Once you’ve made your choice and Dropshipping is the thing for you, you need to then begin searching for a few elements and characteristics in your choice of suppliers.
- Finding a Dropshipper:
Before you search:
-See if the supplier provides both wholesale and dropshipping services.
-Search to discover if the supplier has a good reputation.
Some guidelines to keep in mind:
- Presentation is not what you should be focusing on. There are many first class suppliers that have bad websites.
- Attributed to Cervantes in The History of Don Quixote – ‘The Proof is in the pudding’.
You need to test in order to learn, dropship suppliers that insist on initial test orders will generally be more successful at fulfilling orders than ones that have no concerns. - Any supplier that offer bulk sales, wholesale or distribution is worth asking about dropshipping.
- Logistics companies can often point you in the right direction is all else fails.
- Keep things low risk for both you and the supplier, this will build a healthy relationship.
- Try one no more than 2 dropshippers at a time as they may be smaller hives of a larger firm.
Deciding on the correct dropshipper for your type of business will also depend on the location of your target market.
Final questions you may want to ask your supplier in order to make an informed decision:
- Where do you ship from?
- What countries/regions do you ship to?
- How do I send orders to you?
- Do you offer private labeling? (Where applicable)
- What information can you give me that will help me understand how to deal with my customers?
- Can I open a line of credit?
- How long have you been in business?
- Please explain how the goods are packaged?
- Do the packages ship with tracking?
- How do payment work when I have orders?
- How will I be communicating with you? Email? Skype? Phone? Support Tickets?
- Who else do you work with that I can speak to about fulfilling orders?
Note: Some of the above could be private company information, but it does not hurt to ask.
- Questions to ask yourself:
- Have I researched my market enough or has the supplier given me enough data for the venture to seem viable?
- Have I reserved time and financial resources for several test purchases before proceeding with marketing?
- Does my business plan include:
-marketing plan for target market?
-set targets for sales and for administration tasks?
-risk assessment and exist strategy?
If you have covered even half of the above criteria and have done your due diligence, then you’re already more prepared than most before moving forward and starting your new dropship business.
