Drop-shipping is the word on everybody’s lips at the moment, but what is drop-shipping? What does it mean? How does it work? Maybe you have either a small business or a huge idea, and someone dropped the phrase into a conversation. You want to get to the bottom of it. That’s what we’re here for.
What is drop-shipping?
If you take all the bells and whistles out, drop-shipping is a business model. You can make a name for yourself with minimal risk, little to no initial outlay and nothing but talent and big ideas. That’s the magic of it, it makes something that once seemed like a distant and unobtainable fanciful dream, well, attainable. It brings it within your reach. Sounds great right?
To clarify, this is not a get-rich-quick scheme. If you want drop-shipping to work, then you have to work for it. That being said, it does make everything a little bit easier and more achievable. It also allows you to get started much more quickly than you would be able to with either a brick-and-mortar store or a more traditional e-commerce business model.
How does drop-shipping work?
You might be wondering how drop-shipping and a more traditional business model differ. The biggest difference: stock. The classic starting-an-online-business method uses a similar structure to create a physical shop.
You create your design, order a couple of samples, and when you’ve found a supplier and a product you’re happy with, it starts getting tricky. You then need to bulk order a large number of products to “fill your shelves.” Often, the more you order in one go, the lower the cost-per-unit becomes. This is not ideal. We’ll cover that in a little more detail below.
Drop-shipping is different. We’d go so far as to say it’s revolutionary.
Drop-shipping cuts out the filling of your hypothetical shelves. Your customers place the order with you, and only after that happens do you place your order with us. It’s a very simple process with minimal steps. The major difference is that the order has changed. Rather than design>order>sell, you end up with design>sell>order. There are multiple benefits to doing things this way round.
Your 7 Benefits
1. It’s more eco-friendly
Yep, we went there. Eco-friendly, environmentally conscious, going green. Literally everyone is talking about it. Why should we be any different? Believe it or not, there are multiple ways in which drop-shipping is more sustainable than old-fashioned methods. From printing on-demand to using responsibly sourced materials, it’s all-round better for the environment.
2. It’s low risk
This is one of the major players in the benefits of drop-shipping. You don’t need to bulk-buy a bunch of sizes, colors or otherwise hope they will sell and prove a sound investment. You can make changes, offer that black or white jacket in an all-new shade of gray. If it flops, then all it took was your time. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
3. There’s a huge range
We’re not kidding here, we mean huge. A huge catalog of high-quality products, and a huge number of options to customize each. You can put your designs on any number of products, from t-shirts and leggings to bedding and purses. Whatever piques your interest – whether that be fabrics or fashion, handbags or homeware – we have something for you.
Not only can you choose from over 450 products, but you have thousands of different options too. Choose the neckline and sleeve length of your tops, choose the fabric for your cushions – even choose the padding too! You can fine-tune the details down to the shape of your zipper to the color of the thread used for your stitching.
4. It’s easy to use
From syncing your Contrado and Shopify stores to the super-intuitive design interface, we’ve tried and tested everything at great length to make sure that it’s as easy as possible for you.
We’ve put together a drop-shipping FAQ to answer the most common questions, and we have a customer service team on hand to answer any questions that either you or your customers might have.
5. You’ve got options
We don’t just mean product options either. You can choose whether you want to take the private labeling route and create your own brand. Make a name for yourself and become recognizable from your logo and aesthetic. If that’s not your thing, you can take the white labeling route. Opt for a non-branded design. It’s your dropshipping business, after all.
6. You can make money doing what you love
As we said earlier, this isn’t a get-rich-quick scheme, but a way to build your own empire doing what you love. What’s more, it’s a profit that you can see from the very first order.
Your customers place the order through your Shopify store. They pay you. Shopify notifies us of the order, and we generate this on our systems. We’ll send you a request for payment, which includes an exclusive wholesale discount. You pay us the discounted drop-shipper price, and we’ll start making the order. The profit never leaves you, so you literally start making money from the very first order that is placed.
7. You can branch out
Most of our orders are ready to ship in just 48 hours. So we can offer super fast turnaround times. Not only that, but we also ship worldwide too. This means that you can branch out internationally.
In summary: The benefits of drop-shipping
Now you know what drop-shipping is, it’s time to get started!
That’s right. We can only do so much. Now that you know the ins and outs of drop-shipping, what it is and how it works, it’s down to you to decide the next part – what are you going to call your store?
When you’ve figured it out and your set up on Shopify, check out how easy it is to dropship custom Contrado products in 3 simple steps!
Click below to get started and set up your Contrado drop-shipping account.
