How to add dropshipped items to existing website

[amandalc]

Hi there, I have just launched my website of items that I stock locally. However I was wondering if there is a way, to add products from other businesses in Australia, where if someone orders one of their products it sends the order to the other business. ie local small business drop shipping

[JoesIdeas]

Yes you have a few options (I used to own a couple Shopify stores and used a variety of methods).

A) Contact businesses you want to partner with. Share with them your website and your vision, tell them you want to sell their products on your site. Work out payment terms.

Example flow:

1) List their product on your site

2) When a new order comes in, send them an email (or csv, etc however they take orders) with the order details and customer address (people use Order Automator to do things like this automatically, but to start I would just do manual until you start getting some volume).

3) Pay them. Starting out, with a new business, and not knowing your supplier, they will likely request payment before shipping. As you build trust and prove that you're able to do volume, you can work out terms (weekly or monthly). 

I've had payment terms where 1 supplier would invoice us weekly. I also had a supplier where they billed us monthly, but I also had a prior relationship with the company so trust was already established.

B) Use a print on demand company (depending on the products you are wanting to sell), like Printful (I've used them but there are various others too, search "print on demand dropshipping" to find others).

C) 3rd option is be creative. You can do whatever you want, just start talking to the people you want to sell their products, if they're local meet for coffee, share your ideas for collaboration and see how you can mutually benefit each other.

Good luck