How to set up shipping when you have 2+ drop shipping companies?

[Inklined]

Hello, I have been working with one drop shipper where I have to use their Royal Mail facilities. I want to introduce a second and maybe a third both of whom have different shipping  to each other and the first..so I don't know what to do in this situation. The first company said unless I was going to send my own postal service I had no choice. How does it work with three? Do you but the prices corresponding to each supplier? And if someone buys from all three shops? Then what? 

I hope there's someone out there with the answer!

[Sharon-Reeds]

Hey @Inklined,

How you decide to charge for shipping is up to you. Some merchants decide to offset the shipping cost into the price of the products, while others choose to charge their customers the exact shipping cost. There are pros and cons to each method, and what you sell and where you are shipping to make a huge impact on this. My general rule is to never offer free shipping without a minimum spend since it gives your customers no incentive to order more than one item. Free shipping converts, yes, but your goal is to make a profit not just a sale. 

• Your first dropshipper likely has negotiated shipping rates, so it's a good idea to use their rates. Are they able to give you their average shipping cost so that you can charge flat rates? If not, you'll want to use a third-party Royal Mail app to calculate live rates at checkout (you can find one in the Shopify App Store). You can use Shopify's shipping profiles to create shipping costs based on product groups, so you can put all of your Vendor A products into one profile and set that profile to use the Royal Mail app to calculate rates.
• For your other dropshippers, you will configure their Shopify shipping profile based on how they charge for shipping. They should tell you their shipping prices - it's information you need in order to move forward. Without it, you'll be flying blind and it will be difficult to make a profit. 
  
  
• Something to pay attention to in the Shopify help guide for profiles is how your shipping costs from multiple shipping profiles combine into one at checkout. They add based on profile name, and they take the cart total to apply for each profile, not the prof...
  
  
• If you have a lot of products, you can use Automate Shipping Profiles to sort your products into the proper Shopify shipping profile. Without the app, you'll have to manually assign each product to its shipping profile. This tutorial shows how to use the app to bulk assign products for a multivendor setup, much like the setup you will have with Shopify.

I hope this helped send you in the right direction!

Warm regards,
Sharon