Archive for the ‘Online Business’ Category

The Difference between drop shipping and order fulfillment.


Drop shipping is a method of selling and distributing goods where the supplier of the product (in this case, you) ships the product directly to the consumer on a middleman’s (retailer’s) behalf. The retailer pays you the wholesale price (plus shipping costs) and charges the consumer a mark-up. You, the supplier, can ship the product yourself, or you can choose to use a fullfillment service to process the orders for you.


Just because you can drop ship, doesn’t mean you necessarily want to. First, you will have to analyze the added costs. Many wholesalers prefer to ship multiple items to one retailer. It saves on order processing and shipping costs. Drop shipping is more labor intensive, and may require special packing slips and labels with the retailer’s name on them. A fullfillment service will pass those costs on to you, as well.

If the costs don’t seem prohibitive, then it may be a good idea to offer drop shipping. Thousands of people are looking for products to sell online, but don’t want to carry inventory. Finding a good drop shipper is the answer for them.

I am always amazed at the type of money that is involved in a successful website. The Cool Virtual World for Kids was just acquired by Disney for $700 Million ($350 million in cash now and opportunity to earn $350 million between now and 2009).While, I have to say I had never heard of Club Penguin prior to reading about their recent acquisition by Disney, I did check out their site and was super impressed with the safe, innovative and kid-friendly virtual world they have created. I was equally impressed by their global involvement in education and medical treatment for children in Uganda and Romania.

As a parent, I can tell they have really gone beyond the call of duty to implement the appropriate safety measures for children interacting in this game. Club Penguin seems to have it all: a innovative solution, a cool site and a social conscious.

I have come across a great website for sending large files. You can send up to 1GB. Their free desktop tool allows you to send or backup entire folders using DropSend, directly from your desktop. Just drag and drop in your folders or files and you’re good to go!

OPTION NUMBER ONE

File too big for email

Send large files of up to 1GB

Ideal for sending jpegs, pdfs, MP3s

Send important large files to clients

Fast, simple and secure to use

No software to install

Free file-sending with the Basic plan

OPTION NUMBER TWO

Your hard drive, online. Use it to…

Back up all your files online

Store important information then access it anywhere

Share your stored files with others

Back up your website and other projects

Archive all your critical data

Business plan available for group file-sharing