How to Become a Dropshipping Supplier: 10 Values of A Reliable Supplier

Those on the way to become a dropshipping supplier/find a reliable one, read this article now to get 10 important traits of the suppliers recommended by Shopify experts!

Many of you are appeased by the idea of launching an online store for dropshipping with less capital, a wide range of product selections, no upfront inventory costs, and shipping logistics.

Those are all true, however, you should never start without finding the best dropshipping suppliers. Otherwise, you might have to suffer from scam suppliers who deliver late shipments, bad customer support, or even no order fulfillment at all. Eventually, your customers get upset and request a refund, meaning that all your time and effort go in vain.

Lucky you, we’ve written this dropshipping tutorial to reveal to you 10 must-have characteristics of becoming a dropshipping supplier to help you choose the right one!

How to Become A Reliable Dropshipping Supplier

Listed on reliable dropshipping apps

Dropshipping apps offer a wide range of verified suppliers from all over the world to be at your fingertips, which is extremely convenient and helpful. Said like some folks, you can start a dropshipping business tomorrow with a Shopify store and an Oberlo app installed!

Nonetheless, it is not that easy.

The apps are helpful, but the information in those apps is not enough to determine the reliability of one dropshipping business. For example, they hardly have such important data about the suppliers: Shipment preference, order policies, after-sale services, etc.

Thus, the dropshipping apps like Orbelo, Spocket, or Modalyst, Syncee etc. should only be the first reference. Better to find the suppliers who are listed in various apps.

Having verified information on Search Engines

There are many things around how to become a dropshipping supplier, one of them is to verify information on Search engines. When you have a list of potential suppliers picked up from common dropshipping apps, take your time to research about those suppliers on other sources, for example, Google or Bing.

Simply enough, enter the names of suppliers to find out as much as possible about them: website, history, customer reviews, policies, etc. Moreover, a reliable wholesale/dropshipping supplier should have a Google Business Listing.

>>> Top 15+ Best Shopify SEO Apps To Boost Ranking & Traffic

Being a true supplier, not a middleman

Now, let’s get insight into some key factors to become a dropshipping supplier.

Make sure that they are the manufacturers of products instead of the middlemen who import products from others. For example, a supplier likely to manufacture a wide variety of different products is mostly likely a trading company or vendor, not a factory.

This is very important because you know those suppliers can always control the product inventory, prices, customer services, etc. Meanwhile, pretend suppliers are a common fraud in ecommerce, in general, and dropshipping, in particular. To be exact, you are also a pretend supplier who makes your customers believe that they are buying from you!

Featuring realistic information

Once you can confirm that the potential dropshipping suppliers truly exist, spend more time investigating the information on their website.

Keep in my the following checklists for how to become a dropshipping supplier:

• About us: It is a good spot to know about businesses, especially their main products and their experience on the market. Some often determine their business scale there.
• Contact details: The least details to expect include email(s), address(es), phone number(s), and a contact form.
• Customer feedback: The reviews on the website are somehow almost all positives. Still, you can take some time to read all the feedback to find out whether it is from a genius customer.
• Policies and conditions pages: Online customers often skip this valuable information. However, you should not do so because you are about to become their partner rather than a common buyer.

Checking practical feedbacks on multiple platforms

Not only must you read customers’ reviews and testimonials on the website, but you should also search for the name of the suppliers’ website with the tag “review”, “fake” or “scam”.

Read as much feedback as possible and keep in mind that negative reviews might be more valuable than positive ones.

Delivering a responsive communication

Can you reach people in charge of an issue via contact details (email, phone, address, etc.)?

If yes, then congratulate you that the business is likely to have good customer support who is available when you need them. If not, you had better go for another dropshipping supplier.

This is very important to know that the suppliers can back you up when it is related to customers’ problems.

Expertise in products and your target market

It makes sense that the dropshipping suppliers who manufacture the products should be familiar with common quality issues.

Thus, try contacting them and ask about products as if you are a real customer. Even better, place an order to experience the customer service to figure out whether those suppliers fix problems proactively.

>>> The Art of Shopify Customer Service and Best Outsource Services

Delivering the shipment in time

One of the most-concerned things about how to become a dropshipping supplier, the shipment in time is truly a key factor. If the suppliers make a late shipment, it could cause customers to get frustrated and request a refund. Then, all of your dropshipping efforts go in vain. For that reason, make sure that the suppliers have a clear shipping policy and make the shipment on time.

How to check?

Simply, place an order and wait for the shipment!

Having many products available at a time

• The product quality: checked!
• On-time delivery: checked!
• Good customer services and policies: checked!

Then, you can almost choose the suppliers. Just two more steps.

First, check the product availability on their websites. It is ideal that the products are almost never stock-out or at least back-in-stock in a matter of days. This is to ensure that customers can always place an order when they like and have the products shipped to their houses in a short time.

Opening to the pricing quote

This is a common mistake of those finding the suppliers on the apps rather than contacting the suppliers on their own. Then, they try to place a very high price on the customers’ side and have no orders in the end. You shouldn’t make that mistake!

In fact, you can deal with the dropshipping suppliers and set up a suitable customer sales price.

Choose a responsive supplier who you can contact and request to become one of their partners to get favorable prices. And, the best practice is to pay your bills on time and build a long-term relationship with them.

Conclusion

Finding/Being a dropshipping supplier can be one of the toughest, yet it contributes significantly to your success in dropshipping. None of the factors above can determine the trustworthiness of the suppliers on its own. You will have to take time and consider as much information as possible: profile statistics, communication, willingness to work with you, price and product quality are all important boxes.

We hope that from all the useful advice above about how to become a dropshipping supplier, you can already find a reliable dropshipping supplier and are ready to sell products to customers!