You want to start a business but don’t have want to deal with a high start-up cost. One way to do that is to employ a drop shipping or fulfillment service for your inventory needs. Here are some of the advantageous reasons to use them.
What Is Drop Shipping?
Let’s say that you have a home business that ships products to people all over the country. It is crucial that you get your orders filled and shipped as soon as possible. If you have promised a certain turnaround time from date of order, then customers will be expecting you to keep your word.
As your business grows, it can be hard to keep up with all of those orders. That is where drop shipping comes in. A third party fulfillment service will store, pack and ship products for you so you can outsource that part of your operation.
Advantages of Using a Drop Shipper
When growth hits a wall, it could be because it is becoming too hard to house your inventory and fulfill all the orders coming in for your products. A drop shipper service may be able to make a monumental difference in your bottom line.
- No inventory – As your business grows, it can become a hassle to find the floor space to house inventory. With a fulfillment service, they house the items for you so your space is freed up for other things.
- Efficiency – When clients come to your website and order, it goes directly to the drop shipper for fulfillment. They then pick, box and ship your order to your client. All you need to do is send a receipt for their order (electronically) to the client for their records.
- Expansion – There is more room for growth in your business when the bulk of your work is being handled by someone else.
- No waste – For more popular items, inventory can be expanded based on sales to accommodate the customer needs. Other products can be deleted from your catalog and you don’t have to worry about unused inventory. This prevents unused stock from lining your shelves and gathering dust.
- Save money – Drop shipping services do claim a percentage of each sale, but that has to be weighed against the increase in business sales overall. Then, compare it to what profits you would have been making if you were still handling the inventory and shipping yourself.
- Knowledgeable – Drop shippers are used to housing, packing and shipping packages of all sizes. They have a greater knowledge than you do and employ that on your behalf.
- No employees – The drop shipping service hires employees to handle your work. You don’t have to worry about hiring more personnel for your home business to handle the inventory. That keeps your overhead low.
If your inventory is pushing you out of your home, employing a drop shipping service might be beneficial to you.