What leads to a long processing time?
If you have been working with CJ before, you will know CJ Dropshipping does not manufacture those products, so we purchase them from suppliers. For some hot products, CJ will pre-stock inventories. However, there is numerous merchandise in the market, so CJ cannot pre-stock all of them. So you will need to understand that most of the products are not stocked in CJ warehouses.
Once orders are generated, purchase agents will look for the best suppliers to purchase products. Then the warehouse will check the quality, remove the invoice, and other information from the supplier, then repackage and send it out to your customers. These procedures usually take 3-5 days.
Sometimes CJ received complaints about “Why do my orders take so long to process?” “Your processing time is much longer than you promised.”, and so on. In this article, we will talk about this problem, find out why sometimes orders take a longer time to process, and how to control the processing time.
For those products stocked in CJ warehouses, the processing time is 1-2days, others 3-6days. These are the processing times for most of the orders; however, some unexpected situations could prolong the processing time.
From past experiences, we concluded 4 types of issues that can cause a long processing time：
- The suppliers can’t send the products in time
- Delivery delay due to local delivery problem
- The warehouse can’t ship orders in time
- The warehouse received problematic products
The suppliers can’t send the products in time
During peak sales season in Q4, the processing time can be long due to the overload of orders for suppliers. With the rapid increase in market demands globally, it will be really hard for suppliers to keep some stock for trendy products. So once a product is out of stock, products will need time to replenish.
Besides, when the time reaches Chinese New Year, most suppliers in China will have annual holidays for the factories. So every year from January to February, most suppliers will completely stop working for the entire month. Although CJ can still ship products during the Chinese New Year, there is nothing to send if products are not prepared by suppliers
In addition, some products like wedding dresses, shoes with special patterns, and handmade products can only be manufactured after orders are placed. So their processing time will be longer.
Delivery delay due to local delivery problem
Before orders are processed in CJ warehouses, suppliers will first send the products to CJ. The most of time, delivery in the mainland of China is fast. However, there are still chances of parcels being stuck on the way or lost due to various occasions.
For example, recently the pandemic situation has become serious again in China and some specific cities were restricted. Suppliers located in these areas will not able to send out the products due to government prohibition. This also resulted in parcels on the way needing more time to be delivered to the CJ warehouse because many routes between cities are under restriction.
The warehouse can’t ship orders in time
For now, CJ got multiple warehouses all over the world. Among these warehouses, the Jinhua warehouse is the biggest one, you can check our youtube channel to see how the orders are being fulfilled in the tour of Jinhua warehouse.
But even though CJ dropshipping got the completed system and well-trained staff. People sometimes do make mistakes. With more and more staff joining CJ every year, possible mistakes made by new staff may lead to order delays. To avoid such a problem happening, CJ staff will check delayed orders that exceed 4 days regularly.
If there are problematic orders, the warehouse will report to you by sending you a ticket or an email notification. So you will know what exactly happened to your orders. We also suggest you ask CJ online customer service if there are delayed orders because your participation can also be very helpful in identifying problematic orders.
Furthermore, for orders with muti-products, the processing time usually will be longer. Because the warehouse can only send orders together after all the products arrived. Since each product has a different supplier, and each supplier sends products individually, if one product arrived late, the whole order will be late.
The warehouse received problematic products
Sometimes, unexpected situations will happen. For example, suppliers make mistakes, and sometimes they do not send out products on time, sometimes they send the wrong items, sometimes defective or missing items, these situations all lead to boresome delays.
If the products got major issues such as completely wrong products or broken parts, the warehouse asks the supplier to resend the products or just buy from another supplier, which means the warehouse will need to reprocess the order once again, this will certainly prolong the processing time.
In order to avoid further delays, for some products with small variations that don’t affect product function, the warehouse will ask you or your agent for confirmation first. If the problem is minor and it’s okay to send, then the warehouse will send it in 1 day.
Still, these orders need your confirmation first before sending. If CJ can’t contact you or didn’t get a reply from you, the orders will keep being delayed.
How to prevent long processing time?
After seeing the reasons, you may still wonder what should CJ and you do to prevent long processing time? There are three suggestions.
Keep an eye on your orders
First of all, keep an eye on your orders. CJ has a team to check the delayed orders every day to keep them updated. But there are still chances for orders being unnoticed because the warehouse needs to process thousands of orders per day. So since only you understand what your customer needs most, it will be better to keep yourself updated by contacting CJ regularly.
Nevertheless, it is always an important thing to keep an eye on your orders by yourself so that you can take full control of your business. If you have too many orders every day, then you can hire somebody to assist you or ask for a dedicated agent to help you take care of your business.
Sell the that already in the CJ warehouse
Second, sell those with plenty of inventory in the CJ warehouse. When you open any CJ product page, you can find there are “factories inventory” and “CJ inventory” on every product page. Only the “CJ inventory” refers to the products already got stock in the CJ warehouse. You can check the actual inventory on every product page for each variant. Those stocked products’ processing time is 1-2 days; you can actually expect those orders to be sent out in 24 hours. One thing you need to understand is there are only a small amount of products stocked in the CJ warehouse. So if you wish to bulk sell some products, having your own stock might be a better option.
Purchase a private inventory
Moreover, if you got winning products in your store, purchasing a stock for it will be a great choice. Having your own stocks means fast processing time. Also, you can choose the China warehouse. the US warehouse, the Germany warehouse, or any other overseas warehouse available. Then you can enjoy a 3-5 days fast delivery time for your store. You can check our articles about the detailed benefits of the preorder inventory. If you are interested, you can refer to the instruction about how to buy a private inventory.
You may worry about when you bought too much inventory, but you cannot sell them all out. That will not be a problem anymore because CJ has launched a supplier plan. You can transfer your private inventory into supplier inventory and post them on the CJ marketplace, then other sellers can help you digest the stock.
In conclusion, the long processing time is something that most dropshippers will certainly encounter in the business. Stay calm when it occurs and keep communicating with your supplier and shipping site, you will find your own solution to it eventually.
