When choosing a dropshipping supplier, you must consider whether they will supply your goods reliably, and on time.
When I started dropshipping, I had many questions when it came to choosing a supplier.
After much trial and error, I’ve learned the most important factors to consider.
Here’s a quick list:
- Decide between manufacturer and wholesaler
- Only consider reliable suppliers
- How much does the supplier charge?
- Consider the supplier’s location
- Check the Supplier’s Fulfilment and Delivery Promises
- Test their goods
- Test the Supplier’s Customer Service
- Ask About the Supplier’s Return Policy
- Other factors to consider when starting a dropshipping business
Keep reading to learn more!
Key Takeaways
- It’s important to partner with a supplier you trust will deliver orders successfully.
- Make sure you are happy with the quality of the supplier’s goods.
- Don’t forget to test the supplier’s customer service and communication.
What to Look For in Dropship Suppliers
Let’s take an in-depth look at what you should consider when choosing a dropshipping partner.
1. Decide Between Manufacturer and Wholesaler
Although most dropshipping businesses rely on listing products from a wholesaler, some dropshipping store owners build relationships directly with the manufacturer.
Wholesalers act as a middlemen, in that they purchase stock from a manufacturer and store it in a warehouse. While it’s easier to arrange a dropshipping service with wholesalers, they will have to charge an overhead to make profit.
The upside of going with a manufacturer is that your profit margin could be wider, or you could potentially price your products lower than your competition, because your costs would be lower.
That said, it can be more difficult to find manufacturers who are willing to dropship for you.
2. Only Consider Reliable Suppliers
When you’ve found a few suppliers that stock the items you want to sell, dig a little bit into their background. How long has this supplier been around? Use a domain checker to assess how long they’ve been online, and if you can, look into their company details.
You may be wondering if all of this is necessary, and the answer is this: yes, if you want your store to be a success. The last thing you want to do is partner up with a supplier only to have them shut shop and disappear just as soon as you start getting your first few customers.
3. How Much Does the Supplier Charge?
Suppliers will stock your goods, keep them on the shelf, pack, package, and deliver them to your customers, so it’s no surprise they’ll keep a chunk of the retail price. But you need to consider the supplier’s wholesale prices because it will ultimately affect how much profit you’ll gain from each sale.
If it’s too expensive, you have two options: price yourself out of the market or accept a very slim profit margin.
Don’t forget that you also need to take into account your other costs, including advertising, web hosting, and eCommerce platform to name just a few.
4. Consider the Supplier’s Location
If your target audience is based in Europe, and you select a supplier in the far East, chances are, it will take longer to deliver your products than if you partnered with a supplier within Europe.
Try to partner with suppliers that are located near, or in the same region as your target audience.
5. Check the Supplier’s Fulfilment and Delivery Promises
I live in a world where I can order a white chocolate mocha Frappuccino on my smartphone and have it delivered to my door within 20 minutes, and so do your customers.
When you’re choosing a supplier, look at their fulfilment and delivery times, and make sure they can get the products to your target customers in a timely manner. This means that, ideally, your supplier should be able to ship orders within 24 hours.
6. Test Their Goods
When you believe you’ve found a good supplier, order some of the products for yourself and test them out. Are you happy with the quality of the goods?
Not only will this process give you the opportunity to assess whether you’re satisfied with the products, but it will also provide you with the perfect opportunity to take photos for your website and social media marketing.
7. Test the Supplier’s Customer Service
If you are going to establish a working partnership with someone, whether it’s for dropshipping or otherwise, then you need to know that they are going to be approachable, polite, and responsive. Give the supplier a call and have a chat. Are they happy to receive your call?
This way, if there are any problems in the future, you’ll know you can call up your supplier and you won’t be met with silence—or worse, bad customer service!
8. Ask About the Supplier’s Return Policy
When it comes to smaller and cheaper products, it’s quite common for you, the store owner, to swallow the cost of an order that’s gone wrong and just send the customer a new product. The reason being: it would cost more to have your customer ship back the original product.
Although, if it was the customer’s fault—for example, they ordered the wrong size or colour—you could ask them to pay, however, this isn’t seen as great customer service, and it won’t encourage your customer to buy again or leave a good review.
Obviously, this isn’t going to work for large and expensive products. For these, you’ll need to talk to your supplier about their returns policy and be clear about whether or not there are any return fees to be aware of.
Other Factors to Consider When Starting a Dropshipping Business
Market Research and Competitor Analysis
When you have a clear idea on what niche you plan to sell in, you should probably take some time to research your chosen market. Look into which products sell best. You could use an app to help you, for example, Dropship will allow you to research all the competitor stores selling the product you’re looking into.
After identifying your competitors, ask yourself how your brand can offer the market more value.
Maybe you can build a more marketable brand of baby products, or perhaps your cosmetics and beauty products will be ethically produced. There’s a real opportunity for eco-friendly and green brands to rise to the top now that buyers are becoming more aware of how their purchases impact the environment.
How to Find Dropshipping Suppliers
Hopefully, you now have a crystal-clear view of what you want to sell, who you want to sell it to, and your brand’s core identity. Great! The next step is to make a list of possible suppliers—the ones that stock the products you want to sell.
You can search Google for wholesalers and dropship suppliers, but you can also look into where your competitors are sourcing their products from. You could also search dropshipping supplier directories, like Dropship Village.
Some of the Best Dropshipping Suppliers
If you’re still not sure who to go with, that’s okay. Here’s a list of tried and tested dropshipping suppliers that many eCommerce stores rely on.
#1 AliExpress
With an inventory of almost 2 million products, AliExpress is one of the biggest players in the dropshipping world. Most of the products listed on AliExpress are sourced from China.
#2 Printful, Inc
Printful is a print-on-demand supplier. You can use their service to create your custom designed and printed t-shirts, hats, phone cases and much, much more.
#3 Doba
Doba has a database of more than 2 million products. They’ve served over 600,000 online dropshipping stores to date.
#4 Worldwide Brands
Worldwide Brands offer dropshippers access to top-quality products, such as those stocked by well-known brands, including JCPenney, Best Buy, and Nordstrom.
Wrapping Up
That just about wraps up my guide on the things you need to consider when choosing a dropshipping supplier. Remember, market research is vital [1] to your store’s success. Use already available tools to research heavily into demand and competition.In particular, Google trends is great for seeing if a product or topic is heavily searched in the regions you’re targeting, and Dropship.io is great for scoping out other stores selling the product you want to sell.
