By John Freech
In addition to being a freelance writer, I also run my own dropshipping and wholesale business in the UK. But what is dropshipping, and why should you care?
Dropshipping is a zero-risk and extremely low start-up business model. It's where a lot of traders get their start before moving on to brick-and-mortar shops. Dropshipping means that you source some products via a supplier, usually in China, and market those to your own customer base. When a customer orders a product, you send the order to your supplier in China, and they "dropship" it directly to the customer. You don't handle the merchandise, and you needn't hold any inventory at all.
Wholesale and dropshipping are often lumped together, but in fact dropshipping is much lower risk due to not having to purchase any inventory first. I started in dropshipping myself, then moved onto wholesale once I understood more about the marketing process.
What do you need to get started?
The only thing you really need to get started is some way of marketing the products. The internet is the obvious choice, but you could also consider advertising door to door or distributing catalogues. Obviously, marketing door to door or via the local papers is going to require a budget, where as starting a website and advertising online is incredibly cheap.
I won't cover the topic of finding a webhost in this particular article, but subscribe to my channel and I will try to write one soon. Suffice to say you need that will at least let you host your own self-install WordPress blog or similar system. The free blogger.com or WordPress.com is not going to cut it I'm afraid - but there are many real website hosts that you can get for as little as $5 a month which are more than suitable.
There are also many different systems to publish a shop so do look around and try some out before you decide on one. Again, I'll cover some of these in detail in a future article. If you're dying to get up and started right away, check out shopify.com who handle the hosting and shopping cart side, and even have a 30-day trial.
You're then going to need to find a good dropshipping supplier (more on that later) and fill your new shop with goods.
That's pretty much it. When a customer places an order, you make the same order to the dropship supplier, and they ship it for you, straight to the customer. It's usually a good idea to test out your supplier first to get an idea fo the response times and reliability.
Things to consider:
When goods get shipped into the UK, there is a customs and import charge for items over a certain value, so make sure your customer is aware of this. My advice is to stick to low cost items until you understand more about the business. Some dropshippers will deliberately (and illegally) ship items marked as a "gift" so customers don't get charged by customs, so you need to be careful.
You'll also need to register as self-employed or a private limited company at some point, and that is a whole different topic entirely. Don't let that put you off though.
Where to find a good supplier:
The key to starting your dropshipping business off on the best foot is to find a decent supplier. I suggest you start with this site for dropshipping and China wholesale as they list all the best wholesale and dropshipper sites according to a number of factors. You're looking essentially for reliability, security, and number of products.
That's it! Come back in the future to read more on the various e-commerce systems and site hosts out there that will give you the flexiblity and power you need to grow your new dropshipping or wholesale business.
Copy writter © 2018 John Freech
In addition to being a freelance writer, I also run my own dropshipping and wholesale business in the UK. But what is dropshipping, and why should you care?
Dropshipping is a zero-risk and extremely low start-up business model. It's where a lot of traders get their start before moving on to brick-and-mortar shops. Dropshipping means that you source some products via a supplier, usually in China, and market those to your own customer base. When a customer orders a product, you send the order to your supplier in China, and they "dropship" it directly to the customer. You don't handle the merchandise, and you needn't hold any inventory at all.
Wholesale and dropshipping are often lumped together, but in fact dropshipping is much lower risk due to not having to purchase any inventory first. I started in dropshipping myself, then moved onto wholesale once I understood more about the marketing process.
What do you need to get started?
The only thing you really need to get started is some way of marketing the products. The internet is the obvious choice, but you could also consider advertising door to door or distributing catalogues. Obviously, marketing door to door or via the local papers is going to require a budget, where as starting a website and advertising online is incredibly cheap.
I won't cover the topic of finding a webhost in this particular article, but subscribe to my channel and I will try to write one soon. Suffice to say you need that will at least let you host your own self-install WordPress blog or similar system. The free blogger.com or WordPress.com is not going to cut it I'm afraid - but there are many real website hosts that you can get for as little as $5 a month which are more than suitable.
There are also many different systems to publish a shop so do look around and try some out before you decide on one. Again, I'll cover some of these in detail in a future article. If you're dying to get up and started right away, check out shopify.com who handle the hosting and shopping cart side, and even have a 30-day trial.
You're then going to need to find a good dropshipping supplier (more on that later) and fill your new shop with goods.
That's pretty much it. When a customer places an order, you make the same order to the dropship supplier, and they ship it for you, straight to the customer. It's usually a good idea to test out your supplier first to get an idea fo the response times and reliability.
Things to consider:
When goods get shipped into the UK, there is a customs and import charge for items over a certain value, so make sure your customer is aware of this. My advice is to stick to low cost items until you understand more about the business. Some dropshippers will deliberately (and illegally) ship items marked as a "gift" so customers don't get charged by customs, so you need to be careful.
You'll also need to register as self-employed or a private limited company at some point, and that is a whole different topic entirely. Don't let that put you off though.
Where to find a good supplier:
The key to starting your dropshipping business off on the best foot is to find a decent supplier. I suggest you start with this site for dropshipping and China wholesale as they list all the best wholesale and dropshipper sites according to a number of factors. You're looking essentially for reliability, security, and number of products.
That's it! Come back in the future to read more on the various e-commerce systems and site hosts out there that will give you the flexiblity and power you need to grow your new dropshipping or wholesale business.
Copy writter © 2018 John Freech
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