Can UK dropshipping really be a sustainable and eco-friendly business model? With plenty of turbulence in global markets, macroeconomic factors affecting both consumers and businesses, you may be reassessing your suppliers, fulfilment or networks that make your business tick.
Confidence in importing goods from abroad has taken a dip due to a multitude of reasons. From the global pandemic that caused supply chain issues, a falling pound, to the war in Ukraine causing us to reconsider who we do business with; our awareness of where our products are sourced from has never been higher.
All of this, alongside a continued push to lower our carbon emissions, puts the ethics of dropshipping under the spotlight. Can a business model that is geared towards concentrating on the marketing and front-end user experience of an ecommerce site, with little involvement in order fulfilment, allow us to choose where and how a product gets to our customer?
What is dropshipping?
First, let’s remind ourselves of what dropshipping is. Dropshipping is a business model that doesn’t require the need to stock your products, rather it is a business built upon sound marketing and user experience practices. The products are processed and shipped by your supplier from their warehouse and your role is as a lead generator for those sales, dictating your margin on top of the supplier’s price per unit.
Traditionally many suppliers on dropshipping marketplaces are based abroad, where consumer products are generally produced on a much greater scale. However, with consumers becoming far more conscientious of product quality and origin, many manufacturers are beginning to work with UK dropshipping suppliers to make sure their products are reaching a wider market, with a huge amount more visibility and marketing that is created by being sold by an array of different vendors.
There are now many dropshipping providers that take where their products are sourced from into consideration. Acting as a marketplace for independent and larger manufacturers these platforms can provide solely UK-based suppliers for products. This enables both shipping times and carbon footprint to be reduced.
Dropshipping in the UK
One such platform is Avasam. This UK-based dropshipping platform easily integrates with your online store, sourcing quality products from UK-based suppliers, and automates your order processing, payments and shipping.
Working with an external partner can be daunting, with the worry that they may not fulfil orders promptly or have complications with their own supply chains. However, using a dropshipping marketplace such as Avasam means that a vetting process is carried out by them, with a vast database of UK-based suppliers. UK suppliers also means UK-based support and contacts which can make communication across businesses a lot simpler.
Make your UK dropshipping business sustainable in more ways than one
There are many elements of the software and services you may use that can be geared towards providing a more efficient customer experience. UK-based suppliers are more easily accessible, if you do wish to check out their products yourself, and their customer support being based in the UK means that if your customers do need to contact them about their order, for any reason, they may have more trust if they feel like communication is clear.
UK Dropshipping marketplaces like Avasam also provide fantastic updates about current trends, and what products are selling well across ecommerce. This means that you can cater your stock to seasonal trends, and most importantly to trends relevant to the UK, which we know can differ from that of other countries.
If you want to start a sustainable business with a low-carbon footprint, then dropshipping may well be the viable option it once may not have seemed. To learn more about dropshipping then visit our beginner’s guide to dropshipping for more tips.
