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Holiday Tips Part 2 : What Product Selection Sells Best During Holiday Season?

This is Part 2 of our series on Holiday Tips. To start from the beginning, read our first article here.

Christmas is fast approaching, and many retailers are already on the countdown to final product assortment. As a well-organized e-commerce merchant, you’re also looking to jump on the assortment planning bandwagon. However, the challenge for most retailers lies in determining what products to select for their holiday e-commerce assortments.

Essentially, product selection is at the core of holiday selling success or failure. Those who get it wrong often face the following consequences:

  • Deadstock: Items that don’t move are a direct cost to your business.
  • Lost opportunity: By having the wrong item in your holiday product mix, you lose the opportunity to move your company forward.
  • Additional workload: With the wrong product stocked, you have delayed getting the right one and created extra work for yourself and your team.

So how do you ensure your product selection is well-suited for the holiday season? Here are some helpful tips:

Pay Close Attention to Amazon & eBay

Start studying the product selection of Amazon and eBay to get an idea of what product mix does best during the holidays. We’ve found, time and again, that the hot selling products for the big guys will also be the hot selling products for smaller e-commerce stores.

For instance, if you open up Amazon, you’ll see holiday specific sections on the homepage. At this time of writing, here’s what the homepage looks like:

 

Clicking on one of the icons under explore “Explore Holiday” will take you to the relevant webpage for that product or deal category. For instance, if you click on Holiday Toy List and view the top 100 toys, here’s what you get to see:

 

 

 

See What Products Won Last Year’s Holiday Season

Why look at last year’s holiday winners in 2017? Well, there’s a good chance that a major portion of holiday shoppers weren’t able to get their hands on last year’s hot sellers due to budget constraints and they don’t want to miss out this time around. Therefore, including last year’s holiday best sellers in your product selection could bring you a plethora of benefits.

The easiest way to find last year’s winners is by conducting a search on Google. Try the following search strings:

  • Holiday products
  • 2016 holiday products
  • Holiday hot sellers
  • 2016 holiday hot sellers
  • Amazon hot sellers 2016
  • Best sellers holidays 2016
  • Christmas best sellers
  • Christmas best sellers 2016

Each of these strings will present you with an informative list of last year’s hot sellers. For instance, if you search “2016 holiday products,” you see the following:

 

A lot of results reveal what holiday shoppers were splurging the cash on in 2016. For instance, one of the results showcases a list of products that sold well on Amazon.

 

That’s a lot of items from different categories to add for your product selection.

Research Pinterest & Instagram

Pinterest has its own search engine, while Instagram is big on hashtags. You can use these functions to discover and select new products.

On Pinterest, try search strings similar to the ones recommended in the previous section. For instance, if you search “holiday products,” you get to see the pins posted by other retail outlets.

Most of these pins are about holiday items. You can even check the original source (website) to see if there’s a supplier you could get in touch with.

In addition, you can search Pinterest boards for product selection ideas. A board is where people curate ideas on the theme of the board.

For holiday product selection, board contributors will likely post about products that people have or could have a knack for.

It’s worth mentioning that most products displayed on Pinterest are DIY. However, you can still find suppliers for such products on sites like Wish.com. There’s also the option of private label (where you make the product yourself), but sourcing seems more viable if you’re short on time.

On Instagram, you can leverage hashtags. Enter hashtags in the search bar to find and select products. Hashtags like #holidaypresents #holidaygifts and #christmaspresents should give you a wide range of results.

Of course, select items that meet your core customers’ needs so that your product selection generates revenue during holidays as well as post holidays.

Use Google Trends to Vet Products

Doing demand-related research helps you go deep into the viability of items, as well as explore if there’s a demand for items that sold well over the summer.

Google Trends is a tool you could use to see how frequently your potential product selection has been searched for in a specific period of item, ideally from October to December. This will let you know whether people are looking forward to seeing it retail or if it is on its way out.

For instance, if you are considering a trendy fitness accessory for your product selection, you could compare consumer interest in Apple Watch series 3 and Garmin Fenix 5X.

 

Based on this comparison, Apple Watch series 3 is trending much more highly than Garmin Fenix 5x and has had experienced major spikes in the past few weeks, especially around Black Friday and Cyber Monday. As a result, this would be the right product selection for your holiday season assortment.

If you have an account with Google Adwords, you can also leverage Google’s Keyword Planner tool to analyze products’ current and predicted demand using keyword research.

Narrow Down Your Options

At this point you might have a few product selection ideas. It’s a best practice to run these ideas through a standard set of guidelines that top retailers use to narrow down their assortment. While these guidelines aren’t strict, they go a long way in minimizing business risk.

See if the products are:

  • Easy to ship
  • Lightweight
  • Small in dimensions
  • Seasonal
  • In a stable or growing market

The general perspective is that the best product selection should have some moving parts, fit in the smallest of boxes, and sell for $200-$1000 with a profit margin of at least 30-40%.

Other than that, check if the product can be sourced easily. The final seal of approval requires the product to be easily available to source. Make a list of the products you’re planning to sell, and check their availability with local vendors.

In addition, check if the items could be dropshipped if you want to avoid storage and shipping hassles. Modalyst, for instance, allows merchants to sell millions of products without the financial risk of buying inventory upfront.

 

 

 

You can choose to source directly from Wish.com with their new Chrome Extension or from their vetted marketplace of independent brands. Their Shopify / BigCommerce app allows for one-click sourcing so within minutes (and no cost!) you can have a fantastic assortment of holiday items up on your store.

Final Thoughts

Evolving consumer preferences combined with the dominance of big players like Alibaba and Amazon have forced merchants to evolve. Smart ones are driving more sales and enhancing customer loyalty with a wider product mix using dropshipping. However, it’s crucial to not just expand your assortment, but expand it intelligently. Use the tips mentioned above to get your holiday product selection spot on and enjoy a season of festivities… and high profits.

 

 

 

Holiday Tips Part 1 : What Should Your Pricing Strategy Be for the Holidays?

This is Part 1 in our new series on ways to prepare your online business for the Holidays.

It’s practically tradition for the holiday season to mean great deals, starting with Black Friday through to the classic after-Christmas and New Year’s clearance sales.

According to Deloitte’s 2017 holiday survey, these sales have become so reliable that 44% of participants said that they wait for holiday sales to make big-ticket purchases, and 42% said that they only purchase sale items when holiday shopping because they know that their desired items will eventually go on sale.

These holiday promotions can often be a win-win for businesses and their customers. They help clear out old inventory and generate spikes in revenue as the year comes to a close. On the other hand, they can also put businesses in a risky “race to the bottom” to beat out their competitors and win over customers, ultimately resulting in low profit margins that small businesses may not be able to afford.

Before choosing a holiday pricing strategy, it’s important to take a 360-degree view of your business and the competitive landscape, in addition to evaluating some strategies that can help to preserve profit margins.

List of strategies include:

  1. Calculate Your Minimum Price
  2. Do Your Own Market Research
  3. Proactively Gauge Demand
  4. Do Competitor Research
  5. Statistics Say Free Shipping Is King
  6. Margin-Preserving Pricing Strategies
  7. Emphasize Value Year Round

Calculate Your Minimum Price

Before considering any promotional strategies, businesses should have a solid grasp on their costs and how they may fluctuate during the season, including:

  • Purchasing and production costs: Does the holiday surge change costs for raw materials or agreements with your suppliers?
  • Staff salary: Will you need to pay overtime hours or hire seasonal staff to keep up with demand?
  • Partner fees: If you’re selling or dropshipping from a marketplace or other partner, are prices fluctuating?
  • Shipping costs: Are backed up orders and a busier marketplace causing a spike in delivery costs?
  • Marketing and advertising: Are you paying extra for promotions, like buying ads and running digital marketing campaigns?
In addition to operational costs, do some research to see if any of your suppliers are offering special deals on bulk purchases, which can help give you some padding on promotions without eating into your bottom line.

Do Your Own Market Research

It’s hard to tell whether you really need to offer a certain discount or promotion to land the sale, or if the customer was going to purchase from you regardless.

One of the best ways to gauge which offers are truly effective is to check your analytics performance. Look at key metrics from last year’s holiday season, like:

  • Which time periods brought the biggest spikes?
  • What were the most popular items sold?
  • What was the average order value?
  • How did your previous holiday pricing strategies perform?
  • Which strategies brought the highest ratio of profit margin? The lowest?
Keep in mind that just because a strategy brought higher sales volume, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it increased your margins.

Proactively Gauge Demand

To see how many customers were actively searching for deals before the holidays, Pendleton had a brilliant idea to encourage shoppers to sign up for early notification of holiday sales. This way, the company could gauge the interest of their shoppers while keeping these more price-conscious shoppers engaged.

                              source : Juno

Do Competitor Research

You’ll also want to tap into what your competitors are doing. You can do this manually by periodically going to your competitors’ websites and recording this information, or you can solicit the help of a specialized tool that will do all the dirty work for you.

If you’re interested in having competitive research handed to you on a silver e-platter, look at a competitor price tracker like Prisync or Import.io that automatically scrapes this information and delivers it through on-demand reporting.

                                  Image credit: Import.io

Statistics Say Free Shipping Is King

There are a handful of classic strategies that e-commerce companies rely on for the holidays, but key 2017 surveys are showing that this is the year of free shipping.

In Deloitte’s holiday survey, 72% of participants said that they plan to take advantage of it, followed by 44% who plan to take advantage of easy returns and 42% for price matching.

                       Image : Deliotte

The same survey also said that the top three reasons participants chose to shop online over in-store were convenience, saving time, and free shipping. To confirm this sentiment, a 2017 holiday survey by BDO showed that 21% of consumers claimed free shipping will have the biggest influence on their holiday shopping decisions.

It’s safe to say that people really love free shipping. And that’s no surprise, since it offers plenty of benefits like increased sales revenue and order value, and overall happier customers.

After crunching the numbers and doing some competitor research, consider this strategy for your own store.

Keep in mind that it can be a great holiday offer, but paying these costs out-of-pocket can also eat into your margins. You’ll also want to ensure that you have the financial flexibility and software infrastructure to handle these requests.

If you’re hesitant to offer free shipping across the board, consider some variations like offering it:

  • With minimum purchase amounts, like orders over $100
  • For certain items only
  • During specific time periods, like three weeks before Christmas only
  • Only on returned items but not the original delivery

One way to make sure you don’t lose money is to include the shipping cost into the price of the item but offer “free shipping.”

Modalyst now offers the ability to automatically add in the shipping costs when adding products to your store so you never have to worry about your margins.

Another option is offering flat-rate shipping. This may encourage larger purchases since customers will pay the same shipping rate regardless. To build loyalty in addition to offering free shipping, work it into a subscription or loyalty program like Amazon did with its Subscribe & Save program.

                                             Image credit: IgnitionDeck

Margin-Preserving Pricing Strategies

Instead of blasting out sales and discounting everything to bring in high volumes of customers at the expense of your profits, consider some alternative strategies that can help preserve your margins.

These can be life-savers for businesses that simply can’t afford the race to the bottom in competition with big-name marketplaces like Amazon.

Step Discounts

Step discounts can help to encourage customers to spend a bigger slice of their holiday budget at your store, instead of spreading out smaller purchases across multiple stores.

For example, depending on your product line and average sale totals, you can offer a 5% discount for purchases over $100, 10% for purchases over $250, and 15% off for purchases over $500.

Flash Sales

Keep in mind that flash sales should be around a specific product. Focusing on a single product helps build a higher urgency to buy while ensuring that customers aren’t expecting a similar store-wide discount in the future.

This could deter customers from making future purchases, as they might feel that your inventory isn’t worth purchasing at full price, if it will inevitably be on sale again soon.

Take for example Watches.com’s flash sale for the Xeriscope Squared automatic watch.

                       Image credit: Just Uno

Incentivize Low-Volume Sellers

It’s the natural ebb and flow of business for some products to naturally sell better than others. Instead of losing that revenue on unsold products, try incentivizing them to get them out the door. This way, you’re still offering customers a special deal without cutting into the revenue of your best-sellers.

You can do this by:

  • Simply slashing prices on these items or having flash sales for them
  • Including two or more of them in a discounted bundle
  • Adding one as a “bonus” for purchasing a higher-priced item, to help justify the price tag
Price Matching

More price-sensitive shoppers often hesitate to make purchases because they’re unsure of the best time to buy. They wonder is this the lowest price, or will this store or a competitor have a sale soon?

To alleviate this uncertainty and reward cost-conscious shoppers for doing their research, consider a price guarantee for your own store as well as matching competitors. Of course, you’ll have to be committed to following through, so be sure that you have the technology or manpower to confirm pricing and adjust when needed.

Emphasize Value Year-Round

While it won’t necessarily help you with pricing for a holiday that’s right around the corner, it’s worth noting that brands can avoid the disastrous race to the bottom by competing on value, not price. This is a long-term strategy, but it pays off for brands that do it right – they don’t find themselves freaking out about holiday sales every November.

To do this, offer your customers a stellar experience the whole year by:

  • Clearly and consistently communicating your value
  • Focusing on solving problems over selling features
  • Building a positive reputation for your brand
  • Offering exceptional customer service
  • Rewarding loyal customers and building a community
  • Creating awesome content to educate and engage

Finding the Sweet Spot

The holiday season can be stressful for many e-commerce entrepreneurs who aren’t quite sure how to keep up with high demand for promotions and how their competitors are meeting them.

However, coming up with a pricing strategy doesn’t have to hurt your bottom line.

With some thorough research and business analysis, coupled with some strategic short-term and long-term planning, your business can rack up holiday revenue while building strong, loyal customers throughout the entire year.

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Free Shipping on Your Online Store: 4 Benefits Explained

The Benefits of Offering Free Shipping on Your Online Store

In today’s age of growing eCommerce, free shipping has become a competitive necessity for online retailers.

While there are certainly several costs associated with offering free shipping, these may be outweighed by the numerous benefits.

When big companies like Amazon first offered their free shipping model a few years ago, it was difficult for every online merchant, especially smaller ones, to follow suit.

However, with growing sales and customer expectations, free shipping has become more common and more beneficial for businesses than ever before.

1. Free shipping can increase your sales revenue

There is no doubt that offering something for free will be appealing amongst your shoppers.

However, having a free shipping option has also been proven to not only increase revenue and sales conversions but also increase customer acquisition.

As Inc.com states, 96% of online consumers are more likely to shop on a site if it promises free shipping.

2. Free shipping can boost average order value

Offering free shipping has also been shown to encourage consumers to buy more online.

Shoppers are incentivized to add more to their carts! In fact, statistics show that 28% of online shoppers will abandon their carts completely if faced with unexpected shipping costs.

Source : Kissmetrics

3. Customers love it!

Offering free shipping is directly associated with customer retention.

It not only will help your business acquire new customers but also will incentivize customers to continue buying from your store.

It also serves as a great marketing tool to advertise and promote your business to potential customers.

According to a poll conducted by the National Retail Federation, 66% of online shoppers declared that having free shipping is a very important deciding factor for them when choosing to make an online purchase.

Source : rjmetrics

4. Free shipping helps rationalize shopping online

As consumers, free shipping helps rationalize buying something online versus driving to the store.

If the cost of shipping an item ends up being too expensive, we can simply abandon our carts and drive down the street.

Free Shipping with Modalyst Products

We just launched a new feature for Modalyst Suppliers who would like to join this movement of free shippers.

In addition to all the benefits listed above, offering free shipping on our platform will be a great opportunity for brands to gain traction and even more exposure.

Retailers are now able to filter for “free shipping” products.

Interested in offering Free Shipping on Modalyst?

Contact team@modalyst.co

P2P Marketplaces : Retail

In our last post, we explained the basics of the peer-to-peer (P2P) economy. Today’s post will take an in-depth look at how this market design affects the retail industry and the role of dropshipping in the P2P economy.

Los Angeles mom Evelyne Teman made $500,000 dollars in three years from selling clothes on Poshmark. On Depop, Millennial entrepreneur Bella McFaden(depop username: @InternetGirl) withdrew from College to sell on Depop full time. Like Teman and McFaden, many individuals today use P2P fashion platforms such as Poshmark and Depop as mechanism to get rid of unwanted clothing and as an alternative way to make a living.

Continue reading “P2P Marketplaces : Retail”

P2P Marketplaces: An Introduction

A new economy has emerged where individuals want to share resources with each other. For example, people are investing in projects on Kickstarter, renting clothing instead of owning it on Rent-the-Runway and borrowing cars through Zipcar. We want to own less and experience more. This has spurned the rapid growth of peer-to-peer (P2P) economies in the past five years. According to a Pew report in 2016, 72% of Americans have used a P2P service. P2P economies have emerged across numerous sectors including transportation (Uber), hospitality (Airbnb), finance (Kiva), and retail (eBay). If you look at the fashion and apparel sector, you see a huge change in behavior.

Continue reading “P2P Marketplaces: An Introduction”

Dropshipping Supplier Spotlight : Le Chic

Joanna Stangreciak is the designer of Le Chic, an international fashion brand. Le Chic joined Modalyst in April of 2013 and has been one of our most successful brands.

Before starting Le Chic, Joanna worked at a fashion accessories company in Los Angeles doing product development and sales for the junior retailer market. She then branched out into designing her own swimwear label.

According to Joanna, the inspiration behind Le Chic was the 2008 recession:

“It was a horrible economy at the time and women were spending less on extravagant, impractical pieces of fashion and investing in classic, versatile styles that compliment the majority of what was in their closets.”

She started her brand with the intention of creating chic accessories that were also affordable and timeless.

Business Practices

Joanna originally began selling her pieces directly to her end-customers. Over the years, however, she has begun focusing on selling her label to brick-and-mortar retailers through Modalyst. Besides Modalyst, Le Chic is featured on Wanelo, Keep, Loehmann’s, Filene’s Basement, and Walmart.

Modalyst is a curated b2b marketplace connecting suppliers and retailers. It is our goal to match our retailers with brands that will be a good fit for them.

Joanna states:

“When looking for an e-commerce retailer to work with, I always looks at their reputation and reliability. These are two key factors that will ultimately affect my reputation as well. In order to build long-lasting, effective, and fruitful business relationships, I believe it is important for both parties to maintain open lines of communication and understanding.”

 

Joanna is the first to admit that she was not initially a fan of dropshipping. It has proven itself valuable over time, however, as it allowed her to forge relationships with new customers and make her products more available and accessible to a wider audience.

“Dropshipping has become a thing of the present and future–as seen more frequently with Amazon, Jet Blue, and Bed Bath & Beyond–and we all have to keep up with what is trending for the future!”

Check out Le Chic on Modalyst and email team@modalyst.co if you’re interested in being the next supplier in the spotlight!

 

Advice From the Experts : How to Launch a Successful Ecommerce Site

Today, e-commerce is the fastest-growing industry in the world, comprising 11.7% of total sales in the retail market last year. In 2016, online sales in the U.S. reached $394.86 billion, while they are predicted to grow even more by 14.8% in the coming year.

So, how do you compete in the world of e-commerce and launch a successful site?

Continue reading “Advice From the Experts : How to Launch a Successful Ecommerce Site”

Introducing Kit: Your Very Own Virtual Drop Shipping Assistant

Last week, we teamed up with Shopify’s very own virtual marketing assistant Kit for a new integration that will help you increase sales. If you’re a Modalyst Retailer using Shopify, you can now install Kit to help you add new products and market them through ads, all by simply replying “yes” from your mobile device. Thanks to Kit, merchandising and marketing have just gotten a lot easier.

Continue reading “Introducing Kit: Your Very Own Virtual Drop Shipping Assistant”

Create Buyer Personas: Increase Sales by Learning about your Customers

The more you know your customers the more opportunity you have to resonate with them in both the products you offer and how you offer them. It is well worth the effort to gain a basic understanding of the people who visit your site and purchase your products. Once you have that knowledge, you will be able to put into practice customized marketing campaigns that will be much more effective than generalized strategies.

Continue reading “Create Buyer Personas: Increase Sales by Learning about your Customers”

Dropshipping for WooCommerce: Why the World’s Most Popular E-Commerce Platform May Be Perfect for You

Dropshipping for WooCommerce

Powering over 39% of all online stores, it was a no-brainer for us at Modalyst to make our next integration with e-commerce platform WooCommerce. Advertised as the most “customizable eCommerce platform for building your online business,” we decided to evaluate some of the advantages of using WooCommerce and also asked our own WooCommerce users why it was their platform of choice.

Pricing

One of the biggest benefits of using WooCommerce is that it is free.

While you may have to pay to install extensions and web hosting, installing WooCommerce itself is completely free which makes it a great starter platform for entrepreneurs just entering the e-commerce space.

Aaron from Seefashion agrees! “WooCommerce is scalable, cheap to run, versatile and restriction free, I love it.”

“WooCommerce is scalable, cheap to run, versatile and restriction free, I love it.”

-Click to Tweet

Customizability

While a free platform may seem like something only starter stores would use, the availability of advanced apps and tools allows the platform to grow with its users.

WooCommerce has hundreds of extensions, both free and paid that WooCommerce promises will cover their users’ every logistical and technical requirement.

WooCommerce available extensions

These extensions include MailChimp, Stripe, PayPal, USPS and soon Modalyst!

One of our online retailers, Laurent from Tailorinn says “WooCommerce is profitable, frequently updated and with the right research (server, host, themes, plugins etc.) you can really take advantage of the platform.”

Aaron from Seefashion also emphasizes the importance of research into the right plugins in order to see success with WooCommerce:

“Woocommerce’s secret weapon are its plugin super powers – they give hugely extended capabilities! Just make sure they are well maintained or your whole site could go down”.

Since WooCommerce uses extensions for crucial e-commerce areas like payment processing, making sure your extension is reliable is top priority. Therefore with proper research, you can customize WooCommerce to make it work best for your own personal needs.

Development and Support

WooCommerce is unique in the sense that they are constantly updating their software and offering fantastic customer support.

They are members of Automattic, who boast over 506 employees that they call “Automatticians.” This department represents people that come from 50 different countries and speak 69 different languages.

automattic team success rate image

Laurent concurs, “WooCommerce is…frequently updated…and the WooCommerce community is very active so you can always find answers to your questions.”

The diversity of the software has also helped him, as he states

“WooCommerce gives me the opportunity to create and retain my customer base by offering them new options to facilitate their discovery, sharing and purchase of my products. For example, I use The WordPress Multilingual Plugin (WPML) to translate my website to multiple languages”.

Ease of Use

While WooCommerce is free, it’s not an all in one e-commerce platform like some of its main competitors Shopify and BigCommerce. This can intimidate some users, as setting up a WooCommerce store requires a bit more technical knowledge and time to set up. That does not, however, mean it is difficult to use! WooCommerce offers numerous helpful tutorials, demos and documentation that is extremely useful for users, ranging from topics about hosting, setting up themes and making the best use of extensions. Additionally, Laurent states “With their new one-time installation, WooCommerce is now easier to install on a server, thus easier to use”. Upon installation, WooCommerce also has an informative onboarding wizard to make sure you have a handle on everything before you get started.

The synchronization of WooCommerce with Modalyst dropshipping will benefit me so I can devote that time to develop other aspects of the site.

-Click to Tweet

Style

Every e-commerce store has a platform that bests suits their style and WooCommerce is no different.

With a wide range of themes designed by the WooCommerce team themselves known as WooThemes, you can extend the same quality of service you get from WooCommerce to your store’s themes!

Storefront, a free theme offered by WooCommerce allows for a cost effective design that seamlessly integrates with the WooCommerce and offers customizability that is supported by the WooCommerce team.

WooCommerce Storefront Theme

Alternatively, you can choose from numerous purchasable themes that are also great, depending on your personal business needs.

Support for Dropshipping with Modalyst

Soon, you will be able to integrate your Modalyst account directly into WooCommerce which will come with amazing benefits, like the ability to add thousands of products to your store, including product imagery, descriptions, pricing and inventory count with one click.

Aaron at Seefashion also states that the app will  “enable them to help designers with great products reach more customers”.

Laurent says “I try to optimize my process in order to save time for example in adding products and images, inventory management etc. The synchronization of WooCommerce / Modalyst dropshipping will benefit me so I can devote that time to develop other aspects of the site such as digital marketing, social media etc.”

Without the risk of buying inventory and the ability to manage several dropshipping relationships on one platform, we can’t wait to share this app with you!

4 Actionable Insights from the Best Dropshippers on Modalyst

This week we’ve decided to take a back seat and let our members lead the discussion. Starting an eCommerce store is no easy task, so we want to hear from the experts on how they faced the challenges that so many of our retailers are facing today.

Continue reading “4 Actionable Insights from the Best Dropshippers on Modalyst”

Dropshipping Is the Future of E-Commerce – Our Brands Tell Us Why

Over the past 5 years, Google Trends Data has shown search interest in dropshipping rise from 58 to 91! More and more brands are turning to dropshipping as their primary fulfillment method and with its numerous advantages, it’s easy to see why! We asked three of our brands three questions:

  1. How has dropshipping has changed the way you conduct your business, online and offline?
  2. Why do you believe dropshipping is this next big thing for designers like yourself in E-commerce?
  3. Why would you recommend dropshipping to other designers?

Continue reading “Dropshipping Is the Future of E-Commerce – Our Brands Tell Us Why”

Five Unique E-Commerce Metrics You Should be Tracking

As E-Commerce store owners, we know that having such vast amounts of data can be confusing and sometimes misleading. Here, we outline a few metrics we believe you should be tracking so you can use your data more efficiently.

Continue reading “Five Unique E-Commerce Metrics You Should be Tracking”

How to Run an E-Mail Marketing Campaign for Your Store

“E-mail marketing will experience a second coming of age during 2016.” – Chad Litmus

Checking e-mail #1 activity on smartphone

Reading e-mails has long been the #1 activity of people with smartphones. It is the main strategy for digital marketers and e-commerce companies have been using it to gather crucial analytical data. With new features like Gmail’s promotions tab, e-mail marketing is being re-introduced into popular culture.

That is why we’re want to help you make the most of it! Here, we break down how to gather e-mails, segment them into lists, choose the right type of campaign, craft the right e-mail and analyze your results.

(more…)

SEO Made Simple: 10 Tactics to Boost Your Visibility

SEO Made Simple: 10 Tactics to Increase Your Visibility

In our last blog post, we helped simplify some key SEO terms to help you get your own website optimized.

Now, we want to help you take the first few very important steps to make sure your website is visible on search engines and is ranking where it should be.

Continue reading “SEO Made Simple: 10 Tactics to Boost Your Visibility”

Modalyst’s Guide to Dropshipping: Promoting your Business

This piece is the final part of our four part Guide on Dropshipping. You can check out out parts 1-3 here: Which E-Commerce Platform is Best for you, How to Source Unique Products from Independent Brands and Running the Business.

So you have a platform, you have your suppliers and you have your dropshipping business ready to go. So why aren’t you getting any sales? One of the most important steps of starting an online store is how you promote it! There are several key steps you can take to promote your store website, through Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Optimization, Content Marketing, E-mail Marketing, Paid Advertising and Offline Marketing. In this part of the guide, I’ll walk you through each of these steps and the best practices so you can start dropshipping to your target market right away.

Continue reading “Modalyst’s Guide to Dropshipping: Promoting your Business”

Modalyst’s Guide to Drop shipping: Running the Business

How to Run a Drop shipping Business

Has your recent attempt to start your own drop shipping business run into more complications than you originally expected?

Although on the surface it may seem simple, we understand that there are numerous problems that may arise that can make drop shipping seem even more difficult than running a regular store.

You may have had to deal with inventory syncing issues, relations with your suppliers or mistakes made by your suppliers. You also will have to decide your own shipping policies, manage returns and keep good relationships with the key of your business, your customers.

With our experience, we can give you our advice on how to best manage these issues that arise while running your dropshipping business.

 

Running A Dropshipping Business

Image from Ordoro

Inventory and Stock Management

Managing your inventory among numerous different suppliers and dealing with multiple customers can be a challenging task. Ignoring either side could lead to you having a lack of great brands or a lack of customers, both problems you need to avoid in order to run a successful dropshipping company. There are a number of ways through which you can best manage your inventory.

1. Using an Inventory Management Application

Inventory management can now be automated, so it’s easy to find and manage multiple suppliers willing to drop ship on a singular platform.

Software like Modalyst automatically adds products from suppliers and syncs their inventory with your e-commerce software, so you never need to worry about selling a product that is out of stock.

Additionally, since you will be managing multiple suppliers you reduce the risk of having just a few suppliers that may churn or have bad shipping/returns records.

2. Communicate with your Drop shipping Suppliers

If you notice that a bestseller on your store is running out of stock it might be a good idea to let the supplier know that his product is doing very well in your store and ask whether he plans to continue to produce it.

This will help you communicate with your customers when the product is out of stock over whether they can expect it to return soon, or if they would like to pre-order it when it returns. Additionally, communication regarding changing stock is important as you can anticipate potential issues that may arise with particular products you stock.

Platforms like Modalyst streamline the communication process so you can message your suppliers from the platform itself, helping you stay organized and in touch whenever you need to.

Maintaining Supplier Relationships

A drop shipping Retailer without drop shipping Suppliers cannot exist!

Hence it is of paramount importance that you maintain a good professional relationship with your Suppliers to have a consistent flow of quality products with the least possible complications for your customers. You can assure this in many ways:

1. Give them the freedom to choose shipping and returns policy

Since your suppliers are the ones who have to deal with paying shipping costs and packaging your goods you should allow them the freedom to choose how much they wish to charge for shipping, and what conditions they have for returning items. If certain suppliers’ policy doesn’t suit your store you might be better off looking for suppliers that more accurately reflect the policies you want in your store.

2. Run Co-branded Marketing campaigns

You can maintain good supplier relations by running co-branded marketing campaigns together.

This includes social media shoutouts, blog posts, or even exclusive product releases. This can help both of you increase exposure, as well as receive awesome exclusive products from your Supplier.

An interesting example of this in action was the campaign run by Alexander Wang and H&M. H&M was able to offer exclusive branded items for a limited time, and Alexander Wang was able market himself to a whole new generation and market.

Sometimes brands with different images make great matches!

3. Ask them for samples if you run a physical store

If you dropship and run your own store, sometimes maintaining good relationships with suppliers who drop ship with you can allow you to stock a few sample items from their collection to your physical store!

Not only will this give you a new range of products, but you will be able to test how well they sell, and as a result provide your supplier with useful insights about their products!

4. Use a marketplace platform with standardized policies

Joining a marketplace with standardized policies can help you solve the challenges associated with supplier relations while allowing for better communication between the two. On a marketplace like Modalyst, shipping rates are always decided by the supplier, you have a standardized 40% revenue share per sale, there is a suggested two week return policy, there is a dedicated inbox through which you can communicate with your suppliers and we send out newsletters with the latest product releases from suppliers so you can pick up the latest products instantly.

Dealing with Supplier Mistakes

Let’s face it, nobody is perfect and everybody makes mistakes.

When your suppliers are swarmed with orders, there are many potential problems. They might ship the wrong item to your customer, the item may be defective, or worse, they might not ship anything at all! In these situations, it is your duty to take responsibility to make sure your customer remains satisfied.

Shopify has a fantastic three step process about what to do when problems like this occur.

1. Own the Mistake

When explaining the error to your customer don’t ever try to blame the dropshipper even if it was their fault.

It makes you look unprofessional and will confuse your customer even more. Your best bet is to apologize for the mistake, and let your customer know how you plan on fixing the issue.

2. Make it up to them

The best e-commerce companies tend to go above and beyond what is required of them. Depending on how bad the mistake was, you can offer your customer a range of things, from discounts, free shipping, or even a complete refund.

3. Make the Supplier Pay for the mistake

Although you have to own the mistake to the customer, you don’t have to be the one paying for it.

If your supplier was the one who made the mistake, make sure they pay for the general aspects of the mistake (shipping and return fees etc). They probably won’t pay for any additional freebies you offer your customer however.

As long as your supplier is honest and reputed, he will definitely offer to fix his mistake and if not, you should consider looking elsewhere.

4. Be wary of which Suppliers you use

Even the best suppliers will make mistakes, however, you should still look out for those suppliers that might scam you and your customer.

Sometimes joining a drop shipping marketplace can reduce these risks greatly, as suppliers must pay to be members, and are required to provide specific imagery and descriptions for each item.

Additionally, since these marketplaces are actively managed, any suppliers that intend to scam and have slipped through the cracks are simply removed by management so your risk is greatly reduced.

Choosing a Shipping and Returns Policy

Choosing a shipping policy can be tricky because you would need to create a unique shipping policy for your store, while managing the shipping policies of all of your suppliers.

You can check out our post here for a few great tips on how to choose a shipping policy.

Customer Relations

It goes without saying that customers are the most important aspect of your drop shipping business.

Therefore you have to make sure you build strong relationships with your customers as well as assistance whenever needed.

1. Create an organized and responsive ticketing system

Using software like Zendesk or Groove, you can create a ticketing system connected to your mailbox, allowing you to organize user e-mails and respond to them promptly.

Make sure to respond to your users within a few hours and send messages that are professional, friendly and conclusive.

Be ready for many all kinds of e-mails, from friendly to not so friendly, and be prepared to respond to them appropriately.

2. Check-in with your regular customers

Customer retention is very important. Every now and then, check in with customers that purchase from your website often through e-mail, maybe offering promotions or discounts or asking them for their suggestions or opinions. You can use this customer feedback to adjust your website based on your most loyal customers, which should help sales immensely

3. If you can, offer phone support

The best E-Commerce stores go above and beyond for their customers.

Being able to talk to them on the phone would be a great and personal way to improve your relationship with your customers because it increases their trust in your brand.

Conclusion

We hope reading this will help you in your journey to running your own drop shipping company.

While the experience might be difficult, we promise it is very rewarding as long as you put in the time and effort. Stay tuned next week, where we discuss the best ways to market your new drop shipping store!

This article is part of a series of Drop shipping Guides, check out Part 1 and Part 2

How to Optimize Shipping Costs for Your Dropshipping Business

When launching an e-commerce site, one of the most crucial elements is finding the right shipping strategy for your store. As research suggests, shipping cost can greatly influence a customer’s decision to complete a purchase. As a drop shipper however, you can only control what the customer pays, not what it will actually cost to ship the product. Working with hundreds of suppliers means a huge variety of carriers and prices so all of a sudden shipping becomes a major headache.

Continue reading “How to Optimize Shipping Costs for Your Dropshipping Business”

How to Source Unique Products from Independent Suppliers

How to Source Unique Products from Independent Suppliers

In part 1 of our series on our guide to starting a drop shipping business, we evaluated the different e-commerce platforms available including Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce.

Start from the beginning here: Choosing the Best eCommerce Platform for You

After choosing a platform, the search to find unique products that represent your individual brand begins.

This also comes with its own set of challenges:

What legal qualifications must you meet before you start?

Where can you source the right brands for your store?

How do you convince these brands to dropship for you?

We help you answer these questions so you can start your dropshipping business right away!

Continue reading “How to Source Unique Products from Independent Suppliers”

Modalyst’s Guide to Drop Shipping: Choosing the best E-Commerce Platform for you

To start your own Dropshipping Business, one of the most important things you have to do is choose an E-Commerce platform. You will be using this platform to run the majority of your business, so it’s important to take to note of the pros and cons of some of the platforms, such as pricing, ease of use, support and more to find out which one best suits your business needs. Three of my favorite e-commerce platforms are Shopify, BigCommerce and WooCommerce but all three of them are quite distinct. This guide will help you understand these distinctions and choose the best E-commerce platform for dropshipping for you.

Continue reading “Modalyst’s Guide to Drop Shipping: Choosing the best E-Commerce Platform for you”

Should I join a Drop Shipping Marketplace?

As drop shipping becomes increasingly popular, e-commerce owners are discovering both the conveniences and challenges that accompany this retail model. Online drop shipping marketplaces are popping up everywhere trying to streamline the process for online stores and address common frustrations.

So the question is, should you follow the crowds and join one of these marketplaces? Is it really worth the membership cost to be part of these networks? While I recommend researching each platform in detail as they all differ in features and tools, let’s go through the general pros and cons associated with these popular drop shipping sites.

Continue reading “Should I join a Drop Shipping Marketplace?”

SEO made simple: 15 Key Terms Defined

So you have an online store that sells beautiful, unique products but for some reason nobody on the internet can find you. Can you really blame them? They have to go through 4.54 billion pages before they can get to you. Did you know that there are simple changes you can make to your website that can help the right audience reach you? Search Engine Optimization is a complex concept that takes time and experience to master, however, with the application of a few simple concepts you can begin to harness the power of the over 100 billion google searches per month.

(more…)

How Does Drop Shipping Work? Myths vs. Facts of Drop Shipping

Dropshipping has certainly become a buzzword in the e-commerce space and for good reason. It is one of the best retail models for entrepreneurs who want to start a store but don’t have the capacity or time to deal with physical goods. While it’s grown in popularity, it has also engendered a lot of misunderstanding. Time to set the record straight so you can knowledgeably sift through the gossip by learning the facts.

Continue reading “How Does Drop Shipping Work? Myths vs. Facts of Drop Shipping”

How to Prepare for and Manage Your Dropshipping Returns

As a dropshipping retailer you may consider returned merchandise to be a headache for the supplier, not you. Don’t forget, though, that you are the point of contact for the customers so if they have a poor experience when returning an item, it becomes your headache.

With as much as a third of all purchases made online being returned, it is worth investing time in preventing as many returns as possible but also creating a seamless experience for customers when they happen.

Continue reading “How to Prepare for and Manage Your Dropshipping Returns”

5 Best Ways To Retain Your Customers Online

Many e-commerce businesses spend the majority of their time focusing on how to find new customers. While user acquisition demands attention, retaining customers is equally (if not more) important for your bottom line. Before we go into how to combat attrition, let’s look at some interesting stats around the value of a new customer vs. an existing one and the implications for your business.

Continue reading “5 Best Ways To Retain Your Customers Online”

Inventory Management made simple

Inventory Management Made Simple

One of the most common challenges in dropshipping relationships is maintaining accurate inventory levels for all the products available on your site. Every e-commerce entrepreneur’s worst nightmare is selling a product that is no longer available. Such an experience can easily deter a customer from ever purchasing from your site again.

We recognize that keeping up to date with all your suppliers is time consuming and cumbersome. So on Modalyst we have automated the process so our retailers can spend more time selling their products and less on updating inventory levels.

Continue reading “Inventory Management made simple”

5 Tips to Get More Dropshipping Sales

Dropshipping is one of the best strategies for selling more products online. Instead of relying on your e-commerce site for sales, Dropshipping will allow you to market your collection across hundreds of online stores. As more and more suppliers are recognizing the benefits, the market is becoming more competitive.

Continue reading “5 Tips to Get More Dropshipping Sales”

5 Digital Marketing Mistakes [And How to Fix Them]

As an e-commerce entrepreneur you are inundated with advice on how to best market your store. Invest in design! Tweet more! Use linkbuilding! And so on…

But in today’s digital landscape, audiences are fussy and niche. How can you spend your time finding the customers that matter to YOU in an effective and efficient way?

Continue reading “5 Digital Marketing Mistakes [And How to Fix Them]”

7 Amazing and Cheap Ways To Market Your Business

You’ve spent plenty of energy and time into building your e-commerce site. Now, let’s show it to the world!

Unfortunately, the world is not going to come to you if they don’t know you exist. As an e-commerce retailer, you have to be proactive and invite them to shop. So what are some ways to attract and retain customers from day 1? Here are some preparations and strategies you can execute right now.

Continue reading “7 Amazing and Cheap Ways To Market Your Business”

Shipping 101: Finding the Model to Match your Business

If you are an online retailer, you better get your ship together or you will certainly lose customers.

In all seriousness, shipping should be considered as one of the most crucial elements in your online strategy and should be analyzed like any other business decision.  A customer’s experience is influenced as much by the products you are offering as it is by the shipping costs associated with those products.

Continue reading “Shipping 101: Finding the Model to Match your Business”

Expert Panel: How to Grow Distribution as an Independent Brand

Last week Modalyst hosted a panel discussion with leaders in retail on how to best gain distribution as an emerging brand. We were fortunate to have an amazing location at Young & Able’s pop up store on Rivington which was packed full by 7pm! We also had 4 stellar panelist and a rock star moderator. See here for the details.

Continue reading “Expert Panel: How to Grow Distribution as an Independent Brand”

I am starting an online store, should I sell dropship items?

I am starting an online store. What inventory model should I use?

This can be a tough decision when starting an online store and one of the most crucial.

Do you go with dropshipping?

What about consignment?

How do you know what will work for you?

We decided to reach out to one of our favorite retailers to ask how she came to find the retail model that works for her…

Continue reading “I am starting an online store, should I sell dropship items?”

Top 10 Ways to Get Your Online Store Ready for the Holidays

It’s the season all e-commerce retailers come to love and anticipate all year.

Whether you’re a hobbyist just entering the e-commerce game or a well-seasoned operator of an online business, the holiday season is the most important selling opportunity of the year. Shopify notes that:

“The holiday season is almost always the most profitable time of year for online businesses. Not only does the last quarter of the year see increases to the number of orders but the average order sizes also tend to be much bigger as well. In fact, some retailers make up to 40% of their yearly revenue in the last quarter alone.”

Not only do the holidays represent the biggest shopping season of the year, they also give you a great opportunity to attract a wide variety of new customers. These customers can potentially become loyal, repeat buyers throughout the year.

Here is our guide on how to best prepare for your holiday shoppers.

  1. Offer a Variety of Products
  2. Attract With Imagery
  3. Create a Marketing Calendar…NOW
  4. Write about the Products
  5. New Social Media Strategy
  6. Curate the Experience
  7. Tap into your Experience
  8. Reward Your Loyal Customers
  9. Find a Physical Component
  10. Free Shipping
  11. Ramp up Customer Service

Offer a Variety of Products

Start by stocking your store with a curated assortment of products that is beyond your usual merchandise. Remember, your customers are not necessarily shopping for themselves this visit, so find enough variety that they will be able to find gifts for dads and nieces alike. This includes a variety of price points as well.

Dropshipping is a great way to add products fast without having to buy anything upfront. Plus, the holidays are a great opportunity to test out products and brands since customers are expecting new inventory this time of year. Drop shipping is the best way to do just that.

Learn more about dropshipping here

Attract with Imagery

This one may sound obvious but I am always surprised by the poor quality of images on some of the sites I visit. We all know the power of a picture so make sure you are using the highest resolution image available. Offer a variety of perspectives of product shots along with model shots when available.

Create a Marketing Calendar…NOW

Don’t wait to the last minute to start advertising your holiday products and then run the risk of pissing off your customers with a ton of emails at once. Instead, create a calendar with a strategy in mind. Be aware of all the holiday campaigns everyone is receiving so try sending something unique – maybe witty or image based to catch customers’ attention. As long as your store is stocked, it’s never too early to start sending teasers. Just stick to your schedule.

Write About the Products

Content Marketing. Yes everyone’s talking about it so time to jump on the bandwagon. One of the best way to reach customer is by writing about the products you have on your site. Tell the brand’s story on your blog, be a guest Instagrammer for the day on one of your brand’s accounts, write a gift guide for an influencer’s site…There are lots of ways to get in front of new people but I think content is the best.

Where do you write all this content? Try starting a blog. Here is a good article to learn more.

New Social Media Strategy

Use social media. Duh. But try to be creative this year and don’t just post your own products, try collaborating with someone and think about ways you can cross promote. Maybe you ask one of your most loyal customers (who has a large following) to post a link in exchange for a discount. It’s always effective to have other people talk about your store so find multiple voices.

Curate the Experience

Form curated collections that appeal to a certain group. Gift guides are a great way to do just that and allows you to gently control your customer’s experience. For example, “Best Gifts for the Active Dad” or “Gifts for the Girl Who Has Everything” will help draw people in and direct them to the products you want to promote.

Tap into your Audience

Take a peek at some of your recent customer’s social media pages and see if they are talking about anything specific. What is trending this season (for your particular audience)? How can you tap into what is already popular to drive people to your site?

Reward your Loyal Customers

You are going to have the best chance of making sales with the people who have already had a good experience on your site. Why not target them and offer an additional incentive just to seal the deal? Send them a personal email to drive them back to your site.

Find a Physical Component

Participate in a local market or pop up to offer your local customers a place to come touch and feel the products. This is the best time of year to add that physical component to your online presence since people are on the look out for gifts so foot traffic is easier to attract.

Free Shipping

If you don’t already have free shipping, this is a great time to offer it, especially since it is likely your competitors are going to. Paying for shipping may scare you but your sales volume should increase to make up for the added cost.

Ramp up Customer Service

Staff up on customer service so you can offer the best experience for your shoppers. The most powerful ads are positive customer reviews so get a head start by providing first class service. That means quick answers to questions, extended phone hours and of course always delivering on time. If you make a good impression, you can be confident customers will return. Customer service should be considered part of your marketing strategy.

Happy Holidays!!

 

 

3 Steps to Becoming Fully-Informed Dropshipping Retailer

How to Become a Well Informed Dropshipping Retailer

For a dropshipping retailer, the benefits (Modalyst’s 3Fs) are quite abundant, and hopefully quite apparent! However, to help you become a retailer that is fully informed about all things dropshipping, we want you to keep a few things in mind. Learn more at Modalyst.

Continue reading “3 Steps to Becoming Fully-Informed Dropshipping Retailer”

Better, Faster, Cheaper: How 3-D Technology Can Disrupt Fashion

“The fastest way to get faster is to think about how you can develop it in 3-D,” declared Ed Gribbin, president of apparel sizing and fit company Alvanon, speaking recently as part of a Product Innovation Apparel panel discussing how 3-D technology is disrupting the fashion industry.

Continue reading “Better, Faster, Cheaper: How 3-D Technology Can Disrupt Fashion”

Should I Become a Dropshipper?

Should I Become a Dropshipper?

So, you get what dropshipping is all about, but why is it important?

Why should online stores, dropshippers, or even your end consumers care?

Everything is going online!

Retail e-commerce itself is a $237 billion dollar market in the U.S. and is growing year-over-year at close to 17%.

And that’s just the US!

Looking globally, there are over 8 million online stores, amongst which 20-30% use dropshipping as their primary method of order fulfillment! Continue reading “Should I Become a Dropshipper?”

Why Supply Chain Collaborative Practice is Paramount for Success

It’s time for apparel companies to rethink how they do business, said Stan Przybylinkski, vice president of research at consulting firm CIMdata, who spoke Tuesday at a Product Innovation Apparel seminar in New York titled “Enhancing Supply Chain Collaborative Practices.”

Why Supply Chain Collaborative Practice is Paramount for Success

Continue reading “Why Supply Chain Collaborative Practice is Paramount for Success”

Pricing 101: Pricing Consistency, MSRPs, and Markups

Here are some time-saving and helpful pointers on pricing to ensure that your brand is getting the exposure, reputation, and traction you want!

Consistency – to maintain consistency for retailers interested in your brand, check to make sure your pricing on different platforms (whether it is on Modalyst or your own website) is the same across the same products.

The Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) you list on Modalyst is imported directly into the dropshipping sites retailers use (Shopify, Big Commerce, WooCommerce, etc) – thus , you always want to list the exact same item for the exact same MSRP. This will help to maintain the integrity of Modalyst, and more importantly, your brand!

Price on Modalyst:

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Continue reading “Pricing 101: Pricing Consistency, MSRPs, and Markups”

Retailer’s Guide to Preparing for Dropshipping

The Dropshipping fulfillment model allows entrepreneurs to run an online store with ease and grace.

To reap the benefits right now of the dropshipping business model, you should prepare now and get a head start!

Below are tips for drop shipping retailers on how to set up your ecommerce business.

Prepare your legal documents

Your business is awesome, and you can’t wait to introduce yourself to potential suppliers and brands. We get it!

Make sure your introduction is thorough and complete with documents like an EIN Number, your tax ID, and a former purchase order.

These are documents many brands ask to see before establishing a new relationship.

Find Suppliers that are a good fit for your store

Next comes the fun part: finding and choosing dropship suppliers you want to work with. It is not just about finding the right brands for your store, but making sure that they offer dropshipping as well!

Modalyst is a curated platform featuring hundreds of brands. For retailers who are drop shipping, we have a marketplace that will direct you to find brands that are pre-approved for dropshipping. This will help you save time and energy on finding qualified brands!

Present Your Dropshipping Contract

A dropshipping contract is necessary with all brands you would like to work with.

The contract should outline commission split, lead times, shipping, etc, Luckily, Modalyst has a standardized contract for all retailers to use. Retailers no longer have to go through the headache of creating their own contracts!

One-click Sourcing 

Collect product information from the brands you are dropshipping with, and start listing them on your ecommerce platform!

If you are a Shopify or Wix store using Modalyst, enjoy the convenience of one-click sourcing through our API Integration.

Market your brands and collect orders

What’s awesome about dropshipping is that you no longer have to worry about fulfilling orders. Once your customer submits an order, send it your brand to fulfill. Spend the time that was previously used for running to post offices for marketing your brands! Invest in digital marketing on sites that interest your customers. This can be Facebook, Instagram, Reddit pages, and etc.

So what are you waiting for? Source, list, market brands, repeat!

Dropshipping is the Retail Solution

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The nature of retail is changing from holding inventory to dropshipping. Retailers have realized how much inventory distortion costs them, so they try to minimize distortion and risk as much as possible. Inventory distortion is out-of-stock and overstock inventory that causes revenue loss. It’s an $800 billion issue for retailers worldwide. Dropshipping is an attractive strategy for retailers because they pay for an item after collecting payment for it.

Financially, it can be challenging for brands to support this fulfillment model, but it is a profitable way to create relationships and to widen distribution!

Dropshipping is the Solution!

Seize the opportunity with dropshipping.  In today’s world of e-commerce and retail,  more and more brands are supporting the demand of dropshipping by holding their own inventory. Dropshipping is the perfect opportunity to expand your product into new channels and access consumers that were previously out of reach. Since retailers carry less risk by not paying for inventory in advance, they may be willing to accept smaller margins on drop ship fulfilled products. Our dropshipping program automatically enables brands to keep 60% of the MSRP, leaving more money in brands’ pockets.

More Brands, Less Risk

Do you find yourself committing your buying budget season after season to brands you already carry? Buying from brands you are already familiar with is a smart choice for inventory efficiencies but do you ever have the urge to differentiate your product selection and try out some new brands.

You could really “wow” your customers by introducing them to unique, one-of-a-kind products they can’t find elsewhere! The financial commitment of holding inventory from a new brand may seem daunting but we have a fool-proof solution that will allow you to expand and diversify your inventory with confidence! Modalyst’s Dropshipping Program eliminates financial risk and inventory risk.

drop_shipping_loop

With *dropshipping, this nightmare is lifted and you are able to list as many brands and products as you like without risks! Dropshipping enables virtual inventory and eliminates the constraint of physical inventory. Simply buy the item when you receive an order, and let the brand ship the order directly to your customer!

E-commerce retail is a $220 billion dollar market in the U.S. and is growing year-by-year at close to 17%.  According to a 2009 report by the American Society of Business and Behavioral Sciences, 22-33% of these E-commerce retailers use dropshipping as their primary method of order fulfillment!

Dropshipping has opened up the ability for retailers to exponentially increase product selection while reducing inventory risk. Jump on to this growing trend and join Modalyst as we launch our Dropshipping Program this June!

What is Dropshipping?

With dropshipping, retailers host product images in their online store without holding any inventory. When an order is received on the e-commerce platform, the retailer will pass the order to the brand,who then ships the order directly to consumer.

Want a FREE month of dropshipping with Modalyst? Comment below or email team@modalyst.co now and we’ll give you a free month’s trial!

Want to learn more stats on dropshipping? Check out this page!