Dropshipping is selling items which you’ve never owned, you never receive and never have any involvement with the packaging or shipping. You are simply a third party between a buyer and a seller. Your profit is the difference between what the buyer pays you and what you pay the seller.

The great thing about dropshipping is that you can get started with no money up front because the customer pays you before you place an order with your supplier. The overheads are low because you don’t have to keep any stock or pay any staff. The main hurdle to overcome is to market and advertise the product you are going to sale. This can be achieved in one of two ways.

You can build a site or or set up an online store with something like Shopify and then drive traffic to it. Alternatively you can find products that are selling on eBay and list them for sell on Amazon for a higher price. This means you don’t need to focus on setting a website up. All you have to do is list products on Amazon and whenever someone places an order you simply order the same item from eBay and send it directly to the buyer. This also works in reverse of course sell an item on ebay at a higher price than you find it on Amazon. A good place to look for items to list on eBay that are currently going at a discounted rate is on the Amazon deals page.

You can also list products on eBay and Amazon that you source directly from wholesalers via online directories. One of the best sites to contact manufacturers directly is Aliexpress. These list countless items you can ship direct from the supplier in China. The only problem here is that you need to explain to the buyer that your products may take a while to arrive. If you are serious about dropshipping then paying a small fee for access to an online directory such as SaleHoo is absolutely vital for your success. It has a whole range of products and droppshippers available as well as access to a members forum and email support.

The only real downsides to dropshipping is that the profit margins can be quite small so you need to sell a large volume to make serious money. Because it is quite straight forward to start a dropshipping site, a lot of people do it and so competition is high. It can also be difficult to find a supplier that is willing to take part in dropshipping.

If you’re interested in getting started in dropshipping the best way to do it is to start small using the technique mentioned above then start to grow and invest your profit into building your own website and building a customer base. The reading list below will also help

Top Tip

The most important and also the most time consuming part of dropshipping is driving traffic to your site or marketing the goods you are selling. Focus on this above all else and you will succeed making money at dropshipping.

Recommended Reading

Dropshipping by Mark Bresett – Step-By-Step Guide to $10,000 per Month in 10 Weeks or Less

Dropshipping by Chris Sharpe – Your Guide to Mastering Dropshipping – Includes 50 dropshippers inside!

Sites to use

SaleHoo – An online directory of suppliers that will dropship a product.

Amazon – Sell products on Amazon that you find cheaper on ebay.

Ebay – Sell products on Ebay you find cheaper on Amazon.

Aliexpress – Good source of products from China.

Shopify – Great software to build an online store.