When drop shipping, you lose some control over inventory levels, leaving it in the hands of your supplier. This increases the potential that a backorder situation can occur without your knowledge.
The truth is, there is no way to guarantee that an item will be in stock. This is a simple fact of drop shipping. It is a trade off, but one that we think is well worth the benefits. Once you’ve learned how to reduce the possibility of a backorder the benefits of drop shipping become even greater. Here are some top tips for minimizing backorders with your drop ship business.
Monitor Quantities on Hand (QOH)
The most obvious thing you can do to protect yourself from backorders is to closely monitor quantities. Doba provides a data export tool that can help you monitor supplier inventories. If you are able, monitor quantity trends before listing an item in an auction.
If selling items at an online auction, you’ll typically want to only list items that have a large number of items in stock. However, if you have monitored quantities before hand and notice a product isn’t “flying off the shelves”, you may be comfortable selling...