What is the basics of a business?
To put it simply this is how traditional businesses operate:
Manufacturer --> Wholesaler --> Broker --> Retailer --> Customer
For example, a product such as shoes is manufactured for $5 sold to the wholesaler for $25 who sells them to the broker for $50 who issues them to retailers for $75 who are retailed to the customer and sold for $100.
These may not be exact values but the concept is the same across the board.
So what is dropshipping?
Dropshipping is eliminating the need for the broker and wholesaler. So the new chain of product flow is:
Manufactuer --> Retailer --> Customer
In doing this, not only does the profit go up but you can eliminate the need for inventory.
Well how do you eliminate inventory?
You can find a manufacturer who offers to ship in an "epacket" option which allows you to send products directly from the manufacturer to the customer. So you wouldn't need a warehouse or you don't need to even see the product. Granted you should still know the products you're selling so sampling some isn't a bad idea.
The most popular way of doing this is through Shopify. With this website, you can launch your own e-commerce store and install various plugins to help manage your store. It's very easy to use and setup.
If you go through these things of finding a product, manufacturer, building a website, then all you have left to do is launch a marketing campaign to bring customers to your store.
When can I start?
I recommend researching more into this business to see if it's something you'd be interested in pursuing. I covered the basics in this post and by no means is this a guide as to how to get started.
If you have questions about this business model feel free to comment and ask!
If you'd like to see more posts about these new ways of creating financial independence leave an upvote so I know these posts are good or tell me in the comments.
Thanks for your time,
Isaac
I remember dropshipping became extremely popular some years ago, I think it's important to remember that you need lots of traffic to generate leads when doing business this way
You're exactly right! A lot of time and effort needs to be put towards bringing people to your site.