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Modalyst’s Guide to Drop shipping: Running the Business

How to Run a Drop shipping Business

Has your recent attempt to start your own drop shipping business run into more complications than you originally expected?

Although on the surface it may seem simple, we understand that there are numerous problems that may arise that can make drop shipping seem even more difficult than running a regular store.

You may have had to deal with inventory syncing issues, relations with your suppliers or mistakes made by your suppliers. You also will have to decide your own shipping policies, manage returns and keep good relationships with the key of your business, your customers.

With our experience, we can give you our advice on how to best manage these issues that arise while running your dropshipping business.

 

Running A Dropshipping Business

Image from Ordoro

Inventory and Stock Management

Managing your inventory among numerous different suppliers and dealing with multiple customers can be a challenging task. Ignoring either side could lead to you having a lack of great brands or a lack of customers, both problems you need to avoid in order to run a successful dropshipping company. There are a number of ways through which you can best manage your inventory.

1. Using an Inventory Management Application

Inventory management can now be automated, so it’s easy to find and manage multiple suppliers willing to drop ship on a singular platform.

Software like Modalyst automatically adds products from suppliers and syncs their inventory with your e-commerce software, so you never need to worry about selling a product that is out of stock.

Additionally, since you will be managing multiple suppliers you reduce the risk of having just a few suppliers that may churn or have bad shipping/returns records.

2. Communicate with your Drop shipping Suppliers

If you notice that a bestseller on your store is running out of stock it might be a good idea to let the supplier know that his product is doing very well in your store and ask whether he plans to continue to produce it.

This will help you communicate with your customers when the product is out of stock over whether they can expect it to return soon, or if they would like to pre-order it when it returns. Additionally, communication regarding changing stock is important as you can anticipate potential issues that may arise with particular products you stock.

Platforms like Modalyst streamline the communication process so you can message your suppliers from the platform itself, helping you stay organized and in touch whenever you need to.

Maintaining Supplier Relationships

A drop shipping Retailer without drop shipping Suppliers cannot exist!

Hence it is of paramount importance that you maintain a good professional relationship with your Suppliers to have a consistent flow of quality products with the least possible complications for your customers. You can assure this in many ways:

1. Give them the freedom to choose shipping and returns policy

Since your suppliers are the ones who have to deal with paying shipping costs and packaging your goods you should allow them the freedom to choose how much they wish to charge for shipping, and what conditions they have for returning items. If certain suppliers’ policy doesn’t suit your store you might be better off looking for suppliers that more accurately reflect the policies you want in your store.

2. Run Co-branded Marketing campaigns

You can maintain good supplier relations by running co-branded marketing campaigns together.

This includes social media shoutouts, blog posts, or even exclusive product releases. This can help both of you increase exposure, as well as receive awesome exclusive products from your Supplier.

An interesting example of this in action was the campaign run by Alexander Wang and H&M. H&M was able to offer exclusive branded items for a limited time, and Alexander Wang was able market himself to a whole new generation and market.

Sometimes brands with different images make great matches!

3. Ask them for samples if you run a physical store

If you dropship and run your own store, sometimes maintaining good relationships with suppliers who drop ship with you can allow you to stock a few sample items from their collection to your physical store!

Not only will this give you a new range of products, but you will be able to test how well they sell, and as a result provide your supplier with useful insights about their products!

4. Use a marketplace platform with standardized policies

Joining a marketplace with standardized policies can help you solve the challenges associated with supplier relations while allowing for better communication between the two. On a marketplace like Modalyst, shipping rates are always decided by the supplier, you have a standardized 40% revenue share per sale, there is a suggested two week return policy, there is a dedicated inbox through which you can communicate with your suppliers and we send out newsletters with the latest product releases from suppliers so you can pick up the latest products instantly.

Dealing with Supplier Mistakes

Let’s face it, nobody is perfect and everybody makes mistakes.

When your suppliers are swarmed with orders, there are many potential problems. They might ship the wrong item to your customer, the item may be defective, or worse, they might not ship anything at all! In these situations, it is your duty to take responsibility to make sure your customer remains satisfied.

Shopify has a fantastic three step process about what to do when problems like this occur.

1. Own the Mistake

When explaining the error to your customer don’t ever try to blame the dropshipper even if it was their fault.

It makes you look unprofessional and will confuse your customer even more. Your best bet is to apologize for the mistake, and let your customer know how you plan on fixing the issue.

2. Make it up to them

The best e-commerce companies tend to go above and beyond what is required of them. Depending on how bad the mistake was, you can offer your customer a range of things, from discounts, free shipping, or even a complete refund.

3. Make the Supplier Pay for the mistake

Although you have to own the mistake to the customer, you don’t have to be the one paying for it.

If your supplier was the one who made the mistake, make sure they pay for the general aspects of the mistake (shipping and return fees etc). They probably won’t pay for any additional freebies you offer your customer however.

As long as your supplier is honest and reputed, he will definitely offer to fix his mistake and if not, you should consider looking elsewhere.

4. Be wary of which Suppliers you use

Even the best suppliers will make mistakes, however, you should still look out for those suppliers that might scam you and your customer.

Sometimes joining a drop shipping marketplace can reduce these risks greatly, as suppliers must pay to be members, and are required to provide specific imagery and descriptions for each item.

Additionally, since these marketplaces are actively managed, any suppliers that intend to scam and have slipped through the cracks are simply removed by management so your risk is greatly reduced.

Choosing a Shipping and Returns Policy

Choosing a shipping policy can be tricky because you would need to create a unique shipping policy for your store, while managing the shipping policies of all of your suppliers.

You can check out our post here for a few great tips on how to choose a shipping policy.

Customer Relations

It goes without saying that customers are the most important aspect of your drop shipping business.

Therefore you have to make sure you build strong relationships with your customers as well as assistance whenever needed.

1. Create an organized and responsive ticketing system

Using software like Zendesk or Groove, you can create a ticketing system connected to your mailbox, allowing you to organize user e-mails and respond to them promptly.

Make sure to respond to your users within a few hours and send messages that are professional, friendly and conclusive.

Be ready for many all kinds of e-mails, from friendly to not so friendly, and be prepared to respond to them appropriately.

2. Check-in with your regular customers

Customer retention is very important. Every now and then, check in with customers that purchase from your website often through e-mail, maybe offering promotions or discounts or asking them for their suggestions or opinions. You can use this customer feedback to adjust your website based on your most loyal customers, which should help sales immensely

3. If you can, offer phone support

The best E-Commerce stores go above and beyond for their customers.

Being able to talk to them on the phone would be a great and personal way to improve your relationship with your customers because it increases their trust in your brand.

Conclusion

We hope reading this will help you in your journey to running your own drop shipping company.

While the experience might be difficult, we promise it is very rewarding as long as you put in the time and effort. Stay tuned next week, where we discuss the best ways to market your new drop shipping store!

This article is part of a series of Drop shipping Guides, check out Part 1 and Part 2

How to Optimize Shipping Costs for Your Dropshipping Business

When launching an e-commerce site, one of the most crucial elements is finding the right shipping strategy for your store. As research suggests, shipping cost can greatly influence a customer’s decision to complete a purchase. As a drop shipper however, you can only control what the customer pays, not what it will actually cost to ship the product. Working with hundreds of suppliers means a huge variety of carriers and prices so all of a sudden shipping becomes a major headache.

Continue reading “How to Optimize Shipping Costs for Your Dropshipping Business”

How to Source Unique Products from Independent Suppliers

How to Source Unique Products from Independent Suppliers

In part 1 of our series on our guide to starting a drop shipping business, we evaluated the different e-commerce platforms available including Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce.

Start from the beginning here: Choosing the Best eCommerce Platform for You

After choosing a platform, the search to find unique products that represent your individual brand begins.

This also comes with its own set of challenges:

What legal qualifications must you meet before you start?

Where can you source the right brands for your store?

How do you convince these brands to dropship for you?

We help you answer these questions so you can start your dropshipping business right away!

Continue reading “How to Source Unique Products from Independent Suppliers”

Modalyst’s Guide to Drop Shipping: Choosing the best E-Commerce Platform for you

To start your own Dropshipping Business, one of the most important things you have to do is choose an E-Commerce platform. You will be using this platform to run the majority of your business, so it’s important to take to note of the pros and cons of some of the platforms, such as pricing, ease of use, support and more to find out which one best suits your business needs. Three of my favorite e-commerce platforms are Shopify, BigCommerce and WooCommerce but all three of them are quite distinct. This guide will help you understand these distinctions and choose the best E-commerce platform for dropshipping for you.

Continue reading “Modalyst’s Guide to Drop Shipping: Choosing the best E-Commerce Platform for you”

Should I join a Drop Shipping Marketplace?

As drop shipping becomes increasingly popular, e-commerce owners are discovering both the conveniences and challenges that accompany this retail model. Online drop shipping marketplaces are popping up everywhere trying to streamline the process for online stores and address common frustrations.

So the question is, should you follow the crowds and join one of these marketplaces? Is it really worth the membership cost to be part of these networks? While I recommend researching each platform in detail as they all differ in features and tools, let’s go through the general pros and cons associated with these popular drop shipping sites.

Continue reading “Should I join a Drop Shipping Marketplace?”