I was listening to reply of webinar about an apparent easy to grow with business model called Just in Time manufacturing. Basically I heard that the customer buys your product, pays you, and then you place the order with the manufacturer/supplier and pay them a portion of the money for them to ship to your customer. It's suppose to be a such a great money maker as means as new starter dont have to order, hold or send any stock.
Is this not just the same thing as Dropshipping? Both sound great but let's face it, there are minimal if any manufactures actually in Australia willing to do this for new starters. Overseas supping and manufacturing is always made out to sound so cheap and so easy but thing is if I am placing a Dropshipping order to Asia, America or wherever - my customer will not receive their product for 3-6 weeks generally because it has to come from overseas. I will not make my customers wait that long for a product or they will never return and my business would fall apart, it is not a sustainable or very good model at all - unless you live in America apparently.
I have also been reading on the stats of Droppshipping stating your only likely to get a pretty low return on your sale whereas holding your own inventory costs more upfront but could earn you more long run.
i would be interested in knowing more about the the Just in Time model, whatever that is exactly as I cant find anyone talking about in within the context of eCommerce.
Other option is spend 5k on inventory (per order) and put in your garage or hire a 3PL service. This is WAY TO HARD for any new comer to try and do.
Come on guys, give us Australians something real to work with for a change.