Dropshipping Automation: 9 Simple Automations Every Merchant Can Do

Are you a dropshipping merchant looking for ways to streamline your business operations and increase efficiency? If so, definitely keep reading!

Dropshipping has become an increasingly popular business model in recent years, allowing entrepreneurs to start an online store without the need for inventory or upfront investment. Instead, dropshippers partner with suppliers who fulfill orders on their behalf, allowing them to focus on marketing and customer service.

However, managing a dropshipping business can be time-consuming, especially when it comes to tasks such as product sourcing, order fulfillment, and inventory management. That's where automation comes in.

By automating certain aspects of their business, dropshippers can save time, reduce errors, and scale their operations more effectively.

For example, automated product import tools can help merchants quickly add new products to their store without the need for manual data entry. Order fulfillment software can also automate the process of sending orders to suppliers, tracking shipments, and updating customers on delivery status.

So, in this article, we will learn about dropshipping automation and how it optimizes our business.

Plus, we will discover the best dropshipping automation software out there, too!

Sounds good? Let's jump in!

What is Dropshipping Automation?

Let's start with the basics: what exactly is dropshipping automation?

In simple terms, dropshipping automation refers to the use of technology to streamline and simplify various aspects of the dropshipping process. This can include everything from product sourcing and order fulfillment to inventory management and customer service.

There are many different types of automation tools available for dropshippers, each designed to tackle specific tasks and challenges.

We'll cover the best dropshipping automation tools in just a moment. But first, lets look at why you should bother automating your dropshipping business in the first place.

What Are The Benefits of Dropshipping Automation?

So, what are the benefits of dropshipping automation for merchants?

First and foremost, automation can save a significant amount of time and effort. By automating repetitive or time-consuming tasks, dropshippers can focus on more important aspects of their business, such as marketing and growth.

Automation can also improve efficiency and accuracy. By eliminating the potential for human error, automation tools can help ensure that orders are fulfilled correctly and on time, which can lead to happier customers and better reviews.

Thirdly, automation can help dropshippers scale their business more effectively. By automating various tasks, you can handle larger volumes of orders without needing to hire additional staff or spend more time on administrative tasks.

Since automation removes the need for manual processes, it also helps you save money. For example, if a chatbot can resolve 30% of your customer service tickets, you can reduce your customer support staff costs significantly.

Overall, dropshipping automation can offer a wide range of benefits for merchants, from increased efficiency and accuracy to better customer satisfaction and business growth.

What Are The Different Types Of Dropshipping Automation Tools? 

There are many different types of automation tools available for Shopify dropshipping businesses, each designed to tackle specific tasks and challenges. Here are some of the most popular automation tools you can use:

1. Product research & import tools: These tools allow you to easily import products from suppliers into your Shopify store without the need for manual data entry. Popular tools in this category include Auto-DS, Dropified, and Modalyst.
2. Order fulfillment software: These tools automate the process of sending orders to suppliers, tracking shipments, and updating customers on delivery status. Popular tools in this category include ShipBob, ShipStation, and Shipwire.
3. Inventory management systems: These tools help you keep track of your stock levels and automatically reorder products when they run low. Popular tools in this category include TradeGecko, Skubana, and Orderhive.
4. Chatbots: These tools can handle basic customer service inquiries and support, freeing up your time to focus on more pressing matters. Popular tools in this category include Tidio, Chatra, and Re:amaze.
5. Email marketing automation: These tools allow you to set up automated email campaigns, such as abandoned cart emails, welcome emails, and post-purchase follow-ups. Popular tools in this category include Klaviyo, Omnisend, Mailchip, and other Mailchimp alternatives.
6. Social media automation: These tools can help you automate your social media posting and engagement, saving you time and ensuring that your followers stay engaged with your brand. Popular tools in this category include solutions like Hootsuite, Buffer, and Later.

So, as you can see there's quite a lot of tools to choose from.

This is where a dilemma may arise: You start automating your business, only to find that managing all these separate tools takes up all the time you've freed up.

This is why we'd recommend carefully choosing only those tools that give you the most bang for your buck. One such tool that can automate multiple aspects of your business is Auto-DS.

Let's examine how Auto-DS can help you reduce your workload and save you time swithcing between various apps.

1. Automate Your Product Research

Product research for dropshipping is hard because of high competition, constantly changing markets, limited control over the product, difficulty in finding reliable suppliers, and narrow profit margins.

For this reason, product research can take up a huge amount of time. But Auto-DS makes this process simple.

After connecting your store to AutoDS, you can set up product research criteria, run a search, and analyze the results You can monitor sales and profitability in real-time through AutoDS. This saves you time and helps you focus on other parts of your business.

Just remember to review and adjust your product research criteria regularly to keep finding new winning products the go mainstream.

2. Automate Your Product Imports 

Auto DS makes it easy to import products from various sources, such as AliExpress and eBay, into your Shopify store. Here are the steps to follow:

1. Browse and select products: In the Auto DS dashboard, you can browse and select products from the supplier's catalog. You can search for products by category, keyword, or supplier, and filter by various criteria such as price, shipping location, and product rating.
2. Add products to import list: Once you find a product you want to import, you can add it to your import list. The import list is a list of products you want to import to your Shopify store.
3. Edit product details: Before importing the product, you can edit various details such as the product title, description, and pricing information. You can also add your own images or choose from the supplier's images.
4. Import the product: After you have edited the product details, you can click the "Import" button to import the product to your Shopify store. Auto DS will automatically add the product to your store, including all the details you edited.
5. Check the imported products: After importing the products, you can review them in your Shopify store to ensure that all the details are correct. You can also edit the product details further if needed.

3. Automate Your Order Fulfillment

Auto DS can help you automate order fulfillment on your Shopify dropshipping store by streamlining the process of forwarding orders to your suppliers and updating your store with shipping and tracking information. Here are the steps to follow:

1. Receive orders: When a customer places an order on your Shopify store, Auto DS automatically detects the order and sends you a notification. You can view the order details, such as the customer's shipping address and order items, in the Auto DS dashboard.
2. Forward orders to suppliers: After you receive an order, you can use Auto DS to automatically forward the order to your suppliers for fulfillment. Auto DS will send the order details to your supplier and request that they ship the order directly to your customer.
3. Track order status: Once your supplier ships the order, Auto DS will track the order status and provide you with shipping and tracking information. This information is automatically updated in your Shopify store, so your customers can track their orders as well.
4. Update order status: As the order is processed, Auto DS will automatically update the order status in your Shopify store. This ensures that you and your customers have up-to-date information on the order status, including whether the order has been shipped, delivered, or cancelled.
5. Manage order exceptions: If there are any issues with the order, such as a product being out of stock or a shipping delay, Auto DS will notify you and provide you with options for how to proceed. You can choose to cancel the order, offer a substitute product, or wait for the product to be back in stock.

By automating order fulfillment with Auto DS, you can save time and reduce errors associated with manual order processing. Auto DS ensures that your orders are processed quickly and efficiently, and that your customers receive their orders in a timely and accurate manner.

4. Automate Your Inventory Monitoring

Next, a vital automated dropshipping tool you can use is Price and Stock Monitoring.

This allows you to streamline pricing and inventory management on your Shopify dropshipping store by providing a centralized platform to manage your products, prices, and inventory across multiple suppliers.

You can import products from various suppliers, set pricing rules based on factors such as supplier pricing and shipping costs, and automatically update product prices in your Shopify store.

AutoDS will also monitor inventory levels for your products across all your suppliers, notify you when inventory levels run low, and automatically update inventory levels when an order is placed on your Shopify store. By automating pricing and inventory management with AutoDS, you can save time, reduce errors, and optimize your sales and profits.

5. Automate Pricing Optimization on Your Dropshipping Store

AutoDS's Price Optimization tool can help your Shopify dropshipping store increase profitability, save time, stay competitive, and achieve business goals more efficiently. The tool automates the process of analyzing competitor prices, setting optimal prices, and updating prices in real-time.

Customizable settings allow you to align pricing with business objectives. Overall, the Price Optimization tool gives your store a competitive edge in the dropshipping market.

6. Automate Your Upselling & Cross-Selling 

As every dropshipper knows, profit margins can be slim at the best of times. That's why it's important to focus on maximizing the value of the traffic you're driving to your store.

ReConvert is a Shopify app that can help you automate upselling on your Shopify store in several ways.

First, it allows you to create custom thank you pages for your customers after they make a purchase, which can include upsell and cross-sell offers for related products or complementary items.

Second, ReConvert offers a range of upsell widgets that can be added to your store's checkout pages, offering customers the option to upgrade their purchase or add complementary items to their cart.

Third, ReConvert provides analytics and tracking tools to help you understand the success of your upsell campaigns and make data-driven decisions about your store's marketing strategy.

Lastly, ReConvert integrates with a range of other Shopify apps and tools, including email marketing platforms and social media integrations, to help you automate and optimize your upsell campaigns and reach more customers.

7. Automate Your Order Tracking For Customers

Keeping a handle on your shipping tickets is a frequent headache for dropshippers. With often longer-than-usual shipping times, customers typically like to know when their order will arrive

One of the best ways to combat a huge influx of support tickets related to order tracking is to implement a self-service order tracking widget on your thank you page.

This allows your customers to keep tabs on their order without the need to burden your support team.

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8. Automate Your SMS & Email Marketing

There are several ways to automate SMS and email marketing on your Shopify store. There are several Shopify apps available that can help you automate your email and SMS marketing campaigns. These apps provide a range of features, including email and SMS templates, segmentation, scheduling, and analytics.

One of the best apps to quickly set-up a ready made email and sms strategy is Carti -Abandoned Cart Recovery.

Here's some examples of SMS and email automation that you could send:

1. Welcome message: Send a welcome email or SMS to new subscribers or customers, thanking them for joining your list or making a purchase and offering them a discount code or special offer.
2. Abandoned cart reminders: Send automated email or SMS reminders to customers who have abandoned their shopping cart, reminding them of the items they left behind and offering them an incentive to complete their purchase.
3. Order confirmation: Send an automated email or SMS to customers confirming their order and providing an estimated delivery date.
4. Post-purchase follow-up: Send a series of automated emails or SMS messages after a customer has made a purchase, offering them related products or asking for feedback on their experience.
5. Birthday or anniversary messages: Send automated emails or SMS messages to customers on their birthday or the anniversary of their first purchase, offering them a special discount or free gift.
6. Re-engagement messages: Send automated emails or SMS messages to customers who haven't made a purchase in a while, offering them a special promotion or asking for feedback on how you can improve their experience.

These are just a few examples of the types of SMS and email automation you could send. The key is to personalize your messaging and make sure it's relevant and valuable to your customers. By using automation tools, you can save time and effort while still providing a great customer experience.

9. Automate Customer Feedback Collection

Your customers are one of the best sources of information to inform your business strategy. But collecting accurate feedback isn't always easy.

One simple way to automate customer feedback collection is to use a post-purchase survey on your thank you page.

A post-purchase survey is powerful because:

• Pretty much 100% of shoppers see it
• The shopping experience is fresh in your customers mind

This means you'll get good response rates and relevant data on things like:

• How your customers found you
• New product ideas
• Your shopping experience

The best part is setting up a post purchase survey takes just few minutes with ReConvert.

10 of the Best Dropshipping Automation Tools to Try

Undoubtedly, to truly take advantage of dropshipping automation, we need to find the right software. Although there are many out there, we need to find the one that fits our dropshipping needs best. 

With that in mind, let’s take a look at the top ten dropshipping automation software: 

• AutoDS
• ReConvert  
• DSers 
• Spocket 
• Modalyst
• Dropified
• Inventory Source
• Yakkyofy
• Mail Chimp
• Zapier

1. AutoDS

First, we have AutoDS. AutoDS fully automates our entire dropshipping process, optimizing our business. In fact, it does all the work for us efficiently, allowing us to sit back and reap the benefits. 

In addition, AutoDS has various dropshipping automation features: 

• Product Research
• Product Importing
• Order Fulfillment Automation
• Price & Stock Monitoring 
• Automatic Price Optimization 
• Tracking Automation 
• Inventory Management 

With AutoDS’ automated product research and importing, we can save hours in our day while ensuring we sell best-sellers. Plus, with the entire order fulfillment process automated and with automatic tracking updates, we can avoid errors and fulfill orders efficiently. 

Notably, we can maximize our revenue with price and stock monitoring and price optimization tools. And, having complete 360 visibility of all our listings and stores under one screen is more than convenient. Thus, we can sit back and let AutoDS do all the work while we collect the profit. 

2. ReConvert

Next on the list, we have ReConvert. ReConvert is the best automation tool for cross-selling and upselling. Notably, this software empowers us to boost revenue instantly by 15%. 

So, let’s see ReConvert’s features: 

• Cross-sell 
• Popup with timer
• Product upsell 
• Product recommendations 
• Post-purchase surveys 
• Reorder button 
• Social sharing button 

Interestingly, by utilizing software like ReConvert, we can increase our average order value and revenue. To note, their features are focused on encouraging customers to spend more.

As a matter of fact, tools like the popup with timer and reorder button are designed to trigger more sales. And, to further boost profits, we can use their social sharing feature to promote sales by offering discounts. Ultimately, ReConvert enables us to increase our brand awareness and profits with their all-in-one automation tools.

3. DSers

Up next, we have an official dropshipping partner of AliExpress, DSers. Basically, DSers is a product-finding tool for AliExpress. 

With that said, let’s see what cool features it has: 

• Supplier optimizer
• Bulk order
• Variants mapping
• Automatic order tracking updates 
• Stock management 
• Automatic pricing 
• Product management 

Undeniably, we can stay on top of everything with tools that automatically manage stock and our products. In fact, we can set up automatic bundle offers, buy one get one free offers, and much more. As such, we can have full control over our AliExpress products while boosting profits. 

Moreover, DSers enables us to truly take advantage of sourcing from AliExpress. We can optimize our listings and pricing without spending a ton of time and effort. And, we can be up to date in our fulfillment process and find optimal shipping options. 

4. Spocket

Now we have a sourcing and inventory management automation tool, Spocket. Additionally, Spocket works with numerous suppliers to ensure it can offer a large product variety. 

Moreover, it has some notable key features: 

• Product sourcing
• Fast delivery with domestic suppliers
• Dedicated extension for AliExpress users
• Bulk order automation
• Branded invoice 

Uniquely, Spocket gives us the chance to brand the package invoice. This helps us build brand recognition. Moreover, they also have bulk order automation, which can process and ship multiple orders simultaneously.

What’s more, Spocket has dedicated support for dropshippers that source from AliExpress. All in all, Spocket can help us find thousands of products from various worldwide suppliers.

5. Modalyst

Another popular dropshipping automation tool is Modalyst. Modalyst makes it easy for us to source, list, and sell all types of products. 

With this in mind, this tool has various automation features:

• Niche suppliers 
• Affordable products
• Bulk importer and editor
• Automatic price tracking
• Notifications on inventory levels 
• Product updates 

Notably, Modalyst has its own automated notifications on inventory levels. This tool automatically informs retailers when a product is running low on stock. Plus, the products provided by the suppliers on Modalyst are affordable.

Furthermore, its automatic price tracking notifies us of price changes on our supplier’s website. Thus, we can always stay on top of price changes and optimize our pricing accordingly. 

6. Dropified

Next up, we have another great dropshipping automation tool, Dropified. Dropsified is an automation tool that can import, fulfill, and keep track of ordered products. 

With that said, there are numerous great features that Dropified has: 

• Product research
• Integration with multiple selling channels
• Product image and description editor
• Track, Manage and Customize Orders
• Import product reviews 

Notably, Dropified is perfect for product research and finding best-sellers to increase sales. Plus, the product editing tool ensures we stand out from the competition with our listings. 

Interestingly, we can also import product reviews from AliExpress. In essence, this will help us increase our conversion rates and credibility. 

7. Inventory Source

Inventory Source is a great dropshipping automation tool that does our stock monitoring. This software updates and syncs product data from suppliers to our dropshipping store.

Plus, it has a few other great features: 

• Real-time inventory tracking
• Automatic price and stock syncing
• Automatic order processing
• Tracking number updates
• Listing creation

With Inventory Source’s real-time inventory tracking, we can get real-time updates on inventory stock levels. Plus, with the automatic price syncing, we can stay up to date on any price changes our suppliers might make. 

Furthermore, Inventory Source has various automation tools that make dropshipping easier for us. With that said, the listing creation is one to note. In fact, it will automatically create your product listings with all the product details pulled from our suppliers. 

8. Yakkyofy

Next up, we have Yakkyofy. Much like the other software on this list, Yakkyofy provides various dropshipping automation tools. 

As such, Yakkyofy has some incredible features like:

• Custom packaging 
• Multi-store management 
• Product sourcing 
• Unlimited order fulfillment
• Product evaluation 

Undoubtedly, managing multiple stores under one screen makes dropshipping more efficient. So, with multi-store management, Yakkyofy has us covered.  Plus, it offers custom packaging allowing us to brand our packaging.

Distinctively, Yakkofy has product evaluations ensuring that we only dropship high-quality products. Actually, they will arrange a Professional Quality Control check for you directly in China.

9. Mail Chimp

Our list continues with Mail Chimp. Notably, Mail Chimp is a marketing automation tool that will help us win more customers. Additionally, with Mail Chimp, we can start our online business with their tools for website creation, opening stores, and domain creation. 

So, let’s take a look at some of its key features:

• Marketing CRM
• Content optimizer 
• Behavioral targeting 
• A/B testing 
• Campaign templates 
• Digital Ads
• Landing pages

Interestingly, Mail Chimp is primarily a marketing automation tool; however, it does have additional useful tools. For example, we can easily claim a domain and open a fully equipped online store with their services. 

On the other hand, when it comes to marketing automation, their content optimizer is a godsend. As such, it helps us find the optimal content that will increase conversions. Plus, to optimize our store and marketing, we can use their behavioral targeting. In essence, it targets our messaging based on people’s purchase behavior. 

10. Zapier

Last but not least, we have Zapier. Zapier is an automation tool that connects the apps we use for smoother workflows. Once we set a trigger event, Zapier completes an automated process across all our connected apps. 

With that in mind, let’s see what other great features it has:

• Build your own app integrations
• Move bulk data on demand
• 5000+ apps 
• Customization

With Zapier, we can create a seamless workflow that connects all of our apps and runs our business smoothly. With over 5000 apps, we have a plethora of options to choose from. 

However, if we use an app that is not part of Zapier’s collection, we can build our own app integration. As such, we can integrate with any and every app. 

Use Dropshipping Automation to Grow Your Store Today!

As a Shopify merchant, you know how important it is to efficiently manage your business operations.

That's where dropshipping automation comes in. With automation tools, you can streamline and automate repetitive tasks such as order processing and inventory management, saving you time and effort.

By reducing errors and improving accuracy, automation can help you provide a better customer experience, with faster and more reliable shipping, real-time order tracking, and more responsive customer service.

Not only that, but automation can also help you scale your business more easily, without increasing your workload or labor costs. Overall, dropshipping automation can help you grow your business more effectively and efficiently, while also improving your profit margins.