In the latest instalment of our 2020 Back to Work Tips series, Tejas Dave of Avasam discusses how to expand your business by adding new lines and suppliers via dropshipping. This enables you to grow your sales and experiment with new product lines before you commit to purchasing stock.
As we enter 2020, retailers face a massive number of challenges. Although ecommerce sales are set to continue on their upwards trend, it can be hard for retailers to get a grip on their fair share of those sales – especially for newer businesses. That means businesses must diversify, and increase their offering in order to maintain customer interest. That means investing extra time in marketing and money in stock though, doesn’t it? Well, not necessarily.
Retailers DropShipping from suppliers as a way to add extra products to their offering is nothing new – DropShipping has been around for decades. Some retailers have avoided it though, since it has traditionally presented a number problems. Using suppliers from overseas increases the risk – longer delivery times, inferior products and reliability issues. Where sellers could find local, or domestic suppliers to fulfil DropShipped orders, technology issues have presented – especially where sellers want to use multiple suppliers with different solutions. Using developers to create workarounds can be costly, and doesn’t guarantee a long-term solution when changes are made – meaning further costs down the line. It’s easy to see why sellers have stuck with traditional methods of selling, rather than jumping into DropShipping.
Today, you can avoid these issues by using a DropShipping platform, which allows you to connect with multiple suppliers with none of the technical problems that have previously presented. However, although some platforms give access to multiple suppliers, they don’t allow for DropShipping on different marketplaces – and you’ll almost certainly want to increase your sales on multiple marketplaces as well as on your own website. Some DropShipping platforms don’t connect to WooCommerce or Magento stores either, which we know many retailers are already using successfully, with no desire to change.
The ideal way for multi-channel retailers who want to expand their business at low cost is to use a multichannel DropShipping platform. They’re not a myth – such a thing does indeed exist. The ideal platform gives you the ultimate in flexibility and functionality for your business. We advise looking for a platform that provides access to thousands of products from multiple suppliers and provides complete integration with multiple marketplaces. Not only that, look for additional functionality that your business needs, such as connections to shipping providers and Order Management Software like Linnworks. Identify which platform will support you as you’re scaling your business up. Don’t forget to look for scalable pricing, and be sure to check whether there are charges for features that are essential to your business, so you’re not left out of pocket.
Making additional sales by DropShipping shouldn’t be difficult. If you can add a DropShipping platform to your existing setup without needing to learn a new system, so much the better. Not all DropShipping platforms are equal, and you know your business best, so do your research, and establish which DropShipping platform is best for your business, both now, and in the future as your business grows.
