Minus the recommended 8 hours of sleep, you only have 16 hours left in a day to grind. That might seem like a lot, but most of us find that it is just not enough to accomplish much. With a plethora of other priorities, you will need an automated dropshipping business to afford a social life, work your main 9-to-5 job, or have time to unwind. Dropshipping automation will also do wonders for your business.
Thus, in this article, we will be discussing why your dropshipping store should be automated, and how you can achieve that feat. Life is short, get more done!
I. What Exactly Is Automated Dropshipping?
A lot of dropshipping businesses are one-man-armies. And you must know first-hand how tough it is, especially when you are just starting out. But thankfully, we live in the 21st century where technology is always available and ready to assist you in every task no matter how trivial.
Essentially, automated dropshipping is the leveraging of technology to automate aspects of the eCommerce business, specifically streamlining time-consuming tasks. Dropshipping stores’ owners can then focus on the main bits: marketing and customer service.
That said, dropshipping automation can also be achieved with outsourcing, albeit more costly. This solution, however, comes with many complications, especially the credibility of contractors or freelancers. Without qualified people, you will be wasting a lot of time on supervision, consequently having less time to take care of your business.
II. Why Choose Automated Dropshipping?
Even though the hustle doesn’t stop, the immense pressure can be alleviated. Rest assured, this process reaps nothing but benefits, which we will be talking about right now.
01. More time on your hand
Time is always running out, and it doesn’t stop for anyone. Running any business requires immense effort in time management. If you are not careful, you won’t have time for yourself and your loved ones. What’s the point of making money if you don’t have the time to spend it?
But running an automated dropshipping business means reducing the responsibilities you have to actively tend to. Technology was made to save time, so you can spend it on what matters. In your free time, you can scale your business faster and be with the people around you.
02. Less cost to worry about
A big eCommerce business has an armada of employees to maintain and run it. Since this article is aimed at freshers, you might find yourself in the opposite position.
You might not have the means to afford such a workforce, but fortunately, technology is a great substitute for freelancers and employees. Online services and tools demand a much lower pay than employees, so you can save money and reinvest in your automated dropshipping business, hijacking its growth.
Hiring should only be a problem when your successful business has grown too big for you to handle it alone.
03. No burnout
When you really think about it, technology is a good friend that helps take off the stress of handling everything alone. When you have learned how to automate dropshipping tasks by delegating them to dropshipping automation software, you won’t have to do everything yourself. It is a lot less straining on the mind when your concerns are not all over the place.
III. How To Achieve An Automated Dropshipping Business
Time for the main course - actionable tips! Below you will find a handful of tips you can apply right away to help kickstart your dropshipping business. We hope you find them useful!
01. Create a dropship website
The storefront is the backbone of every online and brick-and-mortar store alike. Not only is it a fantastic attraction for visitors but it also makes the shopping and selling easier for both you and the customers. Why sell on social media or a popular platform like Amazon when you can have the freedom to design everything?
Building a website from scratch can be difficult, so you should think of using tools to make it easier. We recommend starting your site with Shopify and garnishing it with PageFly - our very own all-in-one store builder. Pick your template of choice, drag and drop a few elements, deploy the necessary add-ons, and you are good to go! There is a free plan for you to try out, so why hesitate?
Build a beautiful dropshipping website with Pagefly.
Even with these tools, there are still so many bullet points to scratch off. But fear not, we have all the materials needed to help you make the most successful automated dropshipping store!
Read more here:
How does Shopify work? A Beginner’s Guide to Start Selling on Shopify
Shopify Landing Page: The Definitive Guide
How To Edit and Customize Thank You Page in 03 Steps
Shopify is a great way to build your online store
02. Automate adding products
If you are handling a variety of profitable products, you should consider dropship automation software to add them to your store. Manually copying the product data from the supplier to your own store is such a time-consuming endeavor. Save time by opting for a dropshipping automation software that lets you one-click import products to your dropshipping store.
Such automation tools will bring all the relevant information to your product page in minutes, including product descriptions, images, shipping details, etc. All you have to do is make a few adjustments here and there to make sure they appear the way you want.
It’s best to learn from experts. Carry out research to see what products are widely trusted by the giants in the dropshipping business line. Of course, Shopify offers such services. There are a handful of ways you can automatically import products like pasting the product’s URL or ID, or bulk import to save extra time, or even scheduling imports so you don’t have to wait around.
A good recommendation for this category is SaleHoo Dropship, which lets you import the best products from AliExpress to your Shopify store in just minutes.
SaleHoo Dropship is a powerful dropshipping automation tool - Source: SaleHoo Dropship.
03. Automate order processing
Once your store is up and running, hopefully, you will get multiple customer orders per day. Of course, don’t waste time manually processing each order. In order to do so, you will need to waltz back and forth between orders, your product page and your supplier’s page, and fill out each form one by one.
Not only does this significantly slow down your business, but it also takes a toll on your mental health. No one likes repetitive stuff.
Find a solution to perform one-click orders. Let the machine take care of the order fulfillment for you. Meanwhile, you can either sit back and watch your products shipped from the supplier to the customer or focus on finding more prospective products to feature on your site.
The best option for order processing? Try Inventory Source, which will provide you with the widest range of functionalities.
Source: SaleHoo Dropship
04. Automate reviews
Social proof is everything in this day and age. With the advent of endless merchants, it is hard for consumers to pick out the best service for themselves. And so naturally, they will look to other consumers to voice their opinions and judge if a product is worth buying.
Thus, customer review is crucial to your eCommerce store design. But how should you carry out automating reviews?
Easy, tweak the settings so 4 and 5-star reviews get featured first and foremost on the product page. Let the add-on of your choice forward bad reviews to you so you can target your weak points and improve the user experience for future visitors.
This leads to another lesson - remind your customers to leave reviews. You should email customers and ask them for a review, increasing your store’s credibility. Of course, this can be automated as well. You can rest assured then that you will never miss out on a wonderful review.
You should get a top-ranked app like Ali Reviews, especially if you import goods from AliExpress. It will help you bulk import reviews from the supplier to your own site, as well as set up automated emails to request reviews. All you need to do is connect your Shopify store to the app, and watch as the magic happens.
05. Automate inventory management
What happens when your supplier runs out of your best-seller? You need to let customers know right away that the item is out of stock, or else you will just get a bunch of unfulfilled orders, reducing your credibility significantly.
Furthermore, what if your suppliers suddenly change the retail price of their products? Should they raise the product price significantly, your profit margin will go downwards in response.
Without monitoring the supplier’s inventory, you will lose both sales and profit.
Thus, you need an automated shortcut to immediately change the status of products on your collection page. Connect your inventory management app to the supplier’s site and set automation triggers every time they run out of an item or change the price. You can either change the status of the unavailable product to “Out of stock” or remove it from your store altogether.
Do pick an add-on that notifies you whenever there is a change in either availability or price. This way, you remain informed and ready to respond whenever.
06. Automate tracking details
Most customers are eager to receive their package, so you will be asked “When will my order arrive?” a lot. Take the burden off your FAQs and customer support, enable automatic order tracking.
This is a great transparency tactic so you don't waste a lot of time checking on each individual order whenever a customer inquires. It also makes your website look a lot more modern, and reduces the awkward interaction that many introverted customers seem to dread.
Create a branded landing page for tracking details and let customers see the shipment’s status on their own. No more flooded customer support emails. And with all the time free from checking and answering, you can focus more on important matters like marketing. This also makes sales happen a lot quicker, ergo significantly faster conversion.
Of course, you can use the aforementioned Inventory Source to solve this hassle.
Related Article: Best Dropshipping Apps To Help Your Business Excel
07. Automate Customer Support
Did you know that 89% of consumers have switched to shopping at another online store after a single poor customer service experience? On the flip side, 86% of online consumers are willing to paymore after a great customer service experience.
There are two main ways to automate customer support for your dropshipping business.
1. Make use of a knowledge base tool to create a digital self-service library of information that allows customers to find answers to their questions or troubleshoot their issues.
- Policies related to how returns as well as refunds are handled
- Frequently asked questions
- Video tutorials that demonstrate how to use a product
- User manuals
2. Use chatbots to help guide customers with things like:
- Completing basic tasks like completing a purchase
- Leading customers to the specific area in your knowledge base where they can find more information related to their query
- Connecting customers to live support for more complicated issues
In automating your dropshipping store’s customer support processes, you’ll not only free up a ton of resources that you can use for other areas of improvement, but you’ll also be able to differentiate your store from other dropshippers due to creating a great customer experience for online shoppers. In turn, this will make for a more profitable dropshipping business.
IV. How To Start Automating Promotion
Even if marketing is a crucial aspect of running an automated dropshipping business, it surprisingly can also be automated. The strategizing is what needs manual labor, not the execution.
01. Send automated emails
eCommerce platforms like Shopify lets you create automatic email drips for free. You can find it all under the “Notifications” section. Everything regarding an order can be followed up with an automatic email.
Your ultimate goal is to convert potential customers to actual buyers. And when you have gathered enough contact information of a prospect, send them a greeting email to welcome them to your ecosystem. If a shopper has opted for your newsletter, do send them promotions and coupons periodically to remind them of your brand.
Moreover, you can send customers an email regarding their order confirmation, canceled orders, refunds, abandoned carts, or even one after their first visit to your site. And for a throwback, in the order confirmation email, include a tracking number and a link to your branded tracking site.
02. Install Facebook Pixel
Advertising your brand on social media, especially the most popular social network is a must. And Facebook has created a wonderful dropshipping automation software to make retargeting as effortless as possible.
The steps to be taken are as simple as can be. You need to install Facebook Pixel on your website, log into Facebook to get your pixel ID before adding it to your Shopify account.
Set up the essential information, pay for ads, and voila, you can now run automated retargeting ads. This add-on knows exactly which visitor added which product to the cart before abandoning it, and consequently runs a retargeting ad to recover it. It also knows which pages your customers are viewing to figure out which relevant products to showcase.
Facebook Pixel will boost your marketing efforts - Source: Disk Trend Magazine
03. Schedule social media posts
Not all of us have the whole week to spare. You need to establish a steady online presence in order to ingrain your brand into web surfers’ minds. But if you don’t have the time to compose, edit and publish new posts every day, you will need to do so in bulk when you are free enough.
There is a myriad of free social media scheduling tools to choose from. Facebook Business itself is a wonderful choice. With such a tool, you can spend your free Saturday devising and scheduling all the posts to be posted next week.
Scheduling Facebook posts is easy - Source: Hootsuite Blog
This helps you maintain a stable routine and fixed hours, and you don’t need to rush posting each day in fear of missing the golden hour.
V. Conclusion
And that was everything you needed to know to acquire an automated dropshipping business. We hope the actionable tips have been useful to your endeavor.
Remember, time is money. And if you want to make money from dropshipping, you need to learn how to use your time effectively. Before you can afford to outsource freelancers and hire employees to sustain your business, you are a one-man-army.
Technology is your friend, let them do repetitive and time-consuming work. Save the grey matter for creative marketing and envisioning the next steps of your business!
