Wholesalers are the Backbone of an Online Drop Shipping Business

Drop shipping, a very popular term in eBay circles these days as more and more people are jumping on the bandwagon. Without the stress and money worries of stocking inventory and the overhead that goes along with carrying stock in any retail business, it can leave an entrepreneur with more time to concentrate on building the business and marketing the product. Not having the time spent dealing with tagging, boxing, shipping, restocking, ordering and taking care of insurance and paperwork for all of that inventory can sure leave an employee with time to work on the marketing aspects of that product.

With time to spend marketing the product and building a smart online campaign, it can put the drop shipper ahead of the game in no time, if done right of course. Just expecting to jump into the drop shipping business by signing up with any old wholesaler who has product to sell is just ridiculous. Although there are many reputable wholesale companies and wholesale product out there, they are not easy to find and of course, the ones that are easy to find, aren’t usually worth the time.

As a drop shipping eBay seller, the wholesaler is the backbone of your company. Once the product is ordered and paid for on eBay, it is up to you to place the order with your wholesaler. Seems simple on your side and not very time consuming. But then start picturing it from a different angle and think of customer service and how likely your customer is going to be with the speed and quality of the product once it is delivered.

As any eBay seller can tell you, good feedback is critical to a good reputation on eBay and without positive feedback it can be hard to sell anything on eBay. Even though it is your company who found the wholesaler, make the listing on eBay and placed the order for your customer, it is your wholesaler at this point who is responsible for keeping that feedback positive. The wholesaler is responsible for boxing the correct item, tagging it with the right address for your customer and getting it to that customer in a timely manner.

When using any wholesale company for the first time, before shipping product to your actual customers, it is smart for any business to first order an item from the wholesaler and have it shipped to them. It is also smart before signing up with this wholesale company and listing the product on eBay to ask some important questions first. This first shipment and the questions asked should give you a good estimate of things such as timing, quality and efficiency.

Some examples of the questions to ask would be things such as, “once an order is placed, how long until it is shipped?” or “what freight company do you use and what type of service 2 day or ground?” or “what type of labeling do you use on the outside of your boxes?”. These questions are important to both your customers satisfaction and good customer service in any online shipping business. When picking a reputable wholesaler when thinking of going into the drop shipping eBay business, make sure you pick the right one to reflect on your ebay reputation in a positive way.

© 2007 Sit On This Ergonomics, LLC.

Author Bio:
Amy Pedersen has worked in the Ergonomics and Office Furniture industry for over 10 years and is owner of Sit On This Ergonomics, operating a number of ergonomic websites dedicated to Office Chairs and the practice of good Workplace Ergonomics.

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