SolveYourProblem
Article Series: Wholesale Business
Wholesale Business Ideas and Tips
How
To Spot a Drop Ship Scam
What are drop shippers, and why should you
always be careful when dealing with them? In essence, drop
shippers are distributors or companies that provide you with
a product inventory that you sell. Drop shipping has become
a popular home business venture because it allows people to
launch their own business without much start-up investment
or work. For instance, let’s say you are interested in selling
jewelry. But you don’t have enough money to buy a huge inventory
of jewelry to offer your future customers, and you are not
exactly set up to handle the distribution process of shipping
your products to your customers. This is where the drop shipper
distributor comes into play.
A drop shipper provides you with an inventory that you can
sell. Let’s use the jewelry example again. Let us say that
you located a drop shipper company that has a good jewelry
inventory. You work with the drop shipper to offer your clients
that jewelry inventory. Your customers order from you, and
then you send the order off to the drop ship distributor. As
drop shipper, they are responsible for handling the product,
packaging it, and then shipping it to your customer. When your
customer receives his or her package, it will have your business
name on it. So ideally, the drop ship company will work with
you to provide your customers with a seamless buying and shipping
process.
However, this is not always the case. As is the case these
days, you have to be careful with whom you deal with online.
There are many scammers out there who are just looking to make
a quick buck. Here are a few tips that can help you tell the
difference between reputable drop ship companies and those
that are out there to scam you out of a few bucks.
1.
Look at their web site. Most online drop ship companies
maintain their own web site. If this is the case, take a good
look at their web site. Does it look professionally designed,
or does it appear primitive, as if it was slapped together
in one quick design session? Does it look like its regularly
updated, or does it look dated and forgotten? Most importantly,
is there a physical address listed on the site, or a working
email and phone number? Before you decide to do business with
any drop ship company, make sure that there is an easy and
reliable mod of communicating with them. Give them a call and
see if anyone answers. If it is a local company, pay a visit
to their physical location to make sure it actually exits.
If the drop ship company you are interested in does not get
back to you, you should opt not to do business with them.
2.
Ask for references. Don’t be afraid of being impolite in
business matters, especially when you are trying to establish
the legitimacy of a company you want to do business with. Go
ahead and ask for references from past clients.
3.
Don’t forget to inspect the merchandise yourself. This
is a big tip-off: if the drop ship company will not let you
physically inspect their product inventory, chances are they
are not worth working with. Even if the drop ship company is
located overseas, they should still be willing to share with
you a sample product so you have a very good idea of what you
will be offering your clients. After all, even though the drop
ship company is supplying the product inventory, it is still
your business, and your reputation, that is on the line.
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: 2008
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