Our Dropshipping Service - How Does it Work?

Posted by James Roper on Jul 15, 2019

We have been running our dropshipping service now since April 2019 and it has proven to be very successful. During this time we have be continually making tweaks and trying to make it easier and less risky for you as an online seller to work with us and make money.

This blog post is here to provide information about our service, how it works and to also provide the few rules that we have in place to make sure the system remains a win/win for us and our customers.

What is dropshipping and how does our system work?

Very simply, dropshipping is a sales system where you advertise our products and when you sell a product, we will send it directly to your customer. The main difference between this and traditional sales models is that you do not have to buy and hold the stock before you sell it. This significantly reduces the risk and amount of money you need to start selling online.

Our system is a little different from most other dropshipping services in the high-end fashion sector as it is now £30 a month. Yes, we have decided that in order to further reduce the risk you need to take and money you need to invest in starting selling online we should make the financial cost zero. The only thing you have to spend is a little of your time and you can get selling online. We are doing this as we believe that making it easier for you to start will help you build your business quicker and therefore help you grow sales, which would translate to a growth in sales for us also, therefore meaning it is a complete win/win situation.

Now, lets look at the basic steps of how our dropshipping system works:

1. You use pictures from our website or our Instagram (Style Centre Wholesale) and advertise our products through your selling channels.

2. You keep track of what we have in stock and prices of products through this wholesale website.

3. When you make a sale, you message us the details of your customer and the products they bought.

4. You pay us the amount due for the product and keep whatever profit is left. You can choose your own pricing and don't have any pricing rules, so effectively, you are choosing your own margin.

5. Once you have paid we will send the item directly to your customer and will send you the tracking number.

Now this is only a basic outline but we have tried to keep it as simple as possible. We understand that you will still have questions, so keep reading on to have them all answered!

Frequently Asked Questions and Guidelines

1. What is the pricing model for your products?

Pricing is as follows:

Wholesale price that shows on website

Plus VAT of 20%

£6.00 next day fully tracked and insured UK shipping

£5.00 Fulfiment fee

Example:

Wholesale Website Price = £100

£6.00 Shipping

£5.00 Fulfilment fee

VAT of 20% = £22.20

Total = £133.20

2.Do you accept returns from dropshipping?

We are happy to accept returns if the item we sent out is faulty or damaged or if we made a mistake on dispatch and sent the wrong item. Simply get the item sent back to us and we will offer a replacement or a credit. Please note we do not issue refunds in our dropshipping service.

We will not accept returns if the customer just simply does not like the item or if it does not fit. We would expect you to deal with that return and have it returned to yourself. If we receive an item back and it does not meet our return criteria then we will automatically send the item to your address.

3. Are all of your products 100% authentic?

All of our products are 100% authentic and are sourced either directly from the brand or from an authorised distributor. We have been in business for over 14 years and never have and never will sell fake or replica items.

4. Payment - How does it work?

We accept payment through bank transfer. This allows us to send directly to your customers address. Once you have sent us the customer and products order details we will tell you the total amount. Once you have paid the amount we will confirm payment is received, prepare the order and send you the tracking number.

5. What happens if we oversell?

We work on a first sold, first served basis so whoever sells the item first will have their order fulfilled. Our stock system does take around 3-5 minutes to update over all our platforms so there is a small window of overselling and yes it has happened a few times but 99% of the time there is no overselling. We do have the occasional stock error as trying to keep 16,000+ items perfectly in sync with over 15+ sales channels is difficult but we like to think we are always around 98% correct between our actual stock and the figures on our virtual stock system and do stock checks very often. If you do sell something and we can't fulfil it then we will tell you before you pay. Very frustrating when it happens but as much as we would love to be perfect, we are humans and for that reason there are errors, albeit very rarely.

6. What does your packaging look like? Will customers find out its from you?Our packaging is plastic sealed bags with branded courier logos on it - it will either be Royal Mail, DPD or UPS. The shipping label does have a return address on it but is has our address and then SC Ltd so they cannot search our business name. This allows us to remain anonymous. We do not include any of our own package slips or marketing material into the package. We can add a packing slip or marketing materials into packages but you must provide us with this material either through email so we can print it off or physically send us material such as flyers or business cards.

7.I can't find Style Centre Wholesale on companies house, are you a real business?

Companies House: Our business is registered as Style Centre Limited and the company number is 07915638, we have been a Limited Company since 2012

The registered address is our accountants office in Cheshire as we didn't want our warehouse address on there as its an easy way for thieves to get addresses to warehouses with lots of expensive items! Our warehouse is actually in Scotland.

8. Is there a limit to how many products I can advertise or sell?

We have no limits of how many products you advertise or orders you make. We send out many orders per day and welcome an increase in orders. When you sell, we sell and we both get rewarded for our work.

9. How do I know what is in stock?

This website will show you specifically how many we have available in each size of each product. Simply check the product page and you will see the availability counter. Keep in mind that this will be changing regularly so make sure you check the website before you confirm the sale with your customer. This stock information is automatically updated by our stock system which covers all of our sales channels except Depop, which does not integrate.

10. Where can I get pictures to advertise your products?

You are welcome to use any of the pictures and information we supply on our website but we understand that stock photos are not ideal for selling on social media. Therefore, we are working hard to use our @style_centre_wholesale Instagram account as a picture catalog for our products. We encourage you to use these photos on your selling channels to advertise your products. We will be regularly adding more and more pictures to this Instagram account for your continued use.

11. I am finding it difficult to trust you as I have been scammed before - How do I know I can trust you?

We understand that the internet can be a dangerous place and unfortunately there are people who will try and take advantage of others by selling fake goods or using one of the many different ways of trying to scam some money from people.

Due to the nature of high-end goods and the price tags associated with them, this sector is targeted and used by criminals, so we encourage everyone to be conscious of this. However, we have given various and numerous ways for you to build trust with us from the start. Here is how:

i. Visit Us! We have had many visitors to our warehouse who take time to travel to us, meet us in person, see all of our stock and our operation. We personally feel this is the best as it removes all doubt and means we start with a strong foundation of trust.

ii. Call Us - Talk to us and let us provide you advice and information. Often a quick call is all people want so they know that we are real people and that we know what we are talking about. We understand the fashion reselling business and have been in it for years.

Summary

Well I hope that all the information above has helped you to understand what were trying to do and how you can become part of it. You really can just start now! Take our photos and get posting and sharing them with potential customers and sales will come, its as easy as that. When you make a sale please contact michael@designer-men.com with the sale details and we can get the process going.

Our Dropshipping Service - How Does it Work?

Frequently Asked Questions and Guidelines

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