Our first installment in a multi-part series discussing how to best choose a dropshipping agent. To be clear, EcommOps is not a dropshipping agent. This article is for people who are dropshipping and have not yet hit the volume of orders required to work with EcommOps (50+ orders per day). Many of our clients started out using the dropshipping business model.
When you’re serious about really scaling your dropshipping business and attempting to create a reliable, trustworthy brand, you need to get a dropshipping agent. Unless you have factory negotiating experience and speak fluent Chinese, a dropshipping agent is going to be the key element to start seriously scaling your dropshipping business.
Of course, there are a lot of dropshipping agents to choose from, so what factors do you need to consider when choosing? This is the first in a multi-part post where we’ll take an in-depth look at several factors you should consider when choosing a dropshipping agent. The first major factor we’ll look at is location.
How do dropshipping agents source products?
As a general rule, products are going to be sourced based on balancing quality and pricing. What your dropshipping agent should be doing is finding multiple factories that manufacture your product. They should also be having phone conversations with those factories. If a given agent is unwilling or unable to do that, you need to find an agent who can.
This is one of the many reasons that successful dropshippers pivot to building a supply chain with EcommOps. We are one of the leading private suppliers for ecommerce stores. We speak fluent English and Chinese as well as have significant factory negotiating experience.
How does this compare to AliExpress sellers?
That’s how you can expect dropshipping agents to source products, but how does it compare to sellers that you would find on platforms like AliExpress? The differences are stark, and most sellers on AliExpress…
- Will NOT call factories or have relationships with them.
- Will order products online through Alibaba.
Since AliExpress sellers have little to no control over the production of their product, it is commonplace to have inconsistencies with products as well as long shipping delays.
Where is your agent based out of?
For the vast majority of factories that dropshippers use, you will be looking at two major cities: Shenzen and Yiwu. Shenzen is where most of your complicated products or battery-powered products will come from. The reason for this is most Chinese airports don’t allow batteries to be shipped by plane, but Hong Kong does! It will be important to make sure that any product with a battery is being shipped through Shenzen or you could face significant shipping delays. As for Yiwu, it’s where you’ll find most of your small commodities, like clothing, bags, etc.
Most dropshipping agents will have offices in either one of these cities. So, it’s important to make sure that the dropshipping agent you choose is in the same city as the factory you’ll be using. Why? Because if your factory is in Shenzen but your fulfillment is out of Yiwu, you could be adding 1-3 days of processing on top of your shipping time. The supplier should be as close to the factory as possible, so be sure to ask and make sure this is the case before making significant investments.
Of course, this is where EcommOps has another significant advantage over working with a dropshipping agent. We have offices in both Shenzen and Yiwu. What this means for you is that we can create a customized, streamlined path from factory to customer, no only creating a fantastic customer experience that will have them coming back for more, but also saving you money and increasing your margins due to our market advantage and expertise.
To Be Continued…
Be sure to check back when we took another in-depth look at how to choose a dropshipping agent! If you have reached 50+ orders per day and you’re ready to scale up your business, contact us using our online form and we will quickly get back to you!
