The Many Faces Of Wholesale Dropship Users, Who’s Who In The Dropshipping World (Part 2)

Much has been written about dropshipping and how it is the best thing since sliced bread. But who are the people who use it as a management solution and But who are the people who use it as a management solution and what are the biggest mistakes they make when dealing with their wholesale dropship suppliers? We find out all that and more in part two of this two part blog.

The New e-commerce vendor, the eBay trader, the online store owner, the bricks and mortar store owner, or the wholesale importer. Which category best describes your business?

In the previous blog we looked at the different types of business operations who used a wholesale dropship supplier and their different reasons for doing so. While it can definitely be said that there are common goals and common problems each e-commerce operator and eBay trader has their own experiences.

So if everyone’s different they must be making different mistakes which each require different solutions, right?

That’s not necessarily the case. Most of the more common mistakes made by dropship users can be narrowed down to three categories:

1. Lack of control
2. The challenge to add value to products
3. Experience

1) Lack of control

Perhaps the most obvious problem that dropshippers face is lack of control.

Anybody who has heard the dropshipping sales pitch will be familiar with the concept of losing control of the logistical arm of the company to another party which is halfway across the country, if not half way round the world.

In fact this is seen as one of the biggest positives of using a dropshiper and it is not often the case when eBay traders and online shop owners start use dropshipping for the first time.

Because the dropship user is relying on wholesale dropship suppliers for their products any changes in the wholesale dropship supplier’s catalog can have disastrous effects on the users reputation, especially if they’ve already ‘sold’ that item to a customer

Shipment delays, color changes and functions changes are just some of the possibilities and none of these add up to the potential customer wrath if the item has been cancelled.

As a result it’s usually best to make sure there is some form of catalog management and synchronisation between the vendor and the dropship wholesale supplier.

Developing a good line of communication between your wholesale dropshipper and yourself is an essential step towards creating a successful e-commerce or retail business with the wholesale dropship supply chain management system.

2) The challenge to add value to products.

Another problem that dropship users are likely to face is the unconscious competition for customers from the wholesale company itself.

Because there is no MOQ and most wholesale dropship companies don’t charge customers an entry fee to join there is very little, outside of lack of knowledge, stopping end customers from buying products directly from the wholesale dropship company.

Most good US and China dropship companies, especially electronics dropshipping companies, will probably send products to your customers in boxes with no markers identifying where they came from

While 99% of dropship wholesale companies won’t send out advertising material in boxes or mark boxes in a way which will allow customers to track purchases back to them it doesn’t mean that your customers are nicely tucked away in your database and won’t go scurrying off to a cheaper source if you don’t give them some sort of special treatment.

The challenge for dropship vendors, be they eBay traders or online shop owners, is to add value to the purchase.

This obviously can’t be done at the product stage as purchases are sent straight to the customer but there are a number of other ways it can be done including:

• Offering an extended warranty
• Excellent before and after-sales service including the operation of a help desk to help customers out with product problems.
• Extra content, for example if you’re offering a television set then a free movie, or if you’re offering a mobile phone a free selection of premium ringtones.
• Extensive marketing and branding
• Special deals for the customer

3) Experience

However, many of the difficulties many new e-commerce vendors and people looking to get into dropshipping for the first time face involves lack of experience and a mindset built on a false platform.

When many first-time e-commerce traders get into dropshipping they treat it like their cure-all e-commerce solution and go onto cruise mode.

However, the situation couldn’t be further from the truth.In actual fact dropshipping, if handled well, solves logistics difficulties but customer service, marketing sales and sourcing responsiblilities still remain.

In fact, with no MOQ it gives you more of a reason to test products as they are likely to be more accesable than through traditional bulk purchase methods.

It doesn’t matter if it’s car DVD players or wholesale mobile phones the old maxim try before you buy (or in this case try before you list) has never been more true.

Whatever your reason for using a drophsip service or considering using a wholesale dropship supplier to cope with the logistics side of your business there are going to be some areas in your operation which are not working as well as they should.

Why not fine tune your business so it’s working smoothly and bringing in the maximum ammount of profits.