If you have a business that requires shipping in order to sell your items, chances are you have heard of drop shipping management products and automated drop shipping management software. However, if you are still early on in the game, you may not be familiar with drop shipping.
Even if you've heard of drop shipping, you may not be familiar with the benefits of drop shipping management.
Below, we've put together a brief guide to drop shipping. We also discuss the ways your business can benefit from drop shipping management.
What is Drop Shipping?
Before we go any further, we should lay some basic groundwork. What is drop shipping, exactly? Do you need it? And if so, why?
Essentially, drop shipping is a solution to inventory and stock management. Businesses whose product is a physical item that needs to be mailed out to customers fact many obstacles. Many of these revolve around how and where to store inventory and how to get it shipped out in a timely manner.
This is where drop shipping comes in.
Instead of storing, managing, and process the inventory yourself, a distributor does this work for you. Even though you are using a middleman, there are ways to make it look like the product came directly from you, so your customer doesn't suspect a thing.
With drop shipping, the process looks a bit like this:
You receive an order. You report the order to your drop shipping company. Your drop shipper handles the order themselves. They find the product, package and ship the order, and include an invoice with your company's name. They even make sure to stay supplied when stock is getting low.
Usually, you have to pay them a small percentage of the money you've made on your orders.
What is Drop Shipping Management?
Drop shipping management is exactly what it sounds like. If you are going to opt to make drop shipping part of your company structure, you are going to need a way to manage it.
Usually, the best way to do this is through an automated drop shipping management software system or tool. Being able to automate this workflow is one of the secrets to doing it successfully.
A drop shipping management software like Dropified will add products to your store and get rid of unnecessary tasks like fulfilling and shipping your own orders.
Ways Your Company Can Benefit From Drop Shipping Management
Drop shipping comes with many perks for a business owner. Below are some of the main ones.
Peace of Mind
First and foremost, drop shipping can offer peace of mind. As a business owner, you want to be able to focus on scaling and creating value.
You don't want to have to think about the nitty-gritty details of getting your product packaged up and sent out the door on time. There is a lot to think about when you are not taking advantage of drop shipping. You have a lot more responsibilities that are both time-consuming and mundane.
Instead, drop shipping takes these minor but important tasks off your plate. It frees up your mind to focus on the bigger picture, like creativity and growth.
The everyday tasks will be taken care of, and you don't have to worry about getting behind. Since they are automated, everything will be flowing smoothly whether you are there to pack boxes or not.
Mobility
Another major perk of using drop shipping is that it gives you mobility. Because another party is taking care of the fulfillment side of things, you don't actually have to be present.
You can work from anywhere with a WiFi connection! Being able to travel around and work is a huge benefit to living in a modern society where options like drop shipping are available. A third party is in place for you, storing and managing your inventory.
All you have to do is log on and make sure everything is running up to par.
Low Price
Believe it or not, even with all these perks, drop shipping is still cost-effective! Usually, you can simply factor in the price of drop shipping into your overhead.
Drop shippers typically just take a small cut of the money you've made from the sales they're shipping out. The management platforms usually come in at a small monthly or yearly fee, depending on the features you're looking to be included.
When you think about all the headache and hassle you save by using a drop shipper, it's easy to see what a great deal it actually is, no matter what the cost.
Helpful Features
Automated drop shipping management platforms like Dropified have all the features you may need built into their software.
For example, all it takes is one click to add products to your store. In addition, there are features like an auto price multiplier — which automatically populates the price based on the markup of your choice — and auto order tracking.
A good management system will also make it easy for you to understand.
They should offer quick and easy-to-follow training and customer support in case you run into any issues. On the customer side as well, the software should send regular updates so that there is never any confusion regarding where a customer's order is or when it will be delivered.
You should also expect the ability to fulfill orders with just one click. Plus, the ability to manage all your stores in one place is a huge plus. If you have your hands in multiple baskets online, this can greatly simplify your everyday life.
Lastly, you will always be on top of things. You will be the first to know if a product is out of stock or if the price has changed.
