ShipStation Launches New Feature To Streamline Dropshipping

ShipStation launched a new feature for ecommerce merchants that work with vendors to drop ship orders, which helps reduce errors and simplifies the workflow.

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For those unfamiliar with dropshipping, it is an order fulfillment model where an online business does keep inventory.

Instead, with dropshipping fulfillment, a merchant purchases the item from a vendor, which ships it directly to the end user.

Some ecommerce businesses supplement their offering by using the drop ship model for less popular items, enabling them to avoid tying up capital in inventory that doesn’t turn frequently.

Yet, they can still offer a broader selection of products, increasing the ability to maintain or even grow customer loyalty.

Recent data shows that nearly 7% of ecommerce businesses already use dropshipping as a way to fulfill orders, and this fulfillment method is expected to grow to $78 billion by 2027.

“Dropshipping holds a massive opportunity for our customers,” said Leandrew Robinson, General Manager of Mesh Logistics at Auctane, ShipStation’s operating brand.

The new ShipStation Dropship Manager is an ideal solution for businesses that fulfill orders in-house as well as use vendors to ship products directly to customers.

It is the company’s first-ever feature developed for online retailers and marketplace sellers to automate the order fulfillment processes, minimizing errors caused by manual entries.

While dealing with one or two vendors may be manageable to manually place dropship orders, it becomes increasingly challenging as businesses grow their supplier networks.

Efficiently aggregating orders, routing those orders to each vendor, and maintaining real-time order updates between vendors and customers can quickly overwhelm online merchants and marketplace sellers.

Taking on those tasks manually on a larger scale runs the risk of increased errors, resulting in customer complaints, and thereby negating the advantage of offering a broader spectrum of inventory to grow customer loyalty.

“We’re thrilled to offer dropship managers a solution that automates order management and fulfillment within their vendor networks, helps them grow in their dropshipping endeavors, and empowers them to provide next-level customer service,” added Robinson.

ShipStation Dropship Manager Benefits

ShipStation Dropship Manager addresses the above-mentioned challenges head-on by optimizing the workflow through:

• Order routing and real-time order status updates between dropship managers and their vendors.
• Branded tracking and custom email domain capabilities to maintain high levels of customer communication with a seamless experience, from the time an order is placed until final delivery.
• Dropship managers can invite their vendors to the platform, allowing them to quickly complete onboarding and go to market faster.

The new Dropship Manager is available today for ShipStation users.