Drop Shipping Business

Bicycles

The bicycle as a means of cheap and healthy transport has greatly increased in popularity in recent years. Even so, specialist bicycle shops are not numerous, and mail order is worth considering as a retailing method, particularly for bicycles which are a little out of the ordinary. Consider folding bicycles, for example. These have all the characteristics of bikes in general, but they also have a certain gadgety appeal, a recurrent theme in mail order. They fold down for easy storage at home or in the boot of a car or even into a bag which may be easily carried. The owner can, for example, ride his bike to the station in the morning, fold it into the bag, take the train to town, and then cycle to the office at the other end, hanging his bike up in the cloakroom until he needs it again to go home. Features like these provide excellent material for the advertising copywriter.

From the customer’s point of view, there is the further mail order appeal of the chance to try the machine out for a few days, secure in the knowledge that it can be returned for refund within the trial period. This is particularly important as many potential purchasers will be doubtful whether they have the skill, strength and stamina to use the bicycle to advantage.

If your product is a good one, after-sales problems should be minimal though some are bound to occur and you must be sure in advance that you have the organisation and skills to deal with them. Handling and mailing are obviously more awkward than with many products; you need warehouse space and will probably have to use a non-Post Office carrier. Price/weight ratio is good.

There are no immediately obvious follow-ups; much depends upon the nature of your original sales pitch and the places you advertise. If you sell through cycling journals — and therefore to enthusiasts — you could follow up with other products of the outdoor life, such as camping gear. If you sell through general papers, promoting your product as a means of economical commuter transport, you might follow up with other items which promise to cut the cost of living, such things as devices to reduce home heating bills, or items of self-sufficiency appeal for growing your own food or brewing your own beer.

Binoculars/telescopes

There is a very wide range of such optical equipment available. At the top end of the range, items retail at £100 or more, and clearly this is not a good product for the non-specialist mail order beginner to choose. But at the bottom end of the market, the near-toys need not cost very much at all, and have a strong appeal to the buyer.

Binoculars confer power. You can see things other people can’t see. And at a more mature level, you can use them in sport, for bird-watching, satellite spotting, and so on.

Cheap binoculars may be lightweight, and even good quality glasses with, say a 10 x 50 lens, may not weigh more than a kilogram. The glasses may come in boxes with good manufacturers’ packing, needing only a little more outer wrapping for mailing. Price/weight ratio is very favourable for expensive glasses; indeed, there are many superb glasses specifically made to a very light weight, but that could take you into the £200- plus class where even with postal insurance the mailing costs are relatively insignificant.

Theatre glasses may be worth considering. These are always light in weight, and can make an attractive offer in the gift market.

Even cheap binoculars and telescopes should have a very long working life, and any optical products worthy of the name should give rise to few after-sales problems.