Is Dropshipping Possible With 3D Printing? Printing On Demand

Dropshipping gets more and more popular each passing day, so you might have wondered whether dropshipping is a good idea for 3D printing, whether that is 3D printed objects or actual 3D printers.

This article will explore the question of 3D printing being possible with drop shipping.

dropshipping is widely done in the 3D printing field, but it can be quite difficult to turn a profit depending on your strategy.

There are specialized companies that will create objects for you and deliver them, as long as you can get the orders and audience willing to purchase.

Having a popular design that you have the rights to can be helpful depending on what dropshipping strategy you are using.

This article will give some useful details on drop shipping in the 3D printing field, with the hopes to guide you on making some money.

What Is Drop Shipping?

Dropshipping is simply a business strategy that provides you as a retailer the privilege of avoiding buying, stocking, and keeping stock while just generating sales and profits.

In place of this, when a consumer buys a commodity through yourself, the retailer similarly buys the same commodity from their supplier, who then proceeds to deliver the commodity straight to the consumer, on behalf of the retailer.

You’re essentially being the middle-man between buyer and supplier.

Dropshipping as a business strategy is coming to be a popular logistics technique for most online retailers today.

Dropshipping simply rid you as a retailer of the stress of warehousing, which in itself is another costly and tiresome venture that specifically demands a thorough inventory stocking, and a good number of additional manual duties, such as picking, packing, shipping, and others.

As you can imagine, having to keep physical inventory, manage it, and all the rest would take quite a lot of resources.

All you really need is an online store, customers to place orders, then forward the order to the product supplier, and pay for that same product at wholesale price.

Now your product supplier should take the order in, process it, pack it, then ship it out straight to the original customer on your behalf.

Although it sounds simple, it can be difficult to initially get things going but once you do, it’s a great moneymaker.

Doing this with 3D printing isn’t as established as other types of dropshipping business, and many people wonder whether it’s actually possible in the first place.

Is Drop Shipping Possible with 3D Printing?

If you have in your possession any 3D printable product and you have plans to place this product out on sale, yet you do not wish to use up thousands of dollars for the production and the primary inventory, then dropshipping such an item is all you need.

Dropshipping can assist you in putting up a 3D printed product for sale or selling 3D printers in the market without any hassle at all and with no basic capital investment.

A dropshipping service is mapped out in a way that it provides a rapid, inexpensive service, that can be easily adjusted to suit your demands.

To do this efficiently, all you have to do is to follow these straightforward steps.

Request a quote for dropshipping from your preferred drop shipping service company, either through an email or other provided media. Your request must contain information about your 3D project.

Assess and ascertain your 3D designs, and receive a quote, all thanks to your drop shipping service providers and their team of experts. Ensure this is done as quickly as possible.

Commence your production immediately and launch your sales. The hard part is getting the sales, where you’ll need to do some outreach and marketing to let people know your services exist.

After people know that your products are out there, if the marketing and outreach is done right for your type of 3D printed designs, you should be able to start bringing in sales.

It’s similar to 3D printing on demand, but you are taking most of the work out of it in exchange for higher fees and many aspects done for you.

Creating a brand and a reliable looking store is important as well.

As your orders increase, match the increase with a correlating increase in production.

No matter the quantity of your order, whether it is low or high, always create and keep a full inventory when you want to order.

It will likewise interest you to know that you can make use of drop shipping services when you wish to buy materials for your 3D printing production or even 3D printed end-products.

So, whether you are a personal buyer, retailer, or producer of 3D printed products, dropshipping can always come in handy.

You don’t have to necessarily get designs printed, and you can choose to dropship products like 3D printers, accessories, upgrades, and filament. This is more related to wholesale rather than dropshipping though.

Here you would set up an E-commerce website and list all the products you wish to dropship then do the same outreach to try get some orders.

Pros of Drop Shipping

• There is a reduced level of risk as you can only acquire a commodity when a customer has purchased it. Hereby, guaranteeing you a level of assurance of profit-making.
• The overhead cost for running the business is very little, especially as the cost of warehousing has been chalked off from your expenses.
• It is easier and faster to start up this kind of business as a chunk of your worries are no longer present.
• It is impressively simple to scale a dropship business, as the bulk of the extra work rests on the shoulder of only your suppliers.

Cons of Drop Shipping

• Due to the nature of starting up, entry, and the competitive market of the dropshipping business, the market is often characterized by a low-profit margin.
• Competition is always popping up doing the same type of thing, so the real skill is being able to create a unique product, bundle, or brand to give you an upper hand against other dropshipping services.
• It is always a daunting task to maintain a record of the inventory levels as you are not solely the one in charge of this inventory.
• Delivery is quite problematic with drop shipping, as it relies on which supplier the commodity comes from, the location of the customer who purchases the product, and the weight of such a product.

What Companies Do 3D Printing Drop Shipping?

Are you searching for companies that offer the best 3D printing drop shopping services within your budget? Whether you are a personal buyer or a retailer, the list of companies below is efficient as 3D printing drop shippers.

Check out these companies and their stellar features below.

China Brands

• International warehousing system across 200 countries
• Rapid 24-hour shipping services
• Excellent and variety of products
• Sales at factory wholesale rate
• Unrestricted access to their product listing
• Auto order strategy
• No minimum order barrier

BangGood

• A world-leading 3D dropshipping platform.
• A wide variety of 3D printed products and materials
• Perfect for drop shipping 3D printers
• On-the-go shopping strategy
• A rich array of topnotch brands
• Compelling discounts on different items

AliBaba/AliExpress

• A large array of products to select from
• Direct contact privilege
• Compare feature for picking out the best while shopping
• Shipping liberty based on your preference
• Choice to demand a free or a paid sample
• No minimum order threshold

DH Gate

• Over 800 3D printers up for sale
• Pocket-friendly prices
• Shipping based on your preferred location
• Chat access to your supplier

3D Printer Pro

• Shipped items are delivered on the same day
• Affordable wholesale rates
• No least order amount
• Free shipping on sales costing above $99

How Do You Do 3D Printing on Demand?

There are a few companies doing 3D printing drop shipping on demand, that are worthy of note. Follow through as we discuss these companies, their services, and features.

Voodoo Manufacturing

Voodoo Manufacturing provides everyone the ability to manufacture according to their needs. Their high-volume 3D printing factory is capable of manufacturing up to 10,000 plastic parts in a shorter period and for a lower cost.

With outstanding quality, quickness, and dependability, Voodoo places within your reach, the power of digital manufacturing. Whether you’re ready to manufacture or you are only prototyping, their 3D printing factory satisfies your needs no matter the scale.

Even when you do not have a 3D model to print, you can work hand-in-hand with their team of specialist CAD designers to transform that idea into a 3D file ready for production. This company is simply built with your desires as a customer as their central priority.

Update: Vodoo Manufacturing are now permanently closed.

3D Vikings

With 3D Vikings, drop shipping and 3D printing have never been easier.

• Practically no risk at all
• No monthly payments
• You are not required to carry inventory
• No minimum order threshold

This is how it works at 3D Vikings. 

Once a customer places an order with you, the order is immediately sent to 3D Vikings automatically. They handle the rest from there; including shipping the goods to your customer.

 The shipping is done with a tracking number, to help you check the progress of the order from time to time.

At 3D Vikings, you only make payments when you receive a real order, plus, you only pay for the product ordered by your customer. All you have to do is to design and set markup, they will take care of the rest.

To add to their efficiency, there is no problem when you have no 3D model, even though having an existing 3D model is the ideal way to begin a great design. Never mind; their team of experts is always on hand to take it up for you.

3D Vikings will help you, design models, precisely for additive production guaranteeing that you get nothing short of a top-notch design that seizes all the  opportunities made available by 3D printing.

Things are definitely getting easier to do as time goes on, as something like this would be very difficult to get done by yourself.

RexRoi

RexRoi is a Los Angeles based 3D printing manufacturer that specializes in high volume 3D printing. You can get an instant quote where you simple upload your files, check over whether the numbers look good, then your items go straight into production.

They have an average turnaround time of just 2 days, and they have produced over 500,000 parts. Risk is minimized with their 100% buyer protection guarantee so you can feel secure working with RexRoi.

You can even check out their booming RexRoi Etsy Store to see just how reputable and high quality they are.

Their description on how dropshipping works with them is as follows:

• Request a quote for dropshipping by filling in their questionnaire or emailing their sales team
• Verify your designs and get a direct quote by manufacturing experts within 1 business day
• Your production can then start and your sales can begin, with increases in production whenever needed
• Dropshipping process is done by them – they produce, package, and sell your products direct to customers.

This is a business, so there are things that you still have to manage such as inventory. With RexRoi, its up to you whether you have an inventory of 10 items or 1,000 items.

There isn’t a minimum quantity, but you should keep a few things in mind:

• If you expect many sales, having enough inventory is important since 3D printing does take time, and you don’t want to keep customers waiting too long
• There is a batch printing discount option to increase your profitability, or you can stick to the regular print-to-order option.

They have a full assembly service that you can make use of, where they charge on average $0.50 per minute for certain parts that may require it.

In terms of packaging and handling, you can choose between a box or parcel in various shapes and sizes, giving you control over how your customers see the delivery packaging.

This costs $0.50 per order as well as the cost of the box or parcel, which can be between $0.50 and $0.95 for the box, and $0.05 to $0.25 for the parcel.

Can You Sell 3D Printed Products on Amazon or Etsy?

When it comes to selling 3D printed products, you can also choose to sell them on Amazon or the more popular option, Etsy. I think the better and more popular option for selling 3D printed products is Etsy because it is a personalized store with unique items.

Uncle Jessy has a great YouTube video actually putting this into action, and it has potential to be very successful if done correctly.

There are many established stores that sell 3D printed items on Etsy, many of the popular products being things like vases, planters, 3D printed jewelry, candle holders, keyrings, famous characters or figures, and even pokemon.

Check out the Etsy listings when you type in ‘3D printed’ and you can see many examples of popular items that are working well. You can use these as inspiration to create your own designs so you have the copyright, then get them fulfilled by a reliable dropshipping company.

In terms of Amazon, you are able to make a sellers account then list your items, though it’s a lot more complex than using dropshipping services because you have more factors to take care of.

Amazon has a fulfillment service called Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) where you can ship your inventory straight to Amazon’s fulfillment centres, and they will pick, pack and ship the products straight to the customers for you.

There is a lot less competition on Amazon as compared to sites like Etsy, or even EBay so it’s worth looking in to.