There’s a LOT of advantages to using dropshipping as a business model. When dropshipping platforms are set up correctly, they’re a great asset to your online business.
We’re going to explore various reasons that cause dropshipping to sputter and falter.
Imagine your dropshipping business is in a box. You open that box with anticipation and excitement and begin to unpack the contents of the box. It’s in pieces and requires assembly. Do you reach for the assembly instructions or wing it? So many of us choose to wing it when it comes to assembling things. We end up with extra screws, lopsided results, and a seriously unstable foundation.
Apply the same principle to your dropshipping. How many extra screws lay at your feet that you aren’t aware of? Dropshipping that’s incorrectly “assembled” becomes unstable. It becomes prone to toppling over, but don’t worry, you’ve got this!
Further down, we’ll share a secret with you on how you can handle all of the below in ONE SIMPLE STEP!
The Ugly Side of Dropshipping
Ugly Truth: It takes patience and time to build your business!
As the old cliche goes, “Rome wasn’t built in a day” rings true here! The same goes for your business. It takes time to get things going because, along the way, you’ll have to “assemble” parts of your business to work cohesively.
Dropshipping is a great tool to grow your business, but like everything else, it does have a few downsides.
Competition Out There
Time Isn't On Your Side
It takes time to build your business up. Dropshipping too takes time to set up before you’ll begin to see a profit.
Building a business isn’t as simple as putting up an “Open for Business” sign.
- You must build your brand. Branding development requires an investment of time. Thorough research on market trends, target audience, sales psychology, and more go into development.
- You must build a strong presence on social media. This isn’t accomplished overnight and requires research and implementation of strategies to drive traffic to your storefront.
- Advertising takes time to reach the masses. Test run advertisements are necessary to gain an understanding of what works best where.
- You must build your online marketplace/storefront. Essential features should be integrated to optimize and move traffic as well as the product. The costs of processing customer payments, as well as site maintenance, can be costly.
Ugly Truth: Your supplier greatly affects your dropshipping.
Instead of Dropshipping, They “Drop the Ball!
- Ships the wrong product
- Never ships the product
- Doesn’t ship in a timely manner
- Doesn’t disclose the origin of a product
- Lacks inventory management; out of stock
- Products are outdated and not in line with trends
- Charges outrageous fees
Vetting
- Vetting potential suppliers protects you. To avoid scammers, do your homework and gain as much information as you can on prospective suppliers.
- Be proactive with diligent attention to how your orders are being processed and handled by suppliers.
Upfront Product Costs
- Understand before acquiring suppliers that you’ll be required to “float” the cost of products until the bank processes payment.
Multiple Suppliers
- Choose multiple suppliers so you’ll have a diversity of products. Doing this will also ensure you have a backup in the event another supplier drops the ball on you.
The Beautiful Side of Dropshipping
Dropshipping can flow with ease and beautifully integrate into a business! This is easily accomplished in one step.
How awesome would it be to have one place where you can set up your online marketplace, dropshipping, and MORE? Shop1 all-in-one platform saves you the headache of extensive research, all the way to customer order relations.
Features and Benefits of Shop1
- Setup of your online marketplace. You’ll have three different plans to choose from to tailor your storefront. No fussing with trying to figure out how to set up a website on your own.
- Access to a BIG catalog of products that stay current with trends.
- Access to numerous suppliers that have already been vetted.
- Access to valuable data to help your business grow.
- Comprehensive dropshipping services. We handle everything from the moment your customer clicks on the “Buy” button to product issues, refunds, returns, and upfront product costs.
Set yourself up for success! Let us take care of everything so you can focus on more important things.