Automation is common in so many industries. So why not use it in dropshipping? It’s a great way to get things done without sacrificing productivity.
But what does this look like in practice? Which tasks are worth automating and which should you just handle yourself?
Instead of automating every single thing on your to-do list, start with the tasks that will save you the most time first. For example, if pricing takes hours out of your day, use repricing automation to save time. Automate high-value, time-intensive tasks first so you get the most bang for your buck.
Check out these 5 examples of dropshipping automation in action to get an idea of what it could look like in your own business.
If you’re selling on Amazon, eBay, your own website, or any of the other countless e-commerce platforms online, you’re likely spending hours a week just on your product listings.
For example, let’s say you’re a fashion brand. You sell several SKUs that come in a variety of sizes and colors. Do you really want to manually update those listings across all of your platforms? That’s going to take forever!
Product listings are a perfect candidate for dropshipping automation. Instead of downloading product information, uploading it, and copy-pasting all day, use a dropshipping solution to automate the process. A good dropshipping solution helps you tap into each supplier’s feed and fully integrate that product data for smoother uploads. Just choose directly from your supplier’s catalog, pick what you want to sell, and the robots handle the rest.
54.7% of online shoppers read more than four reviews before they buy products online. You probably know the importance of reviews, but let’s be honest: it’s a pain and a half asking all of your shoppers to leave a review after their purchase.
Reviews also help you maintain your good reputation on e-commerce marketplaces because they establish you as a trusted seller. If you’re a beauty brand, for example, you need tons of reviews to prove that your products are legit.
Instead of manually emailing dozens of customers every day, use platforms like Jungle Scout or MailChimp instead. Review automation tools will reach out to customers post-purchase, inviting them to leave a review. You can even create logic flows and follow-ups to collect more reviews. Just double-check your message frequency so you don’t harass your shoppers!
As a dropshipper, you spend a lot of time working as the middleman between shoppers and suppliers. Why not eliminate some of that work with automation?
Instead of emailing your suppliers every time you need something, this automation keeps up with dozens of suppliers at once without breaking a sweat.
Find a solution that does Intelligent Order Routing, which chooses the lowest cost possible for in-stock products. That means you’re only ordering from the cheapest vendors possible while ensuring you stay in-stock. That’s a double whammy for profitability and time savings.
Let’s say your dropshipping niche is electronics. The margins are good, but the problem is that prices fluctuate so much in this niche. Unless you want to spend hours a day repricing each product manually, you need automation to pick up the slack.
Prisync helps you do repricing, price checking, price matching, and more automatically. If you’re selling in a competitive niche, this automation makes it much easier to stay profitable across all of your marketplaces.
Out-of-stocks are a no-no for dropshippers. If you’re out of stock, it means you aren’t selling—and it also means you’re losing customers. Small dropshippers rely on Excel sheets to manage their inventory, but once you start selling on multiple platforms and deal with dozens of vendors, DIY systems like this just aren’t sustainable.
Find a dropshipping automation solution that handles all of the inventory updates on your behalf. Make sure the platform synchronizes your inventory across all vendors automatically. Run it either on-demand or automatically. Make sure it tracks stock quantities and unit costs for each vendor so you pick the best, most profitable option possible.
Of course, these 5 ideas are just the beginning. Technology is getting better every day, and that’s shaping the future of dropshipping automation. In fact, thanks in part to automation, the dropshipping industry is growing by 7.9% every year—it will be worth trillions of dollars by 2027.
We predict that dropshipping automation will change in so many ways by 2027. After peering into our crystal ball, we anticipate these 4 changes to come soon in the world of dropshipping automation.
We can’t know for sure what the future holds for dropshipping automation, but one thing is clear: it’s the future of our industry. Human labor will always have a place in dropshipping, but in the future, automation will make it much easier for smaller dropshippers to dominate the market.
Sure, you should still hire humans for things like customer service, accounting, or marketing, but in many cases, you can substantially reduce your dropshipping workload with automation. These 5 dropshipping automation are a great place to start, but you have to use them carefully. The best automation solve valuable problems, save time, and give your shoppers a better experience.
Dropshipping isn’t just about finding customers, though. It’s how you operate on the back end and how that translates into the shopper experience. Ditch the manual tasks and reduce overwhelm with smart automation that make e-commerce more profitable.