One of the most popular and effective ways to earn money from home these days is through a dropshipping business.
According to statistics, more than 50% of the American population now prefer to shop online because of the convenience it offers. This figure is only for the US. Can you imagine how many people are going to get access to your products if you promote them online, instead of just offline? 
There is no denying that the e-commerce industry is quite lucrative. All you need is internet access, and you’ll be able to shop anything you want from anywhere in the world.
What is dropshipping?
Dropshipping is the process of carrying out orders directly from the manufacturers. In short, the manufacturers are the ones to deliver a variety of high-quality products on time to millions of people worldwide. This allows business owners to do away with handling shipping procedures and inventory, and provides online shop owners some peace of mind.
However, problems arise when you start getting customers complaints that you have to take accountability for. This is the reason why you need to know precisely how dropshipping works to prevent these kinds of disputes between buyers and merchants (some services can help you settle disputes with customers more efficiently, read the following Purchase Guard review to learn more about it). So, in this article, we’ll discuss the must-avoid mistakes when starting a dropshipping business. Let’s dive-in!
- Relying on one vendor only.
There’s nothing wrong with being loyal to a particular vendor. But what if they sometimes ship late, run out of stocks, or even might lose their business? Your online store could suffer. Make connections with several trust-worthy vendors instead.
- Being unprofessional when handling damaged or lost items.
Damaged or lost goods are among the most common problems dropshipping businesses come across with.
Make sure you always deal with customers professionally. Remember, buyers might write reviews about your shop. If you keep getting positive reviews, then more people will be inclined to buy from you. How you react or handle such situations will determine how long you’re going to be in the business.
- Not being clear with estimated delivery time.
To be able to set your customers’ expectations right, and to prevent disputes between buyers and merchants, you need to be clear about the expected delivery time with your supplier/vendor first. Don’t make assumptions that will only end up disappointing your customers just because you want them to buy from you. That way, you won’t get complaints about late deliveries or suffer from negative customers’ reviews.
- Not creating your own store for dropshipping.
To start a dropshipping business, make sure you sign up with an advanced and reputable e-commerce platform, such as Shopify, BigCommerce, 3Dcart, Volusion, and ShoppingCart, to name a few. Attempting to follow Aliexpress dropshipping, Amazon, or eBay can leave you with high losses in the end. These sites are already saturated, and the competition is quite high. Not being able to keep up with big dropshipping companies can kill your business quite fast, especially with high fees and higher expectations on delivery times.
- Not following your vendor’s refund policy.
Aside from being able to deliver a variety of high-quality products on time, it’s also essential to have a refund policy that is the same as your vendor’s. For example, your vendor offers only ten days for customers to return the goods. You can have five days, which should give you more time to make up for any hitches. Remember that the supplier will be the one to ship the items ordered by your customers, so be sure to be clear about this on your store.