If you have spent hours searching for a great drop shipper and have had no luck, or perhaps have had issues in the past with choosing the wrong drop shippers, you have come to the right place! This article highlights some of the key things you should look for when you are next on the hunt for a reliable drop shipper.

A Reliable Payment Method such as PayPal, PayMate or Google Checkout. When you can pay your drop ship supplier via a reliable payment method, it means you have protection against them scamming you by taking your money and running - leaving you and your buyer with a big fat question mark hovering above your head.

Competitive Prices! Drop shippers must charge their retailers anywhere from US$2-US$5 per item in order to cover their costs of storing and shipping the item on your behalf, therefore, it's important to make sure that the prices they can offer will be competitive.

Exceptional customer service: This is very important when drop shipping. Once you have taken your buyer's money and placed the order with your supplier, what happens next is 100% out of your hands, and completely up to your drop shipper. To succeed, you will need a supplier who appreciates timeliness in sending the item out and emailing through tracking numbers. You can easily test out a new drop shipper you are looking into by ordering from them and having the item sent to your address.

A clean track record: As with all suppliers, you need to make sure that your drop shipper has a clean record. There are a few ways to do this. First, visit Domain Tools and enter the URL of a supplier you are looking into. Look under 'Registration Record' and see when the site was created. If it is less than 2 years old, we recommend you find yourself another supplier. Don't be tempted to give them a try because they are the cheapest you can find. New suppliers are much more likely to be questionable than established ones. Second, check their contact details. Look for email addresses that end with @companyname, for example, if you are buying gardening supplies from Nebraskan Gardening Ltd, expect to see an email address that goes something like 'bob@nebraskengardening.com.

Never use suppliers with free accounts such as hotmail.com or gmail.com. It's unlikely that a reputable drop shipper will invest thousands of dollars into a wholesale business and neglect to set up proper business email accounts.

A will to help grow your business: A supplier can do a lot to help you grow your drop shipping business. Most importantly, drop shippers can help you generate more sales by providing additional services such as inserting your provided brochures, discount vouchers, thank you notes, and compliments slips. This really personalizes the items you sell and helps build a relationship between you and your buyers. Talk to your supplier about whether they are able to do this for you. Many suppliers are more than happy to do this, as it means they will gain more sales from you in the future.