Wholesale or Drop Shipping..you be the judge

Drop shipping or wholesale??? The question is a hot topic online right now. Although most people online seem to focus on drop shipping...it is not the only option for someone looking to open their own ecommerce website. Buying wholesale (in bulk) is another great option. You would be buying first and selling later. Although there is a risk involved the profit margin is much greater than drop shipping…well, sometimes! I say sometimes because the drop shippers you will find on One Source are selling their products wholesale. However, you will be the one receiving the “handling” fees and shipping the products, which is where some companies “get you”.

Buying bulk items wholesale can give you a huge advantage. Not only will you have more flexibility with your prices (because typically bulk is much cheaper than buying one at a time) but you will also have the capability to ship the items yourself. Shipping the items yourself does require more time spent on your end than drop shipping does, but with shipping the items yourself you will more easily be able to answer customers questions about when something should be arriving, and you will be spending less money for the shipping and “handling” fees.

From my own personal experience, I typically tell people to start with drop shipping, and evolve into buying bulk….but that isn’t for every item, and every person. There are some products that it just doesn’t make sense to buy in bulk. An example would be electronics. You will not find legitimate name brand products being drop shipped or sold in bulk. That is because the big companies/ manufacturers such as Nintendo (for example) will sell only to large businesses in bulk orders of several hundred thousand dollars…and no less.

You would be successful with buying shoes in bulk. Shoes like Sketchers sneakers (for example) would be a profitable investment. There are sites where you can buy a skid load of sneakers for only a few hundred dollars…your profit potential would be huge! It just all depends on 2 personal qualities. The first one being upfront capital…if you have it, great! If not, then stick with drop shipping. The second one being, are you willing to take a risk? If you aren’t able to financially handle a loss then again, stick with drop shipping, and leave buying in bulk to the people who can afford it. There really is no right or wrong answer here. It is simply what you prefer and what you can handle.