Understanding drop shipping: Do I need to adjust product weight and shipping rates?

[GreenwoodSales]

I'm new to drop shipping and wanted to make sure I know everything there is to know before I start and mess something up.

When a customer fills an order on my website for a product that I linked from Ali Express, do I need to do anything with the shipping? Do I need to adjust the product weight, shipping rates etc.? Or is the product going to be shipped to my customer directly from the manufacturer when they fill out an order on my website?

[ShipAntdotcom]

This is the shipping settings you should do when you dropship from Aliexpress, you can set free shipping and paid shipping. You do not have to adjust the weight as it is usually around that scale, for the free shipping you can include the Aliexpress shipping cost in the product price, for paid shipping, you can set priority shipping rates such as dhl, fedex etc. if necessary.

When you set the shipping rates, you should ask the supplier help you estimate shipping cost, then you set on Shopify. Once you have orders you can order from Aliexpress, they will help you ship to clients directly.

[GreenwoodSales]

Is there somewhere you can point me to for a step by step example on how to handle all of this? I'm quite confused as my imported products from Ali Express or Oberlo come in as 0. And I'm not quite sure how to properly handle or adjust the shipping rates.

[Andrew]

Hi @GreenwoodSales,

Hyde here from Shopify.

It's fantastic to hear that you're trying out dropshipping and that you want to make sure you're fully prepared for when you start off!

So first things first, the basics:

Dropshipping is a retail fulfillment method where a store doesn't keep the products it sells in stock. Instead, when a store sells a product, it purchases the item from a third party and has it shipped directly to the customer. As a result, you never see or handle the product.

(You can take a look at our ultimate guide to dropshipping. It will walk you through everything you need to know about starting off, finding suppliers, and maintaining your business.)

It all starts when a visitor to your site purchases a product from you. Even though you are buying the product from a supplier, you need to charge the customer on your website and send the order through to your supplier yourself.

Are you using Oberlo? If so I’ve made a video on how to fulfill an order. When you see an order in your admin, you will need to first go to your Oberlo app and order it from the supplier. The video shows you how to do this. Once you fulfill the order, you then need to go back to your Shopify admin and click the ‘fulfilled’ button. This will send a notification to the customer saying that their order is on the way.

Because your customer needs to pay you for the product price (whatever price you choose to make the product) and for shipping, you need to set that up on your website. 

When it comes to shipping, here’s an informative Shopify Blog called Everything You Need to Know About ePacket Shipping: ePacket Delivery Explained – Shopify that’s crucial for you to check out if you are using Oberlo.

Ultimately I believe the most important resource for you is our Dropshipping 101 course on our Academy. Sit through it, watch it, try it all out on your own store.

If you still have questions after all that, I'm here and happy to help! Or, if you prefer, you can contact Oberlo directly via their email address hello@oberlo.com for any more information.

I hope this helps! Let me know how you get on!

All the best, Hyde.