Succes Tips For Dropship Business

Online Shop

Starting from small talk about online business, then increasingly focused on online shops, especially the popular dropshipper. At present there are many dropshipper in Indonesia, not only national but also reaching international dropshipper. Many articles that discuss tips and tricks about how to do dropship business, but this article will be a little different and show the actual conditions.
DROPSHIP BUSINESS NEEDS CAPITAL
A few days ago the author read one of the articles in the largest online forum in Indonesia, in the article mentioned that "DROPSHIPPER BUSINESS DOES NOT NEED CAPITAL".
Of course this is ridiculous. Possible article makers never run a dropship business or just take information from pre-existing articles. Logically, it doesn't make business sense without capital.

Dropship Model

- Customer orders goods to the store (3 to 1)

- Stores order items to Supplier / Distributor / Manufacturer / Other Stores (1 to 2)

- Goods sent directly from Supplier / Distributor / Manufacturer / Other Stores (2 to 3)

If you look at the dropshipper business mechanism diagram, you will realize that the dropshipper business requires a certain amount of funds (the amount depends on the value of the goods being handled first), the ability to manage online stores, the ability to manage social media, and the carefulness of choosing suppliers or stores where you pick up goods.

You can just require customer payment first so you don't have to bail out the purchase of goods from the supplier. But if you want to be like this you cannot use an existing web marketplace (such as Tokopedia, Bukalapak, Shopee, etc.), you must create your own website, so you can receive payments directly from customers. If you use a web marketplace, funds will be held before your customer receives the goods.

Whatever your choice, still need capital for dropshipper business. Sources of funds / capital can use cash or credit cards, depending on your needs and abilities. For beginners, you should first try to open an online store on the web marketplace, rather than having to spend a budget to open an online store by creating your own website.

FOCUS TO MAKE GOOD REPUTATION
You are still selling goods that have other people if you do a dropshipper business, profit margins cannot be too large, because competition in the web marketplace is very tight and tends to be unhealthy because of the price war. Therefore, instead of focusing on profit, it is better to focus on achieving your online reputation. It's better to multiply successful transactions with small profit margins, than fewer transactions with large profit margins. Build the shop identity seriously, make the company profile seriously too. Create logos, unique names, social media accounts, and promotions.

You will get a good reputation in the following ways:

1. Act as the product owner by guarantee the quality of goods sold. The way is by choosing a trusted supplier. If you need to go and meet your supplier directly, or buy the item as a sample for you to see and ensure its quality.

2. Establish good relations with suppliers. One of the weaknesses of the dropshipper business is that you cannot directly control the goods you sell. You cannot determine how the item will be packaged, when it will be entered into the courier, and especially the quality control of the goods sent. Quality control is entirely at the supplier, so your reputation is determined by the supplier.

3. Respond to all types of communication from your customers. Whether it's a form of question or statement. Don't be afraid to face customer complaint, face calm whether it's chat or call from the customer. Find the best solution if there are customer complaints.

4. Control each shipment. Dropship is not just 'buying' certain items, but also controlling every shipment of goods. The most risky times are when you order goods to a supplier. The time lag from customer payments to you by ordering goods to suppliers should not be long. You should immediately order goods to the supplier immediately after you receive payment from the customer, so the time lead is not too long. This also prevents it from being missed / forgotten, especially if the number of transactions is very large.

5. Take preventive steps before a customer complaint occurs. For example: You realize that the supplier is late in sending goods due to overload, so you better tell the buyer too. Remember, complaints occur often because customers don't get updated information.

SELECTION OF PRODUCTS FOR DROPSHIP
Not all products can be sold dropship. One dropship disadvantage is that you can only sell online. Choose the easiest products to sell online, sent by couriers and low risk.
Some types of products commonly sold in dropship are as follows:

• bag
• clothes
• Certain household equipment and supplies
• Computer / electronic / digital / gadget accessories
• Sports equipment and accessories
• Hobby equipment and accessories

The items with the types mentioned above are many of these players (especially dropship) because the demand is also large and has minimal risk. Some choices of other goods are quite risky, especially high-value goods, such as gadgets, smartphones, large electronic goods, precious metals and so on.

SELECTION OF SUPPLIER
This point was mentioned earlier (there was a discussion about how to make a good reputation), but it needs to be reiterated and emphasized. Suppliers also determine how your store's image is in front of the customer. If the supplier is bad, the image of your store will be bad. Choose a good supplier and stay away from bad suppliers.

Here are the characteristics:

- Supplier is good, usually the response is fast, meaning not in seconds also immediately returned. A maximum of 3 hours or less of your communication should be responded to. There are only suppliers who respond to 2-3 days just to check the stock. There are also suppliers who don't even answer your questions. Stay away from suppliers like this.

- Suppliers who have good intentions in doing business will be seen from how suppliers treat you as a dropshipper / reseller / customer. If you are lazy it's better to leave, look for suppliers who are really serious about doing business.

- A good supplier has a clear delivery schedule. What time is the last entry order to be sent that day. This is important for dropshipper, so they can give the exact time estimates when the product will be sent to the buyer.

Choose several suppliers and don't depend on only one supplier. This is important as a comparison of prices and also so that your online store can still survive if your supplier goes bankrupt or does not sell anymore for certain reasons.

ADJUST YOUR DELIVERY SCHEDULE WITH THE SUPPLIER
Suppliers usually have a certain time limit regarding when the goods will be shipped (entered into the courier). For example, for certain orders, it can be sent on the same day as the order terms along with the payment on the same day before 16.00. Therefore, adjust to your delivery schedule and add time for you to receive orders from customers and continue orders to suppliers. That means you can make a transaction rule, "Orders that enter before 15.00 will be sent on the same day". You can use this 1 hour pause to order the item in question to the supplier.


CUSTOMER --------order--------> STORE ---------order---------> SUPPLIER
                       Order Deadline                       Order Deadline
                            15.00 PM                                16.00 PM


IF THE ORDER HAPPENS FROM DIFFERENT SUPPLIERS
Having several suppliers is good, but still has weaknesses, one of which is what if there is a split order. One item from supplier A while another item from supplier B. The solution is:
- offer buyers to replace other products (other variants or different products) so that the order becomes only from one supplier, or offer to cancel one item because the stock is out or the item is not good so it cannot be shipped.

- the best and most receptive way is to directly visit the two suppliers (if one city), then send directly to the courier or to the buyer.

- keep sending the two items from different suppliers, then give an explanation to the buyer, for example the items are already packaged separately or shipped from a different warehouse. This does not lie right, indeed the packaging is different and the warehouse is also different. But this method risks getting thinner margins (or losing money) because you have to bear additional shipping costs. Yes, solely for the sake of good reputation.

BE A DROPSHIPPER AND RESELLER AS WELL AS A FOCUS TO BE A SUPPLIER
The difference between dropshipper and reseller is in the stock, while the equation is to sell other people's goods. Dropshipper has no stock and no warehouse, therefore it can only be online and cannot sell offline. While Resellers have stock so you can still sell also offline.

To become a reseller, you must be careful in choosing the items to be stocked along with the number of items. Do not let the item is a slow turnover item, so that it will only become a stock of aging in your warehouse.

Project ahead to become a first-hand supplier / distributor, rather than becoming a continuous dropshipper. Now, by becoming a reseller and dropshipper at the same time it will be a good mix to explore the ins and outs of e-commerce, buying and selling online and offline while building a reputation (and raising capital) to become a first-hand supplier / distributor.