Dropship Business Best Practices

There are many resources online which promise you the secrets to success in operating a dropship business.  What we promise is a little bit different.  First of all, we’re experienced eCommerce professionals, not just feeder affiliates with a click-thru agenda.  Yes, we do aim to send you in the right places, but we provide you with intelligent and objective advice on how to start and run a successful dropship business.

Dropship Business is Hard Work

Secondly, we recognize that the business of dropshipping, like any other online or offline enterprise, takes hard work.  There is no magic bullet and no secret to overnight ‘Internet millions’.  If it truly were this easy, the marketplace would be overly saturated with people experiencing overnight success.  This is not the case.  There are success stories out there, but dropship business owners who have achieved success have worked hard to get where they are.  It is this ‘barrier’ to success that maintains the opportunity in the marketplace – that’s a good thing for you.

It is our experience in and knowledge of the market that has guided the production of the following Dropship Business Best Practices:

Dropship Business Dos:

• Establish a partnership with quality Dropshipping Wholesalers.  Relationships with your vendors, unlike those with many of your customers, are likely to last for a very long time.  These relationships will make or break your business – they will determine your effectiveness in order fulfillment and your margins/bottom line.  It is important that you choose from various providers based on your specific needs and business models; they offer quite different services.  We recommend checking out:
  • Doba
  • DropshipDesign
  • SaleHoo
  • Simplx
  • Worldwide Brands
• Regardless of where your products are ultimately displayed (eBay, an online store, etc.), make sure that you employ top SEO and usability practices on your listings or dropship product pages:
  • Write good content.  Spend some time planning out the SEO (search engine optimization) strategy of the your listings/pages and ensure that this copy strategy helps to accomplish this goal.  Be sure to also consider the SEM (search engine marketing) strategy of the site, which should aim to compel web users to buy.
  • Obtain great product photography.  Be sure to practice good SEO standards as well as utilize imagery that will encourage your visitors to buy.
• Consider your pricing strategy.  Are the products you’re selling commodities, on which you’ll have to compete aggressively on price with competitors?  Are these products branded or perhaps novelty/niche?  Pricing is a huge factor in the marketing mix and you’ll want to develop a comprehensive pricing strategy for your dropship business (which may require trial and error).
• Ensure that you can provide excellent customer service.  You’ll be relying on other members of the supply chain in order to satisfy customers.  Make sure that someone is available to service your customers.  It has been said that a satisfied customer will tell three friends while a distruntled one will tell 3,000.