Drop Shipping Is Ecommerce Snake Oil
Drop shipping is not for everyone. Even though it is pitched as
a cure for everything from starting up withoutmoney to being
able to sell without investing in inventory, it does not cure
the main problems that want to be drop shippers have.
Want to be web entrepreneurs are lead down the path of finding
products that they can sell before they buy them.
And to do that, they are lead into buying all sorts of things
from web sites to on line stores and lists of drop shippers.
They get set up with what they need to sell. And they spend a
lot of time and money in the process.
There is no doubt that they are, at the same time, given advice
that they are starting a business. They are definitively told
that they must comply with all those rules for success on the
web. They are not misled.They mislead themselves. They get so
excited and so tied up in their ideas that they are going to
make millions that they do not stop to plan. They forge ahead
with the plan to plan in the future. So they plan after their
plan is already a failure.
The people supplying the drop shipping industry are not
obligated to turn away customers. They have no way to determine
who will or who will not fail. So they cannot be faulted for
selling to people who run when they should be walking.
There is no doubt that some of these people do succeed and do
very well for themselves. But 90 to 95 percent of them fail. A
good percentage of them could have survived had they planned.
But they fail because they chase the quick money.
Having said that, drop shipping is an excellent way for a small
business to expand. If use properly it has many advantages.
Let us take a simple example.
Anna wants to sell amber and silver jewelry and exotics crystal
pieces at home parties. And she wants to be able to vary her
offering so that each time she attends a home party she has the
opportunity to present other products. She also wants a wide
variety of products.
Now amber and silver jewelry is both expensive and there are
many different pieces that can be offered. So if she were to
maintain an inventory she would have to tie up several thousand
dollars in jewelry, many pieces of which she might not sell
quickly.
Now if she get some samples so that her customers see the
products and the quality, she can take orders and have the
ordered pieces shipped either directly to her or to her
customers. Actually, she is better off to have the pieces drop
shipped to her so she can visit her customers and possibly make
additional sales during the delivery process.
So she searches