Retail e-commerce sales worldwide have grown from $1.3 billion in 2014 to $3.5 billion in 2019 and are expected to reach the $6.5 billion mark by 2023. These huge numbers are, to a large extent, determined by the popularity of dropshipping — an order fulfillment method that originated in 2006. What makes dropshipping so attractive […]
Retail e-commerce sales worldwide have grown from $1.3 billion in 2014 to $3.5 billion in 2019 and are expected to reach the $6.5 billion mark by 2023. These huge numbers are, to a large extent, determined by the popularity of dropshipping — an order fulfillment method that originated in 2006.
What makes dropshipping so attractive to people from all walks of life is its affordability. It also has a lot of other benefits.
Since dropshipping is an online business, the first thing that every aspiring merchant should do is find a suitable e-commerce solution to base the store on. In recent years, one such system has been steadily conquering the e-commerce universe and dropshipping galaxy in particular. This is Shopify.
We would have to spend quite a while talking about all the great features that give Shopify an edge over similar software products. Let’s just say that it has all that an online retailer needs to run a successful dropshipping business out of the box, starting from design and ending with analytics and support.
When merchants launch their Shopify stores, though, they discover that they have to do many things manually time and time again. Forwarding orders from customers to dropshippers (companies that actually deliver goods to consumers), ensuring that certain products are still available and ordering those that are out of stock, tweaking prices for particular goods in order to achieve a specific margin — all these routine tasks take up a lot of time and may lead to subtle or not-so-subtle errors.
The best approach to address this problem is to install dropshipping apps. These represent extensions to the Shopify platform in a way similar to other e-commerce systems. Not only do these add-ons automate repetitive everyday operations but also make Shopify stores more functional by providing features that the core lacks.
The official Shopify app store offers a myriad of applications to automate and expedite the dropshipping process. Novices to the business often get overwhelmed by the sheer variety. The apps seem to be very much alike, so making the right choice can be a test from hell.
Are you among the confused and bewildered Shopify merchants trying to figure out which app to pick for your store? Let us help you out. Here are some tips regarding the most important features of a dropshipping app you should consider.
What makes customers happy? High-quality goods, polite support staff, a variety of options to accept payments online? Yes, all of that. That being said, there is another characteristic of an online retail business that contributes to its success or failure. This is how fast customers can have the items they’ve purchased delivered to their doorsteps.
In this connection, we advise you to search for apps that offer delivery companies located in all major destinations across the map. This way, you can guarantee that your customers will get their goods on time.
Many dropshippers are from China. If your customer base comes from Los Angeles and you choose dropshippers from Hong Kong, for instance, expect your goods to be delivered by sea within 20 days.
Therefore, finding a local supplying company is wiser. For example, the dropshipping app Spocket connects Shopify merchants with supplying companies not only from the United States and Europe but also from countries in the Asian-Pacific region such as Australia. This gives you a wide range of opportunities as far as shipping is concerned.
Dropshipping is a great way to make money almost out of thin air. However, let us be honest, it does have its drawbacks. One of the most notorious is shipping prices that are normally higher than ordinary retailers pay.
That’s why studying what shipment fees suppliers in a specific dropshipping app take is indispensable. It also pays to know if the app offers any reductions in prices. For example, the previously mentioned Spocket grants merchants 30–40% off on all products. This allows Shopify store owners to have some breathing space when dealing with dropshippers.
Shopify provides a wide range of merchandise for online merchants to choose from, and a good dropshipping app makes it possible to display new product information immediately.
A worthy dropshipping app must be able to update the information on a Shopify store right after you have selected this or that product on Shopify itself or on an external resource like Amazon. That is exactly what Oberlo is capable of, for instance. Not only does this app refresh the product info at once but also blocks selection of goods the moment they’ve gone out of stock.
You’ll hardly find a single company in the entire world that has never had disputes with customers. Even a traditional retail business where the owner can monitor orders themselves from start to finish is not immune to problems with buyers.
In the dropshipping business, disputes occur even more frequently since online store owners have no opportunity to control the packaging and delivery process. This is when dropshipping apps come to the rescue.
For example, Dropified app users can take advantage of the custom-made automated phone support system that allows customers from Canada and the USA to make calls through local and toll-free numbers. A good dropshipping app provides support through more than one communication channel, including email, live online chat, and phone.
Branding is important. It immediately tells your story, builds an emotional connection with your audience, and serves as a powerful promotional medium.
Therefore, a good dropshipping app should allow Shopify business owners to put their company names and logos on product packaging or at least on the financial documents that go with an order. Spocket is an example of the latter.
We didn’t make it our goal to list each and every feature of a good dropshipping app in this post. There are certainly many more characteristics that make a Shopify dropshipping app worthy of trust. The ones we’ve mentioned, though, can help you come up with a shortlist of dropshipping apps that you can explore further.
The GetDevDone Shopify development services team is a group of unrivaled experts in one of the most popular e-commerce platforms on the market. We can help you identify the best Shopify dropshipping app for your specific niche or business model. We can also customize a solution you’ve already selected to make it work smoothly and have all the features essential to your success. Contact us. We’re always here for you!
In this post, we discuss another project we did for an agency: the development of an online store based on Shopify Plus. As usual, you will learn about the challenges we faced, the solution we provided, and the added value we created for the client.
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