Dropshipping Customers Complaining

[aboutbieber]

Hey BHW - been lurking for a while, and am finally deciding to get off my ass and contribute (beg for help & advice).
For the past 3 months I've been working on my Shopify drop shipping store. After lots of tweaking my site, funnel, ad copy, etc. I've finally found ads that give me 1.8-2x ROAS.
The only problem is, shipping for the products I'm selling takes 1-2 months to arrive, and often has no tracking depending on which country the customer is from.
So far I've processed 300 orders, and had a bunch of complaints, but only 1 person actually filed a paypal dispute.
I have a series of automatic emails which apologize for the long shipping time, but still have to manually answer lots of emails from customers.
I'm planning on scaling my FB ads within the next couple of days, and am concerned that I'll be swamped with customer complaints, and won't be able to function.

How do people deal with this? Is there any actual risk in ignoring these emails from people? How many actually file complaints with Stripe/Paypal, and how bad is it if they do?

Any advice is much appreciated!

 

[aboutbieber]

Just for the record, I'm not interested in building this into a long term business. I want to cash out as hard I can in the next couple of months, and then watch my site go up in flames.
I'm mainly looking to avoid any legal trouble, or things of that sort.

 

[Fernando Fe]

I would personally be mad if i would order something for "good" price and it takes more than month to arrive. Include better shipping or find better supplier i don't think long-term on that way is good idea tho.

 

[SocialFire]

If your shipping has tracking, great, you can upload tracking details via the dispute and inform the buyers that the item has been dispatched

You can also create a FAQ page on your website which tells users that shipping times may take up to 1-2 months.

It is kind of a dark spot as you would have already shipped the product

two options:
1 - tell them shipping is 1-2 months before they purchase
2 - tell them shipping is 1-2 months after purchase and deal with any disputes by uploading tracking

 

[norhirah]

I had the same problem before,
my main supplier was from china,
rather than giving my costumers idiotic excuses, I started to only buy products from suppliers who ship using epacket..
more details here: https://epacketexpress.com/epacket-shipping-countries-how-long/

 

[NewbieIM]

i would never buy a product that takes 1-2 month to arrive.. its the first thing i look for when i'm buying second to rating.

 

[aboutbieber]

I had the same problem before,
my main supplier was from china,
rather than giving my costumers idiotic excuses, I started to only buy products from suppliers who ship using epacket..

My supplier does offer ePacket, but it costs $3-4 depending on the country. This would destroy my profit margins, so I've been forced to use "Aliexpress Standard Shipping" which is shitty, slow, and has no tracking.

 

[aboutbieber]

i would never buy a product that takes 1-2 month to arrive.. its the first thing i look for when i'm buying second to rating.

I'll make sure not to target you with my Facebook ads

 

[whothefisalex]

My supplier does offer ePacket, but it costs $3-4 depending on the country. This would destroy my profit margins, so I've been forced to use "Aliexpress Standard Shipping" which is shitty, slow, and has no tracking.

Then you should find higher ticket items, where $3-$4 wont make much difference, for the hassle it will save.

Or you make a bulk purchase and ship the items yourself, the only problem with this is you may only be able to ship within your own country to avoid even higher shipping fees.

 

[Billy Batts]

You NEVER ignore emails from clients

 

[Bread]

What are your margins on the product? You could add an extra $2 to the product price, and swallow the $2 cost for e-packet - or charge $4 for shipping and say the product you're selling is $15, you could say $20 free shipping.

I'd say split test the above ideas with your current ad budget and see what happens. If that's unfeasible I'd just scale up as much as possible and see how cost effective it would be to offer a discount on their next order when they complain, or offer a partial refund so you're still making profit.

 

[gentishady]

Hire a VA to reply to the emails and just tell them Shipping will take to 20-30 days due to high demand focus on ads that makes you a profit , or you can buy 500 pieces of that product transfer it to an warehouse you can rent a warehouse there was a website I think for a 500$ a month with 5-6 people that will do the packaging for you and faster shipping hope this helps

 

[GringoMonkey]

If your looking at building a burn site that makes a quick buck your going about it the wrong way. For that you can use all the blackhat tricks under the sun.

But for what you are actually doing you have to run the store properly. Basically buy the product in bulk, store and ship it yourself.

So you need to decide whats more important setting up and running a store properly or making a quick buck and closing down.

That choice determines what you should do next.

 

[aboutbieber]

Then you should find higher ticket items, where $3-$4 wont make much difference, for the hassle it will save.

Or you make a bulk purchase and ship the items yourself, the only problem with this is you may only be able to ship within your own country to avoid even higher shipping fees.

I'm doing F+S, so this isn't an option. I'm not just marketing to the US, so ordering wholesale isn't cost effective either.

You NEVER ignore emails from clients

Good advice, you're most likely right.

What are your margins on the product? You could add an extra $2 to the product price, and swallow the $2 cost for e-packet - or charge $4 for shipping and say the product you're selling is $15, you could say $20 free shipping.

I'd say split test the above ideas with your current ad budget and see what happens. If that's unfeasible I'd just scale up as much as possible and see how cost effective it would be to offer a discount on their next order when they complain, or offer a partial refund so you're still making profit.

$5 per item sold.

Hire a VA to reply to the emails and just tell them Shipping will take to 20-30 days due to high demand focus on ads that makes you a profit , or you can buy 500 pieces of that product transfer it to an warehouse you can rent a warehouse there was a website I think for a 500$ a month with 5-6 people that will do the packaging for you and faster shipping hope this helps

Yeah, I will probably hire a VA at some point. Waking up to a bunch of hate mail every morning isn't a good feeling

If your looking at building a burn site that makes a quick buck your going about it the wrong way. For that you can use all the blackhat tricks under the sun.

But for what you are actually doing you have to run the store properly. Basically buy the product in bulk, store and ship it yourself.

So you need to decide whats more important setting up and running a store properly or making a quick buck and closing down.

That choice determines what you should do next.

This is a burn site, 100%. The main thing that I'm worried about here is getting in trouble with Stripe, or PayPal.
What do you recommend?

 

[Billy Batts]

Good advice, you're most likely right.

I know I'm right for several reasons.

First, how would you like it if something was up with an order that you placed somewhere and trying to find out what's going on and they ignore you?

Secondly, it's all about reputations and once you got a bad reputation on the web you are fucked. Reply fast, don't discuss with clients when they want a refund, just take your losses and move on because maybe that client comes back because you gave great support.

Providing good customer support is one of the most important things, did you read my dropship thread?

 

[Bread]

I think the main factor is OP has $5 profit per item sold

 

[GringoMonkey]

Well you have actually built it like a proper business. In which case your actually best running it as a proper business. Thats a different process, to do that i would not have used shopify or facebook. I would have used amazon fba.

When i have built burn sites i found a high ticket item, i then create demand and get people to register interest. Then when i have sufficent interested users registered, in your case say $50k worth, i launch and mail them all and say product is available for say 1 week at this price. They all pay, you buy and ship in bulk. Then close site down. That process takes about 1-2 months from start to finish.

I travelled and bought a house in cash doing that about 10 years ago!

 

[aboutbieber]

I know I'm right for several reasons.

First, how would you like it if something was up with an order that you placed somewhere and trying to find out what's going on and they ignore you?

Secondly, it's all about reputations and once you got a bad reputation on the web you are fucked. Reply fast, don't discuss with clients when they want a refund, just take your losses and move on because maybe that client comes back because you gave great support.

Providing good customer support is one of the most important things, did you read my dropship thread?

This is churn and burn, I'm not expecting any repeat business.

I think the main factor is OP has $5 profit per item sold

Yep

Well you have actually built it like a proper business. In which case your actually best running it as a proper business. Thats a different process, to do that i would not have used shopify or facebook. I would have used amazon fba.

When i have built burn sites i found a high ticket item, i then create demand and get people to register interest. Then when i have sufficent interested users registered, in your case say $50k worth, i launch and mail them all and say product is available for say 1 week at this price. They all pay, you buy and ship in bulk. Then close site down. That process takes about 1-2 months from start to finish.

I travelled and bought a house in cash doing that about 10 years ago!

Haha, that's actually really clever. It's not really an option with what I'm doing, because I don't have 50k to spend on ads out of pocket, but it's a neat idea nonetheless.

 

[aboutbieber]

I know I'm right for several reasons.

First, how would you like it if something was up with an order that you placed somewhere and trying to find out what's going on and they ignore you?

Secondly, it's all about reputations and once you got a bad reputation on the web you are fucked. Reply fast, don't discuss with clients when they want a refund, just take your losses and move on because maybe that client comes back because you gave great support.

Providing good customer support is one of the most important things, did you read my dropship thread?

And I didn't read your thread - I'll go check it out now.

 

[Billy Batts]

This is churn and burn, I'm not expecting any repeat business.

Ah ok, that Clarifies a lot lol