Thread: online store question

hi all

i need help starting my online store, the problem is when some one order anything i must manually send his order to the dropship vendors!

i will use oscommerce and paypal as payment system also dropship dendors accept paypal.

is there any way i can make this process automated.

thank you for your time.

you know, i am selling my cd online,
and its simple.
paypal is doing everything.
i just added the paypal button, and thats it.
im not sure if thats what you need, but mine is working simply, and great and secure.
paul

thanks paul for your reply
i know what you mean, it's really simple when you sell your own product, you get paid then ship the product. but with my case i'm not selling my own product i sell other merchants products.

There are scripts and programs that can send orders directly to the dropshippers - but your dropshipper has to accept and use the program. Many do not. You need to follow their rules for how the orders are accepted.

Well No job is done until the paper work is in! The only way that I know of that its automated is to run scripts as Beth said directly to your supplier. In most cases, Ive seen this only where the PROVIDER also supplies the hosting and the website! And its USUALLY expensive.

Most of us selling have to make the order, and IF you are lucky that will take you an HOUR a day! With a brand new website, unless you are paying high dollar ppc traffic, i doubt you will spend 10 minutes placing an order!

Geesh! There is no get rich overnite magic here where you just let the bank pile up your cash unless its for a downloadable or affiliate product. Its going to take alot more work than just putting up the site, and people will flock to you and buy. I wish it were so easy!

Ok .. im tired and cranky.. and Im going to bed.. LOL..before i say something which will get me banished or bobble headed!

Karen

Please contact your drop shipper and ask them for there order palcement options.

You need a very particular script for that. In fact, it should be a script that would be placed in the return from PayPal page, it will verify payment,(using PayPals IPN and PDT) and if it is ok, it will look into tha OScommerce database to retreive the order info from the database (info on client, and products). Then it can either send an automated email to the drop shipper, or , if he has an automated order procedure, it could also create a POST to the shippers form that would automatically (if he allowes you to do that) update his orders list.

It can be done, with custom scripting.

Well, now that we all said the same thing - it's not whether or not it can be done - it's whether or not it's really the best route to go - and if the dropshipper will allow it.

Personally, I use some dropshippers - and I do NOT want them to have access to ALL my customer information. They don't get my customers phone numbers or email addresses. Sure, hopefully they are all above board - but some will add all that information to their OWN database and send YOUR customers THEIR advertising. I want to keep my own repeat business.

That said, yes, it can be done - IF the dropshipper does it that way.

It is not necessary that the script passes over sensitive info about the customer. A script of this kind, can simply email those order details that you want (or need) to let the drop shipper to know. The same ones that you would pass him over if you passed the order to him manually.

Even if the supplier doesn't have a form or script that would allow automatic placing of the order, an email with the order details is always possible.

Naval,
You are right, but most of the companies who do this - have their own script and require it to be used - and it DOES pull that information. That's why I was pointing out some cons to it. And every one of the dropshippers has their own system - you can't dictate how the orders go to them. If email is one of them, then that could be set up. But it gets trickier if you're using multiple dropshippers for one store (which I really recommend).

What i meant is that what ever you need to passover to the dropshipper, can be done manually as it can be done automatically. Once the necessary info is in your database, it is ALWAYS possible, with more or less effort, to send the relevant order through a script of yours, and send it either as email, or by calling a script in the dropshippers site. You will only pass then over the info you want. If, f.e. their script requires the client's email, you can avoid giving it, either you do it manually or automatically, because their script will simply refuse to go further. So, your only alternative, is to email or fax the order. This, can be done also in automatic.