Drop Surfing Vs Dropshipping: Is Drop Surfing really better than Dropshipping?
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Drop Surfing Vs Dropshipping: Is Drop Surfing really better than Dropshipping?

Drop surfing is not a sport.

You may be new to dropshipping and recently looking for new opportunities, or you may be a connoisseur in the dropshipping field. Whoever you are, if you follow dropshipping, I'm sure you've heard the term……

Drop surfing.

So, what exactly is Drop surfing?

Many people think drop surfing is a completely different thing from dropshipping. This is wrong. To some extent, drop surfing is a mode of dropshipping. After reading this article, you will understand exactly what drop surfing is and how you should start drop surfing.

But before you start learning about drop surfing, let's review dropshipping together!

What is dropshipping?

Dropshipping is a model of e-commerce for individuals or businesses that have little start-up capital and do not want to bear the cost of inventory and warehousing.

The general process of Dropshipping is as follows:

  • The seller selects a product or a supplier.
  • The seller places the product listing on their store.
  • Buyers select the sellers' products.
  • The seller contacts the supplier to pack and ship the goods to the customer.
  • Seller handles customer services.
Photo from the indian face

Why do dropshipping?

Yes, as said before, dropshipping doesn't require you to spend time looking for storage space, you don't have to incur any storage costs, and you won't have any stress about inventory. This is the biggest advantage of dropshipping. 

Because of this, you don't have to hire people to manage your warehouse, and you don't have to spend time on management and shipping.

The minimization of workload and costs can increase your profits and reduce your risks. You can focus on more important tasks, such as product selection and marketing. I personally believe that drop surfing is a breakthrough in seeking selection on this basis.

After understanding dropshipping, I think it will be easier for you to understand drop surfing.

What is drop surfing?

The cheapest price and the hottest trend are the two keywords that define drop surfing. If you are familiar with dropshipping, you will find that these two keywords are closely related to dropshipping product research efforts. In other words, this is the goal of product research. So, to some extent, drop surfing is a business model for dropshipping to make a breakthrough in product research.

The cheapest price

If you want to sell socks, you need to browse all the suppliers selling socks on AliExpress, Shopify, eBay and Amazon, and then pick the one with the cheapest selling price to supply your customers. This is a very common process for dropshipping product research.

But there is a problem: How can you guarantee that the socks sold by this supplier will always be the cheapest? If you are going for the cheapest price, then you need to keep an eye on the price trends of this sock. Once a cheaper supplier comes along, you need to change your supplier to ensure you are spending the least amount of money. 

The hottest trends

Pursuing and anticipating hot trending products can increase your sales. This is very challenging for most dropshippers. If you hope to profit from selling hot trending products, then you must have a keen enough observation to allow you to anticipate trending products.

Most dropshippers can't do this, but it's not hopeless. A good dropshipping niche finder tool can help you get the hottest products.

Why do drop surfing?

From the definition of drop surfing it is easy to see that drop surfing is an upgraded version of dropshipping.

Drop surfing allows you to minimize costs and maximize profits. Isn't that the ultimate purpose of starting dropshipping?

What is the difference between Drop Surfing and Dropshipping?

First of all, one sentence summarizes the relationship between dropshipping and drop surfing: 

Drop surfing = the pursuit of the cheapest price / the pursuit of the hottest trend + dropshipping.

Although drop surfing is a step up from dropshipping, it doesn't mean that drop surfing is perfect. There are times when drop surfing may not make you more money, but may also make you a lot of money. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the risks of drop surfing.

Drop Surfing Ecommerce Pros

Lower cost of entry. As with dropshipping, one of the biggest advantages of drop surfing is the lower cost of entry. You don't need to rent a store and hire employees, you just need a computer to start your business. Compared to dropshipping, you can find suppliers that sell at a lower price, which may make your cost of entry even lower.

More flexibility in the choice of suppliers. If you have been working with the same supplier for a long time, it is not drop surfing, and if you start drop surfing, you can be more flexible in your choice of suppliers. Drop surfing ensures that your costs are kept to a minimum.

Selling the most popular products. When you start drop surfing, you will be selling some of the most popular items on the market. This will bring very much popularity to your store and will increase your sales so much that you don't need to worry about your business.

Profits will be higher. When your item is the most popular and in short supply, there is nothing wrong with you raising the unit price slightly. This will not only not affect your sales, but will also increase your profits.

Drop Surfing Ecommerce Cons

Need assistance with tools. As mentioned in the previous article, the two key words for drop surfing are "cheapest price" and "most popular product". As a dropshipper, it is very difficult for you to start drop surfing completely on your own. You need to have a very keen eye on the market to ensure that you make accurate judgments. If you can't do that, then you need niche finder tools or other tools to assist you. Of course, most of the tools are paid, but they can help you a lot.

Unstable relationship with suppliers. When you start drop surfing, you won't be working with the same supplier for a long time. This means that your relationship with the supplier will not be very strong and you will need to constantly communicate and adapt to new suppliers. The quality of goods and the level of logistics services may vary from supplier to supplier, and you are more precise in your judgment. This can create risks for your drop surfing business.

The competition may be fierce. The "most popular item" may also be the item with the most competition. There will be more sellers competing with you for this market. You need to make your store as competitive as possible, or, if possible, find niche markets.

How to start drop surfing?

  • Build your own e-commerce platform through e-commerce development platforms (Woocommerce, Shopify, etc.).
  • Use niche finder tool to find niche markets and products.
  • Find drop surfing software and tools to assist you in managing your store.
  • Start your drop surfing journey!

What sites allow you to drop surfing?

  • AliExpress
  • Shopify
  • Amazon
  • Etsy
  • eBay
  • Walmart

Generally speaking, the mainstream e-commerce platforms currently support drop surfing. AliExpress and Shopify are the most common dropshipping selection platforms. The professional dropshipping niche finder tool - FindNiche can help you find the most promising niche marketplaces on AliExpress and Shopify. AmzChart and EtsyHunt can help you find The best products and the most competitive stores on Amazon and Etsy.

With the help of these professional tools, you can more quickly find the most popular products and vendors with the lowest selling prices.

How to start your drop surfing business with the niche finder tool?

Drop surfing brings you huge profits only if you have a keen enough observation of the market and strong data analysis skills, and spend enough time to select products and suppliers.

But this does not mean that you will get a corresponding return for the time you spend. In most cases, you spend a lot of time and get nothing, or even lose the cost of time.

In this case, with the help of some niche finder tools, you can get the latest and more accurate information to help you make decisions.

Similarly, manually completing all the processes of drop surfing business will also take you quite a long time, you can also make use of some e-commerce solution platforms to automate your whole process.

Niche Finder for AliExpress and Shopify Products - FindNiche

Niche Finder Tool - FindNiche

FindNiche is a professional dropshipping niche finder tool that provides you with intelligent niche market analysis through a huge database.

Huge product database. FindNiche has AliExpress database and Shopify database. You can view the details of these items through FindNiche.

Access to high-margin, low-competition niche goods. You can avoid the risk of high competition by selecting those niche items with potential through FindNiche's intelligent filtering.

Daily Niche product list for you! FindNiche will provide you with a list of the most popular products and a list of the fastest growing products, updated daily to ensure you get the latest information!

……

Helping you filter out the lowest priced suppliers and high margin, low competition niche items will make your drop surfing business a big success! Of course, if you're interested in Amazon Marketplace and Etsy Marketplace, try the Amazon analytics tool - AmzChart
AmzChart and the Etsy product research tool - EtsyHunt! You'll get what you want!

What are you waiting for? Start surfing now!