Every dropshipper needs a marketplace to act as the base for their operations. As a super popular global eCommerce platform, Shopify is an obvious choice. The allure of Shopify’s low overhead, flexibility, and vast reach is enticing, but success hinges on your ability to attract customers and deliver on the promises you’re making to them—and that’s where effective order fulfillment is critical.
Customers expect fast, hassle-free delivery. Calculating shipping costs, providing accurate tracking information and updates, and fulfilling orders at scale are just a few things that must happen seamlessly behind the scenes if you want satisfied, loyal customers. It’s way too easy for operations to go sideways if you aren’t prepared.
With the global dropshipping market projected to reach $2,573 billion within the next ten years, there is a tremendous opportunity for dropshippers to master the many challenges related to order fulfillment. This guide will lay out what to expect when you fulfill orders on Shopify dropshipping and the best strategies for coming out on top.
What is Shopify dropshipping, and how does order fulfillment on Shopify work?
Shopify is an eCommerce platform that merchants can use to build websites, manage orders and payments, track inventory, and handle other critical functions of online selling. With built-in Shopify themes and selling support features, it’s a popular choice for dropshippers.
Because it’s such an easy and low-cost way to launch an eCommerce site, more than 4.6 million online stores are running on Shopify. This figure includes dropshippers, who have the option to fulfill their orders on Shopify manually or automatically:
Manual dropshipping fulfillment
Manual dropshipping fulfillment is a hands-on approach where the seller takes direct responsibility for processing the order, shipping the product, providing Shopify with tracking information, and communicating with suppliers and customers. For a single order, this might involve manually copying the customer’s address and product details from Shopify and pasting them into an email to an AliExpress supplier. However, imagine the time and effort required to replicate this process at scale—hence, manual dropshipping isn’t the most efficient way to go.
Automated dropshipping fulfillment
Automated dropshipping fulfillment uses integrations with third-party solutions and dropshipping apps to automate processing and fulfilling orders. Automation allows you to easily scale your dropshipping business, increasing your order handling volume without a comparable increase in your investment of time and labor. For example, this can include automatic order fulfillment from integrated suppliers, real-time tracking updates sent to customers, and streamlined inventory synchronization. It’s the ideal choice for keen dropshippers looking to scale up.
5 common challenges when you fulfill dropshipping orders on Shopify
1. Supplier reliability and stock issues
Dropshipping operations grind to a halt when suppliers run out of key items. Inventory discrepancies and shipping delays hurt customer trust and satisfaction, and finding alternative suppliers can be difficult.
2. Shipping costs
The costs you pay to ship products can fluctuate unpredictably, requiring frequent price adjustments if you don’t want your profit margins to shrink. The problem is that it’s almost impossible to track supplier pricing and adjust prices manually on source marketplaces like Shopify.
3. Returns and refunds
Handling returns and refunds can be challenging, especially if the supplier has a restrictive return policy. In some cases, you’ll either have to take the loss out of your own profits or risk unhappy customers.
4. Inventory management
Managing inventory levels is a complex process that requires constant monitoring. When your inventory is spread across multiple third-party suppliers, this becomes even more difficult without automated systems designed to handle it.
5. Scalability
The more your dropshipping business grows, the more difficult it becomes to manage a large volume of orders. Without automated dropshipping platforms like Yaballe, keeping up with order fulfillment, repricing, and customer service can become overwhelming.
How to fulfill dropshipping orders on Shopify: 5 steps and best practices
Let’s assume you’ve done all the marketing legwork and lead generation, so you have troves of customers ready to hit the “buy” button. Now, the time has come to follow through with your service.
Whether you’re fulfilling Shopify orders manually or using an automated solution, this guide will highlight some common challenges and provide tips for streamlining your operations.
1. Implement a robust tracking and shipping system
From the moment a customer clicks “place order,” one question is constantly burning in their mind: Where’s my package? Implementing a robust system that manages shipping, tracks deliveries, and allows customers to check the order status at their convenience is the secret to avoiding queries that clog up your customer service inbox.
Manually looking up shipping information, providing it to suppliers, and updating your customers and internal records is a time-consuming process that only becomes more complicated as your business grows. Plus, you might have to think about additional data privacy and processing laws (depending on your region), so a spreadsheet of customer addresses might not cut the mustard in the eyes of access control and cybersecurity regulators.
A better solution is to use a dropshipping automation platform like Yaballe with auto-tracking features that keep customers informed with accurate tracking numbers and delivery information. It’s a straightforward way to automatically communicate with suppliers to transfer and reconcile shipping data.
2. Define shipping prices and policies
Suppliers all have various shipping options and costs that you, the dropshipper, need to cover. It means you have critical choices about how much of those costs you will pass on to the customer and how much you’re willing to let your profit margins absorb them.
Calculating shipping costs is significantly easier with an automated dropshipping platform like Yaballe. For example, it includes an auto-repricer feature that factors in variables like shipping costs to suggest dynamic price adjustments that maintain your profitability within limits that you control. Keep your prices as competitive as possible at all times with higher profit margins—without needing to get your calculator and pen out.
3. Develop a clear return policy
Dropshipping returns can get messy since they involve a third-party supplier as well as the customer. Preparing a clear and detailed return policy ahead of time can save you a lot of headaches and help you determine how accommodating you can afford to be.
Key considerations for a return policy include:
- Timeframe: How many days will you allow for returns after the customer receives the product? Be realistic, considering potential shipping delays.
- Legal terms and conditions: Ensure your policy complies with relevant consumer protection laws in your target markets. Clearly state any non-returnable items or specific conditions for returns (e.g., must be in original packaging).
- Costs related to shipping: Who will bear the cost of return shipping? Will you offer free returns, or will the customer be responsible? Clearly outline this in your policy.
Calculating these costs can get complicated. This challenge presents another way to fulfill orders on Shopify with automated solutions, which can streamline the process and help you align your policies with your suppliers’ policies. You can establish consistent procedures and customer service workflows that will save time, lead to better customer experiences, and keep your costs down. A streamlined return process, even if returns are infrequent, can greatly boost customer trust.
4. Purchase the order from the supplier
Now, we’re past the preparatory phase and starting to fulfill orders on Shopify. This process begins the moment a Shopify notification pings, signaling a new order has been placed by a customer eager to receive their purchase.
Your first action as a dropshipper is to place an order with your supplier through established channels, sending them the customer’s shipping address so they can ship the product directly to the customer.
Accuracy and speed are critical to timely fulfillment and customer satisfaction on Shopify. Any error in the order details sent to the supplier will inevitably lead to customer dissatisfaction, costly returns, and damage to your reputation. Similarly, delays in placing the order with the supplier directly translate to longer delivery times for your customers (a significant pain point in the fast-paced world of ghost commerce).
This process, while seemingly straightforward for a single order, can present major difficulties where scalability is concerned. Imagine handling dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of orders daily—manually transferring each detail to your suppliers becomes a logistical nightmare. Again, an automated dropshipping platform streamlines and automates order fulfillment, so you can handle thousands of orders in a fraction of the time. It’s a must-have strategy if you’re looking to scale your business.
5. Gather customer feedback
Dropshipping on Shopify is a competitive business, and a strong reputation built on customer satisfaction, positive reviews, and repeat buyers can be the foundation for long-term success. It’s important to gather customer feedback, both the positive kind you can highlight as testimonials and the more critical kind that can give you insights into areas where you need to improve.
Manual efforts (such as sending out surveys or asking for reviews) can bear fruit—but again, time and labor become limiting factors, especially when you start scaling your business up.
In this case, automated platforms can offer solutions like auto-messaging, which automatically contacts customers through their preferred channels to confirm orders, provide tracking numbers, send delivery notifications, and request feedback. Auto-messaging can also tie in to email marketing campaigns that alert customers to new product examples and special offers that might entice them back to your Shopify store.
Accelerate and automate order fulfillment with Yaballe
For dropshippers, Shopify is a powerful and flexible platform with a broad reach. In the competitive environment of modern eCommerce, success requires the right approach and the right tools, no matter what marketplace or platform you’re based on. Amazon-to-eBay dropshippers have a powerful resource in Yaballe, a platform designed to streamline your fulfillment processes and give you more time to focus on the big-picture challenges of your business.
Yaballe automates order fulfillment from the first steps, instantly purchasing inventory to fulfill orders as soon as they are received. To ensure maximum efficiency, marketplace compliance, and a speedy delivery to the end customer, Yaballe can place orders through either your Amazon buyer accounts or its own accounts.
Get in touch to see how much better dropshipping can be with Yaballe on your side.
