Linking my orders with my supplier

[ConorT@SEV]

Hi folks,

I was wondering if anyone else has had a similar situations...

I drop ship, that's my business. So...

Customer order -> me -> I place order on suppliers website -> supplier sends out

I want this automated to that the customer order goes straight from my website and also to the suppliers, instead of me logging in for every single order and placing it manually; it's OK for the time being but I am planning to expand to need to get this slick. Do I need an API key for this or some sort of software? My supplier is willing to automate it but we need to work out how.

Thanks in advance.
Conor

 

[wayzgoose]

You're asking for trouble. A good percentage of orders received have a query, the wrong address, an incomplete address etc. You need to catch these before sending them off to your supplier or your just going to end up with extra expense.

 

[ConorT@SEV]

You're asking for trouble. A good percentage of orders received have a query, the wrong address, an incomplete address etc. You need to catch these before sending them off to your supplier or your just going to end up with extra expense.

Do they? In the order's we've processed thus far we haven't had one wrong address. An incomplete address is nigh on impossible as the fields have to be filled in otherwise the order won't go through and any queries we just answer with an email or phone call.

 

[GraemeL]

@wayzgoose comment is exactly what I would have said, though most of the problems are from orders placed on Amazon. However, once the address details have been checked on your own system, there is no reason to re-key them in order to send to your supplier. There are a lot of options. Have you simply tried a google on dropshipping software?

Look here :- https://api2cart.com/ecommerce/5-dropshipping-solutions-automate-business-routine/
https://www.ecomdash.com/dropshipping/

G

 

[Mr D]

Hi folks,

I was wondering if anyone else has had a similar situations...

I drop ship, that's my business. So...

Customer order -> me -> I place order on suppliers website -> supplier sends out

I want this automated to that the customer order goes straight from my website and also to the suppliers, instead of me logging in for every single order and placing it manually; it's OK for the time being but I am planning to expand to need to get this slick. Do I need an API key for this or some sort of software? My supplier is willing to automate it but we need to work out how.

Thanks in advance.
Conor

There will be software that can do that for you.
Probably not cheap.

Some dropshippers have hundreds of thousands or millions of products for sale and the computer does it all. From a spare bedroom.

 

[wayzgoose]

any queries we just answer with an email or phone call.

And that's where your main problem will be because a lot of those queries come after the customer has made the order. Then they don't answer the email and the phone goes to voicemail. And there's nothing you can do about it because the order has already gone through to the supplier.

 

[ConorT@SEV]

And that's where your main problem will be because a lot of those queries come after the customer has made the order. Then they don't answer the email and the phone goes to voicemail. And there's nothing you can do about it because the order has already gone through to the supplier.

I have to be honest though we haven't had that yet to be honest. I have a team who handle phone calls and anything they can't answer comes to me so I'll have very little to do with that (hopefully!). I do understand your point though.

 

[antropy]

You're asking for trouble. A good percentage of orders received have a query, the wrong address, an incomplete address etc. You need to catch these before sending them off to your supplier or your just going to end up with extra expense.

It depends what you sell, but the above sounds like terrible advice. "Don't automate because customers might ask questions." No. Answer their questions on your website and automate.

Do I need an API key for this or some sort of software? My supplier is willing to automate it but we need to work out how.

Well it's usually pretty easy but it depends how your supplier wants it automated which will depend on their system. Worst case, even if they don't have a proper technical way to automate it we could create some code that logs in to their system and creates the order in the same way you do, so feel free to get in touch.

 

[ConorT@SEV]

It depends what you sell, but the above sounds like terrible advice. "Don't automate because customers might ask questions." No. Answer their questions on your website and automate.


Well it's usually pretty easy but it depends how your supplier wants it automated which will depend on their system. Worst case, even if they don't have a proper technical way to automate it we could create some code that logs in to their system and creates the order in the same way you do, so feel free to get in touch.

We have a Q&A page and so far we haven't had many queries relating to orders at all, so yes, I agree with you antropy. The whole idea is to automate.

OK, thanks for your offer of advice. I may well be in touch!

Cheers
Conor

 

[antropy]

We have a Q&A page and so far we haven't had many queries relating to orders at all, so yes, I agree with you antropy.

Perfect.

The whole idea is to automate.

Indeed it is.

OK, thanks for your offer of advice. I may well be in touch!

My direct email is [email protected]

Kind regards,
The Antropy Forum Bot
(Just kidding we're not quite that advanced just yet!)

 

[wayzgoose]

@antropy

Each to their own way.

 

[Devcorp]

This really depends on what software you and your supplier are using - presumably you'll have multiple suppliers in the future. So rather than building something specific for these guys a mid term (cheaper) solution could be some cloud intergration tool like IFTTT or Zapier where you get your data exported into say a google doc spreadsheet and then it is transfered over to your supplier who can then import it in whatever method is best for their system. These tools often run on either schedules or triggers (e.g. new record added to the spreadsheet) so if you can automate your exporting bit then you're good and its up to your suppier to handle things on their side.