On-time delivery is one of the most important functions of a good business. How to avoid late shipment is always the top of mind for many merchants.
Dropshipping exerts a lot of benefits for your business, such as low operating costs and mind-free inventory management. More importantly, you don’t need a complex store system to implement this delivery method. That’s why a large number of merchants choose this approach to get their business off the ground.
However, with all the goodies it brings, there are still some issues dropshippers encounter. Late shipment is one of the most painful issues for eCommerce retailers as it bothers 77% of online businesses.
This blog will explain the root reasons for this problem and propose an effective solution to avoid late shipment.
What causes late shipment?
There are tons of reasons leading to this problem. There can be external effects starting from unpredicted circumstances such as virus outbreak, bad weather, logistics congestion,… which we are unable to control.
At the same time, some internal activities turn out to be the most common reasons why late shipment normally happens.
Lengthy processes with multiple suppliers
Working with multiple suppliers can give you more chances to test more products and identify the market’s demand. However, the truth is, the more suppliers you are working with, the more likely you are to get overwhelmed, with lengthy processes requested by each supplier. For instance, supplier A requires you to use their own in-house system to input order data. Supplier B may ask you to update your order information via emails. They won’t use the same system to record your orders’ data. In such a case, you will definitely need to find an alternative method – manually update data to Google Sheet and report to each supplier.
Time consumption in reporting
Imagining you were selling home kitchen accessories, recently, the number of orders has increased to reach 200 orders/week (30 orders/day). That’s great news!
But a new challenge would arise: you are unable to update the order information to the Google Sheet in real-time because you’re stuck with sales & marketing campaigns, or even your small family stuff. Besides, it may take you up to 10 minutes to update 20 fields (product information, shipping address,…) to a Google Sheet. In total, you will waste more than 3 hours per day just to look at the screen, click on each order, type the details one by one to the Google Sheet. You will definitely lose patience and get super tired to know this will be the main reason the late shipment often happens.
Sudden out-of-stock status from suppliers
You go for a dropshipping model because you don’t have to handle the stock management. That’s one of the advantages of this method, but simultaneously, you will lose control of when the suppliers’ products run out of stock. So what will you do in that case? You will leave the customers there waiting in vain for the package? Or remove the products from the catalog? No matter what you do, this is a real fact you can’t change, which then causes serious late shipments to your end customers.
All of these, when combined, can create an intensive hindrance in the on-time shipment between suppliers and the end-customers.
As a result, dropshippers will face serious outcomes
Negative customer experience
To all businesses, especially dropshipping businesses, late shipment is the most painful issue that causes a headache to the owner, because it will leave a really negative impression on the customers. Customers emotionally bought from you, but are really sensitive if they have to wait 15-30 days for the shipment. As a result, they will definitely abandon your shop and back your competitors. More seriously, they will leave biased reviews about your store. Last but not least, word of mouth can become a great way to make your business fall.
Negative brand image
Long-term reputation is what you aim at, certainly, but after the late shipment causes your customers’ frustration, it will lead to the collapse of your branding image you spent tons of time establishing. No customer trusts you anymore as they are fed up with waiting.
Atom8 Automation to help merchants avoid late shipment in dropshipping
Automation is exactly the powerful means of success to save you from the above complex and discouraging cycle.
Automation helps to unleash you from time-consuming tasks, and even more, completely avoid the late shipment situation. No more customers’ complaints, frustration, negative reviews, angriness, etc. Instead, there will be more happy customers, more positive reviews, and especially higher profit margins and greater opportunities to scale up your business with more diverse products and suppliers.
Auto-sync data to Google Sheet in real-time
As soon as an order is placed, all of its details will be synced immediately to a Google Sheet without any mistakes.
By doing so, you can stay away from this overloading and repetitive process. No need to stay with your computer from morning till midnight just to update orders’ data.
Whether you get 10 orders or 100 orders, they will be synced to Google sheet right away, thanks to the webhook’s utilization between Atom8 Automation systems with the Google Sheet.
Auto-centralize data aligning with each supplier’s file format
Communicating with lots of suppliers with different system formats may cause you overwhelming and exhaustion, but don’t worry. Now you can centralize and manage data under the same Google Sheet page following each supplier’s format.
Now, you can have up to 3 hours per day saved to concentrate on what’s the most important for you. In the meantime, the suppliers can receive the updated information on time to deliver the packages. The late shipment will no longer bog you down.
Auto-update products’ status to pre-order and auto-adjust their stock
With this function, when the stock reaches a low level, the system will auto adjust the products’ status to “Preorder”.
In other words, if normally it takes 6 weeks to restock, now you can prepare for it in just 3 weeks. This way you have multiple times to deliver the product even earlier than expected.
Auto-notify customers about the status of the order
Last but not least, you are serving your customers, so their satisfaction must be your highest priority. It means that your customers should always be informed of their orders’ status. Don’t forget to send auto-notifications to them after 2 or 5 days since the suppliers start to fulfill. By doing so, you are showing that you really care about them.
Add on, how to segment customers for a more successful marketing plan is also what most dropshippers pay attention to. Why don’t you let the Automation tool handle this activity? Then done! You just need to move to the next steps and earn more from returning customers.
