How to master drop shipping without losing customers in the process

Retailers looking to efficiently manage drop shipping are reorganizing their distribution networks. By gaining real insight into order lifecycles with supply chain orchestrators, they can establish rules that balance customer experience, operational efficiency and costs.
With the rise of online sales, more and more retailers are striving to meet customer satisfaction and changing customer expectations. While large items are often shipped directly from suppliers, it is becoming increasingly common for retailers to seek drop-shipping options for smaller items, and also for foreign imports. Since larger products and goods require a lot of storage space, and can be very costly to transport, shipping them from the supplier makes the most sense. The same logic can be applied to smaller products, and the rise in online trade has driven this practice as well.
While the benefits of drop shipping are obvious, retailers depend on suppliers to provide a good customer experience, and so they must protect their relationship with consumers. A bad drop-shipping experience from the supplier is going to be interpreted by the customer as poor service from the brand through which they placed the order, even if it is not their fault. According to a MetaPack survey, 45% of consumers have interrupted an online purchase because delivery options are unsatisfactory or limited. To take advantage of the benefits of minimal inventory, and fast delivery, retailers must also implement measures and systems that give them more visibility and control of the process.
Supply chain orchestration and its benefits
Retailers need to be able to make changes and optimize orders individually, in real time, in order to get the maximum benefit. This requires the availability of order lifecycle, inventory management and transportation data. Omnix is a SaaS platform that, among other functions, provides real-time visibility of data flow. By establishing a control tower that orchestrates the supply chain, retailers can gain a holistic view of their entire network, encompassing their warehouses, in-store inventories, partner warehouses, goods in transit and delivery options.
Orchestrating the supply chain makes it possible to tailor each order to the situation, thus choosing a combination of partners and services that ensures customer satisfaction. With a real-time flow of data, retailers can gain opportunities to reorganize to use their resources more efficiently. They can make improvements to their processes, and ensure that every truck and every trip is used to its fullest.
The importance of automating processes
If companies invest in systems like these, they can reroute orders and ensure on-time delivery success. Manual tasks can be automated, thus streamlining service and freeing employees to provide value to their business where it is really needed. Omnix delivers this functionality by automating all processes in one place, streamlining the operation's planning. To achieve true drop shipping success, retailers must ensure that they integrate and streamline their partners' outsourced work until it works in harmony with internal processes.