3 Habits That are Holding Your Dropshipping Business Back

Drosphipping is a convenient business model that allows you a high level of flexibility. You can work anywhere and anytime you want because all you need is your computer, a phone, and an internet connection. It’s also less expensive than brick-and-mortar retail because you do not need to pay rent for a physical space, keep the lights on, and other associated costs.

 

However, just because dropshipping is easier to start than other kinds of retail or ecommerce does not mean that the process is a breeze. There are still hurdles you need to navigate, such as marketing, dealing with unhappy customers, communicating with vendors, and more—much of which is difficult because products never actually pass through your hands.

 

Is dropshipping not everything you imagined it would be? Here are a few habits that might be holding your business back:

 

You are procrastinating

 

Just because you can work whenever you want to does not mean you can put off everything you need to do. Working from home can have its distractions, and digital nomads obviously face the challenge of balancing work with exploring. You might feel stuck in a cycle of, “Oh, I have time,” “Wait, now too much time has passed, and now I can’t focus, and I’m feeling guilty,” and “Now I’m not in the right mood, I had better do this later.” Some people find it hard to exercise discipline when they have so much flexibility and no one holding them accountable.

 

It’s also possible that you are feeling overwhelmed. Between managing social media, SEO, and communicating with customers and vendors, there’s a lot on your plate. If you are new to the dropshipping world, you might even be nervous to contact both of these parties because you are afraid of rejection and complaints.

 

So how do you manage these feelings? Drop Ship Lifestyle instructs you to ask yourself what your highest priority is: “Learning new techniques is a good thing. Learning how to be more productive is a good thing. But those good things should not be more important than the items on your to-do list. Don’t procrastinate getting dropshipping suppliers. Don’t procrastinate filing your taxes… High priority items come before the little things.”

 

So, what are your priorities? Start with the most urgent item on your to-do list to your momentum rolling and go from there. If you are procrastinating because you dread doing specific things, entrepreneur Tim Denning recommends asking yourself, “What’s the worst thing that can happen?” You might disappoint a few clients or have unpleasant conversations with suppliers, but these things are remediable—nothing life-threatening.

 

You’re overly relying on one supplier

One thing that might be holding your home ecommerce business back is that you are relying too much on a sole supplier. Sure, their rates might be incredible and you have a good relationship with them, but you are subject to whatever happens to their business. If there are delays with shipping, you have no one else to turn to if you need to deliver a replacement product to a customer. If there is a technical difficulty at their manufacturing site, then it looks like your customers aren’t getting what they ordered until its fixed. If your supplier is overseas, then customers might grow impatient with waiting several weeks for their packages to arrive.

 

Always partner with more than one vendor. Not only can you sell a wider variety of products, but your business is also less dependent on another,

 

You’re not branding

 

What little work dropshipping requires in getting your online store up and running, you make up for in marketing. People cannot exactly window shop with ecommerce, so capturing consumers’ attention means you need to reach out to them and make yourself visible when they search for related topics to your niche. You are already purchasing products from your suppliers for less than what you are charging customers, so you need to give them good reasons to go through you instead the source—and much of this lies in branding (it’s possible that you are also competing with other dropshippers who sell the same products from the same manufacturers).

 

Do what you can to improve your search engine optimization. Use social media to its full advantage: post intriguing content, follow other people, like posts, respond to comments, re-share user-generated material, and more. There are online resources if you need to get Instagram followers quickly to boost your reputation, and it’s wise to leverage analytics tools that can help you adjust your strategy according to what is working well. Give your store a distinct persona that people trust.

 

Dropshipping is easy to get started, but it’s not always a smooth road. What habits are holding your business back that you are trying to work on?