5 Most Common Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make When Selling Products Online Using The Dropshipping Busine

By Author: Shane Emerson
Total Articles: 13
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1. Dealing with the Wrong Dropshipping Supplier

Do you want to hear customers complaining about shipping delays and delivery of poor quality products? If 'no' it is time to thoroughly investigate your options before picking one.

You might have chosen a profitable niche for selling online but that alone doesn't determine your success.

In a dropshipping business model, the supplier will play a key role in driving the company to success.

Say, you have decided to sell office supplies online. Now, if the supplier doesn't have proper infrastructure to handle order fulfillment, every order placed on your store is unlikely to reach your customer's place on time.

Today, consumers are demanding high-quality products at low prices. In such circumstances, offering poor quality products can take your business down the drain.

From testing their storage and warehousing capabilities to investigating their product quality and delivery times, it is very important that you do a thorough check before picking suppliers for your dropshipping business.

2. Choosing just one Supplier to run your Dropshipping Business

Should you let your dropshipping business rest in the hands of a single supplier? The answer is a resounding 'No'.

Although dealing with just one supplier reduces administrative costs, a single supplier strategy is never a good option.

Consider this: Your online store is selling IT equipment online. Now imagine if the supplier you are connected to, experiences a physical setback. In such circumstances, you will discontinue receiving orders, leading to a loss of sales.

Studies have shown that the habit of sourcing products can go terribly wrong, hence choose multiple suppliers. Multiple sourcing has plenty of benefits. For instance, you are not dependent on just one supplier for order fulfillment.

3. Paying Exorbitant Fees and Charges

It is obvious that third-party suppliers will charge specific fees to handle the order fulfillment process.

Say, you want to Sell ink cartridges online. You will have to bear a certain portion of the expenses associated with storing, packaging and shipping of ink cartridges.

However, paying suppliers for dropshipping does not mean that you leave your margins empty.

So ensure that the dropshipping charges do not eat into your profit margins. In simple words stay away from suppliers that demand exorbitant charges for suppliers.

4. Choosing Suppliers that do not provide Order Tracking

It is observed that customers are least interested in doing business with ecommerce sites that do not provide after-purchase tracking.
With order tracking feature, customers get a crystal clear idea about how long it would take for their order to be delivered. It allows them to check the status of their order in real-time.

Today's online consumers don't want to stay in the dark about their order status. So it is important to keep your customers informed about where their order is at any given point of time.

Order tracking has become a critical part of ecommerce business, hence cannot be ignored. When customers are given the ability to track their ordered products, rest assured they will show more confidence in your business.

So choose suppliers that makes it easy for your customers to track their orders.

5. No Idea about Return and Refund Policy

Many times, after receiving the order, customer wants to return it. Keeping this scenario in mind, have a clear idea about the return and refund policies established by your supplier.

You don't want to choose suppliers that have slow workflows to process returns. Manual workflows are tedious, meaning customers will have to wait a lot of time in getting their money back.

Avoid suppliers that follow inefficient methods of processing returns. Ensure that the supplier you pick has an automated workflow that simplifies the process of returns and refunds.

If you have no idea about your supplier's return policy, return and refunds can be a big headache. For instance, suppliers expect their resellers to pay for return and replacement shipping fee. So discuss stock return policy rules with the supplier before striking any business partnership.

On the whole, keep in mind that dropshipping is an excellent business model to run your ecommerce store. However, choosing the right supplier is the cornerstone of managing a dropshipping store successfully.

If you make any mistake in picking the supplier, it can break your dropshipping business. With the supplier completely handling order fulfillment, you simply cannot afford to choose the wrong supplier.

Shane is an American writer for various digital news publications. After being in the ecommerce industry for more than 15 years, Shane has a good understanding of what it takes to make an ecommerce business successful. His articles give insights on the latest trends in the B2C and B2B ecommerce industry. His ecommerce coverage is robust and provides everything from best ecommerce platform to improving your website site. He also likes to cover newsworthy events related to business management software, customer relationship management (CRM) and Quoting software.