Development of Dropshipping - an Online Business Model in the Context of E-Commerce

The development of mobile technologies and the Internet since the end of the last century has conditioned a new environment characterized by its own economic processes. Today, people spend much of their daily lives in front of various mobile devices, such as smartphones, tablets, laptops, etc., which connect them to the World Wide Web. There has been an accelerated development of e-commerce, which is growing in importance as a trade and distribution channel. Different online business models are emerging to conduct successful trade. Through them, manufacturers, retailers, entrepreneurs and distributors are able to engage ever larger customer audiences and increase their buyers. Through the online business model of dropshipping, entrepreneurs on the Internet running online stores develop relationships with manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors as well as customers. The model inherently incorporates both B2B and B2C e-commerce, enabling commercially oriented individuals with little capital to create a platform to sell products around the world without manufacturing or shipping them themselves to end customers. The research interest of this online business model stems from the fact that in terms of revenue, the dropshipping market is only just over 1% of the entire e-commerce market, but has demonstrated enduring sustainability over time. The aim of the paper is to describe the dropshipping model and to make a comprehensive analysis of e-commerce for the last few years. Various statistics about the e-commerce market worldwide are used – volume of B2B and B2C markets, amount of dropshipping revenue, number of online buyers, etc. Through comparative and retrospective analysis, key patterns in e-commerce development are identified.