Retired Folks are Setting Up Their Own Dropshipping Operation

By: Skip McGrath
Head Geezer

Forget the big drop shipping warehouses and drop ship fulfillment companies. Now small eBay sellers and website operators can set up your own private drop shipping operation.

Many eBay PowerSellers are looking for easier, more automated ways to buy in bulk and add products to their online store, without having to actually ship orders or store inventory locally.  I've written about drop shipping as one way to grow a product catalog without carrying inventory locally or shipping.  Another service has come to my attention that allows you to make buying light bulk (not huge containers, but small lots) inventory in order to expand your product catalog with products you buy wholesale and sell retail so seamless, you don't dirty your hands with the day to day shipping at all.

I've mentioned Shipwire order fulfillment in a previous post about drop shipping, and thought I would go into more depth about how Shipwire, and outsourced order fulfillment, can be leveraged to help you expand beyond drop shipping by buying small amounts of inventory, storing it with Shipwire and connecting Shipwire to your eBay, Amazon and online store.

Shipwire breaks the entire process with their Store-Sell-Ship™ platform and they offer a free trial that you don't need a credit card to sign-up for.

Store: Tell Shipwire what you are going to be sending, choose from their warehouses in the U.S., Canada or UK and they will have the warehouse ready for your merchandise when it arrives.  Don't worry about sending too small amounts of goods, plans start at $30/month. Call them if you need help getting goods to the warehouse. Another bonus: you pay only for the storage you use.

Sell: Shipwire has connections to most of the main shopping carts--Google, PayPal, eBay Auctions, ProStores and even Amazon Web Store.  Once integrated, your online orders are automatically routed to the warehouse.  You choose how much control and involvement works best for you: you set up how you want Shipwire to send your orders or if you want to approve each one.

Ship: Shipwire allows you to customize how you want to ship or you can let them ship it the most cost effective way possible and just worry about Ground, 1 Day, 2 Day or International.  If you have an online store, Shipwire's shipping rates can be integrated in   a one-button selection in an e-tailer's Shipwire account. This feature ensures a shipment will be sent using the most cost-effective shipping method available from the major parcel carriers.

Source & Sell Internationally: If you are new to buying wholesale, work with vendors you trust, or I would recommend checking out companies like Liquidation.com,  or you can find light bulk wholesalers at Worldwide Brands.

Find the product you want, buy it in a wholesale quantity, and then have it shipped to a Shipwire warehouse.  Remember to get a sample if you're dealing with a new supplier so that you can check the product and packaging before you send it to a fulfillment solution like Shipwire.  One of the things that seems very compelling to me is that Shipwire has international warehouses so you can have Shipwire store inventory in Canada or the UK and sell in foreign marketplaces.

For more information go to : www.shipwire.com