How you supply your products ?

[See you vader]

I have a general drop shipping store on Shopify that gets 100+ orders everyday of many different products. Can I find someone who can take care of this whole shipping and product finding thing ?
How do you experienced Drop Shippers go about this ? I'm tired of having 25 different Aliexpress suppliers replying late and still not finding the products I'm looking for.

Also I keep hearing that you can get an agent or VA to take care of this, what's your take on this ?

Thankies.

 

[umpteen]

I have my own VAs doing these tasks for me. It will save you from all that hassle

 

[See you vader]

I have my own VAs doing these tasks for me. It will save you from all that hassle

So a VA is the solution to my problems ? How do you find a competent and trust worthy VA ? How many do you need ? And how much do you pay them ?

 

[umpteen]

So a VA is the solution to my problems ? How do you find a competent and trust worthy VA ? How many do you need ? And how much do you pay them ?

I believe i found them before at onlinejobs website. Since i'm running 10+ seller stores now, i have 3 VAs working for me fulltime. The rate depends on the VAs demand.
And yes, it's a great relief when i have them working for me. I already have time with other important things needed to be done.

 

[See you vader]

I believe i found them before at onlinejobs website. Since i'm running 10+ seller stores now, i have 3 VAs working for me fulltime. The rate depends on the VAs demand.
And yes, it's a great relief when i have them working for me. I already have time with other important things needed to be done.

That's the plan, I'm thinking of spending my time on things that generate revenue the most, currently the ads.

Any tips for me while I'm hiring a VA for product supply for the first time ?

 

[steroidjoe]

Organize on Excel (or Google Sheets).

Generic example:
Title | URL
Widget | aliexpress./widget

Use ctrl + f (find) next time on the spreadsheet to search for the title to find it

Oberlo is an automation app.

 

[See you vader]

Organize on Excel (or Google Sheets).

Generic example:
Title | URL
Widget | aliexpress./widget

Use ctrl + f (find) next time on the spreadsheet to search for the title to find it

Oberlo is an automation app.

Oberlo takes too long, and I need something fast and reliable. Somtimes I don't even find the products I need on Aliexpress.

 

[steroidjoe]

Oberlo takes too long, and I need something fast and reliable. Somtimes I don't even find the products I need on Aliexpress.

If you have 100+ orders, then you can't find the products, how the hell did you find them in the first place?

I guess solution is list the original url, or get dropshipping agent, but I retired from shopify. Can hire a VA on upwork, etc.

 

[Beats]

It's probably better if you scale a winning product and do volume on it. Focus on building a relationship with a good supplier. That supplier can probably help you source more products down the line if you do good business.

 

[See you vader]

If you have 100+ orders, then you can't find the products, how the hell did you find them in the first place?

I guess solution is list the original url, or get dropshipping agent, but I retired from shopify. Can hire a VA on upwork, etc.

I see more successful drop-shippers have 10 or 20 products on ads at anytime. So I'm wondering, if 2 or 3 products are winning products and they get large orders, and the rest of the 17 products only get a few orders here and there, how do you really go about this ? I mean most suppliers won't have all the products you need, and if they do they're not willing to constantly do low quantity do you know what I mean ?

 

[See you vader]

It's probably better if you scale a winning product and do volume on it. Focus on building a relationship with a good supplier. That supplier can probably help you source more products down the line if you do good business.

Yea..ALL I'm looking for is for a way to just submit all the orders I received to someone and have them take care of everything. I want to worry very little about shipping and sourcing, and have most my time spent on ads and marketing.

 

[dennisyu]

Yea..ALL I'm looking for is for a way to just submit all the orders I received to someone and have them take care of everything. I want to worry very little about shipping and sourcing, and have most my time spent on ads and marketing.

You need a dropship agent and a fulfillment center. Or a service that does both. CJDropshipping.com is one that I can remember off the top of my head. Never tried them as I don't use a sourcing service. Do a google search and you'll find them.

I try to keep the least amount of links in a chain as possible.

 

[See you vader]

You need a dropship agent and a fulfillment center. Or a service that does both. CJDropshipping.com is one that I can remember off the top of my head. Never tried them as I don't use a sourcing service. Do a google search and you'll find them.

I try to keep the least amount of links in a chain as possible.

Can I have a VA to take care of all of that ?

Edit : What do you personally use, if you don't mind ?

 

[dennisyu]

Can I have a VA to take care of all of that ?

Edit : What do you personally use, if you don't mind ?

If you're just looking for someone to source and manage orders online then sure, a VA is all you need.

Personally if I cannot find the item on any of the China sites like Alibaba, 1688, DHgate, etc.. then I don't list it. I want to know where the items are coming from.

So customer places order > I source it > have it sent to fulfillment center > they send it out.

It's not a big deal for me to place the orders because using a fulfillment center all the items are going to the same address. Then all I have to do is export the orders and upload them in my FC dashboard and they take care of the rest.

To free up more time I should probably use a VA as well. I've looked for some on Upwork and Fiverr before, but have yet to hire one.

 

[See you vader]

If you're just looking for someone to source and manage orders online then sure, a VA is all you need.

Personally if I cannot find the item on any of the China sites like Alibaba, 1688, DHgate, etc.. then I don't list it. I want to know where the items are coming from.

So customer places order > I source it > have it sent to fulfillment center > they send it out.

It's not a big deal for me to place the orders because using a fulfillment center all the items are going to the same address. Then all I have to do is export the orders and upload them in my FC dashboard and they take care of the rest.

To free up more time I should probably use a VA as well. I've looked for some on Upwork and Fiverr before, but have yet to hire one.

I was thinking more like hire a VA, send them photos or links of the products I need, and have them find and communicate with the cheapest supplier they can find, and have either the suppliers ship them or send them to a fulfillment center to take care of the rest.

Also do you mind explaining this one : "So customer places order > I source it > have it sent to fulfillment center > they send it out."
Why not just have the supplier ship directly to your customers without sending them to a fulfillment center first ?

Sorry if the question is a bit "noob".

 

[Beats]

Yea..ALL I'm looking for is for a way to just submit all the orders I received to someone and have them take care of everything. I want to worry very little about shipping and sourcing, and have most my time spent on ads and marketing.

Yea and it becomes easier to this when you have a solid relationship with a reliable supplier. Having to order from multiple suppliers becomes a headache real quick. When I was running a drop shipping store I had a product doing volume and my supplier was reliable and fast. I hired a VA and made it easy for him to order through my supplier with Aliexpress. Much easier to find a winning product and do volume until the product is no longer hot. Then rinse and repeat.

 

[See you vader]

Yea and it becomes easier to this when you have a solid relationship with a reliable supplier. Having to order from multiple suppliers becomes a headache real quick. When I was running a drop shipping store I had a product doing volume and my supplier was reliable and fast. I hired a VA and made it easy for him to order through my supplier with Aliexpress. Much easier to find a winning product and do volume until the product is no longer hot. Then rinse and repeat.

That's exactly right!
But my question here is : Can you rely on a VA to find the supplier too, or is it a MUST that you already have a supplier in place and just have the VA take it over from there ?

Also I usually have 1 - 2 winning products with 80% of the orders, and the rest of the 20% is a bunch of random products here and there. Is it normal to send your supplier or the VA dealing with him a bunch of random products to ship ? Just curious how do guys do it.

 

[Beats]

That's exactly right!
But my question here is : Can you rely on a VA to find the supplier too, or is it a MUST that you already have a supplier in place and just have the VA take it over from there ?

Also I usually have 1 - 2 winning products with 80% of the orders, and the rest of the 20% is a bunch of random products here and there. Is it normal to send your supplier or the VA dealing with him a bunch of random products to ship ? Just curious how do guys do it.

You can train a VA to source for suppliers, but this is a higher level skill than just placing orders. It would probably take time to find a good VA that has the ability to think critically. You would also need to pay them more than a typical VA as they would be a higher level employee. A supplier probably won't do a bunch of random products unless you can order enough volume from them. If the random products are just very few they you can use the suppliers that already carry them since you won't be ordering much anyways.

 

[SocialEyez]

Source your winners, than use a fulfillment center, to make sure your customers get an "amazon like" service, that can be a good way to scale if you believe those product are long term and not just a trend.

you can do a little research about 3PL (3rd party logistics)

There are companies that will get involved in all sorts of logistic work, some will also know or have agents abroad, that can help you with sourcing (for a fee obviously)

i am not sure its the most suitable for dropshipping since the nature of having many products and having them replaced, but thats defiantly the way to go with private labels or mono products, to help with branding (next day shipping)

 

[dennisyu]

I was thinking more like hire a VA, send them photos or links of the products I need, and have them find and communicate with the cheapest supplier they can find, and have either the suppliers ship them or send them to a fulfillment center to take care of the rest.

Also do you mind explaining this one : "So customer places order > I source it > have it sent to fulfillment center > they send it out."
Why not just have the supplier ship directly to your customers without sending them to a fulfillment center first ?

Sorry if the question is a bit "noob".

A fulfillment center or a dropship agent can help provide a beter user experience. Better shipping times, better tracking, removing labels, adding labels, using custom packaging or generic packaging...stuff like that. For me, the main thing is better shipping and tracking.

I mean you can have the supplier send the item directly, sure, but ePacket tracking is terrible and the label will be completely in Chinese not to mention the long shipping times.

If i find a good supplier I will have them send it directly sometimes after I ask how they package the item. It also depends on the item and margins. For example if I'm selling a phone case for $9.97 I'm not going to send it to a fulfillment center and then pay $6 for faster shipping. Not unless there is volume there of course.

Better shipping times can also seperate you from your competitors. Just look at Amazon when it comes to that.

But for your sourcing needs, a VA seems like a good soloution. Start with that and then decide if you want the supplier to ship it directly or use a FC.