Out of Stocks

Out of Stock item from your Supplier?  What do you do?

If an item goes out of stock or increases in price, here is what to do:

See if you can find it elsewhere. Another website amazon.com, overstock.com you can also search for the item via a Google search to see what you can find.

Contact your supplier to see if they know when it will be back in stock. You can contact them through their website or by phone.

Find a similar item to the one ordered. In a different color or slightly different style perhaps) that is priced the same or similarly for example.

Send a message to the customer informing them that the item went out of stock just before they ordered it and let them know their options like when the item will be back in stock (if your supplier can tell you anyway), offer the customer the option of just getting the similar option if it is agreeable, or offer a refund. Something like this will suffice:

"Hi (insert customer name or username here),

Thank you for the order you placed with us Unfortunately, the item you ordered sold out just before you placed your order. We do apologize for the inconvenience. There are a few options we have for you though. We will be back in stock in 5 days, and we can ship it out then, or we do have the same item in green instead of blue, so we can ship you the green one today if you would prefer. We can also issue you a full refund. Again, we apologize for the inconvenience, please let us know what you would like to do."

Obviously, if the suppliers do not know when the item will be available or if you cannot find a similar enough item, then you would take those parts out of the email. When possible, give the customer options so that they feel they are deciding what to do and you are not forcing anything on them.

Then let them make the choice, and do what they ask you to do by refunding the order, placing an order for the similar item or simply wait for the item to get back in stock.

Supplier Contact Outline

Supplier Contact Outline 

• Introduce yourself  
• Tell them where you found their company information  
• Let them know you are interested in selling their products on your website or on ebay
• Ask for information on their reseller program 
• Do they dropship?
• What information do they need from you in order to give you their wholesale price list? 

You can stop at this point if you want to, and wait to ask all the other questions once you have received wholesale pricing from them and completed your market research. However, if you want to ask other questions in your initial contact go ahead and do so.

Do they offer blind dropshipping? 

Is there a dropshipping fee? 

Do they have images and other information you can use to construct your initial site? 

What courier/couriers do they use? 

What is the average cost of shipping?

Is there insurance available for expensive items? 

Do they have some sort of order tracking system in place? 

How will you transmit orders to them? 

Do they have a written return policy? 

How will complaints be handled? Them? You? Joint? 

Do they charge a restocking fee? 

Get the name of a contact person at the company that you can follow up with if you have more questions. 

Remember: at this initial stage, the most important information to get from them is wholesale prices, so you can determine whether or not you can be competitive. You will usually not find a "perfect" situation, so if you find good pricing you may want to be flexible on some of the other issues.