Common Sense eCommerce

Starting a Drop Ship business on the web is one way to make money using the internet. It’s particularly favorable for a home-based model because you don’t have to stock any product. Someone else does the inventory management and fulfillment for you.

There are lots of things to consider when evaluating a drop ship supplier. One of them is turnaround time. How quickly can they turn your order around?

I recently had to dump a drop shipper from my list of possible suppliers because their turnaround time was 2 to 3 weeks. Customers typically will not appreciate having to wait several weeks for their order to be shipped. There might be certain kinds of products where this is necessary and acceptable, such as monogrammed or otherwise personally customizable products. But for items displayed on a website, while they can’t “have it now”, they will “want it soon”.

One way to find out what a drop ship supplier’s turnaround time is would be to place a test order. Often turnaround time is missing from their terms and conditions document and the “salesperson’s version” may not be true.

So — when sizing up a possible supplier to do your drop shipping, make sure you find out about turnaround time.

Tags: Drop Ship Business, Home Based Business, Drop Ship Supplier, Drop Ship Home Business

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