Dropshipping is a fulfillment method where you sell products without holding inventory. When a customer places an order, a third-party partner produces and ships the product directly to them.
For artists, photographers, and online sellers, dropshipping makes it possible to offer custom framed art without managing in-house printing, framing, storage, or shipping.
What Is Dropshipping?
Dropshipping allows businesses to sell products without stocking inventory. Instead, orders are fulfilled by a production partner who handles manufacturing and shipping directly to the customer. Frame It Easy offers dropshipping for photographers, artists, and businesses selling framed prints.
This model is commonly used in eCommerce because it reduces upfront costs and simplifies operations, especially for businesses selling custom or made-to-order products. It’s also important to understand your target market and pricing strategy to ensure your products are positioned effectively and remain profitable.
How Does Dropshipping Work?
1. A customer places an order on your website
2. You submit the order to your fulfillment partner
3. The product is produced (printed, framed, etc.)
4. The order ships directly to your customer
Here at Frame It Easy, we’ve even developed our own Shopify app that can aid any artist, photographer, or digital creator looking for the easiest way to sell their art, illustrations, and designs as a complete, ready-to-hang piece of wall art.
What Sort of Products Can You Dropship?
Certainly, there are products that are better suited for this style of business, right? The short answer is a lot of stuff. Clothing, art, wellness products, and just about everything in between can be dropshipped. On the art side, prints are one of the most common ways to get your art into the hands of consumers, and with the Frame It Easy Shopify app, you can seamlessly sell framed prints for a complete, one-stop print and frame shop.
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Dropshipping for Custom Framing
Dropshipping is especially useful for businesses selling custom framed art because it removes the need to manage production, inventory, and shipping. Instead of printing, framing, packing, and fulfilling orders yourself, a fulfillment partner handles each step after the customer places an order.
This makes it easier for artists, photographers, designers, and Shopify sellers to offer framed products at scale without investing in equipment, storage, or logistics. It also allows you to expand your product catalog quickly, test new styles or collections, and fulfill orders consistently as your business grows.
How Much Does Dropshipping Cost?
Is it profitable?
Dropshipping costs vary depending on the platform, products, and fulfillment partner you choose. Instead of upfront investments in inventory, equipment, and storage, you typically pay a per-order cost that includes production and shipping.
Compared to managing everything in-house, printing, framing, packaging, and shipping, dropshipping reduces overhead and eliminates the need to hold inventory. This makes it a lower-risk option for businesses getting started or expanding product offerings.
Profitability depends on your pricing strategy. You set your retail price, and your profit is the difference between that price and your fulfillment cost. With the ability to control markup, it’s easier to calculate margins and adjust pricing as needed.
In most cases, dropshipping is profitable when pricing is set correctly, making it a flexible and scalable option for selling custom products without high upfront costs.
Benefits of Dropshipping
Dropshipping reduces the need for inventory, storage, and in-house production. This allows businesses to focus on selling and marketing without managing fulfillment logistics.
It also lowers upfront costs, making it easier to launch new products or expand your offerings without large investments in materials or equipment.
Are There Any Drawbacks To Dropshipping?
Dropshipping is an excellent way for entrepreneurs to get started on making passive income from anywhere in the world, without having to take a massive risk in acquiring the money to start their own business from the ground up. That said, there are some things to be aware of with a dropshipping model of business.
Lead Time
Because you are outsourcing the shipping of products to a framing wholesaler, you won’t have as much control over lead time. We have a general lead time of 2-4 business days; the carrier would then pick up the order, and you would be updated with tracking.
Branding
Worried about adding your own branding? You’ll want to make sure your dropshipper of choice can address this. Our white-labeling option (through our website or our Shopify app) allows us to ship your orders without our branding, meaning your company name will replace it, instead. If you’re still concerned about adding lots of extras, you could have your orders shipped to your address, where you could repackage them with your branding & swag, and then re-ship them, but that would make more lead time. And that means longer wait times for your customer. The truth is, as long as people see your company name, they feel confident they know who it came from.
Packaging
In addition to worrying about storing & stocking inventory if you choose not to dropship, you also have to account for packing materials to send out your orders. You want to make sure the items arrive safely! Here at Frame It Easy, all of our packaging is custom-made to the frame it holds. This means that it has no room to wiggle around in its packaging and possibly get damaged. If you were to repackage something with your branding, you would run the risk of putting it in something less secure, which could jeopardize your customer’s order.
How Frame It Easy Supports Dropshipping, 3PL, and White Label Fulfillment
Frame It Easy supports multiple fulfillment workflows depending on how your business operates. With dropshipping, each custom framed order is produced and shipped directly to your customer after purchase, without you holding inventory. We also support a 3PL-style model where orders are still made-to-order, but can be fulfilled at scale as they come in, with printing, framing, and shipping handled end-to-end by our facility. For businesses focused on branding, our white-label service ensures every order ships directly under your business name, without Frame It Easy branding on the customer-facing experience.
Dropship Your Way To Success
Dropshipping simplifies fulfillment by removing the need for inventory, production, and shipping. For artists, photographers, and online sellers, it’s an efficient way to offer custom-framed products while focusing on growing your business.
So where do I start?
The best place to start is by creating a business account. Once you connect with us, we can help you find all the right custom framing solutions for your business.
Dropshipping FAQ
What is dropshipping?
Dropshipping is a fulfillment method where products are produced and shipped by a third party after a customer places an order.
Do I need inventory for dropshipping?
No. Dropshipping eliminates the need to hold inventory since products are made and shipped on demand.
Can I dropship custom framed art?
Yes. Custom framing can be fulfilled through dropshipping, allowing you to sell framed products without handling production or shipping.
What is the difference between dropshipping and print-on-demand?
Print-on-demand is a type of dropshipping where products are created after an order is placed. Both models avoid holding inventory.
Is dropshipping a good option for artists and photographers?
Yes. It allows creatives to sell their work as physical products without managing production, storage, or fulfillment.
What is the difference between dropshipping and white label?
Dropshipping refers to the fulfillment process, where a third party produces and ships products directly to your customer after an order is placed.
White labeling focuses on branding. With white-label framing, the product is delivered without the supplier’s branding, so it appears as if it came directly from your business.
