So how do you track your inventory? How do you deal with price changes when retail dropshipping on sites like Poshmark, Mercari, Facebook Marketplace, even Tiktok, etc...?
Do I use software? Do I have something that automatically connects in and is constantly changing everything to make sure I never sell an item that’s out of stock? ….or never sell an item where the price has drastically increased…and now I’m losing money?
So, when you're dropshipping on platforms like Amazon or eBay, there's a lot of software available that can track and adjust your prices and inventory based on your supplier's website. This ensures that you remain profitable and never receive an order when your supplier is out of stock.
A common question I get is what software I use for sites like mercari, poshmark, offer up, Facebook Marketplace, etc.
Surprisingly, I don't use any software for this. I have over 40,000 listings across all of them and manage it all without a repricer or stock monitoring tool. Here's why:
Beginners: When you're just starting, you don't have enough listings to justify the cost of repricing software. You're not getting enough sales to need it, and you can manage your listings manually VERY easily. Plus, any software solution you would use for this would get EXPENSIVE VERY FAST (since it's ultimately a numbers game).
Intermediate and Advanced Sellers: At this stage, while software might sound advantageous because you have more listings, consistent sales will bury any occasional need to cancel an order due to stock or price changes. If you have to cancel an order, it will get buried in your metrics because you're selling consistently…so it won’t matter.
And then, at that point, you can simply put the product out of stock/delete it from your inventory so you don’t sell it again, or increase the price if you’re losing money and canceled for that reason.
For example, I rarely have to take a loss on a product. If I do, I adjust the price immediately or cancel the order if the loss is significant. Since I sell 10 to 20 items a day roughly, one canceled order every week (or even every few days) doesn't impact my overall metrics significantly.
Depending on your account, you can cancel up to 5% or 10% of your orders without issue. And of course, platform to platform is differs….but generally speaking you if you’re selling a bunch and canceling an order here or there…its no big deal.
When a supplier is out of stock, I keep track of the order in a spreadsheet and check back daily. If it's still out of stock after a few days, I cancel the order. This rarely impacts my metrics because it's a small fraction of my overall sales.
Many people overcomplicate dropshipping by thinking they need special software or special sourcing strategies. They think they need all the bells and whistles to get started and make any money….but that’s the furthest thing from the truth. Keep it simple. It doesn’t need to be complicated. I PROMISE YOU….you can always complicated later if you want to.
Currently, you don't need software to monitor your prices or stock unless you're using very obscure suppliers.
Most suppliers used by dropshippers have stable stock levels and prices (relatively speaking - especially if your main suppliers are going to be amazon or Walmart).
Now if you’re using something like target, ebay, or elsewhere, then you might need to change a bit more frequently…but that’s why I suggest building the base of your store with amazon and Walmart FIRST. Then starting to branch out to other more obscure suppliers because then you can get different product types, differentiated products that no one else is seeing on these sites, and increase your margins.
Moreover, if you're listing with a high enough margin then slight price fluctuations on your supplier's website won't put you at a loss.
To summarize, don't overcomplicate things. List a bunch of items, see what works, and scale from there.
If you're not making consistent sales, list more products.
Avoid getting caught up in the latest software trends; if you have a listing software that works, that's all you need.
If you’re dropshippng on somewhere like poshmark…then maybe you need a share bot too. That’s it.
It’s simple. It’s not sexy. But it works…and it’ll get you paid.
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