Operating a dropshipping business is complicated enough, but what if you had to do it twice? If you've been considering opening a second dropshipping business, you should consider a few things first.
But can you n have multiple dropshipping stores? The answer is yes. Operating multiple dropshipping businesses is not difficult, but it is also not straightforward. You may operate many dropshipping shops, but depending on your circumstances.
This article will correctly point you out and take you through the advantages and drawbacks of opening a second dropshipping shop in this post. Finally, it will demonstrate several tools to help the process go much more smoothly!
Setting up a Multiple Dropshipping Business
Here are the proactive steps to ensure that you are prepared for any availability difficulties, allowing you to change swiftly and with little commercial effect.
Put In Enough Time to Analyze Your Suppliers
By thoroughly evaluating your suppliers before deciding to stock the item, you can eliminate the majority of potential availability difficulties. The ideal situation is to have a primary provider, and then pre-vet backup sources to always have a plan B.
Before selecting a source or a product, do due diligence — chat with your supplier or prospective supplier's sales representative about anticipated availability and fulfillment delays. When selecting backup providers, ensure that the product replacements are almost equivalent to the original so that they may be quickly turned in if necessary.
Locate suppliers that provide a diverse range of items, enabling you to reduce the number of suppliers you need rather than having one for each product you sell. This simplifies the whole management process and eliminates instances of product overlap.
Set and Maintain Proper Communication Channel for Your Customer
One of the most critical things you can do as a dropshipping company owner is maintaining open contact with your clients. Having a dependable customer service setup is essential to a business's success. A good customer service representative may convert a slight delay into a lifelong customer. A poor customer service representative can turn a minor delay into a review nightmare or a lost client.
How? Allow me to illustrate. I recently attempted to purchase something from a well-known brand shop, but the transaction was unsuccessful, and there was no error message on the screen explaining why they would not accept my money.
I contacted their support team to inquire about the situation and was assured that I would receive a response within 24 hours. Twenty-four hours passed. Indeed, it took them three days to respond, which is an eternity in eCommerce terms, and by that time, I had already purchased from their rivals.
Now, I had no difficulty waiting 24 hours for service since I was aware it was what they offered. However, after that 24 hours extended into three days, they lost my transaction and the potential for other sales. Having excellent assistance is critical for sellers that dropship from several providers since the odds of anything 'going wrong' have been increased.
How to Maintain Multiple Dropship Stores
There are two primary problems - or management difficulties - to address when managing many suppliers. These include SKU differences, data sync, and supplier changes.
SKU Differentiation
SKUs enable us to identify a stock item by its color, size, manufacturer, and other characteristics. Each product you sell, whether you are a dropshipper or not, each product you sell needs its own unique SKU. SKU management is one of the most common and costly errors you may make while managing several dropship vendors.
This is because your suppliers are the ones that maintain the inventory and so control the SKU numbers.
To minimize confusion and financial costs associated with getting it incorrect, you'll want to guarantee that each product from each supplier has its unique SKU, even if two vendors offer you the same product. This difference enables you to readily identify the source of that product and ensures that the correct supplier receives the product order.
What is the solution? A simple option is to prefix with the supplier's name. For instance, suppose wholesalers Ben and Jerry offer the same laptop model with the same SKU: SKU356. By adding extra, the supplier's surnames to the SKU, you can assure that it is unique for your online shop business:
- BNSKU356: Notebook of Ben
- JBSKU356: Notebook of Jerry
Why is this critical? Because having distinct SKUs is vital to a dropshipper with a diverse supplier base, as it helps you set up automated routing and guarantee that the appropriate providers fulfill orders.
Data Synchronization for Dropshipping
As an online seller, you must manage not just SKU data but also inventory levels, availability, pricing, and order status. As your online company expands, so will your product list, order volume, and dropship supplier network. Without the appropriate tools to manage and synchronize your data, you will be unable to do this properly.
This is true for merchants who not only work with multiple providers but also sell on different platforms. Without the assistance of software or solutions like our Product Data Management Platform, expanding your firm would be logistically impossible. Automation is the only feasible option.
You must have a single dashboard from which you can monitor and synchronize SKU, price, and availability adjustments across all of your channels, or you will get trapped in a significant administrative loop, leaving you with little time to advertise your shop.
Pros and Cons of Multiple Dropshipping
To help you decide, let's examine the advantages and disadvantages of operating multiple dropshipping shops.
Advantages of Multiple Dropshipping
The first advantage of operating numerous dropshipping businesses is that you can vary your product range and experiment with new areas.
Naturally, this is only an advantage if you operate specialist shops. Dropshipping shops, in general, may already sell almost anything!
The things that niche dropshipping shops may offer are restricted. They cater to a specific demographic of individuals who have similar interests.
Therefore, if you operate a successful exercise niche business but just discovered a cat toy in the pet niche, you may be losing revenue since publishing the cat toy on your workout niche store is not an option.
Having multiple dropshipping stores, you might open a store in the pet niche and immediately begin selling the goods! Having numerous dropshipping shops enables you to generate different sources of revenue.
Assume you've been effectively operating a local dropshipping business in one of the greatest dropshipping nations, Germany.
Your whole shop was built with the express purpose of functioning in Germany. You've chosen the finest payment gateways and suppliers from Europe, and the entire shop is written in German.
However, the shop is doing so well that you're considering expanding into other nations.
It is not always practical to utilize a solution like Langify to simply translate your shop and begin selling globally in this circumstance. In certain instances, it's critical to employ the correct translations, alternative currencies, alternative suppliers, alternative payment methods, or alternative items.
If you manage a one-product business or a specialized store with a single primary product, it might be challenging to recognize when a product will not work and move on.
It's a circumstance in which you're attempting to use every advice possible to make your first dropshipping sale or to become successful. However, it is ineffective.
Disadvantages of Multiple Dropshipping Store
While operating dropshipping shops has several benefits, don't forget about the drawbacks! Many individuals want to operate many dropshipping businesses to increase their chances of success. This may be true, but there are a few disadvantages to consider before starting a dropshipping business.
You're undoubtedly aware that operating a dropshipping business is challenging. It's a lot of effort, even more so if you want to continue business for the long haul. As a result, it demands considerable concentration.
To open a business, you will need to complete several activities, ranging from content creation to branding and marketing.
Conclusion
Managing several dropship providers might seem to be a logistical nightmare, so if a supplier is giving you more trouble than they are worth, it's time to let them go.
For the customer, the ordering procedure reflects on you as a seller and might affect your brand's perception and, therefore, your sales. Having suppliers with poor communication and recurrent availability issues, even if they provide you with the lowest price, can hurt your earning possibilities.
Again, if you're utilizing online platforms, in that case, you can simply modify prices, promotions, and other aspects of your company across all of your sales channels, assuring little interruption to your online business.
