Dropshipping is an ideal side job for those, who want to make money selling online. It is relatively easy to manage and it is a business with minimal risk. However, it is not completely a walk in the park. There might be obstacles you have to overcome as you make use of your dropshipping business opportunities. In this article, we will discuss initial challenges along with potential obstacles that may come up as your drop shipping business really takes off.

Choosing from Tons of Suppliers

This is the first real challenge you will face while you are starting up your e-commerce business. There are myriad of dropshipping suppliers, most of which may not be a good option for your business. Besides, your dream supplier could be a hidden gem because wholesale suppliers traditionally pay little attention to marketing and advertising. So, they may not easily come up in search results.

While looking for an ideal supplier, you might want to try different keywords related to the category of products you want to sell.

It is very important that your supplier can offer good shipping time&cost, reliable data, constant communication, problem-solving abilities, and real wholesale prices.

Check out my previous article on how to find your dropship wholesaler  for more details.

Dangers of Overselling

Overselling is a nightmare once it happens but it is rather easy to avoid. It basically means to sell an item that your suppliers do not have in stock. If you imagine how much of a headache it would be to explain to a customer why they cannot receive the product they have purchased. At times, it can be difficult to know when your suppliers have in them in stock. This might lead you to list that product in your e-commerce marketplace. However, if you supplier has inventory data that is updated frequently throughout the day, you are unlikely to come up with overselling issues. Considering the fact that overselling can cost your a repeat business and a bad reputation, you might want to make sure your supplier has an up-to-date inventory data that is available to you.

In some cases, you might want to have more than one drop shipping supplier. This way, if one of them is out of stock, you have one more option.

Getting Trafic in Your Online Store

Getting traffic for a recently launched online store is not that easy in today`s digital economy. On the contrary, it is one of the biggest challenges of drop shipping. Consumers are oversupplied with buying choices. As the giant brick and mortar stores are also taking their businesses online.   You must have clear strategies to bring traffic to your new online store. This requires some thought before you start your business.

The most obvious strategy would be to simply advertise. However, it is probably the most expensive, as well. SEO strategy seems to be a healthy and cheaper alternative to the advertisement.

If you are selling on big e-commerce marketplaces such as Amazon and eBay, you should know your way around them. You should strive to get good seller`s rating and aim for the buy box to get more traffic. But, of course, you would have to have at least some traffic before you get there.

Find New Dropshipping Business Opportunities to Stay Ahead of Competition

Perhaps the most important strategy is to stand out from the crowd and stay ahead of your competition. When there are tons of options for consumer`s to shop online, they should have a reason to visit your online store. You must be able to add some value. You need to be able to come up with certain content strategy. Offering valuable content that engages with your customer.

If you are selling something that you are passionate about and this somehow contributes to society, environment etc., you must be able to portray your store as a social purpose business. Let me clarify with a simple example. Let`s say you have a passion for promoting natural, organic food because it leads people to have healthier lifestyles and organic farming is good for the mother earth. Then, you must set yourself a social mission along with your economic goals. As a seller with a focused social mission, you may inspire a lot of your customers. Having a specific social purpose would be very likely to help your business attract loyal customers.

Too Many Details Might Get Overwhelming

Management of your orders and availability of supplier`s inventory may just get too complicated to deal with as time goes on. You need to make sure that you have the necessary tools to automate order processing.

A good way to begin the automating processes is to use inventory management software. Thanks to inventory management software, you can avoid having to record every purchase order manually. Inventory management software will be able to generate purchase orders whenever inventory levels hit reorder point.

You could also use software such as Filezilla to access supplier`s data through File Transfer Protocol, which saves you a lot of time to receive high-resolution image data.

Check out my previous article on where to look for dropshipping business opportunities.

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