How Can I Achieve Fast Dropshipping? Here’s the Easy Way!

So you’re up and running with your dropshipping store, your social media campaigns are pushing traffic to your store and you are perhaps getting some good organic hits on your website too.

Living the dream. Right? But why is it you’re spending so much time talking to disgruntled customers?

In this modern age, we haven’t even got time for a web page to load, let alone spend weeks waiting for deliveries.

Fast deliveries in your dropshipping store are crucial to keep your buyers happy and stop your hard-won customers going elsewhere. So how can you achieve the best and fastest drop shipping experience? Before we get into details. Let’s first take a look at the brief takeaway so you can get started.

How can I achieve fast dropshipping? To achieve a quicker delivery time for your dropshipping store, avoid AlliExpress sellers who use ePackett with typically 20-30 days delivery times. Instead hire a dropshipping agent who works with carriers designed specifically for eCommerce stores and will able to hold stock for quick turnaround.

Ok, so now we’ve summarized the answer, let’s go on to understand how we can better achieve a faster dropshipping service at your e-commerce store, let’s start by looking at some of the important reasons dropshipping needs to be as swift as possible.

Why does dropshipping need to be fast?

So why is it you need a fast shipping time as a dropshipper?

Fast-shipping is not just an extra service to offer your e-commerce customers anymore. It’s a requirement. Trying to compete with other dropshippers with swifter, efficient, and quicker shipping times mean you would have to find that holy trinity.

• Extremely patient customers
• Incredibly cheap but quality products
• Totally unique products

So even if you manage to find the latter, your business is likely to fall over as finding that elusive super patient customer is likely never going to happen. Your customers and their gratification are key to your success as a dropshipper. Let’s take a look below as to why your customer base demands the fastest drop shipping times.

Fast-paced society

In our modern digital era, consumerism and instant-gratification are becoming more and more prevalent. Even the way eCommerce has evolved means there has been radical changes. people prize instant satisfaction as current times move ever more quickly with social media challenges and twitter dramas and trends.

Delivery times and costs vary across retailers and dropshipping product categories but can have a major impact on a consumer’s purchase decision.

It is no surprise that customers expect speed in their transactions online: whether it is support or shipping.

According to recent research, the timely arrival of shipments and free or easy returns were second on the list of their requirements. As returning doesn’t really work for dropshipping model, dropshippers should focus on delivering orders faster.

Fast shipping equals customer recommendations

41% of those shoppers surveyed in the above survey reported that ‘receiving my product when expected’ was crucial to their experience, and more importantly said they would go on to recommend any company which offered timely delivery.

So it’s not difficult to understand that making sure your deliveries are as expected and as quick as possible will help you stand hand and shoulders above your competitors, and also help to drive more custom.

The overall takeaway from this important consumer research is that the longer an item takes to be delivered to a customer, the higher level of dissatisfaction.

Ok so now we understand the importance of offering faster drop shipping deliveries due to the demands of customers, but are there any other factors you needed to take into account? Let’s find out more below.

Amazon

There is no denying that Amazon is the market leader for e-commerce and continues to step up its game.

The crucial thing to take away is that Amazon sets the bar and consumer expectations, with same-day deliveries which means as a dropshipper you need to offer the fastest shipping times you can.

Chargebacks and restrictions

Faster shipping can also help to not only avoid unnecessary complaints and customer dissatisfaction but also prevent chargebacks. High chargeback rates may add more of your crucial profit held back with more in holding funds.

Also if your customer ratings drop too low, you may possibly see restrictions on your Facebook business account. So what exactly constitutes fast shipping in the world of dropshipping? Let’s take a closer look.

What is fast shipping for dropshipping stores?

It does depend on specifics such as the destination country and of course customer expectations, but fast or ‘express’ drop shipping will be within 10 days of ordering.

Should I hold stock?

It could be that you might think holding stock in local USA warehouses is the way forwards.

However, we don’t recommend this for two crucial reasons.

• Upfront warehousing incurs a raft of costs
• Products may not sell

As a dropshipper the whole idea is to minimize the investment and risks, so holding stock locally is clearly a high-risk move and to be avoided in the dropshipping model.

Avoid AliExpress and ePacket sellers

All the AliExpress sellers use ePacket which takes a whopping 20-30 days for delivery and gives literally nothing back in terms of customer service.

So when you have upset customers in your inbox demanding to know where their delivery is, you will basically be on your own.

Hire a dropshipping agent

Ok, so if you decide to give Aliexpress a miss. You might be wondering how you sort out some of the pressing factors of your dropshipping business such as fulfilling orders?

Hiring a dropshipping agent is a great solution for all your sourcing and also order fulfillment.

Using a dropshipping solution like HyperSKU will make sure you find the best products, and acts not only as your supplier but also fulfillment handler and virtual assistant.

Quicker processing times

Another benefit of using an agent is that some of the lengthy processing times some suppliers often forget to mention can be streamlined to allow faster delivery to your customers.

Often there can be up to 2-4 days on top of the physical delivery process to add into the mix when quoting delivery times to your own dropshipping store customers.

By stocking inventory directly with agents, you can minimize those delays and give your customers much quicker delivery times.

Are there any ‘express’ shipping carriers?

Many shipping carriers offer an affordable, low cost, express shipping offer. Your dropshipping agent will be able to help you out here and give you the benefit of their expertise.

If they work with carriers such as:

• YunExpress
• CNE
• 4PX

You can pretty much guarantee a quicker turnaround in terms of delivery for your customers.

These companies are specially designed to work with eCommerce businesses and are much more affordable than the more well-known carriers such as DHL and FedEx.

Avoid bulky products

Another way to make sure you consistently offer the quickest service is to make sure you avoid any bulky or irregular shaped products and liquids.

The shipping time for these kinds of products is long and due to security and financial concerns, they are not available for express shipping.

Manage customers’ expectations

Having very clear notification on your website will also make sure your customers have been given clear delivery times and have advance notification of your delivery schedules.

For instance, you could add a banner on your site with the words:

‘We only source the best products worldwide for our customers, our estimated delivery is 10 days from order’

This way you can manage their expectations and give them the heads up on expected delivery times.

And finally…

We can see from consumer research that quicker shipping is imperative to the continued success of your dropshipping business. eCommerce and dropshipping are constantly changing, but one thing is certain and that is successful dropshippers have to keep up with ever-changing consumer requirements and other developments in the industry.

Just one bad customer review can jeopardize everything you’ve worked for and any customer who has been troubled by long waits and inefficient support will take their custom elsewhere.

Make sure you make the switch to faster and more reliable suppliers now!

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