You may worry about or encounter the long shipping time orders with the dropshipping model for the reason that you can’t control the shipping period. If the shipping time is too long, you may be blamed by your customers. And it eventually it may result in bad influence on your sales.
However, there are some ways to have a better deal with a long shipping time. This article will introduce some typical shipping methods with their regular shipping time, and how to deal with long shipping times when it happens in dropshipping business.
The Importance of Shipping Times
It is obvious that shipping times are important. Customers are getting used to quite fast shipping these days, especially with Amazon Prime delivery, so there seems to be less tolerance for long shipping times. Usually, the longer your customers are waiting for their orders, the higher chances that they ask for a refund.
However, long shipping times actually do not have a drastic effect on your sales if you deal with them well. Compared with worrying about the long shipping times, you’d better know how to deal with the long shipping times when doing dropshipping, then long shipping times will not reduce the conversion rates.
Typical Shipping Sites
Aliexpress
The shipping times are depending on where the item is sent from exactly and where it is going. Usually, if you are shipping to the United States with Aliexpress, regular shipping will be 15-45 days. If you choose Aliexpress Premium Shipping then you can get an estimated 7-15 days shipping time, but of course, it will be more expensive.
45 days is a long time for delivery because more and more people nowadays are getting used to fast information and fast shopping. If your orders exceed one month’s time limit, the customer may already cancel the order, not to mention shipping outside of the United State can be as long as 60 days for some remote regions. If a package gets lost on the way, it might even take more than 60 days for confirmation and arrange to resend.
CJ Dropshipping
Most shipping methods of CJ dropshipping are a bit faster than shipping methods presented on Aliexpress (Not considering the processing time of different products). The way CJ calculates the shipping costs is based on the weight and size of each package. Normally speaking, heavier and larger products will have higher costs.
For now, if there is a 100-gram ordinary product shipping to the US, the fasted ordinary common shipping method CJ packet YT ordinary only takes 6-10 days of delivery.
If some orders need faster shipping time, you can also select DHL. However, recently DHL has been slowing down due to the covid-19 restriction in Shanghai, it will take a while for it to recover. For the details, You can check the Shipping calculator we provide to see if there is a better price and shipping time for your products.
Ways to Deal With Long Shipping Times
1. Choose the Right Shipping Method And Suppliers
The best way to prevent long shipping times when dropshipping is to use faster shipping methods, such as using USPS and CJ packet YT ordinary which provide a fast and affordable shipping option for light packages. Once confirmed you confirmed these fast shipping methods are available for your products, you can start to find a supplier with the lowest processing time.
Processing time is basically the time it takes before your supplier sends out the order. The lower the processing time, the shorter the delivery time for your customer. Usually, the processing time is between 3-6 days, depending on the products and suppliers. And if you or the supplier got available stock for the products in international warehouses, processing time can be reduced to 1-2 days.
It will be a good idea to check if there are suppliers using shorter processing times for the same products before bulk purchasing. Once you set up your business with a supplier who provides cheaper and faster services, you are halfway to success.
2. Make Shipping Times Transparent
You should be honest about your shipping times. Don’t make your shipping times a mystery. If the product is worth to wait, the customer will not care about the shipping time that you told them and they will be ready for waiting. However, if you don’t mention anywhere on your site or emails about shipping time updates, customers will get pissed off and think they’re being scammed. This result may potentially ruin your dropshipping business.
So, how to write about your shipping times, and where to write your shipping times?
You can have a description page like this sentence below to show your shipping updates: “We know a quick delivery is important to you and we are working hard to achieve that. But please be patient, all orders are normally shipped out within 72 hours and will take approx. 2-4 weeks to arrive from shipment.”.
There are multiple places where you can write your shipping times:
- On your FAQ page. You can state your shipping times under a question like “When can I receive my package?”.
- In your Product Descriptions. You can add your shipping times to your product descriptions. Or you can show an estimated delivery date.
- On the order confirmation page. You can put shipping time after the order details on the order confirmation page, as well as show your sincere service.
- Shipping Policy. You can add a Shipping Policy to your store, just like your Refund Policy. Then you can have all the information about your shipping there.
- In the shipping confirmation email. You can also add shipping times in the shipping confirmation email.
3. Improve Customer Service
Having good customer service is an efficient way to deal with the long shipping times. Customer service could make or break the future of your dropshipping store.
①Reply to customers ASPS
Sometimes, customers may ask questions like where their packages are, you should keep in mind that try to reply to them as soon as possible and when you are replying to customers, try to be polite and send tracking information to them.
②Update delivery to customers
You can also keep your customers updated about their delivery. Update your customers as soon as the shipping status of their order changes. Some Shopify apps, such as Aftership, Trackr, and Tracktor can help you update the shipping status.
③Make the dispute policy clear
It is also a good idea to make the refund policy very clear which will increase your customer trust when the return policy is clearly stated on the product page. Kindly explain that you will make 100% refunds if the product is not delivered within this period of time of 30 – 45 days or 60 days. If you wish to have an example of a refund policy, you can check CJ‘s Refund, Resend and Return Policy for reference.
4. Offer A Discount For The Serious Delay
If there is a serious delay, you should offer a discount on your own initiative which can reduce the customers’ complaints and even make them happy. There is data that 99.5% of shipping complaints can be resolved in this way. And if your customers ask for refunds, follow your standard returns and refunds policy, as well as offer a discount.
