Can any website be set up as a dropshipping supplier?

[Alan15]

Can any website be set up as a dropship supplier. I want to sell the products from some other sites on mine, with their permission, but they are not currently dropshipping sites. Is it possible?

I can just add the products manually, but the most important thing I want is to synchronize the inventories, I thought a dropshipping app might be the best way to do that, but the sites are not set up to allow their products to be dropshipped.

Any ideas

[Olivia]

Hi, @Alan15!

Thanks for sharing your question with our network.

I appreciate the detailed thread to help better understand your situation and recommend next steps. The term dropshipping itself implies that these stores will be storing and shipping the inventory on your store. Therefore, once you have their permission and participation I can recommend a few different routes to achieve your desired result.

1. Set up custom fulfillment on the products - this option within Shopify allows you to connect a fulfillment service that will be able to process orders via email. This is typically determined within the product set-up under "inventory"
   
   
2. An alternative option is to create a custom app by working with a Shopify expert or independent developer. If you are working with several suppliers, this could potentially be the ideal solution for communicating product and fulfillment information
   
   
3. In the scenario where you're hoping to earn a percentage of sales and it's easier to avoid having your own store, you can reach out to businesses you are interested in with an affiliate or marketing proposal. This is an ideal solution for marketing their products on your social network and earning a commission on sales. 

I hope that gives you some new ideas to think over, but let me know if I have missed anything.

Warm regards,

[Alan15]

Hi @Olivia 

Thanks for the reply, it's very helpful.
I probably didn't explain myself very well.
I have a Shopify store. I want to sell products from other suppliers, with their permission, and let the suppliers fulfill the orders.
My main issue is with synchronizing their inventories so I'm up to date with their product details.
I thought that using a dropshipping app might solve this, but they are not dropship suppliers. I was wondering was it easy for them to enable the dropshipping of their products.
Now I think that probably they need to share their product inventory feed file with me and that will allow me to sync their inventory to my store, not necessarily using a dropship app.

I was thinking about how the suppliers can make their inventory feed file available to me, or if there is another approach.

Thanks

[Olivia · Accepted solution]

Ah, that makes sense. Thank you for correcting me, @Alan15!

In this case, any store can definitely become a dropshipper per se. How they choose to share their inventory information and logistics will depend on the route that you both end up seeing fit.

There are scenarios where the custom app option I offered would make absolute sense for you, especially if there were large amounts of product data to be transferred and the dropshipper wanted an accurate account of inventory as items are sold on your store.

Alternatively, 'manually' sharing the information is also an option before investing into a custom app. Luckily, there are some paid apps that can help two different stores sync information too! Check out something like Stock Sync and let me know if that's a good fit?

I look forward to your reply,

[Alan15]

Thanks @Olivia , that's great, the stock sync app looks good, I also found this one called Feeds Bridge. It's just a matter of agreeing with the suppliers on how they want to share their product inventory.

[Olivia]

Amazing! I'm so glad you have those two options to work with.

I read the customer testimonials for both of them and they both have some stellar feedback. It sounds like either will be an ideal solution for you and any future readers of our thread.

Since you are new to the world of dropshipping on Shopify, I also wanted to invite you to discuss any future marketing or business plans. In my experience, a strong guide is just as important sourcing your product is for the long haul.

Happy selling!