Introduction
Your business is up and running, but things aren’t going quite the way you anticipated. There is nothing more frustrating than waiting for those first orders. Perhaps you have lots of visitors to your store, but your conversion rates are low.
All businesses experience those initial teething problems, and as with any new venture, you don’t know what you don’t know. Let’s look at the most common mistakes new dropshipping stores make and how to resolve them so that your business can produce the results you expect.
Customer experience
Our previous article on how to effectively run your dropshipping store touched on customer experience. Unfortunately, this is one area that many dropshipping stores overlook. We recommend mapping your customer’s journey from the moment they interact with your brand/store until they receive their product. This will help you identify any gaps or bottlenecks and ensure that every touchpoint reflects your brand and commitment to providing a quality service.
Research conducted by the Baymard Institute showed that nearly 70% of online shoppers abandoned their carts in 2021, mainly due to businesses not understanding their customer’s experience. Another interesting statistic to consider is that according to Salesforce, 80% of customers believe that their experience is just as important as the company’s products.
Plotting or mapping your customer’s journey is an invaluable exercise. Hubspot has a great article on creating an effective customer journey map, and you can also download their free customer journey map template.
Customer Service
Many new dropshipping stores make unrealistic promises in order to attract new business. While this may seem like a great marketing strategy, it can turn into a negative experience for your customers. That old adage of under-promising and over-delivering is definitely applicable when it comes to eCommerce.
Delivery expectations
Offering unrealistic delivery times is a perfect example. There are many factors that influence timelines that are out of your control, and unexpected delays can occur. Ensuring that your delivery timelines match those of your suppliers is something that requires investigation, and ensuring that you develop a relationship with your suppliers is key.
You need to establish with your suppliers what is realistic in terms of delivery and rather offer your customers a range that aligns with those deliverables and includes additional time as a safety measure.
Shipping costs
Determining shipping fees is another area that can cause unnecessary headaches and unexpected costs to your bottom line. Most suppliers offer a variety of shipping methods, and you may be tempted to offer these to our customers. Managing more than one shipping method creates additional complexity and opens itself up to errors.
There are two options for charging shipping costs that can be far more effective. You can offer a flat rate that will even out over time or free shipping and adjust your prices to cover those costs. Offering free shipping is also a great marketing strategy – everyone likes getting something for free!
FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)
An FAQ section is often overlooked when starting a new online store and is an invaluable resource for any potential customer. Although most of the information is available on your site, by providing answers to common questions, your FAQ page gives your customers a central location to find all the answers they are looking for, improving their experience.
FAQ pages simplify navigating your site, and you can easily direct your customers to the information they require through internal links. It is preferable to provide concise answers and include links where they can quickly access more detailed information if required.
FAQ pages ensure that your customer’s questions are answered quickly, and you can even use them as a way to create content, for example, a blog post.
Policy management
You may be tempted to copy and use generic policies, but this can be problematic for a number of reasons. Firstly, they may not match your business model; secondly, you may not necessarily be able to honour them – this is specifically applicable if you decide to provide any form of guarantee.
Return policies are another area where you need to be very specific. It is also worthwhile determining whether or not, in some cases, it may be cheaper to provide a refund as opposed to replacing the product.
Products – the foundation of your store
Many new entrants into the dropshipping market make the mistake of selecting a broad range of products as opposed to opting for a specialised segment, as they expect to capture a wider audience and faster growth.
With a specific niche, it is far easier to differentiate yourself, gain credibility and market your product successfully. Businesses providing products or services need to gain an in-depth understanding of their target audience so that they can focus their marketing accordingly.
A specific niche also enables you to narrow down your product research from a range and supplier perspective.
Pricing
When comparing your products to those of your competition, it may be tempting to compete on price. New businesses competing on price will find this unsustainable as your margins will be negatively impacted – your competition is likely to be more established and well-positioned to order larger quantities giving them the upper hand when negotiating prices with suppliers.
Customers don’t only take price into account when ordering products, and a number of factors come into play, especially when it comes to online stores. This takes us back to the customer experience; customers are likely to abandon their carts or not even reach that stage due to the following:
Difficult or complex site navigation – in other words, your site should be simple to navigate, and products should be easily found. No customer is going to waste time searching your site to find a specific product
eCommerce has evolved to become a visual experience. Your customers can’t physically view the product they are interested in and, therefore heavily rely on how you present your product. Providing only one image or a few poor images is immediately going to create doubt around the quality of your product.
Customers often abandon their carts at the last minute due to unexpected costs. Information like shipping costs and how long it will take before they receive the product should always be included upfront.
Quality control
Quality control is critical to any business’s success. It doesn’t matter how incredible your marketing or customer service is; if your products don’t meet your customer’s expectations, you will continuously deal with bad reviews and a continuous stream of refund requests.
The best way to ensure that your products meet the standards you and your customers are expecting is to order the product yourself. We’ve all seen those humourous TikTok clips called “what I ordered versus what I received,” and although they are fun to watch, we all know those aren’t going to be returning customers.
Research - staying ahead
Ongoing research is critical for your dropshipping business. Therefore, you need to stay updated with the latest trends within your market segment to avoid having an outdated product range.
Analytical sales tools will also provide you with important insights into how your site and products are performing and can help direct your strategy going forward.
Competitor research is also invaluable as it helps you benchmark your business and identify areas where you can improve.
Marketing and branding
Your brand represents who you are. Consistent branding across all aspects of your business, including social media platforms, is key to creating a dropshipping store that looks professional and credible.
Another advantage of ordering products you intend to sell is that you can insert your brand’s personality and differentiate your business from the rest of the market. Suppliers send standard pictures, and product descriptions to all of their customers, and most of your competition will use them as is.
Taking your own photographs enables you to present your products in a unique way that is in line with your brand and that your images are consistent across your store. Never underestimate the power of a great image.
The same principle will apply to product descriptions – creating your own product descriptions can be a powerful way to entice your customer. Another advantage of creating your own descriptions is that you can make them more generic, especially if you are using more than one supplier.
Conclusion
You need to think of your dropshipping store as a living and continuously evolving business. A dropshipping business is not static; it is not something that you can set up and leave.
No matter what market segment your business is involved in, there will always be changes from the latest product trends to how you display your products.
But at the end of the day, dropshipping businesses are dependent on customers, and competition is fierce. Our advice when starting your first dropshipping store is to start off small and keep it simple. Identify what works best for your business and prioritise your customer’s needs.
