The search for profitable business and the boom in online sales have made Dropshipping a sales model that is currently gaining more and more followers.
The advantages of this method of selling products online make it a very profitable alternative that, as I will demonstrate in this article, does not require as much investment as an offline or physical business for those who decide to do it.
Today I will show you the benefits and drawbacks of Dropshipping, but first I'll define this term so that you can understand exactly what it's about.
In addition, at the end you will find a series of recommendations about what I see as the best Dropshipping modules that will let you get started using this sales technique in your PrestaShop store.
Dropshipping is an intermediary model of online sales in which a merchant (the retailer) creates a platform or online store from which they sell the products of a third party (wholesaler or Dropshipper) and which are not kept in the retailerâs stock.
It is the wholesaler or Dropshipper that handles the shipment of products sold in the store directly to the end customer.
Now you're probably wondering:
The Dropshipper is a wholesaler or main supplier of the products that will be sold to the end customer by the retailer.
The Dropshipper is responsible for sending all these products directly to the customer, with or without a trace identifying their real origin.
In other words, they act as an intermediary in the process.
Among the benefits offered by this business model, we can highlight the following:
One of the most popular advantages of this method is the lack of product storage.
The cost savings due to non-storage of merchandise is high. If you're the creator of the online store, you wonât need to rent storage space, nor will you need to pay people to handle the merchandise.
So the advantages related to the non-storage of merchandise are:
When you have a Dropshipping-based store, your sales process is limited to receiving an order and passing it along to your supplier, who takes care of the rest of the process.
By eliminating the process of shipping our eCommerce, we are also eliminating the following factors:
Yet a Dropshipper, with higher shipment volume, can get better prices to apply to the shipment of the merchandise.
If we compare the labor costs needed for a store, whether physical or eCommerce, we see that the salaries corresponding to warehouse storage, packaging and management âdisappear,â as already mentioned, since the processes are radically simplified.
Despite the many benefits offered by this model, we canât ignore several drawbacks that should be mentioned:
This drawback could apply to any business, since a poor supplier could sabotage any eCommerce outfit.
But in a model like this one, in which the processes are so streamlined, it is especially significant.
Itâs extremely important for communication with the supplier to flow freely.
We have to make sure that both we retailers and the Dropshipper establish the necessary communication channels so that customers can promptly obtain the necessary information regarding their order and shipments as if in a conventional model.
In most cases, competition and the success of this business model reduce the profit margin of the products, leading to margins starting at 10%, depending on the industry.
If our Dropshipping store includes more than one Dropshipper, a customer could make a single order with various items but receive multiple shipments, one from each supplier.
One of the most common errors is failing to give the needed importance to the proper development of digital strategies.
Taking advantage of the savings and benefits that we've mentioned MUST go hand-in-hand with a special effort in:
The choice of a good Dropshipping supplier is essential for this type of business, since we delegate to them the main part of the sales process that our customers have begun.
Based on this, you might be wondering:
There are various options for choosing your supplier, but currently you can find specialized portals providing lists of more-or-less known suppliers you can choose among.
If you make your choice carefully, your online business may be successful.
In this section I will recommend some of the modules you can implement in your PrestaShop business for an online sales model with Dropshipping.
This module automatically sends your orders to corresponding suppliers and shippers.
With this PrestaShop module you can automate your business's most complex process, allowing you to save time and prevent errors.
There are many options allowing customization concerning order status, email content, etc.
This module enables you to import or update products, categories, manufacturers, suppliers, customers and combinations with a cron job.
With the CSV / TXT / XML Cron Import module, you can update the entire stock of products, process, etc. every day or hour, or whenever necessary.
Itâs even possible for you to schedule tasks so that you never forget!
It therefore allows you to remain linked to your logistics partner at all times and stay informed.
With this API module you have the possibility of easily searching AliExpress products and importing whichever ones you want in just one click and with all information.
AliExpressApi imports all images and data related to the product, as well as SEO data.
Some of the benefits of using the Dropshipping Wizard module are:
But now, the module does it for you.
One of the benefits of this module is its ability to speed up stock replenishment with suppliers.
This is done through automation of shipment orders based on sales in your store.
With the Sending emails to supplier and shipper module you will save a significant amount of time due to the complete information in each command which can be automatically transmitted to the different suppliers.
Now itâs time to mention the module developed by PrestaShop Partner Innova Deluxe, whose reliability is well known.
While you canât fully create your Dropshipping business with this module, it will allow you to export your whole product catalog so that your customers can import it to their platforms and indirectly sell your own products.
The only limitation of the Catalog Exporter for Official Importer module is that it does not export prices.
Developed by Profileo, another of our associate and partner agencies, it is also compatible with all PrestaShop versions, so that whichever type of CMS eCommerce you have, you can use it without any problem.
It facilitates B2B business within the scope of your store, which will be highly beneficial to you.
The Personalized customer reference module, while it wonât let you create your Dropshipping business from top to bottom, will allow you to perform functions like order tracking using a personalized code, which will allow you and your customers to know order status at all times.
The Export catalog in CSV format module enables you to export your entire catalog in CSV format.
This is capable of extracting more than 250 fields, which facilitates the collection process for sending to a supplier who is awaiting your order.
It is a complementary tool for your business model like Dropshipping which will make your daily life much easier.
This module is a bit unusual in that it is specialized for sex shop eCommerce business. It will allow you to easily import all products that are part of the order.
With MSX Dropshipping Manager you can even program these exports, making your work easier and less tedious.
I hope you now have a better understanding of exactly what the Dropshipping model is. It's simply a new way of seeing the eCommerce industry that will unleash even more benefits of the traditional online model than you thought possible.
So get started by thinking of different ways of integrating Dropshipping into your PrestaShop store â a new way of selling your products.
If you do not have an online store and want to open one, download Prestashop and start your business online!
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