A retailer buys merchandise from a wholesaler. This bulk merchandise is then stored at an inventory. Generally, five time the supply is bought, it is the retailer who ships or delivers the individual products to the customers. In drop shipping method, the retailer buys from the wholesale supplier but seldom brings the merchandise to his inventory. Instead, the merchandise remains in the wholesaler's warehouse. and when a customer asks retailer to provide a product, it is the wholesale supplier who ships or delivers the item to the customer.
In a sentence, drop shipping is product delivery method in which the merchandise is directly shipped from the wholesaler to the retailer's customer. In other words, the retailer in drop shipping method is merely a middleman between the customer and the wholesaler. and retailer makes profit by the difference between the wholesale price and the retail price of the product.
Drop shipping is especially beneficial to smaller retailers or resellers, like online stores, eBay sellers. These resellers use only catalogs or pictures representing the item for sale.
Product Selling Process
The following is the step by step process that drop shipping follows:
Drop shipping process minimizes risks and cost for the retailer. Retailer doesn't have to buy a product until it's been sold. If you are in similar business, finding a drop ship wholesale supplier is not difficult. Check out online directories like SaleHoo. SaleHoo claims to list over 8000 wholesale suppliers. SaleHoo also provide reviews of each and every supplier. So this way you can go thoroughly review suppliers before finalizing any five of them.
1. Retailer checks the drop ship wholesaler's catalog and decides what he/she would resell.
2. Retailer gets in to an agreement with the drop shipper on those products.
3. Retailer lists the agreed products on his/her online store or online auction place.
4. Customer buys a product and pays retailer for it.
5. Retailer places drop shipping order of that product with the drop ship wholesaler.
6. Drop ship wholesaler ships the product to the customer.
7. Retailer keeps the margin and makes profit.
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