Drop Shipping orders and product inventory from multiple suppliers

[ccn2623]

Hello,

I have a question for the drop shipping community which i have been trying to resolve or come up with an idea a some time.

For example, I use 4 separate suppliers for various products types on my store.

My first problem is formatting the supplier product files, and uploading each one individually, each supplier has different import fields, I have to work out which categories fit, and then there is the ongoing maintenance of the product stock status etc.

My second problem is if a customer places an order and the order comprises of products from multiple suppliers, i have to sometimes cover a low order fee, and multiple shipping costs.

So I was wondering how other drop shippers get around this small but annoying problem? Are there any suggested apps or tools for importing multiple supplier files making it easier to manage, and how do others get around multiple supplier postage costs.

The obvious answer is to use one supplier, but that will restrict me. Or build an API but I do not have the knowlege or budget.


Thanks in advance
Chris

 

[fisicx]

if you don’t have the skills or budget for an API you are stuck with doing it manually. And the P&P costs could possibly be reduced using a fulfilment centre but this will invariably mean longer lead times.

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

My first problem is formatting the supplier product files, and uploading each one individually,

You could probably automate this.

f a customer places an order and the order comprises of products from multiple suppliers, i have to sometimes cover a low order fee, and multiple shipping costs.

You need to accommodate that in your selling prices.

 

[AmazonGeek]

You could probably automate this.

Easy enough with a macro. If the process is the same each time you can record a macro on a spreadsheet. Then each time you want to run the process you copy and paste the data into the macro sheet, hit a shortcut (like control and M) and the macro would rerun all of the steps you recorded on the new data. Just make sure you don't overwrite it! We used to do this a lot and always had a backup copy.

 

[antropy]

So I was wondering how other drop shippers get around this small but annoying problem? Are there any suggested apps or tools for importing multiple supplier files making it easier to manage, and how do others get around multiple supplier postage costs.

There are solutions like Inventory Source which is a library of dropship suppliers you can browse, you can browse all of their product catalogues, and then you can get whatever products from any of their suppliers you want automatically synced to your store, orders on your sites are then automatically send to the supplier.

We recently built their official OpenCart connector (because we used them on our own dropship sites first) and here it is: https://www.opencart.com/index.php?route=marketplace/extension/info&extension_id=45706

Paul.