So you have decided to go into business for yourself.  Even more so you have decided to dropship your items.  Before you do, make sure that your dropship company can supply the items you have in mind. It is perhaps best to start out with a few items so that you can become familiar with the drop ship process.

Several years ago, only a few companies would drop ship for you.  Today there are a large number of companies that will sell you merchandise and dropship it for you.  If you feel that this is the business for you, then you need to start looking for drop ship companies.  Decide what you want to sell, and then look for all the companies that offer these items.  Consider the dropship policies along with the price of the merchandise.  Then you can determine whether to dropship the items you want to sell.  On the other hand, you need to know how much you want to make from your dropship business.  That will help you to determine the number of items to sell and what kind of items to sell. Even more so when you think of drop shipping you need to know the demand and supply for items you are going to sell.

If the item is a hot item, and you have many orders, there is a possibility that your company may not be able to fill your customer orders.  There's nothing worse than ordering something only to find out that it is out of stock.  So if you decide to dropship, check with your drop shipper and make sure the item is available.  It may not be possible sometimes to check with your drop shipper so be prepared to deal in customer service in a customer-friendly way if the item ordered is out of stock.  Most of the time dropship companies have an abundance of merchandise.  Sometimes however an item becomes very popular overnight.  When this happens the supply can not fill the demand.  Usually, the wait for merchandise is not long but sometimes it is, especially if it is during a holiday time such as Christmas. So be prepared to deal with backorders and to communicate with your customers about dropship concerns.

For those business people who do not have a storefront, dropshipping is an avenue for selling.   When you decide to dropship, you do not have to worry about stocking a store. The drop shipper has a warehouse full of merchandise and that becomes your store.  Some drop shippers will allow you to come to the warehouse and look at the merchandise on display.  If you can afford to visit one of these drop ship merchandise display centers, you can then pick and choose items that you think will dropship well and that will be popular among your potential customers.

Remember items that are breakable, can create many problems for you from your customers.  When an item is drop shipped, and a customer tells you that he received the item broken it becomes necessary for you to replace that item.  Some items drop ship better than others.  So pick a few items to dropship at first, see how it goes, and added on to your collection gradually.