In this article, we’ll talk about some of the most common problems with dropshipping, so keep reading to find out everything you need to know before you start your online business.
With the rise of the internet, there are now many ways to do business. Some people think that drop shipping is one of the most interesting. A lot of eCommerce store owners use this business method, which makes the industry worth about $162.44 billions (2019 statistics). The growing number of people who shop online is often a direct cause of the huge number of sales at dropshipping stores. Still, not every business is a walk in the park.
Let’s Start
If you already sell things in stores or online, drop-shipping can help you in many ways. Every year, the market grows at a rate of 25%.
eCommerce platforms have to spend a lot of money on managing a warehouse space so they can keep a stock of items. If you choose the dropshipping model, on the other hand, you won’t have to pay for managing your inventory, storing it, or any other overhead costs.
The best part is that you won’t even have to buy your products ahead of time. With the dropshipping model, you only buy the items after you make a sale. So, you might wonder, what are the bad things about this kind of business?
Challenges in Dropshipping
Like any other type of business, dropshipping has challenges you need to overcome and mistakes you need to avoid.
In the paragraphs that follow, we’ll talk about some of the most common problems that most dropshippers have to deal with at some point.
Building Your Own Brand While Selling Third-Party Products
Many dropshippers are happy to open one-product stores or stores that are only open for a short time. They are also happy to close these stores when the trend is over. But Social Media advertising is getting more expensive every day, so you can’t afford to lose clients and have to start from scratch every time. Investing in the creation of your own private label, or brand, is one of the best ways to build a successful dropshipping business.
But how can you build your brand if you’ve never touched the things you sell?
Dropshipping can be hard because of things like this. First of all, because custom-made products can be very expensive and hard to make, especially if you work with Chinese suppliers and don’t have a lot of money to spend. At least at the start of your dropshipping business, you might be able to solve this problem by customizing the packaging of your products.
This kind of private labeling doesn’t cost much and can be set up with very low minimum order quantities. When you’re ready, you can even think about putting your own logo on your products. But you need to face the next dropshipping challenge in order to make this happen.
Finding A Reliable Supplier
Finding a reliable supplier is another challenge in the drop-shipping business. Finding a good one could be compared to looking for a needle in a haystack.
AliExpress is where most new dropshippers look when they want to find products to sell. AliExpress is not a good long-term choice because it is a business-to-consumer (B2C) platform with many resellers who don’t always offer good customer service or fast shipping.
Dropshipping has become more popular and profitable in recent years, which has led to a steady rise in the number of private dropshipping suppliers. But again, not all of them will be good enough or fit your budget.
The whole process is based on just three things: customers, the store, and the people who sell things to the store.
As a dropshipper, it is up to you and the supplier you choose to get the product to the customer. But what if you and the supplier don’t work well together?
Your business will be hurt right away. So, it’s enough to find the supplier who meets the requirements.
Build Customer Trust with High-Quality Products
Have you ever heard the saying, “Sell the right thing in the right place to the right people?”
If you did well with the last dropshipping challenge, this one should be easy. As long as you have good products, you can be sure that your customers will be happy and will probably come back to your store to buy more.
Extra tip: Make sure your ads and products look interesting by using high-quality pictures and videos that show off your goods in the best way possible.
Handling Shipping And Processing Time
Unless you sent all of your items to Amazon FBA at once, they probably won’t be delivered the next day. Here is one of the most difficult things about dropshipping.
Taking good care of shipping and processing times!
The key is to be honest with your customers. Don’t lie about your shipping times, and make sure you write the real times your packages will arrive in the shipping section. If you are honest with your clients, they will appreciate it, and you won’t get as many complaints or returns.
Extra tip: Give great customer service and keep your customers informed about the status of their orders. This will make them more likely to trust your business.
Dealing With Customer Returns
Things can get a little more complicated when a third party is involved.
The return policies of dropshipping suppliers vary a lot, and most of them don’t offer return services. This is especially true for AliExpress resellers, since many of them disappear as soon as they make a sale and it can be very expensive to send a package back to China.
Make sure you get in touch with the service provider you’ve chosen to find out how they run the service.
Also, make sure your dropshipping store has a return policy so that you can keep customer complaints to a minimum. If you get too many complaints or bad reviews, your ad account could be banned and your payments could be frozen.
Coping with ban on Facebook, Shopify, and PayPal
Facebook, Shopify, and PayPal will probably be your best friends if you decide to open a dropshipping store. As more and more dropshipping business owners choose these tools for their businesses.
The bad news is that you could lose your accounts if you don’t follow their rules and keep your customers happy.
So what can you do if you get banned? Well, to be fair, it’s better to avoid problems than to fix them.
So make sure that you follow the rules exactly. This will make it less likely that you’ll get blocked.
Don’t lie to your customers about what your products are or how they work.
Make sure you don’t advertise your products too much, because if you do, you could get banned.
Going Out Of Stock
This is one of the problems that can come up with dropshipping, especially during busy times of the year like Christmas and Chinese New Year. There are often times when you sell the most. Because of this, it’s best to be ready ahead of time and stock up on your best-selling items. You don’t have to buy a million of them, but you should have enough so that your orders can still be filled smoothly.
Not all suppliers, though, offer this service, and those who do might charge a handling fee if they agree to store your goods in their warehouse.
Challenges in Dropshipping: The Bottom Line
A dropshipping store can make a lot of money. In this article, we talked about some of its problems, but there are problems in every business. So, keep a good attitude because every problem has a solution, just like every lock has a key. All you need is a partner who will help you and cares about your success.
We hope that you’ve learned something from these problems with drop shipping so that they don’t stop you from reaching your goals.