E-commerce is an increasingly popular way for retailers and businesses to meet their customers in a domain or space that is more readily accessible. Let’s face it – opening a brick-and-mortar store is a lot harder than it used to be. Beyond the challenge of finding a property that isn’t absurdly expensive, there’s also the matter of creating a customer base in a limited area that will still generate enough revenue to be sustainable for you.
Obviously, that isn’t always going to be easy. That’s probably why e-commerce has become such a staple in the past decade, and it’s only going to grow from here. You can learn more about it here, if you’d like.
All of this said, opening an e-commerce business is easier said than done. How are we meant to make enough products to meet demand, right? There are ways to do so, and today we’d like to discuss one of those.
What Does “Done for You” Mean in this Context?
Perhaps the biggest question that tends to eat at people when we discuss this type of e-commerce is what we actually mean by “done for you.” It’s understandable, certainly, since that may at first glance make it seem like you won’t be running your own business. This really isn’t the case.
Rather, it’s referring to a process called “drop shipping.” Have you ever heard of it? If not, it’s pretty simple – it’s when a business buys products in bulk and sells them to their own customers. Essentially, you become the middleman. While it might not seem like a profitable venture, let us explain.
Think of it this way – if you’re a customer, there’s a pretty big chance that you don’t want to order things in bulk. Who wants dozens, or even hundreds of an individual item? What drop shippers do is help to make up the difference there. While they buy in bulk, they sell individual items instead.
So, when we talk about “done for you,” this is largely what we’re referring to. Although it might seem somewhat odd to have a done for you walmart store, it’s really just drop shipping in a more unique and interesting way for both us as the retailers and for the consumers. You could even think of it as more “digestible” if you wanted a way to frame it.
How it Works?
The next question that we’d like to tackle for you here today is how this process works in the first place! Now, as we mentioned, the seller in this case isn’t handling the product themselves. If you decide to open a drop shipping business (of whatever variety), production won’t be falling on your shoulders. That’s probably a pretty big relief, right?
If you’re wondering how making a profit works, don’t worry. Essentially, you’re able to earn money through the difference in what you charge your customers versus what you paid for the bulk items. How much you charge will depend on you – in that sense, you’ll still be running your own business.
As far as if you’re working with Walmart specifically, not a whole lot of things change in terms of the specifics. For the most part, it will just mean that the products your e-commerce site offers will be from Walmart’s catalogue of items. You can get an idea of what that looks like in this article, if seeing some data on the subject interests you.
Thankfully, as you probably already know, there is quite an array of items available in the Walmart catalogue. Really, any type of item that you can think of wanting to sell, there’s a good chance that you can find it. There are tools available to help you drop ship using their bulk items.
Additionally, though, you can essentially run your own virtual Walmart store if that’s what you would prefer. The services are almost entirely automated, allowing you to do so with as little stress as possible. It’s quite a big deal for those of us who are quite busy on a daily basis – having almost passive income is invaluable.
Is it Worth Pursuing?
As we’ve mentioned a few times here, e-commerce can be quite challenging. From having to set up a corporate address to dealing with stock and shipping, it’s not necessarily something to be taken lightly. With that said, though, there are more and more ways to make managing a business like this much more palatable and simpler.
Although it might be stressful to start out and to worry about things like advertisement campaigns and who might end up being our customers, if we automate the process by using a done for you Walmart store (or something similar), the process becomes much less daunting and instead something to look forward to.