We all have the same 24 hours in a day, but it still never feels enough. Whether you’re a business owner or a drop shipper, the hours you put in your work counts. There was a time when physical stores were the real deal. With a market size valued at USD 102.2 billion(2018), dropshipping is the new talk of the town.
With the constant rush of inventory management, marketing, packaging, and managing all the stress with the same—dropshipping isn’t that specific business.
That’s where the automation part comes in. Different dropshipping agents like HyperSKU enable you to streamline dropshipping processes, fulfill orders on time, and manage your inventory like a pro!
What is Dropshipping Automation?
Dropshipping automation is the way to handle daily mundane tasks without any human labor. For example, e-commerce tasks, such as product listing updates, supplier order notifications, and order tracking.
According to Entrepreneur, nearly 80 percent of internet users will make at least one purchase online during the year (2019). This shows the competition in the online business landscape and provides a reason to use automation and stay ahead in this game.
Benefits of Dropshipping Automation
Why should you even introduce automation in your business model? Here are few good reasons to do so:
- Time-Saving
Time is the soul of your business. As per Inc, business owners and executives often waste 21.8 hours a week on things that don’t matter.
Marketing automation works as an asset for your business. It automates processes that don’t need your attention and focuses on strategies that can help you scale and thrive in the market.
- Top-Notch Customer Service
When you deliver your orders at the right time, with the best quality—your customers will receive an excellent first impression.
But things can get really complicated sometimes.
To avoid this ambiguity, automate orders, deliver messages at the right time, and other documents to make the process smooth and easy for your consumers.
- Order Automation
Working day and night will help you grow your brand name, only if you’re working on the right things. Order automation is one of them. This automation tool has an intelligent algorithm that helps to auto-route your orders. In terms of profit margin, it speeds up the delivery process.
This automation system is best for tracking details once the order is shipped to keep your supplier in the loop.
- Managing Sales
Money is a big part of your business. You want to replace the last defective product, want to approach a new customer, or check the previous month’s sales; automation optimizes all your actions.
It tracks all your pending bills, sales records and is accessible to you.
This way, you will end up spending your cents on services that matter. Simple!
What Dropshipping Processes Can You Automate?
We often face multiple issues while starting anything fresh, whether it’s about the cost to start any business or to scale it for sustenance and profit.
Sometimes, these confusions can add unnecessary complications to your business model.
Automating tedious tasks that can help you achieve these goals will help you to move forward without any trouble.
Here’s how you can automate your dropshipping process:
- Order Fulfillment & Tracking
Remember, the goal of a dropshipping business is to create an infrastructure that helps you maximize sales. This can be attained with automated software to track details and the shipping process.
It’s always better to send all the tracking details and information upfront to your consumers, so they don’t have to wait for the same.
- Add/Search Product
Adding products is relatively slow; even if you are new to dropshipping, you know the drill.
But imagine automating all the tedious tasks from finding the product to checking the description and uploading it to your platform, guided by software; sounds relieving, right?
This will help you revamp the process of sales and also have some free time in your hand.
- Product Pricing
There are various price automation tools with clever yet straightforward pricing strategies. You can use tools like Oberlo or Sniffie to set strategies, automate campaigns and create pricing optimization processes.
The software will automatically price a product based on your revenue and profit.
- Automated Email Responders
This valuable tool is used to remind your customers that you’re there for them always. The automated email responders send a quick series of emails to your subscriber list.
The automation process makes it easy to send promotional, welcome, or any product launch email—an effortless way to leverage your pre-existing audience.
- Prioritize/ Forward Orders to Suppliers Automatically
If you’re not automating this task, then chances are, you’re receiving the wrong advice for your dropshipping business. Often drop shippers work with different suppliers. The more suppliers you use, the more products you can sell.
But the problem here is management.
Fortunately, computers never get overwhelmed. You can automate this process by prioritizing suppliers. It allows you to opt and recognize which supplier fulfills which product.
- Use Inventory Management Software Tools
Accurate inventory management is crucial for every drop shipper. With automation software, you can directly connect to all your suppliers and sync product data, their price, and check the availability of products for future sales.
This way, you can avoid situations where you run out of any product. This way, you can keep your seller rating high and save your precious time.
Closing thoughts
With a whopping amount of 44.5 %, as estimated by Forbes, the ease of online shopping is still on the rise and will continue to be.
But now, it’s more than just a website or product; it’s about blending technology with automation that can help you set your dropshipping business on auto-pilot.
Ultimately, it will serve your audience better and help you grow your business effortlessly.
Efrat Vulfsons is the Co-Founder of PR Soprano and a data-driven marketing enthusiast, parallel to her soprano opera singing career. Efrat holds a B.F.A from the Jerusalem Music Academy in Opera Performance.
Dropshipping stock photo by Novikov Aleksey/Shutterstock
