Drop surfing is a term that is commonly misunderstood. Many people think that it is the same with dropshipping.
Well, it's not! I wan't to help you understand the difference between the two.
I'll also will also share with you some important information about the business model. This way, you can make a choice which of the two is better for you.
How does drop surfing work? You ride the wave of trending products and make money as fast. The best way to do this is to find multiple suppliers selling the same trending product so you never run out of stock. Once a suppliers runs our of stock or increases the price you can move to the next one.
What Is Drop Surfing?
First off, we need to define dropshipping. It's a business model where the seller doesn't keep an inventory.
When a customer buys, the seller simply has to go to the manufacturer’s website, place the order, type the customer’s details like name and shipping address, and pay.
After this, the supplier will pack and ship the item. As a seller, you don't spend any money until a purchase was made. Drop surfing also works this way, with one difference.
With drop surfing, the seller receives an order, but he has a system or software, that shows him multiple suppliers from around the world who sell the same thing.
Basically, you want to find as many suppliers as you can selling the same trending products. You do this so when one supplier runs our or increases the price you can move onto the next one quickly.
He then reviews this list, studies the price from each seller, including the shipping costs and timelines, and then he chooses who to buy from. After choosing who to buy from, he places the order, and then the manufacturer ships the item to the customer.
Like dropshipping, the seller did not spend any money. He only pays for a product after a customer placed an order. These two business models are like identical twins who have small differences. In dropshipping, you only have one supplier for a product.
With drop surfing, you review the offers of many suppliers and choose the best one to fulfill your customer’s order.
Related: The Ultimate Free Dropshipping Course For 2019 & Beyond
To speed things up and ave you time on your when you start drop surfing, we have found a great software
This will help you organize everything, you need to organise yourself better if you decide to drop surf. You need to take a look at the selling price, the seller rating, the speed of shipping, the shipping cost, and the feedback about the quality of the product.
Use uDroppy To Find Drop Surfing Suppliers
Most drop surfers do a manual search for suppliers before they process the order. This is a time-consuming activity.
Before you can even post a product for sale, you should already have done your research about different suppliers. Then, you need to list them down on a spreadsheet like Microsoft Excel.
That spreadsheet must have all the information you need about the supplier. Once a customer orders, you go to that spreadsheet and then decide the best supplier to fulfill the order.
Take note that suppliers also change their prices. Some will offer a promo discount, so now this supplier has the least price among all of them.
The problem is, you don't know this, and your spreadsheet doesn't automatically update the prices or the availability unless you are a computer programmer who knows how to write computer codes to make your spreadsheet collect data automatically.
One solution that you can use is uDroppy. It is a software tool that collects information about suppliers worldwide, and the products they sell.
uDroppy is an ecommerce management tool that you can use with your Shopify store.
With uDroppy, you will have the following things.
- Guaranteed shipping and timelines
- Notifications if product prices change
- Fulfill orders automatically
Why You Should Use A Drop Surfing Tool
So why should you consider using some sort of drop surfing software?
Guaranteed shipping and timelines
If you depend on only one supplier, or if you buy products from AliExpress, you are at their mercy. Sometimes, some suppliers will not ship the product at all, and this will hurt your business.
Also, products that you source from China can take up to 60 days to arrive. With uDroppy, you can rest assured that the products offered in their listings will be shipped on time.
Notifications if product prices change
Suppliers will not notify you if the price of their products changes. This is a challenge because your customers will pay for the price you listed, only for you to realize that the supplier raised the price.
This is a big problem because you can lose money. Just think about a situation where you have listed 50 products, and you did not know that they have changed.
A 10% increase is substantial, and you cannot tell your customer that the prices have changed and you want to cancel, or they will not buy from you again.
Fulfill orders manually
The typical set-up for a drop shipping business is for you to go to the supplier website or the online marketplace, and then make the purchase yourself.
How will you keep up with this if you are receiving 100 orders a day? You will need employees, and employees mean you have to pay them a daily salary.
With uDroppy, the customer’s order automatically goes to the system, and your chosen supplier will also fulfill it. You don't have to type the customer’s name and address manually because the uDroppy company will take care of all shipping concerns on your behalf.
Related: Dropshipping For Beginners: The Simple Step By Step Guide To Starting
The Pros And Cons
Every business style has its pros and cons. Below is a guide to help you decide if you are ready for drop surfing.
PROS
- Many suppliers to choose from for the same product
- You can get the best value for your money because you will buy from the supplier with the lowest price
- Automatic fulfillment of orders; you do not need to log in and order manually for each product sold
- Automatic sourcing with an ecommerce tool – you have thousands of suppliers with thousands of different products to choose from around the world, not just China or your country
- You can focus your efforts on marketing, not backend work like shipping and ordering
- Automated pricing and updates where you can set up your own pricing rules
CONS
- The software comes with a cost of the membership; different software providers have different prices
- You are limited to the products offered by the product company
- You cannot use the drop surfing app with all websites, unless if you know something about computer programming
Building A Drop Surfing Store
With both business models, you need to build an online store. This is how your customers will find your product. In the drop shipping business model, the most popular one is Shopify.
It's a platform where you can build your store from scratch. You can also upload pictures and descriptions of your products. For more information on hoe you build a store step by step this article can help.
If a customer buys, you buy the product from your source, and then the source ships it to the customer. Shopify also has a partnership with manufacturers whose products you can buy and sell directly from the Shopify platform.
Shopify also has very good pricing plans and it's cheap to use
If you would like to know how you can build a store so you can start selling products then this tutorial will help.
Drop Surfing Ecommerce Final Thoughts
Drop surfing is a good choice if you want to save on costs. However, it's going to cost you a bit extra if you run the software to manage everything.
If you are new drop shipping, perhaps it is better if you first focus on finding winning products so you can start making sales. Once you start making money then you can look info drop surfing.