With the evolution of modern technologies, eCommerce industry has taken a boon and continuously growing towards success. The endless advantages provided by online trading make it popular among sellers and buyers both. Being a seller, it’s important to understand the increasing demand for handheld technologies and should come up with the latest strategies to serve their customers with an amazing shopping experience. Sellers need to think of selling either by Dropshipping or via an eCommerce Marketplace.
If you have any kind of connection with the retail sector or online businesses then you must be familiar with the terms eCommerce Marketplace and Dropshipping. Many of you might have seen the industry publications, social media ads talking about the benefits of selling on Marketplace or benefits of dropshipping. But how will someone know the exact meaning and difference between these two buzzwords? Well, this article will let you know the answer to the question mentioned above.
Dropshipping:
The practice of Dropshipping is a kind of an eCommerce model which helps an eCommerce store owner to sell products without owning or managing any inventory that means sellers don’t need to invest in acquiring inventory, warehouse or in shipping methods. Dropship model is super beneficial for the startups where they can not invest a huge amount in the initial phase of their business. It let many small business owners earn a good amount of profit in fewer investment.
It is a hassle-free process providing a bundle of advantages due to which it gained popularity in the eCommerce community. Dropshipping lets you free from managing warehouses and inventories. This allows eCommerce store owners to offer a large number of Stock Keeping Units and can even give a try to new vendors for more variety of products. Meanwhile, the retailer can also experiment with new product categories according to the latest trend going in the market. This option is less risky and difficult than a traditional wholesale store.
However, this smart technique needs an eCommerce store owner to remain aware and be smart as it has to be executed with proper technology and diligence. However, the reckless behaviour of retailers can cost them high as they can lose control on the processes like shipping process, data of inventory, product information, etc. This could lead them to severe losses, otherwise dropshipping could be a boon for online businesses.
eCommerce Marketplace:
Selling on an eCommerce Marketplace is always in trend as it helps sellers to gain a huge number of profits. Some of the renowned Marketplaces like Amazon, Etsy, eBay, Walmart, Google Shopping, Newegg etc. provides a recognisable, value traffic platform to many retailers where they can set up their brand shop and sell between millions of customers. Retailers can leverage the well-structured facilities of Marketplace without investing a single penny on the same.
The idea of selling on a Marketplace could be a great deal of profit. Marketplaces like Amazon, Etsy, eBay, Walmart, Google Shopping etc. are doing wonders in terms of business growth. The access to a huge number of audience let sellers earn a huge chunk of profits. Marketplace also helped sellers to provide brand exposure and recognition which makes them trustworthy brand between customers and they can buy products without any inconvenience.
However, there are many marketplaces that deliver goods on the behalf of retailers that means, whenever a buyer buys a product, the store admin and vendors get notified automatically. After this, the Marketplace shipping agent will collect the product directly from the vendor if the retailer has no stock and delivers it to the buyer. This clearly shows that even Marketplace works on the process of dropship when needed.
Dropship Program:
Setting up a Marketplace is definitely not a cup of tea for every retailer. Many retailers who want to increase their trading power online, they go for some dropship programs to expand their product inventories and offerings to generate more sales and revenues.
An excellent example of a dropship program is launched by Crate and Barrel. Their dropship program is all about to market and sells products from different vendors that lie in their product verticals. This strategy helped them to sell a wider range of items with unlimited shelf space.
Over To You
At this point, we have a full-fledged idea about the difference between dropshipping and an eCommerce Marketplace. So, which one is better? Well, there is no single answer as it totally depends on the type of business you wish to pursue from an eCommerce standpoint.
There are many brands which are aiming to access huge no. of audience via a single platform with minimum barriers involved. In this case, they should look forward to shaking hands with some renowned Marketplaces like Etsy, eBay, Amazon, Walmart etc. On the other hand, there are many small business owners who can not afford to invest a huge amount of money on inventory. It’s a good choice for startups to go for dropship model as they can skip the risk of loss in inventory at the initial stage of their business.
There is no full-fledged solution when it comes anything related to online business. So, it’s up to you to choose the best model for your business type as it totally depends on what kind of goods you sell. It’s important to choose wisely as it will help sellers in the overall growth of their business. Regardless of whether you choose the dropship model or an eCommerce Marketplace, it’s important to increase the relevant sales and traffic on your website. So, what are you waiting for, start focusing on your online eCommerce business as soon as possible?
Gaining huge profits was not that easy before. Integrate your eCommerce store with the Marketplaces like Etsy, eBay, Walmart and others in just a few simple steps. KnowBand offers Marketplace Integrators for various CMS platforms like PrestaShop, OpenCart, Magento and Shopify which allows you to present your products among larger audience and encourage the brand awareness as well.
