Drop shipping has become a successful addition to the services offered by many startup and veteran gift basket designers and gift retailers alike. And for good reason. Drop shipping helps you earn profits while avoiding the hassles of shopping, stocking, storing and tracking inventory, creating designs, packaging and shipping.

Drop shipping is a mutually agreeable arrangement between the manufacturer or distributor of a product or gift basket design, and you, the retailer.

Here's how drop shipping works.

You feature a gift basket design on your website, let's say "Hooray for Hollywood," that sells for $100.00.

This is one of the many designs your drop shippers offers and provides you with the image for displaying on your website.

A visitor to your website orders "Hooray for Hollywood" plus a shipping charge of let's say $16.95 for a total of $116.95. (In this scenario I'm assuming you have a credit card acceptance program in place on your website.)

You send the manufacturer (your drop shipper) an email detailing the order with the recipient's name and shipping destination.

The drop shipper creates the design, prepares the label with your company name as the sender and ships to the recipient within 48 hours.

You receive an invoice for $65.00 plus shipping of $16.95, for a total of $81.95. You just made a cool 35% or $35 for passing an order on to your drop shipper.

Drop shipping has many advantages for gift basket designers:

1. You can offer a wider array of design choices.
2. You're spared the worry about outdated and stale inventory.
3. You can update the images on your website quickly to reflect holidays.
4. You serve clients with minimum effort.
5. You earn profits with minimum effort.
6. You get around any state or country laws that may prohibit you from selling foods, alcohol or other products.
7. You still have the option of creating custom designs as well.

Before you decide if drop shipping is right for you do some research.

1. Identify your niche and explore to see which drop shippers offer that product.
2. Contact and evaluate the drop shippers you've discovered.
3. To help speed up your search, get Drop Ship Vendors Report by Shirley Frazier.

Drop shipping is not for everyone, but it may be another source of revenue that is perfect for your growing gift basket business.

Flora Morris Brown, Ph. D.

About the Author