Dropshipping – Thought

What is this “dropshipping”, and how does it work? Can it make you money? Well, devoted reader, the answer is below.

Dropshipping is a way of selling products where a “store” does not have to keep the items in stock. Essentially “dropshippers” partner with product manufacturers to only make a product when it is ordered, and then the manufacturer ships the product directly to the person who bought it. This opens up several possibilities when it comes to passive income.

There are several companies out there that already provide these services. I will be posting a review next week on a business called “Printful” that I used to get a t-shirt and coffee mug with my “Road to One Million” logo on. Essentially, if there is a product you want to sell, there is probably someone out there that can make it/ship it for you.

Pros to Dropshipping:

• Dropshipping requires less capital to get started.
  • You only make the things that people are actually buying, once someone actually makes a purchase!
• Dropshipping prevents all of your garage/basement/house space from being filled up with stuff.
• Dropshipping can serve as passive income.
  • You can make sales while you are sleeping through your online marketplace.

Cons to Dropshipping:

• You have to set up an online marketplace to use this, and it will cost you money to open/have an online marketplace
  • Just like you have to pay for a webdomain, you have to pay certain services (Etsy, WooCommerce, etc.) to be able to sell your goods on their platform.
• You are, in effect, a “middleman”…and sometimes middlemen can be eliminated
  • You have to know why others can’t go to someone else for the same goods that you provide. You have to have a way to add “value”.
    • The followers that you influence is typically how you add “value”…hence the “value” is your brand.

So “Is the Juice Worth the Squeeze?” I would say yes. Because it is so cheap to get started, it is a pretty low-risk way to try to earn some passive income. It is just important to manage expectations, and know that a t-shirt you made is (most likely) not going to make you a millionaire overnight.

You can follow the link here to Shopify’s (a dropshipper) website to learn more about dropshipping if you are interested.