Drop shipping
One of the most productive ways to have a business partnership is drop shipping.
Here is how it works:
Assuming you are based in Europe and you are in the wooden toy business: You have found somebody in the US who would be interested to sell your toys on his web page.
This persons' web page is open to the world and consequently he would have customers from Europe as well. It would be a huge waste of time and money if you would deliver your toys to him, and he would ship it back to his European customers. So he could ask you to drop ship for him to his European customers. As soon as he gets an order in from Europe, he forwards the shipping information to you, and you act as his drop-shipper. He pays you the drop ship price that you agreed on plus the actual shipping costs you have (if they are not covered in the drop ship price).
It is a win/win/win situation:

- No taxes and shipping costs have to be paid for delivery of the goods to the US
- No time wasted for the shipment to arrive in the US
- No taxes/duty has to be paid when the goods (re)enter Europe
- Lower shipping costs within Europe
- Faster delivery within Europe
So you, your US-partner and the customer wins in this scenario.

This can of course work either way: If you find goods somewhere that you would like to sell on your page, but you don't want to ship them back to the country / region that they came from: Ask if the producer would drop ship for you.
Sometimes it can make sense not to have any goods on stock yourself and just have the producer drop ship for you worldwide.

Branding can be very helpful when drop shipping. If you drop ship for somebody, offer to mention his name and web page on the shipment. Of course you will also have to put your name on in case the customer address is not OK and the package comes back. It sure is nice if the customer has the feeling it all comes from one company, and some stickers are easily made.

Trust and business attitude are the big issues here:
I send out all of my orders within 48 hours after the payment of my customer has cleared. (More than 95% are sent out within 24 hours). When I look for somebody who can drop ship for me, he should have the same attitude. I have to trust him to really go through with what is agreed between us. The drop shipper can do a huge amount of damage to you or the customer, for example:
- Delayed shipment of goods, your drop shipper just does not bother to go to the Post Office
- Goods not packed safely
- Wrong postage, so your customer has to pay extra, when the goods arrive
- Wrong type of shipment (if your drop shipper decides for Standard and not for Priority shipment, you customer will wait a long time)
- Goods are not labeled to come from you
- No or wrong insurance of the goods.

Plan it well. Think of all possible scenarios. Know the postage from different countries, especially when you start drop shipping. Make sure you cover it all with your partner before the first drop ship takes place:

Some of the points to clear up before drop shipping starts:

- Which goods are being drop shipped?
- What is the drop ship price of the goods?
- What countries will you/your partner drop ship to?
- When and how will you inform or be informed about a sale that needs to be drop shipped?
- How much is shipping to each country or region?
- What is the price of the goods for end-customers?
- Will you drop ship to wholesale customers as well? If so: what are the prices and shipping costs for wholesale?
- When will the goods go out?
- How will you pay / get paid? (Bank transfer, Paypal,…)
- How fast will you pay / get paid?
- What type of shipment should be used?
- What type of insurance should be used?
- Who will keep the proof of shipment and for how long?
- Will the shipments be branded?
- Is the drop shipper allowed to add any kind of advertisement for his own page to the shipments?
- What happens if a shipment gets lost?
- What happens if the purchase was a fraud / charge back?
- Will tracking numbers be provided (and if yes: how fast)?
- What is the expected frequency of sales? A rough guess is good enough, but it can be a factor in the pricing if you expect a sale once a day or once a month. Be very realistic and you'll avoid misunderstandings and frustration!