Dropshipping Out of Stock problem

I've been dropshipping for about 4 years now, most of the time with very few problems.
But lately I've been getting a lot of out of stock items from my dropshipping source.

I don't use any automated software programs so after I list all my 200 items for sale,
it's impossible for me to know when my dropshipping source goes out of stock. When they go out of
stock, it usually means every other vendor goes out of stock, too (meaning the manufacturer must
be in production and nobody else has it in stock). So what ends up happening is a lot of people
start looking for the product because it's out of stock everywhere and then they find my ebay listing
and buys it. Then when I go to order it from my dropshipping source, they have it out of stock and
everywhere else, too so I'm stuck with either waiting a few days hoping it comes back in stock
and can proceed to place the order OR I have to contact my buyer and apologize and say it's
on back order and ask if they'd like to either wait a few more days or cancel the order and receive
a refund.

I've heard of some software that can automatically remove my ebay listing or make it out of stock if my dropshipping source suddenly has it out of stock too. But I don't know.

Now another workaround is to try a ship forwarding service. So here's what happens often to me. I have product A listed for sale on ebay. My dropshipping source has a couple warehouses in the USA. One warehouse is for shipping within the US and the other warehouse is for shipping overseas. I get an order from overseas and my dropshipper doesn't have it in stock for overseas but the do have it in stock if shipping to a US address. So I asked them one time, couldn't I just place the order to have it shipped to your other warehouse in the US which does international orders? Then they could just ship my order like normal overseas, but they said no. So I guess I would have to order it to a US forward-shipping / reshipping service, so they can then ship it to my overseas buyer. What reshipping service has pretty good rates for shipping overseas?

Have you tried Auto DS ? Its perfect for this.

Sorry I don't know what Auto DS is. I've heard about automated software that can list for you, adjust prices, and unlist when item is out of stock etc., but I don't know any specifics. I'm assuming it's a paid software. Also, I don't know if this stuff is perfectly legal or okay with Ebay? Would they suspend/ban you if they found out you were using automation software?

oatmeal said:

Sorry I don't know what Auto DS is. I've heard about automated software that can list for you, adjust prices, and unlist when item is out of stock etc., but I don't know any specifics. I'm assuming it's a paid software. Also, I don't know if this stuff is perfectly legal or okay with Ebay? Would they suspend/ban you if they found out you were using automation software?

Click to expand...

Probably "Auto-Dropshipping". Not sure though. Perhaps @DropshipDave can clarify.

@oatmeal yes there is software that can sync stock with your supplier. Some free some paid. Check out shopmaster they have a free plan and you can use eBay as a sales channel

First ,put the image in google image to search
If you still find the product ,then refund

DropshipDave said:

@oatmeal yes there is software that can sync stock with your supplier. Some free some paid. Check out shopmaster they have a free plan and you can use eBay as a sales channel

Click to expand...

A couple questions that I foresee some difficulties in my case:
1) are using these software perfectly legal and safe with ebay? No risk of getting your ebay account suspended if discovered?

2) the place I dropship from has two different warehouses for shipping out their products. One warehouse is for US orders and the other warehouse is for international orders. The problem is it may be in stock for US but maybe out of stock for shipping to say Europe. Will the software being able to still distinguish the difference? It would need to be able to see if the product is in stock for US orders (setting the merchant website to US) AND also be able to see if it is in stock for the 150 other countries they ship to (depending on which country you change the website to, it may be in stock or out of stock regardless of if the item is in stock for US).

My problem is that products are often still in stock for US but when someone from say Austria orders from me, I find out it's out of stock for Austria when I go to checkout, but in stock for US.