Corey Rudl*

Summary: Drop Shipping is a way to sell high quality products from your website without the hassle of handling the products yourself.

Let's face it: Not everyone wants to develop, design, and manufacture their own products. You may be more interested in finding great products that already exist and then using your online marketing know-how to build a successful business.

But what if you DON'T want the hassles of things like tracking your inventory, setting up warehouse space, and maintaining a confusing shipping/receiving infrastructure? Wouldn't it be great if there was a way to set up a business online WITHOUT having to deal with all these issues?

Well, there IS a way to avoid these headaches: a technique known as "drop shipping." This model lets you sell quality, brand-name products on your web site for a hefty profit, and the drop shipper takes care of fulfilling the order. They warehouse the stock, pack the orders, and ship it out to your customers.

But be warned: There are both advantages and disadvantages to this model. Keep reading, and I'll tell you how to steer clear of the scam artists and identify great partners who will ship brand-name products for you... on your behalf... all while generating solid profits for you!

How Drop Shipping Works:

"Drop shipping" is simply an arrangement between you and the manufacturer or distributor of the product you sell whereby the manufacturer or distributor -- NOT YOU -- ships the product to your customers.

Here's an example: Let's say Mary wants to set up a site that sells skin care products. Instead of filling her basement with cases and cases of stock, and then going downstairs each time an order comes in, Mary puts together a drop shipping arrangement with a manufacturer who ships the products to her customers directly.

And the best part is that the manufacturer will happily ship the products using shipping labels with Mary's company's name, address, and logo instead of their own. The product arrives at the customer's house a few days later, and they never know that the product wasn't shipped directly from Mary's warehouse!

Let's say Mary has a product called the "Total Skin Care Package," priced at $97. A customer visits her site, places an order, and is billed $97 plus $11 for shipping and handling. Mary then sends her distributor an e-mail with her customer's order and shipping information. The manufacturer packs up the customer's order, puts Mary's shipping label on the package, and mails it out via UPS or FedEx, usually within 48 hours.

The distributor then bills Mary for the WHOLESALE price of the "Total Skin Care Package" -- in this case, $64 plus $11 for shipping and handling. Since Mary has passed the shipping and handling fee on to her customer, she has just netted a profit of $33. And all she had to do was send her manufacturer an e-mail!

Drop Shipping Advantages:

There are a few huge advantages to this model. First, it saves you the cost of building your own inventory. If you're like most people starting a small business, you don't have a ton of extra money lying around. The last thing you want to do is tie up your cash in inventory that you may or may not be able to sell.

No inventory also means no leftovers. If the product you sell suddenly becomes outdated, obsolete, or just plain un-trendy, you aren't the one with a house full of stock that nobody will buy. Many online retailers find themselves having to offer deep discounts -- and taking huge losses -- on old products just to get them out of their homes to make room for more inventory!

You'll also be able to skip the hassles of shipping your products. Unless you've already set up a shipping account with someone like FedEx or UPS, you'll be heading down to the post office every day to buy stamps and mail out your products.

And you'll be able to add new products almost instantly. Since you don't have to worry about ordering inventory, you can add products to your web site within a few hours. If you find that your customers are eager to buy a certain product, you can have that item up on your site in almost no time.

Choosing The Product:

Have you ever noticed that there are literally hundreds -- if not thousands -- of sites selling huge mish-mash selections of inexpensive gift items... things like plastic gnomes and porcelain figurines?

That's because there are a few HUGE drop shipping companies that import these items and then recruit web sites to sell them on their behalf. These companies have massive product inventories and make it very easy for people to get started selling their products for them.

Unfortunately, this is NOT the way for you to go if you are getting started with drop shipping. There are already a lot of giant gift sites out there -- and way too much competition for you to reasonably expect to be successful at it.

Instead, spend some time researching different kinds of products that you might want to sell. The products you choose should be in demand but not widely available online. As usual, I highly recommend targeting a niche market rather than trying to find a product that EVERYONE wants to buy.

Once you've found a product that you think may be the right one for your business, you'll need to do a little "competitive analysis." This simply means finding out what potential competitors are charging for the products you want to sell and calculating how much of a profit you'll be able to make.

Choosing Your Drop Shipper:

So how do you go about finding a reputable drop shipper for your business? Well, here's where doing your homework will pay off. Whenever possible, you'll want to set up drop shipping arrangements directly with the manufacturers of the products you want to sell. The fewer middlemen you have to go through, the bigger your profits will be!

Let's say you want to sell wooden toys on your web site. After spending some time combing through the search results for "wood toys," you'll have come up with a list of manufacturers of wooden toys that you might want to carry. From there, you'll want to contact the manufacturers directly and ask them if they drop-ship their products.

Some will let you know right away that they are set up to drop ship for you. Others will tell you that they simply don't offer drop shipping. Smaller manufacturers may never have heard of the concept!

If the manufacturer of the product agrees to drop ship for you -- GREAT! You can be fairly confident that you'll be getting the best price possible. However, if they don't offer drop shipping, you'll have to keep looking for another alternative. This usually means tracking down a distributor. (A distributor is simply a company that maintains a large inventory of another company's products and distributes those products to smaller companies.)

The best way to locate a distributor is to simply ask the manufacturer of the product to recommend one. Most manufacturers have established relationships with at least a couple of distributors, and they should be happy to put you in touch with one of them.

Another great way to find a distributor for the type of product you wish to sell is by looking through related trade magazines. You'll often be able to find listings of manufacturers and distributors advertising in the back of these publications. A couple of resources to check out for listings of trade magazines are SmallBusiness and Yahoo!'s listing of trade magazines.

You may also be able to find distributors and manufacturers using the Thomas Register. They provide listings for thousands of companies broken down by product, brand name, and company name. It takes some time to get used to navigating through this site, but it can be a great resource.

What To Expect From Your Drop Shipper:

Once you've tracked down a few manufacturers and distributors, you'll need to get on the phone and contact them directly. Before you start dialing, though, you'll need to have a few things in order, including your official business name and your Tax ID or Resale number.

Some companies will also ask for a credit reference... but don't panic! A manufacturer will probably only require a credit reference from you if they will be billing you monthly. Since most manufacturers will bill you at the time of purchase, this shouldn't be a problem. If they do require credit references, though, you can usually just provide them with the name and telephone number of your bank.

IMPORTANT NOTE FOR NON-U.S. BUSINESSES
Drop shippers based in the U.S. are generally NOT willing to drop ship internationally. There are simply too many hassles with customs -- especially since September 11th. Also, companies like FedEx and UPS charge a fortune to ship internationally. The cost of the shipping can often be more than the cost of the product!

If your target market is in Australia, for example, you'll want to locate manufacturers or distributors based in Australia so that you can avoid the hassles of international shipping. You -- and your customers -- will end up with a LOT fewer headaches this way!

Questions You'll Need To Ask

Most companies that you contact will be more than happy to speak with you -- after all, you are going to be selling their products for them. When you call, simply ask to speak with someone about becoming a vendor for their products. Once the switchboard puts you through to the right person, they'll be able to answer any questions you have, including: