Is it even worth doing Dropshipping or Print On Demand?

[urr13 account]

The margins for both of those business models are extremely tight, unless you already have a large audience and don't need to spend anything on marketing. Getting people to your listing is difficult and SEO takes a long time.

I don't think this is going to be a successful venture for most people.

 

[Stoneheart]

Lawyers will pay well to do their research for example

I can get paid for cyberstalking? my DMs are open, ill take payment in monero...

 

[blazeaster]

I can get paid for cyberstalking? my DMs are open, ill take payment in monero...

Wish that was real. It’s more like going through SEC documents

 

[AlixHenriolsCousin]

Dropshipping has the risk of returns. A friend of mine did dropshipping and stopped after he lost money due to returns. And like others here pointed out, you can order stuff directly from China (or wherever it is produced) now.

No idea where you live, but most countries have some laws that give customers the right to return any item they purchased online (or via mail order etc.) without reason within a certain timeframe, since they can't inspect it like in a brick and mortar store. Like, someone can order an item, pay, you purchase it at your supplier, send it to the customer and he returns it a week later demanding his money back because he just feels like it. In most jurisdictions, you are legally obliged to accept this.
Which supplier will take it back, you aren't an end customer and those exact same laws (in most countries) don't apply to you, or the timeframe for returns will have expired due to shipping or the shipping fees are so high it's not worth it, and even if you can send it back, you still lost money in shipping cost. In some countries, you even have to give customers the shipping fees back or pay their shipping (to return the product to you).

 

[High Level Rad Waste]

SEO (and I assume you mean Search Engine Optimisation) is useful for discoverability. People when looking to buy something less common (so things they can't just easily find of Amazon) or when doing a price comparison to find a better deal will likely start by just googling the product. If you're one of the top results then it's more likely they'll buy from you. You can have the best novelty dildos at the lowest prices but if no one can find you to buy from you then it doesn't mean anything.

Dropshipping and Print On Demand are different things though. They relate to stock management, or rather how to prevent stock management.
Renting out warehouse space, or just pilling stuff in a spare room can be inconvenient and a bit of a mess so the idea is to remove that layer of complexity. Although you do add additional complexity (probably more so for Print on Demand) and most likely a slower delivery time (just take any random Comicsgate crowdfunding campaign and you'll likely see a lot of delays for all manner of reasons). The advantage of having items in-stock is that you know how many you have and you know how long it will take to get them mailed off (i.e. how long it will take you to get them out of stock and throw them at some delivery company).

Dropshipping is probably the easiest since practically you add no real value. Someone orders from you, you source the items to you, probably repackage the items (so the idiots buying from you don't know they can just bypass you and save money) and then you forward it on.

It's a niche industry, but dropshipping is how body armor largely works. Almost everything on the NIJ cert list that doesn't sell exclusively to cops is just rebranded LTC plates.