One of the main downsides of running a drop shipping store is that you have little flexibility over the delivery method and shipping.
Especially when drop shipping to Europe this is a problem.
Many suppliers only have shipping times between 20-40 days, and although you can pull off a drop shipping store with long delivery times, it’s better to find delivery methods with short shipping times.
Let me share two methods to deal with this.
1) Find better suppliers
The first way to get better delivery methods is by finding other suppliers. Often there’s a ton of different suppliers selling the same item on AliExpress.com. And each supplier offers slightly different, and sometimes extremely different shipping times and options.
I sell an item with a delivery time of 12-20 days to Germany, and I use DHL Global Mail which costs me just $1 for shipping.
However, it took a bit of time to find this supplier.
I basically just searched for all suppliers of my item and then checked each and every supplier for shipping times to Germany.
2) Negotiate delivery options
One of my students has found out that you can negotiate the delivery options and shipping times with suppliers on AliExpress. So if you found a great item and there’s a supplier you like, reach out to them and ask if they can offer better shipping options for you.
You can ask for specific delivery options or companies and ask them to add them for you. Or if they have existing delivery options, you can try negotiating the price or the delivery time with them.
Use these two methods to find the best delivery options.
Sometimes it takes some research, creativity and negotiation before you find the ideal delivery method to the country you’re shipping to.
And worst case, as I said, you can pull it off with long shipping times. One of my stores had 55 day delivery time for a while (before I found a better supplier) and I was still able to run a profitable store. Do the best you can, but don’t let the delivery time hold you back.
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