Dropshipping can be a great business model for many online traders. With dropshipping, as the retailer, you don’t need to manage any physical inventory. Instead, when customers complete an order, the details are sent directly to the wholesaler who fulfils the order, shipping directly to the consumer.

Using this model, the retailer never sees or handles the product that the customer receives. While this comes with many obvious benefits, it also has many limitations, which many online retailers find to be increasingly frustrating as time goes on. If you are a small business, customer service and establishing a robust brand is crucial in expanding your business. 

With dropshipping, it is difficult to maintain any control over customer service as you have no control over your inventory. What’s more, you don’t have the ability to brand your packaging, include personalised messages or other additions that can build credibility in your product.

With these limitations, and more, many online retail owners decide to make the transition to being a standalone business to increase profits and take more control of their business.

Continue reading to learn how you can make the shift from drop shipping to a standalone business. 

Accounting Software

Moving away from a dropshipping setup, you will have more financial considerations in your business. You will need to handle shipping, packaging and packing your products before sending them out.

Following the top sole trader money management tips, it’s wise to employ accounting software to help you to manage your finances more efficiently going forward. These systems can help you to keep track of your expenses, monitor your incomes, create financial reports and ensure you are compliant with your ATO reporting obligations. 

Create Space

Whether you are working from home or you have dedicated business premises, you will need to rearrange your space or possible move to a bigger location. Moving away from dropshipping, you will need somewhere to store your inventory.

If you sell jewellery, this might not be a big issue, but if you sell televisions, it will be a major concern. Create or find a space that is large enough to store your inventory safely while having enough room to create a workspace and packing station.  

Inventory Management

Finding an efficient way to manage your inventory is crucial in ensuring your business continues to be a success moving forward. There is a range of apps and software programs you can choose from to help you to manage your stock.

These systems can be integrated with your website and other purchasing channels to ensure a seamless solution for your business. 

CRM Software

Customer relationship management (CRM) software can help you to keep communications with your customers organised. Being in control of your own inventory means that you will need to deal with returns and any issues that customers have with your products or service directly.

CRM software allows you to keep track of communications with your customers so that you have a record of what you last spoke about. This will help to improve the customer experience as issues can be resolved quickly and it will allow you to provide the best customer service possible to aid customer retention.

Drop Dropshipping And Take Control Of Your Business

While dropshipping is a low-risk, easy-entry into the world of e-commerce, it does come with many drawbacks. With less control over your branding and customer service, it is difficult to progress your business much further.

Profit margins are also much lower than when you operate as a stand-alone business and manage your own inventory and logistics. To build your brand, expand your business and increase your profits, consider moving away from dropshipping and taking full control of your business to establish yourself as a true entity in your niche.