What do you look for in a dropship supplier?

[teenymunchkins]

Good morning everyone.

I have put wheels into motion for becoming a supplier and dropshipping certain products.  I want to get this right first time and don't want to be launching until I am COMPLETELY sure that I have everything set up properly (I don't want to be seen as some little person who is 'playing' at being a supplier as which is something I have already come across with a conversation I had yesterday)

So, to help me, I am asking you guys for what YOU look for when you are choosing a supplier.  What sways your decision?

I would appreciate lots of input on this 

Thanks all

Alison

[jamhun]

A good dropshipper should hold their own stock and plenty of it.
Keeping their customers well informed as to what is happening to their order.
Good pricing, so as to let their customers make a half decent profit.
Possibly have a minimun retail,  to keep the undercutting sell everything for buttons mob away. (I wish)
There are more but it's stillquite early and I am not fully awake yet.



James

[Gothic Dropshipping]

A good dropshipper should hold their own stock and plenty of it.
Keeping their customers well informed as to what is happening to their order.
Good pricing, so as to let their customers make a half decent profit.
Possibly have a minimun retail,  to keep the undercutting sell everything for buttons mob away. (I wish)

Very good points ^^

Also regularly informing your customer of low/out of stock
Despatching items as quickly as possible

[Forum-Police]

Communication
Stock holding
Decent Pricing
Product knowledge

Things worth considering : To any dropshippers or potential dropshippers out there, the willingness to listen to ideas on range increases and new ideas feeding back through their resellers customers ?

Your customers need to sell, any tools you can give them to aid in that ie. market trends seasonal variations in sales, I've seen a few dropshippers operate in such a way that they really do 'enable' their resellers to make the most of what they have without spewing forth a litany of e-books and meaningless *worth this much* additional reading, nothing beats a real market and product insight.

For instance you have a new reseller, wants to know the best selling 5 items in your range ........ could you tell them ? would you tell them ?

People may possibly disagree and say it is down to the reseller to create their own niche and sales opportunities, and yes i would for the most part agree, knowledge though and I mean real knowledge not figures 'plucked' out of the air is power, especially when it comes to approaching items being sold by countless resellers from a different angle.

Many people disagree with Dropshippers having a retail arm and i can see why in a way as they see it as direct competition but bear in mind if your dropshipper is selling retail as well surely they are too gaining an insight into the market place ?

Nothing beats passion and knowledge of your products whether selling to Joe Public or Other Businesses in my opinion.
 
Just playing Devils Advocate a little and throwing a few ideas into the cauldron.

Nothing beats passion and knowledge of your products whether selling to Joe Public or Other Businesses in my opinion.

[teenymunchkins]

Communication
Stock holding
Decent Pricing
Product knowledge

Things worth considering : To any dropshippers or potential dropshippers out there, the willingness to listen to ideas on range increases and new ideas feeding back through their resellers customers ?

Your customers need to sell, any tools you can give them to aid in that ie. market trends seasonal variations in sales, I've seen a few dropshippers operate in such a way that they really do 'enable' their resellers to make the most of what they have without spewing forth a litany of e-books and meaningless *worth this much* additional reading, nothing beats a real market and product insight.

For instance you have a new reseller, wants to know the best selling 5 items in your range ........ could you tell them ? would you tell them ?

People may possibly disagree and say it is down to the reseller to create their own niche and sales opportunities, and yes i would for the most part agree, knowledge though and I mean real knowledge not figures 'plucked' out of the air is power, especially when it comes to approaching items being sold by countless resellers from a different angle.

Many people disagree with Dropshippers having a retail arm and i can see why in a way as they see it as direct competition but bear in mind if your dropshipper is selling retail as well surely they are too gaining an insight into the market place ?

Nothing beats passion and knowledge of your products whether selling to Joe Public or Other Businesses in my opinion.
 
Just playing Devils Advocate a little and throwing a few ideas into the cauldron.

Nothing beats passion and knowledge of your products whether selling to Joe Public or Other Businesses in my opinion.

I know my products that I will be selling extremely well, and yes I would be able to give details of the top selling products.    I also know the key 'season' for selling these products 

Thanks for the input guys, keep them coming 

[Beautybase]

I agree with the excellent points raised here.

I also agree with Forun-police that it does no harm to have a retail arm to your operation...knowing your market and customers buying trends undoubtedly is a big benefit
As you clearly know your products, market and seasonal trends this is an invaluable asset for you starting off as a supplier.

Of course may other things to consider but top on my agenda would also be clear communication lines..nothing worse than hanging on the end of the line for an hour, or no response to emails

Anyway just a couple of my thoughts so far
 

[Gothic Dropshipping]

Having a retail arm is fine IMO as long as you are selling at your own RRP from the items you dropship, if you become a discount seller it is really unfair to your customers, and I know several dropshippers that do just that, sell at discounts that their customers couldn't compete with, or have their retail arm totally hidden and in someone elses name.

[Beautybase]

Yes thats a good point Micheal

So if I am to understand properly where the dropshipper is exagerating the RRP's giving a false sense of margin to the reseller is that what you mean..but selling at correct RRP on retail site? or even discounted prices

As I have seen this just recently with a couple of dropshippers..

If I didnt read that right I apologise

[Gothic Dropshipping]

Yes thats a good point Micheal

So if I am to understand properly where the dropshipper is exagerating the RRP's giving a false sense of margin to the reseller is that what you mean..but selling at correct RRP on retail site? or even discounted prices

As I have seen this just recently with a couple of dropshippers..

If I didnt read that right I apologise

either or

Some exagerate RRP on their dropship sites to make their customers think they're getting better margins then do their own at the real retail, some do the discount thing, perhaps their dropship service is giving a 25% discount from RRP yet their own 'retail' site is offering 15 or 20% off etc. meaning the dropship customers have no chance of competing.

I know someone has started up doing my lines (after joining me to see how it all worked!) recently and their retail site is discounted to a level that their dropship customers couldn't possibly compete with them.

[Lian B]

I agree with everything said above, but my 3 main things are

good profit margin
fast dispatch
notifications of out of stock products.

Thats all you really need to keep me happy 

A nice looking website is helpful too, but as you know all about zencart im guessing you will probably be using that which is perfect.

[conran]

Quick reply to email
If a customer comes to me asking a question about a product and it's something I don't know from the product data, I want to be able to tell them I can get back to them within a few working hours. So my DS has to be able to get back to me about a product the same day.

No charges to start up
Any real DS worth my time will be willing to help me start up without wanting to charge me to be a seller of their stock. Any DS demanding a sign up fee or admin fee is immediately a no-no. It tells me they make their money from conning people and they have no confidence in either the stock they have, their competitiveness, or their ability to support their associates.

Reasonable stock levels
I don't want to be spending all my time monitoring their site for stock changes and having to remove stock from my site or telling customers that there's a delay on items they've already paid for. Likewise, I want to see new stock relevant to me being added, so that I have something to tell my customers about in newsletters regularly. If they can't add new stock every two weeks or so, I'm out.

Fast delivery
I don't want to be logging in to check the status of orders and find that orders I started at 9am on Monday are still being processed the following morning. If you can't state a fast delivery of just a few working days on your site there's something wrong with your DS and you're loosing sales. People are impatient, and if your orders take a week or two to get to your customers you're not going to survive for long IMO.

Discreet delivery
It might be specifically applied to the nature of my business, but the ability to assure customers that their items will arrive securely packaged and without hints as to what is inside is vital for me. I have seen many sites that neglect this entirely in the adult world, and they are shooting themselves in the foot. If a DS cannot guarantee it to me (and therefore I cannot guarantee it to my customers) I don't bother looking at them again.

[Gothic Dropshipping]

No charges to start up
Any real DS worth my time will be willing to help me start up without wanting to charge me to be a seller of their stock. Any DS demanding a sign up fee or admin fee is immediately a no-no. It tells me they make their money from conning people and they have no confidence in either the stock they have, their competitiveness, or their ability to support their associates.

I couldn't disagree more with that one, I would be the opposite and tend to steer away from those that are free or £5 etc.

Although I am aware of a number of dropshippers that make their bread and butter from sign up fees and don't care if anyone sells anything you can not make a sweeping statement like all dropshippers that charge a fee are conning people. A ridiculous and simply not factual statement.

There are many valid reasons for charging a fee that have been discussed and mentioned many times on forums before so little need in me going over them again.

[Baa]

Equally there are a lot of valid reasons for not charging a fee. 

Personally I think the fee or no fee issue really clouds people's judgement. The quality of goods and service and whether these suit your market should come way before any other consideration.

If market, suitability, goods and service were seriously considered, no one would worry about the question of fees or be put off by no and low fee dropshippers.

I don't get why this is such a major issue or why low and no fee dropshippers are treated as the lowest of the low by suppliers and resellers alike or why resellers balk at the idea of paying a nominal fee if the supplier is honest about why it is charged.

It's a complete non-issue.

[Gothic Dropshipping]

One of the main reasons for a fee for me is simply a large number of people who try to sell will fail, they just don't have what it takes, I often spend hours of my time on each of these individuals hand holding and advising for no return not something a wholesaler will do. It discourages retail customers from just buying direct from the dropshipper (ok you can tell me how you check that members are real trading individuals but that is easily faked or just simply they are new, and in reality most dropshippers don't check)

Also worth holding in mind wholesalers do not offer the assistance and service given from a good dropshipper, we help people start a business and support them not just sell them goods, and lets face it if you're offering real wholesale prices (which again many don't) I think a fee is more than acceptable the customer is getting wholesale pricing without the normal required bulk and minimum orders, granted this isn't very relevant with all the dropshippers that are only giving small discounts like 20% etc as the fee is more than contained in their prices.

In our case for less than £30 a year you get a lot of support, real wholesale prices and free hosting if you wish to take it (real free hosting not some sort of strings attached read the small print scenario) which many dropship companies are charging £70+ a year for.

So it shouldn't necessarily be "a fee is right or wrong" it should be what do you get for your fee.

I think we're all smart enough to know the customer is paying it one way or another, may it be upfront in an obvious subscription fee or contained in the item prices by the dropshippers prices - the dropshipper has to make their profit which ever parts of business income generate it. Lets face it if you're going to make a go of it and sell a lot, in my eyes I would rather pay a small fee per year and make more product sold due to lower item prices.

I think to me what puts me off "no fee" or £5 fees is and I appreciate this is not always the case and will underline I'm not talking about your business which I've heard nothing but good feedback about. With no fee my first thought always has been "new start which is desperate to get customers" that's just my gut feeling when I see it... and the join for £4.99 brigade, I just don't get them, like what's the point, either charge or don't what does £5 do, it certainly doesn't put off retail customers all it can do it encourage lots of people to sign up because it's cheap... perhaps that's the angle lol

[Baa]

And that's what is right for your business.

Clearly you have an entirely different set up to me. There are no time heavy members, no hosting, no forum or helpdesk to man, no live feeds, just plain and simply supply. The contact from members is almost always regarding their order, potential order, stock etc. Very little in the way of help is asked. That is why I don't feel it appropriate for us to charge a fee and far from the £s or even 5p per item some suppliers like to claim all free dropshippers charge, it's nothing like that for us. We simply haven't incurred those costs to date.

Every few months I look at the possibility of charging a fee, situations change so it may be appropriate or beneficial all round to charge a fee ... I'm yet to find a good reason that benefits the customers, so far it would just improve the overall turnover and profit. I'm not comfortable with that, there must be a benefit to the customer. Add to that the fact that I discovered hidden costs to charging a fee ... I have to ask myself is it really worth the extra time and hassle it causes.

Even so, with the keenness of some suppliers (not you) who want to justify fee paid suppliers over free, we very often get smeared in the process and you can imagine how well that goes down here   It's entirely unfair and I don't want to feel pushed into charging a fee just to please this perverse idea that you get better service, goods and knowledge from a fee paid dropshipper ... it's a nonsense.

There is another forum where the newest of the new dropshippers start up, charge an annual and monthly fees, hold 15-30 items of stock and go out of business in a handful of months having not fulfilled their promises from day one. Yet people would rather use those than a free supplier ... it's utterly nuts.