Starting a DropShipping business with USA suppliers

Starting an online retail business is challenging. Despite what some of the so-called ‘experts’ claim, and if you’ve ever worked in eCommerce, owned your own retail business, or been a manager, you’ll know exactly how tough it can be to get going, even if you have loads of experience, and plenty of funds.

Once you’re up and running, then extending and diversifying your inventory is easy if you have cash available to invest in stock that you can be certain will sell. But what do you do when you don’t have that cash available? If you have done your research and you know there are products that can definitely make you plenty of sales, that can be a frustrating situation to be in. Borrowing funds to purchase stock can be an option, but that can be risky – particularly when you’re thinking about seasonal products, or trending items that you can’t predict whether sales might quickly drop off. Being left with dead stock that has to be cleared at a loss doesn’t add up to business success.

There is another way to profit from products you haven’t tested, and that you’re not certain about without the risk though. By working with verified USA suppliers that hold stock, and that can fulfil your orders on your behalf as you receive them, you can continue to grow your business – and with much smaller risk, and fewer resources required. You might have already eliminated the idea of DropShipping due to the issues that are well known – problems like long delays with delivery, inferior product quality and so on, but USA DropShipping suppliers don’t have those issues.

The potential benefits of working this way are much more than avoiding dead stock too. Since your suppliers are taking care of the inventory, you don’t need to worry about storage costs, or dealing with picking, packing, and dispatching orders either. And although you’ll need to assist any customers with returns or refund requests, as long as you’ve identified reliable suppliers with quality products that also have solid returns processes, that can be streamlined too.

Why USA suppliers are important

Finding suppliers that are prepared to work this way, without minimum order requirements isn’t always easy – even though it has the power to increase their profits, as well as yours. Working with suppliers overseas is an option, but many established retailers avoid working with those suppliers because of the risk it presents to their reputation. Issues including extensive delivery times, non-delivery, and poor customer service (where it is in place at all) has left retailers exposed to negative reviews, and out of pocket where refunds need to be provided to customers.

But the risk of encountering poor service is greatly reduced when you’re working with suppliers that are in the USA. They already know what USA customers expect in terms of service, and because orders don’t need to cross borders to reach the customer, delivery times are reduced to within a day or two, rather than weeks when they’re being shipped from China.

Unfortunately, while working with USA suppliers is undoubtedly a better answer, many suppliers have had negative experiences with some sellers not making payments when they should. This has resulted in them avoiding engaging with retailers that want to work with them using the DropShipping model – despite the numbers of potential sales that they were missing out on. These poor experiences mean that nobody was able to benefit from sales made this way.

How to find USA DropShipping suppliers

You can find USA DropShipping suppliers yourself, and set up connections and so on by yourself too. But that isn’t without huge challenges – and since there are much faster solutions, why would you? It is better to get on with selling. We created Avasam to resolve all the issues that retailers were encountering with DropShipping. Avasam is a DropShipping platform and B2B marketplace that allows retail businesses to connect with a wide range of USA DropShipping suppliers, to source and sell from a massive number of products in the catalogue.

How do I know I can trust your suppliers?

We know that retailers have been unsure about risking their reputation, where substandard service might be provided. To protect sellers from suppliers that don’t have the high standards we require, our team carefully verify suppliers and product data before their inventory is uploaded, and retailers are able to source the items. Once suppliers are live on Avasam, we monitor supplier performance, to ensure they continue to meet our stringent requirements, and to maintain the reputation of retailers that are sourcing from them.

How many products are available?

To ensure that retailers can continue to grow their business and offer their customers a wider range, there are now thousands of items available in the Avasam catalogue, with an ever-increasing range of suppliers bringing more products. We’re constantly working to bring new suppliers on board, and as suppliers source new lines, we’re bringing those to the platform too. To see our product catalogue, sign up for a free account, or sign in.

Can I work with more than one Avasam supplier?

Absolutely. Retailers can work with multiple suppliers, meaning that they can pick and choose the right mix of products for their target customer. There aren’t any complicated procedures to set up to work with different suppliers either. One of the challenges that we knew that retailers found when trying to work with suppliers individually was keeping the automation working, or needing to manage manual connections – which often ended up more hassle than they were worth. With Avasam, sellers can access inventory from unlimited numbers of suppliers without needing to worry about using complex API setups to create connections.

How does the customer receive updates?

Not only does the platform standardise processes between sellers and suppliers, making it easier for all parties involved, but the platform sends updates where relevant and passes orders to suppliers automatically, and handles payments between sellers and suppliers, speeding up dispatch times to same day in many cases. Avasam also connects to sales channels and shipping companies, so that customers know exactly when they are likely to receive their order.

What happens if I need to arrange a refund or return?

We know as well as you do that the sales process isn’t over when the customer receives their order. Even after the order has been completed, we’ve got your back, because we’ve automated the returns and refunds process, so there’s no need to wonder if a return request will ever be dealt with. You’ll be able to see every step of the process, and should there end up being an issue that needs resolving, our team can step in and mediate between the parties.