Certain items you may wish to ship yourself. You control the process, so that option is always open to you on an order by order basis. But if you do not already have the item in stock, or do not have to provide special services, or combine it with other items in stock, then Drop Ship is hard to beat. It speeds up delivery, eliminates shipping and handling to your store, then again to the customer, and the wholesalers can ship cheaper than you can.

The wholesalers have special equipment and processing lines established to process orders more efficiently than any of us could hope to. The fact that they have locations all over the country and load the truck at their warehouses, makes the savings all the greater. The problem with Drop Ship has been the paperwork and administrative effort to get the order into the wholesalers systems. And that is the problem DropDemon addresses.

Ebooks are nothing more than electronically drop shipped books. The existence of the DropDemon transaction handling infrastructure made it possible for independent businesses to directly participate in offering ebooks for the first time. DropDemon has the expensive interface into the electronic data distribution systems, saving participating BookSite businesses the individual 5-digit link up fees and programming costs. Participants receive full (40%) retail discounts instead of small associate referral fees (10%) and customer raiding by dotcoms. DropDemon is the payment clearinghouse for eBook offerings.

Caution, since eBooks are instantly and automatically downloaded, and retailers instantly charged by DropDemon, it would be a good idea to use CardDemon online credit card processing to make sure you get paid first by the customer ordering eBooks.

DropDemon basically deals with anyone capable of providing quality services and desiring to support independent retailers. The technical requirements are significant and only a handful of wholesalers are even capable of providing the service. Most of these services were designed for Goliath online booksellers. We just turned the tables to concentrate the programming and administration, so everyone can use the services. The decision is also based on location, handling fees, or product availability of the suppliers.

If you charge the same for shipping and handling as most dotcoms, you will probably breakeven or make a small profit on shipping and handling fees.

Let's assume you wish to drop ship the hardcover edition of the book "Cold Mountain" to a customer. It has a list price of $24.00 and is subject to a trade discount of 40%. DropDemon would charge your store:

What you charge your customers for shipping and handling or the discounts you offer is up to you. So the profit from the transaction would be the difference between the combined item and shipping charges you apply less the charges stated above. If you offered a 10% discount, and charged $4.50 shipping and handling like most other online booksellers, your profit would be:

DropDemon orders can be created from the View Orders module from BookSite or entered at the store counter. DropDemon is an easy way to provide shipping services for your customers, or to special order low quantity items for your store.

To generate an order from the view orders module, go to the edit order page for the order you wish to send. If the item is in any of the warehouses tied to DropDemon a little demon icon will appear. Select DropDemon as a shipping option in the drop down box, save changes, and click done.

To generate an order from the store counter, use the drop ship order entry page and repeat the process as above.

DropDemon charges a $10.00 return processing fee to cover administration and shipping back to the wholesaler.

Returns are a pain on any shipped order, even if you ship it yourselves. It is customary to offer a 30 day return period. We experience about a 2% return rate. DropDemon offices are listed as the return location, but many customers will return items directly to the store in any event. The store may forward that return on to DropDemon if they do not mind the extra shipping, administration and DropDemon return fee. If the customer does return the item to DropDemon, you will be notified so that you can issue the customer a credit, and DropDemon will process the order and pass through the refund provided by the wholesaler (less the processing fee).

Shipping, handling, and processing charges are not refunded to the stores. Even though it is not customary to refund customers for anything other than the purchase price of products returned, many stores do offer more liberal standards.

EBook orders are non-refundable.

When DropDemon receives the order, DropDemon also creates the payment for the order. This is a common transaction used in banking and big business, called electronic funds transfer. It is nothing more than an electronic check. Typically DropDemon will initiate this electronic check about a week after the order is placed. You are notified and invoiced by e-mail one day before processing. This allows DropDemon to minimize costs and administration requirements.

Credit card payments cannot be used instead of electronic checks

You collect payment from your customers by credit card, on account or anyway you choose. DropDemon does not deal with your customer, DropDemon only deals with your business.

If you would like to add online credit card processing, BookSite does offer CardDemon that is integrated into all of the BookSite order processing services including DropDemon. This is an optional service, but it does allow online verification and processing of credit cards with a link to DropDemon so the online ordering processing can be fully automated. CardDemon can also be used as a portable cash register, and call center order entry feature, too. Depending on how each participating business chooses to set-up the order processing procedures.