For more than a decade now, eCommerce has witnessed exponential growth! So much so, that is shaping the nature of the businesses. Today, millions of people choose online shopping platform to shop for daily essentials. Many lucrative business opportunities, such as on-demand printing has emerged businesses. It also gives businesses a chance to target the audience worldwide.

For any business, be it eCommerce or brick-and-mortar, the most crucial part is to understand your customer. The right motivating knowledge to strategize what motivates your customers can help build a good relationship with them.

You also need to know their likes and dislikes—for what reasons they prefer or return a product. It is a fact that online stores receive more returns than brick-and-mortar due to rough online shopping nature.

Ecommerce has driven the sales and profit of all business types. Besides, it also has given a chance to ordinary people to bring forward their ideas. One of such ways is dropshipping! It is one of the easiest ways that allows you to start your own T-shirt business. 

The process of drop shipping fulfills manufacturer or wholesaler's product requirement directly when the order is placed on the third-party retailer's website, app, or social media platform, avoiding the traditional retail supply chain.

Since this business idea has been there for a while, therefore the options have become overwhelming. This type of business has its pros and cons. Each drop shipper has its strengths and pricing strategy, which can make it challenging to choose one.

History of  Drop Shipping

If you think that dropshipping has emerged in the last few years, then you are wrong! This practice was first introduced in the year 1928 but lost its popularity due to the economic depression named Great Depression. But, in recent years, it has again kicked in.

How Dropshipping Works?

As soon as the order is placed through an eCommerce website, it immediately prompts the manufacturer, distributor, or wholesaler. The concerned personal packs and ships the product and alleviates the most expensive component of the traditional shipping model of brick and mortar model.

In many cases, the drop shipper can be the product; there could be a market for manufacturers that dropship products and also offers customization.

For instance, let's suppose you have started an apparel business offering print-on-demand custom t-shirt; what you can do is adopt the traditional route—order hundreds of t-shirts with your designs screen printed, taking the risk that your product does not do well at all. Or, you could work with a drop-ship partner offering custom printing services. In this case, the customers who order your t-shirt, those orders are directed to your drop shipper to print and complete the order. Mind the fact that this person could be an actual manufacturer or the reseller of the product (which is a t-shirt in this case).

Why the Drop Ship Business Model?

There are various reasons to choose the drop-ship business model, and mentioned-below are some:

• Low funding requirements

Well, for the ones who are excited to start their venture in the apparel business, then with drop shipping service, you will be amazed to see the financial projections. When you start your dropshipping business, it is more likely that you might not typically research and manufacture the product or stockpile inventory that can limit the capital requirement to expenses mostly related to the formation of legal business and the technologies operating your company.

• Low-Risk Validation

How many businesses can you think of that allow you to test the risk factor in the beginning? 

Well, with drop shipping, you can uniquely offer the advantage of testing the waters before you dive right in! If you are having those butterflies of fear in your tummy, whether your shirt designs will sell. Dropshipping lets you abstain yourself from sinking all your resources. 

Although drop shipping can be on the pricier side per unit basis, it offers less financial risk less overall—this makes it a beneficial option!

It is also an excellent way to test the new quality supplier because you will not be forced to purchase a hundred/ thousands units that can turn out to be defective.

• Manageable from anywhere

Your physical tie to your company is your computer or your handheld device, so you can manage your business from anywhere. It even allows you to negotiate with your supplier, who handles the purchase and returns. However, you might need a storage unit, co-working space, or office space to take these returns for returns.

• Private Label Dropshipping

If you are a retailer, then some businesses also allow you to extend an established brand's status. You can achieve it through custom printing and on-demand printing production where your customer books the product; the supplier will start the production line and manufacture your product on-demand. For getting your drop ship products labelled and packaged with your company's branding, you will need to partner with an on-demand supplier.

Some Myths of the Drop Ship Dream

While researching the best model to kickstart your new drop-ship business, you will have no dearth of people trying to convince you to try out their methods to lure you into an easy fortune. Keep in mind that most business coaches make their money by selling their services, not by selling products.  

• Passive income machine

It is known that drop shipping is a practical way to get rich quickly, but the truth is— despite the ease you can list products for sale on your site, you will still need to attract the traffic for the real conversion rate. It requires a substantial advertising budget and time to develop brand customers can trust. 

• Eliminate the Middleman

In most cases, the drop-shipper is the manufacturer of the products, some wholesale distributors, and offers discounts if the products are purchased from the manufacturer. This means that the wholesaler will add a profit margin to the manufacturing unit cost and thereby limit your prospective profit. However, the middlemen can help if they handle returns, add value, and offer customization services.

Despite all small limitations, dropshipping is a great way to begin with, your new business model. However, keep in mind that the drop shipping does not remain conducive to the low price strategy when the marketplace gets saturated.