Drop shipping management software is a must-have for any business that wants to make money online. There are many companies offering this kind of software but not all will give you the best experience. You need to do your research before investing in any drop shipping management software and make sure it has all the features that you want from a CRM system.
In this guide, we review the aspectss of Drop Shipping Management Software, best dropshipping automation software, how to reduce shipping time dropshipping, and drop shipping alternatives.
Drop Shipping Management Software
Drop shipping is an e-commerce business model that allows online retailers to sell products without holding any inventory. Drop shipping enables you to offer a wide range of products without having your own warehouse. You can also use drop shipping software for things like order management, tracking shipments, and managing inventory levels across multiple sales channels.
Are You Ready for Drop shipping Management Software?
Are you ready for drop shipping management software? If your answer is yes, then this article is for you. Drop shipping is a good option for businesses that are just starting out. However, before starting to use any drop shipping software, it’s important to have a good understanding of the drop shipping process and what the benefits are. You should also consider how much time and effort it would take to manage everything manually if you were not using any type of software.
Drop Shipping Software
Drop shipping management software can help you manage your inventory, orders, and customers by automating certain tasks such as: managing stock levels; displaying real-time information on order status; tracking shipment progress with tracking numbers; sending automated emails based on specific events (e.g., when an order arrives). There are also other features offered by different types of platforms such as inventory management tools (stock levels), price comparison apps which allow users to compare prices from multiple suppliers before placing their purchase orders (price comparisons), invoicing services for tax purposes etcetera.”
What is Drop Shipping Management Software?
Drop shipping is a form of e-commerce in which a retailer does not keep the products it sells in stock. Instead, when a customer places an order, the retailer sends that order to the manufacturer or supplier who ships it directly to the customer.
This means there are no warehouses, no shipping costs, and no long delivery times. It’s great for customers because they don’t have to wait forever for their product – and great for retailers because they can increase sales without investing in inventory.
But with drop shipping comes some challenges:
- Managing inventory and orders as you scale your business;
- Finding reliable suppliers who deliver on time;
- Ensuring all transactions are processed properly so your customers get what they paid for!
Who Needs Drop Shipping Software?
If you’re thinking about starting a drop shipping business, it’s a great idea to start small and build your way up. Drop shipping requires little upfront capital, which means it can be an ideal way to test the waters before jumping into a full-fledged retail operation.
Drop shipping is also easy to get started with and much more affordable than traditional brick-and-mortar retailing. You might have been holding off on starting your own business because of the initial costs involved with getting started: inventory, property leases or building rentals…the list goes on! Drop shipping cuts down on these prohibitive expenses by allowing you to sell products without having to worry about keeping stock in your warehouse or paying rent for physical store space.
In addition to saving money right out of the gate by skipping over these expenses, drop ship businesses also give sellers access to new markets without having been there first hand themselves–another way that this method saves money when compared with traditional retail stores (which often need local representation). In fact, many successful entrepreneurs use drop ship sites as jumping off points into their own brick-and-mortar locations later down the line; but even if you never end up expanding beyond online sales alone, starting out small isn’t always a bad thing!
How to Choose Your Drop Shipping Management Software?
- Consider the size of your business.
- Consider the needs of your business.
- Consider the needs of your customers.
- Consider the needs of your employees.
- Consider the needs of your suppliers and vendors.
There is a lot to consider when choosing drop shipping management software.
There is a lot to consider when choosing drop shipping management software. You must decide what you want your software to do, and then find the right fit for your business.
Drop shipping has been around for decades. In recent years, it has grown in popularity as an alternative way for businesses to sell online. If you’re looking into starting an e-commerce business or already have one, this strategy might be perfect for you!
best dropshipping automation software
eCommerce is a tough industry—that’s why many beginners start out with a dropshipping business.
Dropshipping is easier than fulfilling everything yourself, but it still has its challenges.
One of these is efficiency. As your business grows you will spend more and more time at a computer fulfilling orders.
It’s boring, time consuming and it makes it difficult to scale your dropshipping business. What happens when you have more orders than you can possibly process?
Using dropshipping automation software could be the solution. It allows you to:
✔️Spend less time on manual tasks✔️Increase your profitability✔️Make fewer errors✔️Scale your dropshipping business sustainably
You’ll also get your life back and avoid burnout!
There are lots of automated dropshipping tools available—you can use one on its own or a combination of several. They handle repetitive tasks and make your business more profitable and efficient.
This article lists 11 of our favorite dropshipping automation apps by category to help you get started.
Category One: Email Marketing
Email is critical for you and your customers to communicate. Many emails require a unique personal response. These include questions, complaints, positive feedback, etc.
But other, more transactional emails are ripe for automation—with the right tools, of course. Examples include order confirmations, follow-up requests for feedback and delivery notices.
Here are our favorite email marketing tools:
If you’re new to email automation, start small with Mailchimp. It’s free for your first 2,000 subscribers, so it’s a perfect solution for scaling your dropshipping business. Mailchimp can help you write automated emails for:
Best of all, it includes pre-built templates that save you time. Mailchimp might be a beginner’s tool, but it does have powerful automations for dates, product retargeting, customer journeys, and more.
But Mailchimp isn’t designed specifically for dropshipping or an eCommerce business. If you want email automation software designed for abandoned carts, we recommend Recapture Abandoned Carts.
Recapture is designed to prevent abandoned carts on Shopify stores. It’s easy to use, has a non-cluttered UI and is out-of-the-box ready to go with high-quality default content.
And, most importantly, it works—the tool has recovered over a hundred million dollars worth of sales.
Its templates are automatically generated, meet industry best practices, and are flexible. There’s plenty of room to add your brand’s logos, colors, and any other customizations you need.
We also like Recapture because it stops sending abandoned cart emails once a customer makes a purchase. This prevents you from harassing customers with unnecessary messages.
Recapture’s specialist features mean we recommend you use it for your abandoned carts, rather than a generic email marketing tool.
Category Two: Task Automation
It’s all very well having lots of automated dropshipping software. But your process isn’t truly automated if you’re having to send information between these tools manually.
Task automation software allows you to make complex multi-app processes happen automatically.
Here are our favorite task automation tools:
3. If This, Then That (IFTTT)
If This, Then That (IFTTT) allows you to make up to five app connections for free, so it’s a great place to start. You can also sign up for a free 7-day pro trial which allows you to make up to 20 connections. IFTTT is a great free tool for simple connections. Just be sure to check your connections often—it is known for occasional bugs.
If you want something more advanced and reliable, try Zapier. Its advanced features mean it can connect two or more applications without breaking a sweat.
For example, if you want to get a text every time a customer places an order, Zapier can do that. It can even automate dropshipping tasks, like email marketing list segmentation and customer feedback collection—all things that IFTTT can’t do.
Zapier does have a free version but this is limited to 100 tasks per month, not connections. This means that your automations could cut out on you if you have a busy month. The starter package starts at $19.99 per month and includes 750 tasks per month.
Shopify Flow helps Shopify online store owners manage their apps and to-do list. It can access almost any datapoint in Shopify and create connections between the apps that online store owners use.
For example, it can automatically create a customer support ticket if you get a bad review, organize customers by LTV, or send out a win-back email sequence for at-risk customers.
Shopify Flow is great for dropshippers because it has a number of pre-built templates designed to automate common eCommerce tasks. Alternatively, users can develop their own custom workflows by setting up triggers, conditions and actions.
Shopify Flow has an easy interface that makes managing dropshipping a breeze.
Category Three: Product Management
Order fulfillment, manufacturer relationships, tracking—product management takes up a huge amount of your time as a dropshipper.
You probably wouldn’t want to automate every part of your product management—this is one area that requires a human touch. But there are several examples of automated dropshipping tools that help you save time in this critical area.
Here are three of our favorites:
DSers is dropshipping software that was originally only for AliExpress, but has now expanded to cover Shopify and WooCommerce too.
It makes it quick and easy for an eCommerce business to source dropshipping products and manage their suppliers. They can also process their orders and make payments in bulk, essentially allowing them to place hundreds of orders in just a few seconds.
It also sends order tracking updates that you can share with your customers, so they know exactly when they will receive their package.
DSers has a free account option, but most of the automations are disabled. The advanced version is $20 per month and allows up to 10 stores with 20,000 products.
If you’re a WooCommerce or WordPress person, WooDropship is another great product management automation tool. In fact, you can control your entire WooCommerce online store directly from the WooDropship dashboard or via its Chrome extension.
You’ll need to work exclusively with AliExpress to use WooDropship, though. This tool automatically populates product details and customer orders on AliExpress. Just pay for the order and you’re done—no need to enter any manual data.
Unlike DSers, WooDropship’s free plan does include some automation. But you can only fulfill up to 10 customer orders per month. For $14.99 per month, you can increase this to 100.
So what happens if you don’t use AliExpress, Shopify, or other dropshipping platforms? In this situation, it’s best to work with a tool designed to work with any vendor, supplier, or dropshipping platform.
Spark Shipping gives you more freedom. It saves you handcuffing yourself to a solution because of your eCommerce platform.
Spark Shipping is an end-to-end automation platform for dropshipping. We help with product management as well as inventory, order fulfillment, and even tracking updates from UPS or FedEx.
We allow online store owners that use multiple platforms or dropshipping suppliers to place an order at the touch of a button. No more repeatedly filling out your details.
We minimize inconsistencies by normalizing your order information and sending it in the correct format to each of your suppliers. This solution is ideal if you’re on big platforms like Amazon or Magento, and need access to a diverse number of dropshipping suppliers
Want to see Spark Shipping in action?
Category Four: Customer Service
As a dropshipper, you’re probably selling the same products as some of your competitors. So how can you differentiate your dropshipping business?
Providing amazing customer service is one way to make your business stand out. Your competitors can’t copy your approach to customer service. Plus, great customer service helps ensure continued brand loyalty and reorders.
Good customer service tools cost money, but you’ll easily recoup the cost in repeat orders, word-of-mouth marketing, and brand loyalty.
Here are three of our favorite customer service tools:
ChatBot’s LiveChat is a customer service platform that lets people send instant messages to your business.
how to reduce shipping time dropshipping
Dropshippers are building successful ecommerce businesses every day, even while they’re telling their customers that it will take two to three weeks for their products to arrive. I know this because I’ve talked with so many six- and seven-figure dropshippers who have done just that.
Based on all the knowledge and insights those dropshippers have shared with me, I put together this video to debunk some shipping myths that might be stopping you from starting your business.
Today, I’ll tackle several important questions. First, I’ll tell you how long it actually takes for a dropshipping product to get to customers. I’ll dive into AliExpress and show you exactly where you can look for this data, not only from a supplier but from real customers too. Then I’ll give you tips on how to overcome the “Where’s my order?” email. This is actually a lot easier than you think.
Finally, I’ll tell you how to cut down the time taken for customers to receive your product by finding AliExpress suppliers with warehouses in your own country. That’s right, US warehouses, French warehouses, Australian warehouses, all of it. I’ll let you know how you can ship using local fast shipping methods and find that in AliExpress. Time is of the essence, so let’s dive right in.
Hey, everyone, it’s Jessica from Oberlo. You are probably the kind of self-starter who’s always learning and always hustling. But you don’t have to do it alone. In fact, you shouldn’t. Every week we publish new content that will help you start and grow your business, so make sure you join our community of entrepreneurs.
There is not a single day that goes by that I don’t hear a first-time entrepreneur bring up the issue of long delivery times in dropshipping. A lot, and I mean a lot of you have left comments asking how long it takes for products to arrive, whether customers will wait that long, and what you, the entrepreneur, can do about it.
Yes, dropshipping delivery times are longer than Amazon’s. No, that doesn’t stop customers from buying.
If they did, Oberlo would not exist. Also, our interviews with successful dropshippers wouldn’t be possible. So today I’m going to be transparent with you about how to handle this.
First things first, let’s talk about how long it actually takes for dropshipping products to be shipped. They depend on a few different factors, so let me break them down for you. And in fact, let’s jump into AliExpress so it’s easier to follow along.
Install the Oberlo Google Chrome Extension
Let’s say you just watched our ultimate product recommendations playlist for 2020 and found a winning product you’re excited to sell. And P.S., you should definitely watch that playlist.
You want to sell the 3D crystal ball that we featured in that video, so you look it up on AliExpress to import it into your store. The first thing you want to check is that you have the Oberlo Google Chrome extension installed. This is a free extension that allows you to input products from AliExpress directly into your Shopify store. You can see my Chrome extension installed right up here.
Now, when I press that Chrome extension, I’ve got a couple of options. I have “show shipping information” turned on, and when that’s on, I have the option “ePacket” selected here, the country that I’m shipping to is us and currency is USD, and I’m hiding items without this option. Let me just show you what all of this does.
When I turn everything off and I update the settings, then I can’t tell when I’m glancing at the results, what takes a long time to ship and what ships quickly. However, when I click the extension and click “show shipping info”, I can see a lot more.
Select Suppliers That Offer EPacket Shipping
With these options selected, I can now see which products have ePacket shipping available to the United States because those results are highlighted in green. What’s more, I can see the cost of ePacket shipping right here, so this is free, this costs $1.88 USD.
Pause. EPacket shipping, by the way, is a shipping option that was born out of an international trade agreement and the aim of the agreement is to make it easier for ecommerce entrepreneurs like you to ship products from China to the rest of the world.
EPacket shipping is cheap or free, it’s relatively fast, and it makes it easy for you to track packages sent around the world.
EPacket shipping is available to a really long list of countries. On average, ePacket takes 12 to 20 days to deliver products to your customer. But I can give you some more precise data in just a little bit. As you can see here, there are a lot of suppliers on AliExpress that carry this same product. So that’s why having this Oberlo Chrome extension is helpful. It helps you to narrow down the suppliers only to the ones that offer ePacket shipping results.
Consider Processing Time
But there’s another thing to note besides ePacket shipping, and that’s processing time. You can see processing time indicated in gray at the bottom of each listing right here.
Quick overview, right? So when a customer orders the product from your Shopify store, you then order the product from AliExpress. That’s when your supplier gets the order.
Now, there’s a time period when the supplier gets the order and then they fetch the product, and they wrap it up and they prepare it to ship and then they put it on the plane or boat to ship it. That time in between is called processing time. Shipping time is the time it takes between when the package is being dropped off at the boat or plane and the time it reaches your customer.
So total delivery time is processing time plus shipping time. That’s why you want to look carefully at the processing times available for each of your options here. Obviously, the shorter, the better. Let’s say you find the product you want to sell with ePacket shipping available and a reasonable processing time of, let’s say, three days. You can click that product to get an even more accurate idea of its shipping time.
Here, I’ll show you how. On the product page, below the quantity options, you’ll see shipping information and an estimated delivery date right here.
If you click the dropdown menu, you’ll see even more shipping options. I’m just going to edit this, by the way, and say that I’m shipping to the United States, and now I see I’ve got three shipping options and the estimated delivery is right here.
The free shipping with ePacket, which is what I want because ePacket is easy to track and reliable, plus it’s free in this case, takes 18 days. We’re filming this on the 10th of January and its estimated delivery is the 28th of January.
I’m going to go ahead and apply that. So this means that if a customer in the US places an order for this product today and you, the entrepreneur, fulfill that order with Oberlo and the supplier today, the customer will get this product within 18 days.
Check Supplier Reviews
There’s one more thing, however, that you can take a look at to see how long it takes the product to reach your customers: reviews.
AliExpress is a marketplace, just like Amazon, and many people do buy products directly from AliExpress and leave reviews, just like they would on Amazon. They leave feedback about the product quality, supplier communication, and often how long shipping takes as well. As a shortcut, when you’re looking through reviews, you can actually search for words like “fast”, “quick”, or “slow” to see what reviewers are saying about how long it took for them to receive the product.
Order a Test Product
Once you’ve researched different suppliers’ processing times, shipping estimates and reviews, there’s one final thing to do: Order a test product. Successful dropshippers always, always, always order test products, and you can validate the processing time and shipping time and make sure the product matches its description.
To take it a step further, try ordering the same product from a few suppliers to see which shipment is delivered fastest.
All else being equal, work with the fastest supplier. That will ensure that your product gets to your customers as quickly as possible.
I personally have been pleasantly surprised to find that some products arrive sooner than I expected. Many samples or products that I’ve ordered on AliExpress arrive in less than two weeks.
drop shipping alternatives
8 Alternative online business models to try instead of dropshipping
- Print on demand (POD) …
- Dropshipping with private agents. …
- White labeling (or private labeling) …
- In-house fulfillment. …
- Drop servicing. …
- Affiliate marketing. …
- Blogging. …
- Online freelancing.