Fulfill Drop Shipping Orders

What is the turnaround time for fulfilling a drop shipped order?

This will vary based on the quality of the supplier, and their location. Most decent suppliers should be able to process, pack and ship out an order the same-day if it’s received by noon their local time.

How do I get tracking information for orders?

This will also vary by drop shipper. A quality drop shipping wholesaler will provide tracking information via email in plain text or in a specially formatted .CSV or .XML file. Tracking information should be received immediately after the shipment is processed or by the end of the day the order was shipped. Once you receive a tracking number, it’s your responsibility to pass it along to your customer usually through your shopping cart interface.

One mark of a poor drop shipper is delays in sending you order verification and tracking information and/or making you log-in to their website to retrieve tracking numbers.

How do I pay my supplier?

Starting out, a drop shipper requires you to have a credit card on file to pay for orders. When getting a business credit card, make sure you get a Visa or Mastercard as many suppliers won’t accept Discover or American Express.

Once you’ve built up a relationship and track record, you may be given the option of ‘Net 15’ or ‘Net 30’ terms. This means that the supplier will extend you credit, and simply keep track of what you owe. Then, you’ll need to pay them by check within 15 or 30 days.

I have established, multi-year relationships with numerous drop shipping suppliers and still prefer to pay by credit card over ‘Net’ terms. Why? It’s more convenient, I don’t have to write and mail a check, and I can rack up some serious reward points using the right rewards credit cards.   In fact, I was able to accumulate enough rewards to pay for a trip around the world.

Who pays for the shipping costs on orders?

While a drop shipper will usually use their own UPS/FedEx/USPS account to pay for shipping, they’ll pass along the cost to you when billing you for the order. It’s up to you how much to charge your end customer for shipping.

Do orders appear like they came directly from my company?

Yes! This is one of the great things about the drop shipping model. Most drop shippers will put your company’s name and logo on packing slips and invoices, as well as your return address. So it appears like the package was shipped directly from you.

How do returns from customers work?

Most drop shipping companies will have restrictions on what can and can’t be returned. So you’ll need to make sure you clearly communicate (both before the purchase AND before accepting the return from the customer) that it meets these criteria.

Most suppliers will issue you a RA (Return Authorization) number. This unique number will identify the return in their system. Once received, simply pass along this RA number along with the address of the warehouse to your customer.

Once the supplier receives the return, they should send you a notification along with a credit invoice showing that they’ve credited you for the item. Then, you in turn refund the customer who purchased from your store.

Who pays for return shipping on returns?

This will vary from retailer to retailer, but here are the policies I have in place and highly recommend:

For Defective Items: If a customer received a defective item, I feel it’s my business’ responsibility to pay all the associated costs to get them a working product! Some store owners will argue:

We didn’t make the product! It’s not our fault! A defective item is the risk a customer takes for purchasing.”

…but I think that’s a poor way to do business, and provides a very bad experience for your customer.

I recommend paying for the return shipping costs incurred by the customer to send back the item, as well as the costs involved with shipping out a new replacement. In the event the product is very low-value (costs $20 or less), I’ll often ship the customer a free replacement without requiring them to return the old product. This is often easier, faster and cheaper than paying to have a customer return a cheap defective product.

On the bright side, if a product is genuinely defective, most drop shipping wholesalers will pay for the shipping cost of sending out a new item, which means you’ll only need to cover the cost of shipping from the customer to the warehouse.

For Non-Defective Items: If the customer decides to return an item due to incorrect selection – or because they simply changed their mind – they will usually be responsible for paying for return shipping fees. However, if the product was incorrectly advertised or presented on the website, the business should cover return fees if this was the cause of the problem or incompatibility.

Do drop shippers ship internationally?

This varies widely by drop shipper, so you’ll need to check. I would say approximately half of the drop shippers I work with will ship internationally.

International shipments can quickly get expensive, and getting accurate quotes regarding shipping fees, customs and duties for hundreds of countries is complex. It also takes a drop shipper significantly more time to process an international order as there is more paperwork involved. Some will charge an additional fee while others simply won’t bother.

Also, issues with returns and fraud get a bit more complicated with international shipments. If an international customer receives a defective product, getting them a replacement will be significantly more expensive. And the likelihood of fraud and abuse increase with international shipments.

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