Internet Marketing

You’ve decided to open your own Web store. Now, you have to decide how you are going to handle your products. You can have your own warehouse and buy all your chosen products beforehand. You could use drop ship companies and use the products they have available. Or you can do a combination of both.

Working with a drop ship company can save you a lot of time because you’ll have many products and brands to choose from. But, not all drop shippers are built the same.

Compare the terms and conditions of each drop ship company. You will likely have to pay some kind of membership fee, but you want to look carefully at the terms of that membership. You don’t want to lose your investment because you failed to realize the company you chose requires you to sell a certain amount every month.

Another thing to consider is how many tools or resources are available to you, e.g., helpful business tactics and solutions, product watches and reports, the quality of images and product descriptions, how many wholesalers are available through the drop ship company, and how much it’s going to cost you overall.

You want your Web store to succeed, and so should your drop ship company. Look at the tools each company offers to you. Do they have educational resources to help your business grow? Do they provide products information and reports that tell you how well they are selling?

Are the images and products descriptions made with high quality resolutions and content? Will they copy onto your site effectively of will you have to do a lot of doctoring? Do they have a variety of product choices for you or just some? Are their suppliers varied and diverse, or are there only a few?

And for the big consideration, what is membership going to cost you and what’s the fine print on the terms and conditions? How much is it going to cost for shipping, handling, and how long will your customers have to wait for delivery?

Putting answers to all of these questions will help you decide which drop ship company is going to help your online retail business succeed and gain the most profit.

Stuart Lisonbee is Search Marketing Manager at Doba, bringing wholesale dropshippers and retailers together and providing universal access to over 300 wholesale suppliers offering more than 1.4 million products ready for dropshipping direct to the end customer.