How To Handle Dropship Orders

Every small businessperson who sells items online has probably considered having a company dropship their items for them in order to save on costs and time. A company that will dropship the items will save the small business owner from the expense of stocking, storing, packaging and mailing the items.

When considering using this service, many small business owners wonder how to handle the sales and whether they must tell their customers that the items are being dropshipped. They may also wonder how common it is to have a sold item become out of stock. These questions often keep a business owner from getting the benefits that a dropshipping company can provide to them.

In most cases, there is no need to ever let a customer know that the item is being dropshipped. Companies that dropship merchandise are usually sensitive to the wishes of small businesspeople and take some precautions against letting the customer know how the sale was arranged. This may be done so that the customer doesn’t find out who the supplier of the item is, or it may be done because some buyers may not want to buy items that are not stocked and shipped directly by the seller.

Some dropship companies will disguise the nature of their business on the packaging, giving a generic business name or just an address. Other companies will work with the small business to make it look as if the business shipped the item. This can be done by printing the small business name on the packaging materials instead of the name of the dropship company. This provides a professional image for the small business as well as disguising the full nature of the transaction.

When a seller is selling items through eBay or another third-party seller, the rules will vary from site to site. eBay does not require that the seller disclose that the item will be dropshipped unless it will be a month or more until the item can be shipped.

Another question that many people have is whether the incidence of items being out of stock is high enough to make dropshipping problematic. In general, a very small amount of items that are out of stock at any one time is to be expected in any industry. Wholesale sellers, retail sellers and dropshippers all have this issue come up from time to time. There is no evidence that the instances of having items out of stock is any higher with dropship companies than it is with any other type of company. In some cases, an item being out of stock may only mean that the shipment of the item is delayed by a few days to a week. The delay is not significant enough to inform the buyer about the problem.

When an item is out of stock for a long period, the seller may offer the buyer the option of cancelling the sale or of waiting a little longer to receive the item. In either case, the small business owner has options for keeping customers happy and continuing to make sales.