Webshop dilemma - dropshipping, changed from fast to slow shipping

[Conrad]

Dear friends,

After reading The Millionaire fastlane , I focused more on systems with added value (money systems). Thank you!
I started different eBay/Etsy/other webshops but this one, this time, is actually the best ever in my terms. A monthly 500-700 USD for copy pasting a few customer addresses is easy money right? And no advertising expenses-just organic. But making the website and using Photoshop to create product images is the initial investment in time.

This is a dropshipping product. I've got more sales than expected and it's a UNIQUE niche product. When I started this webshop, my delivery time was 10-20 days and my customers were happy - That's 10-20 days to ship from China to my US customers.

Basically: I have my own product images in my store, customers place orders and pay 3x more than I pay to my chinese manufacturer.
I send the address to my Chinese friend, he makes the product & ships it and within 10-20 days, the US customer gets the product.

Now my Chinese manufacturer changed shipping and he is using the slow shipping and this can take 40 (!!!) days to arrive to my customers in the US. But he doesn't want to use the fast shipping anymore - and he recently blocked me because I wanted several refunds! (my own customers want a refund too if it takes longer than 20 days - which I totally understand)!

But my product is lovely, unique & selling!

I'm only selling to the US bye the way, because it is a huge market.

I decided to stop this webshop, because the only company that can make this item is my chinese manufacturer and they are too slow in shipping LOL. He blocked me, and It's hard to get another name on my credit card that I use to pay LOL

I have more than 50 different models, but 3 models were my best selling and these are at least 80% of my total sales

What would you do?
Stop selling? Find a US located reseller? Sell the business? Share my business model for FREE as educational model? Or what else?

 

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[George Appiah]

Disclaimer: not my alley, just responding with my Common Sense hat on

Now my Chinese manufacturer changed shipping and he is using the slow shipping and this can take 40 (!!!) days to arrive to my customers in the US. But he doesn't want to use the fast shipping anymore - and he recently blocked me because I wanted several refunds! (my own customers want a refund too if it takes longer than 20 days - which I totally understand)!

I don't want to think your Chinese manufacturer simply takes delight in annoying his customers by delaying shipping from 10 days to 40 days. There must be a good business reason for him to have done this... perhaps the cost became unprofitable for him?

Did you try to find out why, and did you try to work out a solution... even if it means cutting into your profit margin or increasing the cost of your product a bittle lit ?

I decided to stop this webshop, because the only company that can make this item is my chinese manufacturer and they are too slow in shipping LOL

This is not my game, but I wonder what product you have that's so unique that only one manufacturer in the whole of China (and the world at large) can make this item?

What if you took a contrarian view and started from the premise that somewhere in big China there must be a manufacturer out that can make your product at the same or cheaper cost and can ship per your requirements... and started searching?

If it takes you 3 months a couple of thousand bucks to find such a manufacturer, would it be worth it? (If it wouldn't be worth it, then you're probably in the wrong business).

He blocked me...

There must be an untold part of the story here

... and It's hard to get another name on my credit card that I use to pay LOL

Even if you could, that's not a good way to build a business, and certainly not the kind of relationship you want to have with your manufacturer... the only manufacturer in the whole world who can make your kind of unique product.

What would you do?
Stop selling? Find a US located reseller? Sell the business? Share my business model for FREE as educational model? Or what else?

I don't know jack about dropshipping, ecommerce, manufacturing or sourcing from China.

And I don't know a whole lot about what you're selling (product, pricing, or sales sales volume, market demand, competition, etc).

But with high "lovely, unique & selling" product, sales volume you can't even fulfil, and customers asking for refunds due to long delivery period, it appears to me that this the perfect setup for Amazon's FBA program.

That is, if you can appease your manufacturer who has blocked you supposedly for no apparent reason, or find another manufacturer.

Have you looked into that?

Anyway, @Walter Hay seems to know this business well. You may want to check out his posts, and possibly connect with him. He has a bundle deal for his two books in the marketplace that you might want to check out: MARKETPLACE - Walter Hay’s Rare Discount Sale.

And @Arun Siva appears to excel on the manufacturing front. Read his posts and reach out to him for advice.

 

[Walter Hay]

@Conrad I find it hard to believe that there is only one manufacturer in China capable of making a certain product. One important point that I teach in my book is to always have a backup supplier, rather than keeping all of your eggs in one basket.

If the product is truly unique, is it patented? If it is not, you should be able to locate another supplier, even if they don't produce that product already.

Depending on what the product is, it might be possible to have the product made in the EU, where you can keep watch over the quality. That would probably reduce the number of returns.

I suggest that rather than have all these problems with customers due to your dropship supplier letting you down, you should consider buying a small inventory. You can ship that to a fulfillment center in the US and they will ship quickly to your customers.

Walter