The eCommerce industry is fast becoming a part of the daily lives of people around the world, claiming a growing share of the total retail market year on year. By 2024, e-commerce is projected to account for 21.8% of global retail. In 2020, over 2 billion people bought goods or services online, generating over $ 4.2 trillion in sales in the same year.
Due to the fact that dropshipping is an e-commerce business model that requires a relatively small initial investment to begin with, it is becoming increasingly popular with those who choose to sell online. According to statistics, 27% of e-commerce retailers trust dropshipping in 2021 and see it as an advantageous route when it comes to online trading. When retailers choose dropshipping as a business method, they are giving up a significant amount of control over the goods they sell, shipping, and fulfillment processes. With this in mind, it is imperative for dropshippers to find the perfect supplier to work with by building mutual trust and a great working relationship.
In previous articles, we’ve featured the best dropshipping providers in the US, the top 20 best dropshipping providers in the UK, the providers who are best at their game in Italy, and many more. However, before you get to the point where you actually choose a supplier to work with, you need to carefully weigh all of the benefits your dropshipping provider can offer you. So that you don’t miss anything important, in this article we have compiled a list of advantages to look out for when choosing.
When it comes to the benefits that your dropshipping provider should offer you, there is no doubt that customer service comes first for any dropshipper. In order to run a successful dropshipping shop and to be able to help your customers in the best possible way, it is important that you can reach your supplier at any time if there is a problem with the shipping, delivery or product itself. Always look for suppliers who have sufficient language skills and who can offer you multiple channels to communicate quickly through, such as WhatsApp, phone, Skype and email.
Also make sure that the supplier has an FAQ page or a help desk option as these pre-answered questions can be of great help if at any point during your sales process you feel lost. To ensure that your chosen supplier offers great customer service, we recommend that you always visit trustworthy review websites like Trustpilot, where you can read reviews about your potential future business partner. BrandsGateway is the perfect example of a dropshipping company that consistently receives exceptional reviews and feedback from its customers, which is a sign of the team’s dedication to providing world-class service and support.
Although today you have a wide range of content management systems (CMS) that allow online stores to be created without programming knowledge, not everyone is comfortable building a website from scratch. If you don’t have the knowledge or confidence to do this, you would benefit tremendously if your dropshipping provider offered you the option of building your website, i.e. a turnkey dropshipping solution. Explore your options and see if your supplier can connect you to a trusted company with a web development team that can provide technical assistance with creating your first dropshipping store. BrandsGateway, for example, has teamed up with Lemon.Dev – a company that can tailor any dropshipping shop. If you choose to dropship luxury fashion products with BrandsGateway and want to build your business with ease, Lemon.Dev is the choice for you.
The built-in automation of your online store is indeed a very important benefit that your dropshipping provider should offer you. This way, your sales and fulfillment process won’t be as labor intensive as if you were doing everything manually. It also gives you more time to focus on other important business factors such as branding, marketing, and customer support. In order to be able to set up the automation, you have to offer plugins from your supplier for the CMS (Content Management System) with which you have created your website. The most popular CMS are Shopify, WooCommerce, Wix and Shift4Shop, which you can use to easily create beautiful and customer-friendly online shops.
For example, BrandsGateway’s in-house dropshipping plugin includes automatic inventory updates, which means stock levels are updated in real time and synced with your store’s inventory, so you can avoid selling out of stock products and voiding offers of those as good. In addition, all orders placed on your website are automatically forwarded to your system. As soon as you pay for them with a single transaction, they can be packaged and shipped to your end customer. In addition, you can also take advantage of a currency conversion option that allows you to sell and display your prices in any currency you want. Finally, by completing the category mapping, you can enjoy the benefits of bulk importing your products into your store along with the product images and descriptions BrandsGateway provides you with.
If you are new to the game of dropshipping, it can be of great benefit if your dropshipping provider can offer you business advice on how to best run your business and get the sales you want.
BrandsGateway mainly invests in providing its customers with a dedicated account manager who is exclusively concerned with their business and is always up to date on their progress. In addition, you have the opportunity to benefit from a brainstorming session in which you can discuss and advise your marketing and growth strategies and receive feedback on your online shop.
If you are in the dropshipping business, you don’t run or manage your own inventory. So if your potential supplier has minimum order quantities, these will affect the lowest number that an end customer can order from your company. MIQ in dropshipping can make your business less attractive in the eyes of a consumer. Hence, it is better to work with a supplier who does not follow this approach.
Especially when it comes to selling higher priced items. If your customers have to buy more than a single item that costs a lot of money, they will pass. So if you are targeting dropshipping luxury clothing and accessories, you need to find a supplier like BrandsGateway that doesn’t require a MOQ. So your customers can place orders of any size and receive a single item, and still make significant profits.
Without a doubt, one of the most important perks your dropshipping provider can offer you is a high profit margin because at the end of the day every business strives for the greatest possible profit. You should always be aware of the potential profit margin that you can make on selling the kind of goods that your dropshipping provider can offer your business and your customers. Because this can be a good starting point for evaluating potential suppliers and choosing the best ones to work with in the future.
Of course, your profit margins will vary depending on the niche you serve with the products in your business. So do research specific to your niche first so that you have a basis for comparison. Once you have a baseline, calculate the profit margin you can make with each and every supplier you choose from. Remember, dropshipping luxury fashion products gives you the opportunity to earn higher profit margins than you would dropshipping low-ticket items. However, when you choose BrandsGateway as your dropshipping supplier, you can benefit from margins of up to 250%. You can easily calculate your profit with BrandsGateway by multiplying your wholesale price by the markup and subtracting the wholesale price and any additional costs such as shipping costs.
When you choose dropshipping as the business model for your ecommerce store, you give up most of the control over your warehouse logistics like handling, fulfillment and shipping. Because of this, the transparency of these processes is one of the most important benefits your dropshipping provider should offer you. It is not recommended that a dropshipper work with a supplier who does not have clear guidelines on these matters as these directly affect customer satisfaction and therefore your company’s reputation.
First of all, you need to check whether the dropshipping provider of your choice delivers to the countries or areas that you want your ecommerce store to cover. Once you have ensured compatibility, ask your supplier where the goods are stored, as the country of origin and destination will affect the taxes and duties your customers will have to pay on their orders. This is an important thing to highlight on your ecommerce website so that your customers don’t feel like they were being billed for hidden costs that they had no information about prior to purchasing. Finally, try to choose the supplier with the best possible shipping cost.
With this in mind, when you choose BrandsGateway as your dropshipping supplier, you can benefit from the fact that the products are stored in four locations around the world, namely in the US, Italy, Germany and Sweden. That way, your supplier can ship direct to your customer from the nearest warehouse, which then helps to eliminate some taxes and duties. In addition, as a partner of BrandsGateway, you can enjoy 5-day worldwide shipping from EUR 15 / USD 17 per package.
In order to showcase the products you sell in your ecommerce store in the best light, it is an important benefit to have professional product pictures from your dropshipping provider. Some even offer you SEO-optimized product descriptions that will help you rank higher in search engine results and make your shop more visible to potential visitors. However, this is not all that a great dropshipping provider can offer your business.
If you choose to work with BrandsGateway, you will even receive social media image templates to help you design your future paid advertising campaigns across all of your social media accounts. This provider also provides you with written guides on social media advertising and SEO optimization created by marketers to help you improve your game when it comes to promoting your store online.
As you can see, there are a number of factors to consider when choosing who to work with as a dropshipping ecommerce store owner in the future. Once you have decided on a niche and have a thorough understanding of your target audience, the best way to make the best decision is to evaluate all of the potential dropshipping providers based on the above attributes and benefits they can offer you. It is also recommended that you check your suppliers from time to time to see if they are still the best option for you. Look out for new suppliers and potentially new benefits other dropshipping providers may bring to your business.
