How to choose a reliable supplier for your dropshipping business?

It is necessary to be very careful when choosing a dropshipping supplier because it is the seller (you), not the supplier is fully responsible to the buyer for the quality of the goods and their delivery. Therefore, when choosing dropshipping suppliers, pay attention to the following points:

1. Payments. Find out if any recurring fees (such as monthly payments) are required. Usually, companies make a profit on your dropshipping products sales, so there is no need for ongoing extra costs. If a supplier is demanding extra payments over and above the cost of the order, that’s a bad sign – avoid such suppliers if possible.
2. The real supplier of the product. Find out where the products come from – directly from the manufacturer or through an intermediary. The latter option increases the price.
3. Information in the parcels. It’s a good idea to make sure that the supplier strictly adheres to the rule of sending parcels to the client on your behalf. This means he or she does not put contact information on the parcels and inside, otherwise customers may think about buying directly from the supplier. But in practice, it is almost impossible to check this, and here the supplier’s reputation comes to the fore.
4. Service and speed of response from the manager. If you can not quickly contact the representative by phone or email, it is a reason to think about whether it is worth it to cooperate with such a company.
5. Delivery methods. Ask in detail about the shipping options, and which courier services they collaborate with. Buyers prefer to choose from several methods. Make at least a couple of trial orders with delivery through different services to personally evaluate the quality of the product, packaging, and speed of delivery.
6. Product updates. Always keep your supplier’s assortment up to date. Having up-to-date information will minimize situations when a customer has placed an order on your website and the product in the supplier’s warehouse is out of stock. Conscientious suppliers always update the information about the availability of their products and promptly inform the seller about the changes. It’s best if the supplier uses synchronization tools in dropshipping on prices, assortment updates, and stock balances.

Do not forget to periodically compare the wholesale price with the competitors’ price list. Moreover, diversify supplies – if possible, work with several suppliers, this will help expand the range and create an interchangeable system. For example, if one supplier runs out of the right product, you can turn to another.

How to work with more than one supplier?

Let`s imagine a customer has ordered goods from different regions and different delivery services. Receiving the goods turns into a mystery for the buyer: the goods come in parts, at different times and for each parcel, the customer has to pay separately. In this case, there is a high probability that the customer will refuse to make the purchase. What to do:

• Spell out this option in advance in the delivery terms – the customer may not agree to such terms and walk away, but will not be cheated.
• Select suppliers for cooperation with the assumption that they use a popular delivery service (a well-known brand and with maximum delivery geography) and reflect this condition in the order. In this case, the client at least will not have to scour the entire city, collecting parcels.
• Take some of the cost of shipping to placate the customer.
• Find one supplier with a wide range of products and work only with him. In this case, you won’t be able to diversify your deliveries.
• Find a supplier intermediary, which will consolidate, repackage and deliver the goods in one package. With this option, an increase in the cost of the order is inevitable, which you will either have to pass on to the customer or take over.

As you can see, with any of the options you have to look for a compromise. Working with AliExpress suppliers, you risk. Use our Ali2Woo plugin to minimize risks and quickly start dropshipping business. It will import AliExpress products, fulfill and track orders as well as automatically synchronize your store with your supplier’s inventory.