The Business of Dropshipping

As Christian professionals, we must learn to diversify our income streams. One way to achieve this is to have side hustles. Dropshipping is one such side hustle.

Dropshipping business is pretty straightforward once you understand it. You don’t exactly need a huge capital to begin since you wouldn’t be stocking up a store. Instead, you purchase an item on behalf of a customer and ship it directly to them from the vendor.

In this post, we will explain the idea of Dropshipping, how it works, and its benefits. Without further ado, let’s get started.

Explaining Dropshipping

It is likely that you have heard of Dropshipping at some point, maybe on one of your Christian online groups. However, many people don’t have a clear understanding of what it is about. If you fall into this category, let’s help you out.

The first thing you should know is that with Dropshipping, you don’t need to hold any inventory. With this business model, you purchase from the supplier on behalf of a customer. The supplier then ships directly to the customer’s doorstep. With this, you don’t bug yourself about storage, packaging, or logistics.

How Dropshipping Works

As Christian professionals, Dropshipping is one business model that we can run on the side. You don’t need capital, a store, transportation, or any extras. Once you have the suppliers and you can market to the consumer, you are good to go. Let’s explain.

The Dropshipping model has three stakeholders. They are:

• Manufacturer/Supplier
• Retailer (you)
• Consumer/customer

Let’s look at each of these individuals and the roles that they play in this business model.

Manufacturer/Supplier

This could be an individual or a company. Their responsibility is to create or source the products, package them, and handle the shipping to the customers. They also replace defective products that may get damaged in transit and restock their inventory. The manufacturer/supplier sells products at wholesale prices to the retailer and assumes the risk of all unsold or defective inventory.

Retailer 

You are the retailer. All you need to do is to sell the products via your website using your brand name. Your major responsibility is to choose the products and ensure the integrity of the manufacturer. Also, you are responsible for marketing the products at prices that are profitable to your business. Finally, you make payment for products as well as shipping costs.

Consumer/Customer

They have the least responsibility in this business model. All they do is make payments to the retailer for the products. If they have any issues or questions, they direct them to the retailer. Finally, the customer takes delivery of the products.

Benefits of Dropshipping

Are you already considering the idea and wondering why you should go into Dropshipping? Here are a few benefits that could help make your decision easier:

Requires very little capital

This is probably the biggest benefit of the Dropshipping business. Through this business model, you can start an e-commerce store without the headache of investing thousands of dollars. Traditional retailers need to purchase inventory and by so doing, they tie up their investment.

In Dropshipping, you make payment after you have sold the item and gotten money from the customer. What this means is that you only need to invest in marketing your products. When people pay, you make payment for the items they order, and the items are delivered directly.

Easy to set up and run

Dropshipping is the ideal business model for Christian professionals. The reason is that there is a lot that you don’t have to worry about. Here are a few examples:

• Renting or managing a warehouse.
• Packaging and shipping products.
• Tracking inventory.
• Handling inbound shipments.
• Managing stock levels.

With all of these out of the way, you can focus your efforts on marketing products and other business endeavors.

Variety of products

“Variety is the spice of life” is a phrase that has never been truer than in Dropshipping. When you operate this business model, you have the opportunity to market as many products as you like. There are no restrictions.

The idea is to find the trending products and market them to potential customers. You can always list products that suppliers stock at no extra cost. 

Is Dropshipping Profitable?

From the benefits we listed above, you can tell that it is. Dropshipping business operates a low-risk model. You don’t incur huge running costs on selling products to customers like a traditional wholesaler or retailer. 

Since you don’t have to invest in purchasing inventory, you cut costs on several fronts like shipping, packaging, and storage. With this, the business becomes profitable faster than traditional wholesaling or retailing. 

How to incorporate Dropshipping into your business

As Christian professionals, we can incorporate Dropshipping into our business. How? Check the steps below:

Step 1: Research the products that fit your customer base, market, and strategy.

Step 2: Research your competitors to find out their strategies and pricing.

Step 3: Check the market for the most reliable suppliers.

Step 4: Finalize your fulfillment process based on what works for you and the supplier.

Step 5: Promote the products and specify all the special conditions.

Conclusion

Dropshipping can be a major source of income for Christian professionals. You can begin marketing your products from your online Christian community and forge ahead from there. Check out GodKulture for other articles for Christian creatives.