Inside Small Business | Small Business & Home Business Marketing

Product Sourcing the Drop Ship Way

By Jeremy Hanks, CEO of Doba

Many retail merchants looking for products to sell without the high costs of inventory and the hassles of packing and shipping products have discovered the perfect solution—drop shipping. With drop shipping, you list and sell a product at whatever retail price you set, collect your money, and then order the product from a drop-ship wholesale supplier. The supplier packs and ships the product directly to your customer.

Drop shipping is the ideal low-risk solution for starting a retail business, particularly for online merchants. You don’t need a great deal of startup capital to launch your business. With a drop ship supplier and an eBay account or your own webstore, you can immediately start selling products online. You order the product only after you receive payment from your customer, so if the product doesn’t sell, your loss is limited to any listing fees you paid. If the product does sell, you can simply ramp up your marketing and sell more products.

To implement drop shipping in your retail business, you have two choices—either search for drop ship suppliers on your own and negotiate with each one individually or gain access to multiple suppliers through a product sourcing marketplace. Several websites offer drop ship supplier lists that you can purchase online. Many such lists, however, can be challenging to work with, and some are outright scams. In addition, even after you have a list of suppliers, you must contact each one individually, negotiate prices, and then learn each supplier’s system for taking orders and managing your account.

A reputable product sourcing marketplace offers several benefits:

• Access to dozens or even hundreds of drop ship suppliers.
• A single account to keep track of.
• A single, consistent interface for ordering products.
• Lower wholesale prices by leveraging the buying power of its many members.
• Additional services, including education, product and market research tools, fraud protection, and professional customer support and technical support.

Doba is committed to simplifying and streamlining the process of product sourcing for eCommerce entrepreneurs who are looking to start or grow their retail business with the drop shipping solution. Check out Doba for yourself and sign up for Doba’s Free 14-Day Trial at www.doba.com/partners/logoworks

Author
Jeremy Hanks the co-founder of Doba. He leads the company in executing against its strategic vision and coordinates and oversees day-to-day operations of the business. Prior to co-founding Doba, Jeremy spearheaded the development of numerous businesses in the supply chain, wholesale distribution, and retail industries. He founded GearTrade.com, an online marketplace for used and distressed inventory, where he was the company’s President and CEO. He led the company through a merger with e3vertical, where he was CEO and focused on providing ecommerce and supply chain management solutions for small and midsized businesses. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management from Brigham Young University.

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Posted on Friday, February 23rd, 2007 at 11:07 am and is filed under Customer Service, Internet, Supplier Relationships. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.