Dropshipping is an amazing business model that is virtually risk-free and has pretty low costs of operating. However, with the recent turn of events, this business model has proved to be a little more challenging with the pandemic striking worldwide.
Many challenges started arising due to the pandemic, especially since dropshippers do not have control over most of the production process. Dropshipping remains a great business model but how can you make it work in these trying times?
Here are 10 pieces of advice to make your dropshipping business profitable in the age of a pandemic:
1. Intensify marketing efforts
During the pandemic, there were big changes in the habit of the people, more and more customers start to buy products online and a lot of businesses had to shut down their brick and mortar stores since a lot of states were in a hard lockdown, and started migrating to selling online and establishing e-commerce platforms.
That increased competitiveness in this field, but also give chance to online business to increase their sales; especially to that business owner that already know how to sell online and promote their products. Therefore, you should intensify your presence on social and other outreach campaigns. Doing so will help you remain profitable even during a pandemic since it provides a competitive advantage.
2.Understand the constraints faced by the industry
Although selling online seems like the best thing there ever was during the pandemic, it was proven that it could seem challenging. Since travel was put on a halt, some shipping companies also faced major implications on their processes.
At the same time, there might be other constraints on items that could be sold and transported during the hard lockdown. Therefore, understanding all the constraints around your dropshipping business is very important in planning operations.
3. Adjust lead times and delivery dates accordingly
The pandemic had a huge impact on air companies, in fact, the limitation to the personal movement has caused also a decrease in the number of flights. Less flight means less cargo space and this leads to an increase in shipping cost and shipping delays.
These are factors that can not be easily controlled, so the best strategy is to knowledge them and to continuously update your shipping time following the forwarder company notifications.
Confirm that the orders can be fulfilled within the lead times you have advertised if an adjustment is needed. That will help prevent issues and gain you recurring customers, ultimately contributing to the profitability of the business.
4. Choose the products you dropship wisely
As said in the former paragraph, the pandemic has reduced the number of flights and in this way, decrease the available cargo space and increase the shipping costs.
The price of the package is calculated on both weight and volume but in normal time the volumetric price is applied only on huge items. Now due to the limited capability of flight service, the airline companies and forwarders are more and more strict on catching and increase the price of the volumetric parcels.
To run a successful business, then you need to adapt to these new conditions and choose wisely the products you are going to sell. This means choosing products that are not really big in volume and not super heavy, to give you a parameter, try to sell only products under 1 KG and that can enter in a shoebox.
5. Shorten your processing time to get faster deliveries
Due to the pandemic, there have been many shipping delays, so how can you shorten the delivery time for your customers? It is almost impossible to control the shipping time once the package has already left China, what you can do is shorten the time before the package is shipped out: you can reduce the processing time.
In dropshipping, when you receive an order you purchase the product from your supplier, so you have a processing time, when your order I prepared and a shipping time the time that starts when the forwarder company receives the package.
With Yakkyofy, if you buy a little stock of products even 10 or 50 pieces you can get a discount on the product price, keep them in our warehouse in Shenzhen for free and reduce your processing time from 5 to 1 working day.
How it is possible? Because when Yakkyofy receives an order for a product already in our warehouse, we don’t need to wait anymore for the supplier to ship the product to us, but we can ship out the product directly to your customers and in this way shorten your processing time.
6. Assess user spending habits during the pandemic
During the pandemic, some items did not become practical for the everyday use of clients. Therefore, this raised the importance of trying to widen product offerings to match the current market demands.
Some items started selling more than others. For example, cookware, toys, and gym tools, and other items that can be used at home started being more viable. You can assess which one is perfect for the niche you’ve chosen to pursue when establishing the website.
7. Conduct competitor analysis
Assessing the moves made by competitors can help you gain more insights into what may be working much better during the pandemic. Perhaps, if they conducted more in-depth market research that you, there might be patterns, they’ve recognized.
Those patterns might fit in well with the processes you already have in place. Therefore, be sure to check out the competition before making any drastic changes since some helpful insights can be gained from doing so.
8. Ensure that the UI/UX is perfect
The UI/UX of your online storefront should be impeccable. Since customers are spending more time at home, they might start scrutinizing all aspects of the site, whereas, previously, they might have gone over your site in a hurry while rushing to work.
Therefore, now more than before, it is important to improve the UI/UX because customers might spend more time on the online shop. There are many elements to consider but focus more on an interactive and easy-to-use interface without any distractions.
9. Optimize the sales funnel
The sales funnel dictates the customer journey, which ultimately impacts your customer’s experience. To provide a great customer experience, you need to optimize the sales funnel you’ve been using to match the current needs during a pandemic.
For example, you might choose to focus more on social media or ads, depending on where your customers are most likely to originate during the pandemic. Also, consider other elements of the sales funnel, such as minimizing the steps customers take to make a purchase.
10. Impeccable customer service
Positivity in times like these is very important to reassure customers that it is business as usual for yourself. Although things might be hard on you too, do not make your problems those of customers.
You can avoid doing this by shouldering the burden of providing impeccable customer service even if it means inconvenience for yourself.
How to make dropshipping profitable during the Pandemic with Yakkyofy
If you are running a dropshipping business and would like to remain profitable, these nuggets of wisdom can help you keep your head above the water. The pandemic indeed hit almost every industry hard but by following this advice, you can run a profitable business regardless of what is happening. Remember to remain positive at all times and give the best customer service for increased profitability, update continuously your shipping time and to buy stock in advance to reduce processing time.
Of course to do all of this your need a reliable partner to help you out and we at Yakkyofy, are ready to sustain you during this terrible period. We search for your products at B2B prices also private labeled with your logo if needed, we offer customized bags and packages, we update you about the shipping time and we offer free space in our warehouse in Shenzhen to keep your stock, with no hidden costs.
So what are you waiting for?
Do you want to buy a stock to shorten your processing time and you don’t know how to do it. Give a look to this video tutorial here:
Author Bio:
Leon Collier is a college paper writer from the UK, currently working for a leading college essay writing service. Other than essays, he has amazing knowledge in writing thesis and dissertation and shares his wisdom with budding authors and editors through his blog. Follow him on Twitter @LeonCollier12.
