Many people shy away from starting an online store because of the startup costs and fulfillment hassles.

But imagine if someone offered to pay your up-front inventory costs on thousands of items and manage your fulfillment operations. It’d be much easier to get started, and you could run your business from anywhere in the world. Sound too good to be true? It’s not, if you know about dropshipping.

In this article, I’m going to teach you all about dropshipping. I’ll go over a simple definition, list the benefits, show you how to find dropshipping wholesalers, and give solutions to some common problems associated with dropshipping.

What is dropshipping?

Dropshipping is a retail fulfillment method where a store doesn’t keep the products it sells in stock. Instead, stores using the dropshipping model partner with a wholesale supplier that stocks its own inventory, transfer customer orders and shipment details to them, and the supplier in turn ships the goods directly to the customer.

The biggest benefit of dropshipping is you don’t have to worry about fulfillment or inventory issues. Since private label shipping lets you ship from the wholesaler with a return address and invoice customized to your ecommerce store, you’re still able to build a distinct brand while dropshipping.

The benefits of dropshipping

There are a number of reasons you should consider dropshipping. Here are a few of the most compelling.

1. You don’t need lots of capital to get started: Dropshipping makes it amazingly easy to get started selling online. You don’t need to invest heavily in inventory, yet you can still offer thousands of items to your customers.

2. Convenience and efficiency: Successfully launching and growing an ecommerce business takes a lot of work, especially if you have limited resources. Not having to worry about fulfillment is incredibly convenient and frees up your time to concentrate on your marketing plan, customer service, and operations.

3. Mobility: With all the physical fulfillment issues handled, you’re free to operate your business anywhere you can get access to an internet connection.

4. It’s a tested model: Plenty of online stores, even major retailers like Sears, use dropshipping to offer a wider selection of products to their customers without having to deal with increased inventory hassles.