Dropshipping - is it a profitable business model?

I'm a web developer and could build a store quite easily and cheaply. Is a good site enough to make dropshipping profitable? I have concerns that the large companies would always beat me on price as I'm needing to give the wholesale company a cut. Has anyone had experience in this area?

Drop shipping sites can be massively profitable, and have many advantages over "bigger businesses". Suggest you read Tim Ferriss's "The 4 hour work week" to get a better understanding.

Setting up online stores is very cheap / can be free through some providers. So you need to sell a product that you can price competitively, that has good margins, and that you can still be profitable even after spending marketing dollars on banners / Google Adwords etc.

I think it can definitely be profitable if you find the right products and the right niche.

Also you can think outside the box with drop shipping to. Depending on where you live there is probably a fulfillment house of some sort that will keep inventory of your product and box / ship it for you for a fee. So you could buy BULK from China, have it stored in a distribution place, and they'll ship it for you. You would still be drop shipping, but your own product which you can get cheaper and negotiate better deals on.