The Key to Handling Several Drop shipping Sellers

The Key to Handling Several Drop shipping Sellers

Dropshipping is a business model that incorporates a middleman between the seller and the customer. The job of drop-shipping agencies is to  ship the product to the end-customer, without having to stock the product or even own a warehouse. As low risk and easy as dropshipping may sound, it could be slightly challenging to implement. 

A very common problem faced by most drop shipping agencies is the shipping commitments of multiple sellers. When you have multiple sellers, you will consequentially end up with more shipping orders, multiple delivery dates, etc. simply and efficiently. Continue reading to find out how to manage multiple sellers simply and efficiently!

What having multiple sellers would look like

If you have multiple sellers, then naturally, you have multiple warehouses and retailers to go to. In this case, shipping costs become a big concern. Since you’re collecting products  from various sources, you are spending more on shipping costs than you are profiting from the job. 

Another hovering issue is that even if the customer places the order on the same day, for two different products, he may or may not receive both of them together. The same for both these products might vary. 

For these reasons, it is essential to build a rapport with your customers and keep payments of employees covered. 

Your customer needs to trust you

Communication is key

The biggest boon of living in the 21st century is that it is very easy to gain the trust of the customers shopping from you. The very fact that they place orders for things virtually is testimony to how simple it can be to build a rapport with them if you do it right. In today’s times, no customer minds receiving multiple products at different times, so long as you are delivering it to their doorstep. 

For example, if a customer has placed an order for two different pairs of shoes from your sellers, let them know when they can have it. You might tell them that the estimated delivery date for one of them is the 7th of July, and the other one is on the 10th of July. It all works fineas long as you communicate well.

As long as you stick to the estimated date that you have committed to them for delivery, customers are happy. It may take a while to get acquainted with the preciseness of ETAs, but try to keep it as prompt as you can.

Tracking orders

It won’t hurt to let your customers know where their products are and how close they are to delivery. When you have multiple sellers, inform your customers by sending them different tracking ids for each product. This lets them track each one of them separately and lets them know that both their orders are being taken care of simultaneously.

This keeps your customers satisfied and informed, which is important since they are paying for what you are shipping.

Shipping costs are not that scary

It is imperative that if there are multiple sellers, there'll be multiple shipments simultaneously, and you won't find everything in one place. This might hinder the profit that the agency is making per shipment.

It’s always a great idea to include the shipping costs as part of the overall payment and not charge extra for shipping. This will help you with two things:

1. The customer will believe that they aren’t paying extra for shipping, which keeps them happy.

2. Once you’ve added these costs as part of the order placement, your shipping costs are covered. Even if the multiple shipping costs are too much, the profit/ money you make is standard and independent of shipping costs.

Summing Up

All in all, it's necessary to be honest and up-front about what you're doing and how you're doing it. At any point in time, if you lose your customers' trust, it can impact the business pretty badly. Dropshipping from multiple sellers requires a lot of work and responsibility, but overall, it is totally worth it if you put in the right efforts.

Don't overthink it. Beyond all the commitments, chaos, and hard work, there's a great business that'll eventually flourish.