How To Negotiate A Minimum Order Quantity For Dropshipping
Before knowing the dropshipping Minimum Order Quantity, we should introduce ourselves to the term. A Minimum Order Quantity (MOQ) is the number of products needed for a business to purchase from a wholesale supplier in order to do business with them. MOQs are more likely used in bigger companies or large-scale businesses; think about Amazon, Alibaba, etc.
Why is a MOQ beneficial? By having a Minimum Order Quantity, businesses are more likely to get supplies of products at the best prices per unit. However, bear in mind that MOQs also need you to pay for products that you don’t end up selling. So, that’s a slight bummer!
How MOQ Benefits Dropshipping
With the dropshipping business model, you don’t typically need a MOQ, and thus you don’t require paying for products that don’t get sold. That’s a major pro in dropshipping. That said, involving MOQ in your business can benefit you and the buyers. Here are some ways how:
Easy To Tap Into Order Logistics
As a seller without a MOQ, it may sometimes get difficult to process an extensive collection of individual product orders, especially when there’s a shortage of time. Instead, using MOQ is more convenient and practical, and you also benefit from better rates while shipping in bulk. You can even automate dropshipping orders to keep track of the products’ orders.
Increases The Profit Margin
Maintaining the logistics and the manufacturing details is much more efficient with minimum order quantity as you only pay for the bulk. Therefore this reduces wastage and increases your profit margins by a significant amount.
Builds A Solid Relationship With Buyers
This one comes with no questions. If you are able to provide affordable bargains for your customers and buyers, you are the winner here. Therefore you also get the advantage of enjoying a healthy relationship with buyers on a long-term basis.
Tips To Negotiate A Minimum Order Quantity
Negotiating a minimum order quantity should be done by being smart. You need to master the art of negotiating with your supplier. And to do so, you either have to know a supplier or have to be his regular customer in order to forge a strong connection. If you are starting afresh, it’s expected that you won’t have any suppliers on your contact list. So, what to do then? Here are some tips for you to follow if you want to negotiate.
Ask The Supplier For Samples
We call it bargaining mastery! It’s pretty straightforward. Most of the time, your target customers ask for high-quality goods, and this is where you can outsmart your suppliers. When negotiating the MOQ, ask them for a sample of the product! This is a good way of knowing a supplier’s intention towards the negotiation. Suppliers often hesitate to share samples with buyers, especially new buyers. So, talk to them in a very professional manner and ask them if they can help. It also works wonders if you explain why you are requesting to see the samples. Tell them that you want to check if the products don’t lack in quality or such.
Suppliers at this point will either agree with and show you the samples or will still be very hesitant. Ask them to deliver real pictures, videos of the images, history of credibility, etc. If he still shows resistance, it means the product lacks quality. Now is your time to negotiate and ask them to lower down the MOQ. If the supplier is still hesitant, then it’s best to not work with them.
Do Your Research On MOQs
We all agree that we don’t want dishonest suppliers who can’t even show us a picture of the requested product. There are plenty of fish in the sea after all! And that’s why you need to maximize the effort of researching more about the market and the suppliers. A good place to start is the platform you are currently using, as there are many suppliers for the same products. You can even try searching on different platforms too. Most of the suppliers list the MOQs for the products to run a prompt comparison between the suppliers and choose one that suits you best.
Check all the MOQs the supplier offers, and you may have a chance of finding a supplier who sells the same product with decent quality and lower MOQs. Have a chat with them and ask for samples from them. You can also tell them that other suppliers are offering lower MOQs for the same products; this may make them reconsider the MOQs.
Request For A Combined Production
If you are ordering supplies that are common amongst other buyers, you can ask the manufacturer to do the combined production of your order with someone else who also wants the exact product. You can try requesting your supplier to manufacture your order along with the other products others have ordered.
If the supplier agrees to manufacture them for you, they may require extra time for production until he receives the minimum total order he can produce. That way, you don’t have to order extra.
Final Words
Speaking from buyers’ point of view, order requirement dropshipping or MOQs have given birth to many boons such as flexibility in prices, better product quality, building a great relationship with suppliers, etc. So, as a dropshipping business, you get to gain more from MOQs. That’s it for today! We hope you have learned a thing or two about MOQs and how to use suppliers to your advantage.
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