Shipping times… an inevitable concern that comes up for any dropshipper. Unlike having different store setups or products, there is simply no way to get around the physical time it takes a product to get from your supplier to your customer. However don’t let this get to you! In an ideal world (and hopefully quite soon) dropshipping shipping times will be able to compete with Amazon but for now we’ll have to make it work. Remember, every dropshipper deals with this, including the million dollar stores so you too can find a way! 
Let’s start with before you’ve made a sale. The best thing you can do to combat shipping complaints is set clear expectations beforehand. You want your customers to know before they purchase exactly how long it is going to take. If you’re worried about this dissuading customers remember this is better than them finding out after and having to deal with cancellations or chargebacks. Also if you clearly state the shipping times and you inevitably get that complaint you can fall back on the clearly posted information you’ve made available.
Worst comes to worst you’re stuck with an abandoned checkout, but no worries; you’ve got their email. This is huge and can help us build audiences later.
I’ve found it works to first make sure you have a page on your store that lists your shipping times clearly. Add this into your main menu so customers can easily access it, they will appreciate the transparency (and if their bank calls you know where to direct them).
Add the information as a page to the footer as well. This is normally where customers access contact forms and support so would be a good place to post the shipping times as well.
Finally, when you are setting up your shipping options in Shopify it would be a good idea to includes the shipping times in the shipping name as well. This way even if they are jumping straight to the purchase after filling out their billing information they will be required to select a shipping option (even if only one) and accept the shipping times!
Free shipping (12-25 days) <--- this is for ePacket countries
Free shipping (20-40 days) <--- for non ePacket countries
You might have noticed in the example above that I noted free shipping. This is a great tactic to help with the shipping times! Of course no one wants to wait however if you offer free shipping as an incentive your customers are far more likely to be patient. With ePacket shipping prices this is also very doable for any product price range and won't eat into your margins.
Additionally, most customers (and even yourself) are most likely to be more patient if you know where your package is. You can set up tracking in your store to make sure the customer knows exactly what is going on. This way they can track the progress themselves and won’t be emailing you every week and getting frustrated.
Shipping times are frustrating for sure and no one is arguing against that. However don’t let others steal your sales but convincing you no customers will wait. There will always be someone who is impatient or doesn’t want to wait but that’s okay because there are millions of people (and sales) who will!
What are some strategies and tactics you’ve used to combat shipping concerns in your own store? 
