Title: Avoiding Dropshipping Problems

Hello,

Yesterday we talked about some of the major benefits of
dropshipping, and it’s easy to think it’s all sunshine and
roses, but like anything in life, it’s not without its
fair share of issues.

Fortunately, most of the issues that typically crop up are
fairly easy to avoid, or at least mitigate.

One of the most common issues one might experience is the
typically low profit margins. Because you aren’t buying in
bulk, you won’t get the type of pricing you could if you 
were buying wholesale in large quantities. This won’t 
matter so much in the beginning, because you can run at 
lower profit margins when you’re just getting started and 
because you have very little overhead with an online 
store.

The best way to make up for the lower profit margins is
to sell in bulk, and the best way to do that is to offer
incentives for larger purchases. For example, you could 
offer a free item with all purchases over $50, and a 
better free item with all purchases over $100.

Managing inventory can be tricky, because not all companies
offer inventory syncing. You may occasionally run into
issues where customers order items that are actually out 
of stock.

If this happens, simply offer a refund and apologize
profusely to the customer. You might also want to offer
them a discount off another product, even if it means you
make no profit on that order. This will inspire loyalty 
and hopefully get you more orders in the future.

Just be sure you accept responsibility and don’t try 
to blame your supplier, as this will just make you look
small time and unreliable in the eyes of the customer.

If you end up working with multiple suppliers, and you 
probably will, you may have issues with shipping when
customers order several items from different suppliers in
a single order.

You can’t pass the extra shipping cost onto your customer
for a couple of reasons. For one thing, the customer 
won’t realize you’re dropshipping and will think you are
deliberately trying to scam them by overcharging on the
shipping. And for another thing, there’s no easy way to 
calculate what the shipping would really be before the
customer places the order.

The best thing you can do to avoid this is to stick to
the fewest number of suppliers possible in order to 
minimize the likelihood of having to pay for multiple
shipments.

The biggest problem you’ll likely run into is when your
supplier makes errors, such as sending the wrong item 
to your customer or sending damaged merchandise.

In this case, it’s a good idea to immediately order a 
replacement from the company and have it sent to the 
customer, but make sure the company pays for it since it
is their error. Apologize to the customer and do 
everything you can to make them happy. 

You might even offer to pay for the return shipping
yourself, because the company probably won’t pay for 
that. This will eat up your profits on that one 
order, but it will make the customer happy enough that
they will probably order from you in the future.

Tomorrow we’re going to take a look at some of the 
scams you may encounter when it comes to dropshipping,
so watch for it in your inbox tomorrow!

Until then, 

{YOUR NAME HERE}

PS- Dropshipping scams are a lot more common than 
you might think! Don’t get scammed! Find out how to 
avoid getting scammed in tomorrow’s email!


