Start a Dropship Program for Your Ecommerce Site

Drop shipping is a distribution method used mainly by online retailers to fulfill customer orders from their e-commerce site. If retailers use a dropship program, they do not carry any stock, instead all of the products are held as inventory by wholesalers or sometimes even the manufacturers. As soon as an order is placed, the online retailer receives shipping information and payment then transfers the customer order to the drop shipper to be completed. The drop shipper is then responsible for shipping all of the products that are ordered out to the customer. The online retailer earns the profit margin from the wholesale and retail prices.

Drop shipping is a wonderful way to start an ecommerce business without a lot of start up cost. In fact a number of home based businesses have become quite successful by taking advantage of this method to sell online. The first thing you must do is find the right vendors to get involved with. There are thousands to select from, but they are not all reliable. This step appears to be pretty simple, but the fact of the matter is that finding a suitable vendor for your dropship program can make or break your business. The key is to spend a lot of time researching all possible vendors and choosing ones that you think are a good fit for you. Consider it a partnership, you take care of getting the order and the vendor takes care of the rest. The only way to have a successful e-commerce business with satisfied customers is if both parts work well together.

The initial step is coming up with a list of possible vendors to use for your dropship program. Find vendors that offer products you are looking to sell in your e-commerce site and then check to see if it's well established and reputable. How long have they been in business? Can they deliver what they promise? Are you able to make a profit based on the price you are getting the goods for? After you picked out the best ones, contact them to inquire about their services and make a small investment by ordering a few products. Then narrow it down by comparing the quality of each product, the delivery time, how fast they respond to inquiries and their ability to customize the packing slip and shipping label to match your business logo.After making your decision on which vendors to use, you have to make sure that your e-commerce solution is capable of managing your dropship program. Make sure they are able to provide the following:

• QuickBooks integration for easy POS management and tracking
• Create unlimited amount of vendors
• Automatically contact vendors when customers buy thier products
• Real-time shipping calculations based on drop ship location and carrier
• Vendors have their own admin area to add products or update inventory

People usually decide to run a dropship program for their business, because of the freedom it entails and minimal risk involved. There are a few disadvantages such as not having control over the merchandise and not being the only retailer they work with. However there are also a number of advantages for creating this type of business. Here are just a few:

• Little to no inventory
• Saves time by letting someone else fulfill the order
• Saves money by not requiring overhead costs
• Product images and details are supplied by the drop shippers to use on your web site
• Huge variety of products to choose from which gives you the ability to sell more than you normally would

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Finding an ecommerce solution with a reliable and efficient drop ship tool is critical to the success of your online retail business. Don't simply hope for reliable drop ship vendors, the best way to guarantee that they are doing their job is to have the ability to track and manage their activities from your admin interface.

Core Commerce is a full service all-in-one hosting, design, and marketing software made specifically for e-commerce businesses. You can set up your store in minutes, and with powerful tools to help with not only managing your dropship program, but also SEO, product marketing and mobile commerce, it's no wonder why it has been rated one of the best e-commerce solutions. Click here to try it absolutely free for 15 days, no credit card required!