What is dropshipping?

If you’ve ever been interested in starting an online business, you might have heard the term “dropshipping” thrown around. If you’ve heard my podcast or been on a livestream with me, I use this term a lot because it’s the base of what my courses teach. But I get a lot of questions on what does it truly mean? What’s involved? And, most importantly, how can it help you grow your business or even help you in starting one at low cost?

This blog will answer all those questions and more. 

Definition: dropshipping is the process of shipping goods directly to your customers from a third-party supplier or vendor, without an intermediary step (like storing the goods at your physical business location).

When a dropshipper is involved, the process looks like this:

1. A customer orders products from your business.
2. You pass the order info along to your dropshipper.
3. On receipt of the order, the dropshipper charges you a price for the product sold, usually wholesale plus a dropshipping fee. Then they package the goods and ship them directly to the customer. You do not need to store or package the goods yourself.

In conclusion, dropshipping is selling a product on your website without actually handling its fulfillment and shipping. Another key benefit of dropshipping is that you don’t pay for the product until the customer pays for it, making dropshipping an attractive option for people who don’t want to spend a lot on initial inventory or who don’t want to risk buying products that won’t sell. This low barrier to entry allows novices and professionals alike to pick a niche and run their own dropshipping-based ecommerce store.