6 Ways to Automate Drop Shipping on AliExpress

6 Ways to Automate Drop Shipping on AliExpress

Do you want to make your drop shipping store easier to run, and more profitable?

Experts agree that automating the drop shipping process means you spend less time and effort distributing your product.

Due to the fast-paced nature of drop shipping, it turns the best profit when it's done on a large scale. Automation lets you scale your e-commerce business more quickly. Even better, when you automate drop shipping you actually cut costs.

Want to find out how to speed up your workflow and grow a hugely profitable drop shipping business today?

This guide sets out six ways to automate drop shipping for your online business.

1. Implement Automated Order Tracking

First, have a look at what happens in your order process when a customer buys a product. Is the tracking information automatically sent to them? It should be.

If you have competent suppliers, they will send the tracking information to you when the product leaves their location. Automation software can send this information directly to the customer so they know it's on its way.

It's always better to send the tracking info to a customer upfront. Don't make them ask for it. Your system should keep a record of the tracking number as well.

If you decide to automate drop shipping, make sure customer updates are one of the features.

2. Use Email Marketing Automation

Ever heard of an email autoresponder sequence?

This is a valuable tool to capture and keep a customer. It's is a series of emails sent to people on your email list. You can tailor the type and sequence of the email to fit the needs of your business exactly.

For example, you can create automated emails that offer the customer add-ons and upsells. Is there a holiday coming up? Create a promotional email campaign to coincide with it.

Any type of promotional email marketing you can think of can be accommodated with email.

This automated process is an effortless way to leverage your pre-existing customer base. What's more, it requires no additional expenditure on marketing or advertising.

3. Use Inventory Management Tools and Software

One of the main advantages of doing drop shipping is there's no need to buy and hold inventory yourself. At the same time, you have to be sure of two things. One, that there is in fact inventory available, and two, that you know exactly what that inventory is.

You don't want to get caught overselling or get hit with a surprise “out of stock” notification.

You can use a dropshipping software system to manage your drop shipping inventory. Ideal features would include a way to connect with your suppliers directly to monitor inventory levels. Have it go one step further and show unavailable products as out of stock in your online store.

Automated inventory management protects you from overselling. It also keeps your ratings as a seller high since you won't be selling products you don't have. Lastly, it saves you lots of wasted time.

4. Automate Adding Products from AliExpress

If you've already started selling, you know how slow the process of adding new products is. You find the product, check the description, copy it, find an image, and upload to your platform.

What if there was a way to have this done for you?

Routine tasks like uploading product information can be done using a software. Automatically updating the product info can as well. No more time spent checking each listing to see if the supplier has made revisions to it.

Product data that can be imported include both product descriptions and images. When you have a system to find and copy this information, you've just super-powered your productivity. And that's a major step in growing your company.

5. Forward Orders to Suppliers Automatically

Another routine task that can be implemented to automate drop shipping is the forwarding of orders.

In drop shipping, the hassle of handling shipping yourself isn't something you have to deal with. However, you do have to forward the orders to your supplier for fulfillment. If you're serious about growing your business, you could be selling hundreds of items of a day.

Forwarding each sales order manually just doesn't make sense. Using an automation software will allow you to make templates for exporting orders. So the customer places an order, the template populates with the order information, and that template is sent to the supplier.

According to the supplier's preferences, choose the particular order form format, or just send it by email as a CSV file. And there you have it, a completely hands-off method to supercharge your supply chain using technology.

6. Prioritize Suppliers Automatically

If you're like most drop shippers, you're working with multiple suppliers. This is a good thing, as you have to maximize sales to succeed in this business model.

However, the more you sell, the more suppliers you're dealing with. That equals increased difficulty in managing it all by hand. Enter the power of software!

A computer program never gets tired. Automate the prioritizing of multiple suppliers so that you can scale the business more efficiently. You choose which product gets fulfilled by which supplier by using the software.

This covers common situations like when the chosen supplier doesn't have the product in stock. The order then automatically goes to the next supplier in order of the priority that you've chosen.

All of this will happen behind the scenes, and you didn't have to lift a finger.

How to Automate Drop Shipping Now

The great thing about drop shipping is how easy it is to implement the automated processes. When you're looking to grow your stores, remember that building an infrastructure is the key to scaling success.

The best time to outsource and start with automation is when you've started to build up the business. By doing this, you already have some knowledge of the process and know exactly how much time and effort you'll be saving.

A good software solution can get you started on the road to automation. If you'd like some help, get in touch with us today.