Top 10 Challenges of Drop Shipping and How to Overcome Them
Are you interested in starting a drop shipping business or have you already started one? If so, you may have noticed that it comes with its own unique set of challenges. In this article, we will cover the top 10 most common challenges that typically arise when somebody starts drop shipping. We will also provide you with a few different solutions that you can use to overcome these challenges so you can get started on a strong foot.
Challenge 1: Building Brand Awareness
As drop shippers, we are going to be selling mass-manufactured products that anyone has access to sell. Because of that, building a brand around our store could potentially pose a problem. When multiple stores have the same exact product, it's hard to build a brand around that product specifically because everyone's going to be selling it. It could be pretty hard to stand out with the same exact products that everyone is selling.
To build brand awareness, you can start by building a customized website for your brand. Make sure that everything falls in line from the logo to the colors to the product and niche. You also have to focus on your marketing. When you start marketing your products, make sure you have your brand name behind that. Try taking custom pictures and doing custom videos for your products. There's also private label and white label dropshipping.
Challenge 2: Finding Reliable Suppliers
In the past, it was hard to find reliable suppliers. Nowadays, it's actually harder to come across bad suppliers than good suppliers. Most suppliers are trying their best to meet the customer's demand or the drop shippers' demand. However, there are still some bad suppliers out there.
When choosing your suppliers, the first thing that you need to start looking out for is reviews. Reviews are going to be the most important thing that you need to look out for. You also want to make sure that the suppliers you work with have a wide range of products and a wide range of warehouses.
Challenge 3: Importing Products Manually
Importing products manually can be a real pain. If you're importing your products manually, you're going to have to copy over all of the descriptions, titles, and images. If you're starting to import 10, 15, 20, or 50 different products, then you're going to spend pretty much all day in front of your computer uploading products.
To automate your product importing, you can use a service like Autods. Autods can connect your drop shipping store with all of your different suppliers, and you can automate your entire store. You can essentially start to become hands-off with the whole process.
Challenge 4: Long Shipping Times
Customers are spoiled by Amazon, so people want their items literally tomorrow. Most customers understand that not everyone or every business has the resources that Amazon has, but customers typically are okay with waiting 1 to 2 weeks for their product. Dropshipping products that take over a month to get to your customers is a big no-no.
To combat long shipping times, you can work with suppliers that have multiple warehouses in multiple countries. This ensures quicker shipping to different countries.
Challenge 5: Running Out of Stock
When a supplier runs out of your items, you pretty much just lost the sale. To combat this, you should have multiple suppliers that offer the same exact product. Make sure that they're of equal quality so that way if one day a supplier either runs out of stock or unexpectedly raises their prices, your butt is covered.
Challenge 6: Sudden Price Changes
If a supplier unexpectedly raises their prices, that change on your supplier side will automatically reflect on your drop shipping store. Autods will automatically change the prices and your inventory count so that way you don't miss out on a sale or lose out on any money.
Challenge 7: Supplier Account Locks
If you're using your buyer account on Amazon to source your different drop shipping products, you can potentially face an account lock for your buyer account. To bypass this issue, you can use a service like Autods. Autods has a service called fulfilled by Autods where Autods will use one of its multiple buyer accounts on Amazon to make the purchase for your order.
Challenge 8: Sourcing High-Quality Items
To find high-quality items, you can use resources like the AliExpress dropship center, Amazon's best sellers tab, and the Autods marketplace.
Challenge 9: Handling Customer Returns
The most ideal way of handling customer returns is having your customer ship it directly to your supplier. If you don't want to keep on hand that item that's returned, then if you're okay with it and if you can afford it, just refund them their money and tell them to keep the item.
Challenge 10: Finding Best Sellers
To find best sellers, you can use resources like the AliExpress dropship center, Amazon's best sellers tab, and the Autods marketplace.
In conclusion, drop shipping comes with its own unique set of challenges. However, with the right strategies and tools, you can overcome these challenges and build a successful drop shipping business.
Highlights
- Building brand awareness can be challenging, but you can overcome it by building a customized website for your brand and focusing on your marketing.
- Finding reliable suppliers is crucial, and you can do this by looking at reviews and making sure that the suppliers you work with have a wide range of products and warehouses.
- Automating your product importing can save you a lot of time and effort.
- To combat long shipping times, work with suppliers that have multiple warehouses in multiple countries.
- To find high-quality items, use resources like the AliExpress dropship center, Amazon's best sellers tab, and the Autods marketplace.
- Handling customer returns can be tricky, but you can handle it by having your customer ship it directly to your supplier or refunding them their money and telling them to keep the item.
FAQ
Q: What is drop shipping?
A: Drop shipping is a business model where you sell products without holding any inventory. Instead, you purchase the product from a third-party supplier who ships it directly to the customer.
Q: What are the benefits of drop shipping?
A: The benefits of drop shipping include low startup costs, no inventory management, and the ability to sell a wide range of products.
Q: What are the challenges of drop shipping?
A: The challenges of drop shipping include building brand awareness, finding reliable suppliers, importing products manually, long shipping times, running out of stock, sudden price changes, supplier account locks, sourcing high-quality items, handling customer returns, and finding best sellers.
Q: How can I overcome the challenges of drop shipping?
A: To overcome the challenges of drop shipping, you can build a customized website for your brand, look at reviews when choosing suppliers, automate your product importing, work with suppliers that have multiple warehouses, have multiple suppliers that offer the same exact product, use a service like Autods to bypass supplier account locks, use resources like the AliExpress dropship center, Amazon's best sellers tab, and the Autods marketplace to find high-quality items and best sellers, and handle customer returns by having your customer ship it directly to your supplier or refunding them their money and telling them to keep the item.
Resources
- Autods: https://autods.com/
- AliExpress: https://www.aliexpress.com/
- Banggood: https://www.banggood.com/
- Redbubble: https://www.redbubble.com/
- Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/
