our stock, at prices below Recommended Retail . Now go off and sell it”

When you have your list of stock, and the trade prices, it is then up to you to create sales. You can usually advertise anywhere you please, and then make as many sales as you can.
 

Where would I actually sell all this dropship stock?

 
Where you would advertise the stock is up to you. Many people would first start with eBay, and other auction websites. What you would usually do, is log into your eBay account, and list the items for sale, generally being cautious about the pricing you set, because eBay can be fiercely competitive, and unless you make your own auctions stand out, using nice templates, and make the prices attractive, then you may struggle to sell any products.

This is one of the reasons why choosing the right dropshipper is absolutely crucial. You really need to choose a dropship company that offers GENUINE trade prices, and are not middlemen themselves (another chink in the chain), because if you don’t choose the right dropshipper, then your pricing will not be good enough, and you won’t be able to compete – it is as simple as that, it really is.

Not everything is down to price, of course. The other main consideration is that you need to choose a supplier that is reliable, and consistently has high stock availability.  If your supplier does not keep a good amount of stock, then when you do actually sell some products, and if they are out of stock, then your customer would not be very happy – especially if you sell on eBay, where you could receive a negative feedback from the customer, who won’t be jumping for joy that the product you advertised was actually not in stock!
 

Some Dropshippers offer a website, what’s that about?

 
Yes, more and more dropship companies are jumping onto the ‘fashion’ of offering ‘ready-made’ websites populated with their products for sale. This can be beneficial (providing you choose the right company!) because as well as maybe promoting your products on eBay, and other auctions websites, owning your own website also opens up a whole different opportunity (combined with selling on auctions).

You would then be able to sell to the whole of the world-wide-web. The internet would literally be a total fishing ground for generating sales, and when you combine this option with other avenues of selling your products, you can quickly start to appreciate how dropshipping can be beneficial to those starting a business.

The main benefits are dropshipping are:

• Quick access to endless stock
• Usually prices below retail
• No holding any stock
• No posting any stock
• More focus on sales, instead of dealing with products

What happens when I make a product sale?

 
When you sell a product, all you have to do, is go back to the dropship supplier, advise them what has been sold, and pass on the delivery details, and that is it. The dropshipper will then process the order, and dispatch the product to your customer, usually under plain wrapping, to ensure that the customer is none the wiser of where the product came from. The last thing you want, is for the dropship company to place an invoice with ‘their’ company details. The idea here is total transparency. The customer NEEDS to know that the product did not come from anywhere other than you – This is the essence of dropshipping.
 

What products can be dropshipped?

 
Literally anything. If it can be made, it can be dropshipped (and chances are that it already is!). You would ideally need to look at which products interest you. There is no point selling fishing supplies just because they are on offer, if you just don’t have any passion in that range. Whatever you are going to be promoting, you really need to ‘like’ the products, and then your enthusiasm will shine through, and you will create better advertisements, and offers for your potential customers.

Think about what interests you. What are your hobbies, and which products would you actually like to sell, and be involved with. Make a list, and right down why you would want to be involved in a particular product range. If you do make a list, I think you will easily find a genre which best suits you as a person, and this will help with your overall business. No doubt.
 

 Is Dropshipping a business model you would recommend?

 
That is a good question, because although the business model works perfectly, you need to ENSURE that you are working with the right supplier. A poor supplier can destroy your new business as quickly as you set it up. You need to ensure that the chosen supplier has good stock levels, good customer service, and returns policies, and has a reputation as a viable dropshipping outlet.

Once you have chosen the right dropship supplier (partner) then you will then be left to focus on generating sales – which is the crux of the main benefit to using a dropshipping company. Let them deal with the stock, orders, and postage, etc. And you deal with generating sales, and making profits.

Sounds simple? It can be, with the RIGHT dropship supplier, so plenty of research, and phone calls are needed.