Drop shipping is the best method for businesses to use, due to it being inexpensive to set up and the fact that all the stock is virtual, meaning that no storage is needed to store it and there is no chance of carrying dead stock if a product becomes unpopular. Although there is some disadvantages, for example delays in sending products from drop shippers if they have run out of stock, the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages and other alternative methods.

One of the alternatives to drop shipping is wholesale. Wholesale is purchasing products (normally in bulk) cheaper than their recommended retail price and selling them on for that price, or a similar price. This is very similar to drop shipping, apart from you retain the stock, which is the main disadvantage to this method because storage space would be needed for the stock and a product may become unpopular, meaning that stock would be retained for longer than expected.

Being an affiliate to a company is another method that could be used. This again is similar to drop shipping, because you do not physically hold any stock, instead you promote a product that another site is selling and if the sale is made as a result of your promoting, you receive a small percentage of the sale. The reason why drop shipping is better than this method is because profits made from each sale are generally very low and could be infrequent.

Also, auction sites like Salehoo could be used to buy and sell products. You can buy wholesale products on an auction site, but the products that are sold could vary and you may not be able to purchase what you intended. You can also sell on a auction site like Salehoo and is simplistic to set up, but you may not receive the amount of profit you expected, because items can sell for less than expected, and in some cases, not sell at all.

As you can see there are alternatives to drop shipping, but none of them match up to the advantages of drop shipping and that is why it is the best choice for setting up an internet business.