Ecommerce is the digital revolution to the global retailing industry that began a couple of years ago. It has reformed the business processes around this system since then. Throughout the last 10 years, Ecommerce has boomed with increased Smartphone usage and internet connectivity. Not only it aided in extending the outreach of the brands beyond boundaries, it also has opened up a new horizon to aspiring business owners and entrepreneurs. Since the inception of E-commerce, there have been significant developments in this segment, and Drop- shipping is one of the latest trends in this segment.
Companies have invested in strengthening the online presence and service support for better conversion rates and stable revenue generation. Maintaining an online store is a multifaceted task with different underlying processes. Providing customers the products they are looking for is essential to built brand loyalty. It is a mechanism that helps sellers to channel products from third-party sources to customers without holding an inventory or stock of the same.
Dropshipping: An Insight
Dropshipping is the system in which a seller reaches out a third party supplier for a particular order placed by a customer. The customer receives the product directly from the third party supplier. The payment is done to the seller only. The suppliers get the payment from the seller after receiving it from the customer.
In this infrastructure, the seller does not need to maintain an inventory for a specific product or buy it in bulk. The supply partner is responsible for the packaging and shipping of the commodity to the customer. It is beneficial to the seller in many different ways. Firstly, the seller does not need unnecessarily stock the products. Secondly, the seller needs to manage the traffic, sales and customer relations only. This setup allows much more flexibility in ecommerce retailing.
Dropshipping Platforms: Popular Choices
It is essential to note that ecommerce and dropshipping similar platforms. However, there are certain intricate differences that are essential to be understood before starting off. The basic criteria for choosing a dropshipping business is ease of use and support for dropshipping plug-ins. It should also provide ample support and convenient management system.
Based on the above, there are some popular choices of platforms that you should consider while developing your e-commerce website for your dropshipping business.
WooCommerce
WooCommerce is the most popular choice in this area. It is a widely used ecommerce platform which is easy to use and free. Above all, It has a host of features that make it a preferred choice in this segment. With a wide range of additional plug-ins support, WooCommerce is a platform that is meant to offer increased flexibility and convenience.
One of the most attractive elements of this platform is the fresh and simple GUI interface. Since it is built on WordPress, the store can be created with minimal effort. It is primarily beneficial for non-technical users. The support for this platform is pretty high. WooCommerce has a huge community of developers and designers. One can find the necessary installation guides and other information online. Lastly, it is an open source platform. Hence, it is free to use. It can be installed as a plug-in in order to start using it.
Some of the popular brands using WooCommerce are All Blacks, Ripley’s Believe it or Not, Singer etc.
Magento
Magento is a PHP based platform. It is an open source framework owned by eBay. Magento’s comprehensive shopping cart platform packed with content management abilities which not only provides complete website management abilities but also, allows efficient handling of SEO optimization and marketing.
It is a favorable choice for dropshipping business. However, it can be a bit tricky for beginners. Error solving and updating the store in Magento requires expert knowledge. Despite this, it is a widely accepted framework for ecommerce stores. There are important brands using this platform on the current date. Betabrand, City Furniture, and Wrigley are to name a few.
Shopify
Shopify is currently one of the most robust ecommerce platforms available in the market. It is the host to some of the important international brand ecommerce sites such as Budweiser, WaterAid, Penguin Books and many more.
Shopify has a seamless interface supported by convenient navigation mechanism. It offers a wide variety of predefined themes. There is scope for customization also. It is flexible and scalable in nature. The developers can access the code and manage according to the business requirement. It offers a variety of add-ons. One of the important aspects of this platform is all-around support services. It includes a beginner’s guide for information support.
BigCommerce
Among the paid platforms, BigCommerce is a popular choice. It reduces the website buildup timing through inbuilt features. The business can add as many products to the store as per requirement. It supports scalability as per the size of the business and supports SEO factors very well. It is available on a subscription basis and does not charge transaction fees with the plans.
The support function is strong with BigCommerce through email, phone, and chat. The developers can get help through the forum as well.
It is essential to note that BigCommerce is associated with some of the well-known dropship suppliers. Hence customers have access to the top merchants for quality products. It channels products from best warehouses which facilitates inventory optimization. This also reduces shipping costs and improves delivery process.
OpenCart
The list of best ecommerce platform is incomplete without mentioning OpenCart. It is a PHP-based platform that utilizes HTML components and MySQL database. OpenCart is a complete store management system that effectively supports dropshipping. There is a comprehensive dashboard which is very effective in managing multiple online stores. Analytics of this platform is also very effective as it displays necessary informations related to orders, customers and sells.
The platform showcases modular architecture and facilitates responsive online stores for better customer experience. With the Dropship module, it allows companies to start off without investing heavily on inventory. Whats more? It is very much effective in terms of risk reduction in the business.
Conclusion
Dropshipping has opened new opportunities for business expansion and diversification for companies in the online space. Stocking up inventory with specific products beforehand requires a lot of investment. It also involves the uncertainty of whether the product will sell or not. Dropshipping is an effective solution to this scenario. Sellers can benefit from this setup in terms of better customer and inventory management. Thus, we can predict that this mechanism will garner attention and flourish in the coming years.
