Start an Online Business Dropshipping Products
What is Dropshipping?
Dropshipping is a method of ecommerce where an online store sells products to consumers, but the merchandise moves directly from the wholesaler to the final consumer without being handled or stored by the retailer. A drop-shipper could be a manufacturer, distributor, or other supplier. Drop shipping is a straightforward business model that requires store owners to work closely with their distributors, ensuring a seamless supply chain and keeping the behind-the-scenes handoffs out of sight from the customer.
This partnership between the retailer and the distributor is what makes dropshipping different from other business models. You don’t have to buy your products upfront or pay for somewhere to store them. You don’t have to manufacture anything yourself. All you need to do is build an online store that sells well and make sure your fulfillment process is running smoothly.
How Does Dropshipping Work?
Dropshipping involves selling products through your online store, which are then fulfilled directly by the supplier. No need for packing, shipping, or maintaining inventory — just simple, hands-off sales. Here’s how Shift4Shop makes dropshipping easier than ever.
1 -The customer places their order in your online store
Your customer shops as normal, placing items in their cart on your Shift4Shop store. Payment is processed as usual.
2 – Your store forwards the order to a third-party supplier
The customer’s order information is passed to your supplier for fulfillment. You pay the item’s wholesale price, and keep your markup and profits.
3 – The supplier ships the order to the customer
Orders are shipped with your own store’s name, address, and logo on the packing slip and invoice — the customer never knows you’re a dropshipper.
4 – Your store informs the customer that their order has been shipped
The customer receives an email from your online store to let them know their order is on the way. The notification comes from you, not your supplier.
Pros of Dropshipping
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nexpensive to get started:
You already know dropshipping’s biggest strength — a low barrier to entry. (We’re guessing you wouldn’t be here otherwise.) With dropshipping, you spend all of your setup time building relationships and creating a great website. Your ecommerce software and website design, are likely to run up the biggest tabs.
Buying raw materials to create your own goods or buying products in bulk outright requires a much larger sum of cash in addition to the cost of your eCommerce software and website. There’s no question you need far less money on average to get up and running with an online store built on dropshipping.
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Less supply chain hassle:
Retail entrepreneurs who manage the bulk of the supply chain — from storing goods to shipping them — have to wear dozens of hats to run a successful business. With dropshipping, you cut out expensive and time-consuming tasks like stocking goods, managing your inventory, renting storage space for your products, and packaging and shipping orders.
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Easier to grow:
Dropshipping gives you the option to start as small as you want and scale up for many of the reasons we already mentioned. You don’t have sink gobs of money into your store to take it the next level. If you’re selling well, you don’t have to worry about putting out more capital to buy more products. You won’t need to build out more infrastructure around inventory or order management, either.
The Best eCommerce Platform for Dropshipping
No matter your industry, niche, or supplier, you can build and grow your business with PATBUY.
Connect with Dropshippers
Add multiple distributors and dropshippers to your store, specify which products are dropshipped or fulfilled by your company.
Accurate shipping rates
Don’t lose money on shipping, your Shift4Shop store can calculate real-time shipping rates per product from your dropshippers location..
Dropshipping Automation
Built-in integration with leading dropshippers helps you get the products automatically in your store.
Email Notifications
Send email notifications automatically to your dropshippers for new orders and cancellations.