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What to do about the dropshipping delivery time?

What to do about the dropshipping delivery time?

One of the biggest challenges keeping potential entrepreneurs from opening dropshipping stores is the delivery times. ‘How long does dropshipping take?’, one might ask before going to the e-commerce business. However, it is not as daunting as it seems. Thanks to the naysayers, most people believe in the myths and develop the fear of late shipping. 

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How long does dropshipping take?

It’s probably a hard competition for you to beat the 2-day shipping of Amazon. But many dropshippers are building successful stores, even if their AliExpress processing time takes more than 3 weeks.

Based on the knowledge that many dropshippers have shared with me, I am going to debunk those myths and give you life-long tips on how to cut down AliExpress shipping time

Yes, the delivery times of dropshipping stores are longer than that of Amazon. However, it does not stop the customers from approaching dropshippers. If they did stop, Oberlo would not have been popular. 

Tips to cut down the dropshipping delivery time

The delivery time depends on several factors and there are many ways you can cut it down. Let’s consider AliExpress shipping time to demonstrate the situation almost every dropshipper gets in:

Why select e-packet shipping?

The E-packet shipping option aims to make the lives of dropshipping entrepreneurs easier. E-packet shipping allows you to ship products from China to every country in the globe. But why select it over the normal delivery?

Because it is prompt, cheap, and allows you to track all the packages. 

As of 2021, an e-packet is available to a lot of countries. Moreover, an e-packet takes only 12 days to deliver. AliExpress displays a lot of suppliers with the same product. However, the Oberlo Google Chrome Extension helps you shortlist the suppliers that offer e-packet shipping.

Consider the AliExpress processing time

Processing time is usually located at the bottom of each product listing. Processing time is the time when the suppliers fetch the product from AliExpress, wraps it, and prepares it to ship to you. The shorter the processing time the better as the total delivery time equals shipping + processing time. Considering processing time before making a deal with the supplier is essential while cutting down the delivery time.

Check the reviews on the supplier’s page

There’s one way to know how much others waited to get the products from the suppliers: Reviews, reviews, and reviews.

 Like Amazon, AliExpress is a marketplace and people leave reviews and feedback about the supplier’s shipping time, product quality, and customer services. 

Skim & scan through the reviews and look for the words, ‘slow’, ‘quick’, or ‘fast’ to determine the shipping time.

Order a sample product 

One tip to reduce AliExpress shipping time is to order sample products from multiple suppliers and select the one with a quick delivery time. This will definitely balance out the long AliExpress processing time.

This is the only way to validate the total delivery time and ensure that you are importing high-quality products only!

How to have faster AliExpress shipping time 

Let’s say you have a 12-day delivery time for your product. That’s prompt as compared to the average delivery time on AliExpress. But will your customer wait for 2 weeks? As long as the conditions are right, your customer won’t hesitate. However, not all customers are the same. Few will want to have their products delivered fast. 

Therefore, here are some ways to tackle a customer’s hesitation: 

Sell products with no hype 

Look for products that customers do not want immediately. Let’s take a magic pen, for example. Your buyer won’t wake up and decide to buy a magic pen in an emergency unless he has a birthday gift to give. 

Ideally, your target audience would come across your content in the targeted ads and think, ‘Yes, I might need it to prank people’.

If a customer comes to your website with urgency, he is less likely to wait 12 days for the delivery. If the buyer has tunnel vision, he won’t think of anything else except to get the product as quickly as possible. 

Moreover, a magic pen is something that your customers do not need to replenish. As opposed to Bluetooth speakers or protein shakes, they won’t spend an hour looking for other alternatives. Chances are, they will order the product right then and forget about it until it arrives.

Be straightforward about your shipping time

After you have scored a customer, be upfront to them about your product’s quality and the delivery time. A better option is to include the shipping duration tag at the bottom of every product page.

Other than that, create a shipping info page to cater to your customers’ queries. Just get a page template from Oberlo, edit it and reflect your shipping conditions right away. 

Lastly, create a product policy and be clear that there would be no refunds for products if the delivery time is more than 4 weeks. However, you can be lenient in your exchange policy. 

Offer exceptional customer service

Now that you are clear about your delivery times, it is time to take your customer support game to the next level. If you are selling products with long delivery times, you would get queries for sure. It is better to assist the customer than to deal with a nervous and frustrated customer after 3 weeks.

Conclusion

Most of the customers are willing to wait for high-quality products. However, you should play your part as an entrepreneur and cut down the delivery time as much as possible.