Dropshipping Fulfilment Strategies for eCommerce Success

Leveraging the services of an eCommerce dropshipping fulfilment supplier is an intelligent way to launch your online business. With nearly 85% of the UK making eCommerce purchases, the digital marketplace has become the place to be for budding entrepreneurs.

However, the initial costs of manufacturing, storage, and shipping can make it difficult for fledgling businesses to find a foothold, let alone compete with established companies.

With Whistl’s dropshipping fulfilment services, you can outsource these aspects of the supply chain. This article breaks down the dropshipping fulfilment model, including how it works and strategies to improve your order fulfilment process. 

What Is Dropshipping Fulfilment?

Dropshipping fulfilment is a supply chain management approach that enables retailers to fulfil orders without maintaining inventory. Instead, when the retailer receives an order from a customer, it forwards it to its manufacturer or 3PL logistics provider, which prepares and ships it directly to the customer.

This supply chain solution makes dropshipping fulfilment an appealing option for online businesses, streamlining the fulfilment process and enabling your customers to receive their orders faster while reducing the cost of maintaining inventory.

How Does Dropshipping Fulfilment Work?

Before we break down the dropshipping fulfilment process, here is a breakdown of the terms we will be using:

• Retailer: Someone who sells products directly to consumers.
• Manufacturer: Someone who creates products but does not usually sell directly to consumers.
• Dropshipping Supplier: Someone who purchases products from manufacturers, maintains stock of said products, then packages and ships products on behalf of retailers.

As dropshipping suppliers maintain their product inventory, retailers who use dropshipping fulfilment effectively remove manufacturers from their supply chain. This is evident in the following outline of the dropshipping fulfilment process:

1. The Customer Places an Order

When a customer places an order through an online store, their payment is captured at checkout and deposited into the retailer’s bank account. As this happens, an automatic notification is sent to the retailer to alert them to the order, while the customer typically receives an email receipt of their transaction.

2. The Retailer Forwards the Order

Once the retailer receives the order notification, it forwards it to its dropshipping supplier. The supplier should have the retailer’s banking information on file so it can charge the retailer the product's wholesale price and any processing, handling, and shipping fees.

In some cases, an automatic communication line can be established between the retailer and their dropshipping fulfilment supplier, so the supplier is alerted to the order at the same time as the retailer.

3. The Supplier Packages and Ships the Order

Once the supplier confirms they have stock and the retailer has an up-to-date payment method, the order is packaged for shipment to the customer. While the order is sent directly from the supplier to the customer, the retailer’s name and logo will appear on the packaging, and their address will be included on the return address label.

Once the order has been passed to the courier service, the dropshipping supplier will contact the retailer with an invoice and the shipment's tracking number. Provided the supplier has stock of the desired product, this process can be completed in a few hours, allowing retailers to offer next-day delivery options to their customers.

4. The Retailer Forwards the Tracking Number

Once the retailer receives the tracking number, it forwards this information to the customer. This is usually done through the retailer’s online store, so the customer is unaware of the dropshipping supplier’s involvement.

Upon delivery, the customer receives an email confirmation from the online store. After the retailer has paid the supplier, the dropshipping fulfilment process is complete.

Extra Steps: The Supplier Manages Returns

If the customer’s order has been damaged, the product is faulty, or they decide they no longer want it, they may be entitled to return it. While your dropshipping supplier will handle most of the logistics involved in a return, there are a few additional steps that require input from the retailer:

• The customer requests a return from the retailer.
• The retailer requests the supplier's return merchandise authorisation (RMA) number. This is subsequently forwarded to the customer.
• The customer returns their order to the supplier, including the RMA number on the address label.
• The supplier refunds the retailer’s account the order's wholesale price.
• The retailer refunds the customer the full price of their order.

Benefits of Dropshipping Fulfilment

Advantages of Fulfilment Services

• Accessibility for small businesses

Dropshipping suppliers operate their fulfilment centres, manage inventory, ship products directly to your customers, and handle returns. Dropshipping fulfilment enables businesses to manage everything remotely, from anywhere in the world, while ensuring a high-quality customer experience.

• Low initial investment

Without the support of a dropshipping supplier, you may need to invest thousands to accumulate an inventory large enough to meet the demands of your first customers. As dropshipping suppliers charge you for each order individually, dropshipping fulfilment provides a more cost-effective solution at the start of your venture, so you can invest your capital in other aspects of your business.

• Low overheads

As the payment structure for dropshipping fulfilment remains the same throughout your relationship with a supplier, you can maintain consistently low overheads as your business scales. This makes eCommerce dropshipping a viable fulfilment method for home-grown businesses aspiring to mainstream success.

• Streamlining order fulfilment

Outsourcing dropshipping fulfilment significantly streamlines the fulfilment process for eCommerce businesses by consolidating product purchasing, stock management, order processing, packing, and shipping under a single provider, thereby optimising operational efficiency and dispatch times at a rate that rivals industry leaders.

• Providing excellent customer service

By leveraging the experience and efficiency of a dropshipping supplier and the tracking capacities of their courier services, your business can provide excellent customer service from the outset. This allows even brand-new ventures to adopt the professionalism of more established competitors.

• Wide variety of available products

Partnering with a dropshipping fulfilment provider gives you access to their expansive product inventory. If your supplier stocks a product that could appeal to your consumer base, you can list it on your online store at no additional expense to your business.

• Opportunities for scale

Dropshipping can enable rapid scaling with your selected 3PL provider handling your inventory, storage space and staffing requirements to meet increased demand. Your selected dropshipping fulfilment provider handles stock management, packaging, and deliveries, enabling you to scale your business without reinvesting heavily in your operational structure.

Challenges of Dropshipping Fulfilment

While dropshipping fulfilment offers multiple benefits for new and small-scale businesses, you should know some of the challenges of outsourcing your order fulfilment. Whistl has taken steps to reduce these challenges for our clients. Still, when unforeseen or unavoidable issues arise, our dropshipping fulfilment team will do everything possible to resolve the situation for our clients and their customers.

• Stock being unavailable

Delegating inventory management to a dropshipping fulfilment centre puts retailers at risk of selling out-of-stock products. Taking payment for orders that cannot be fulfilled can damage customer trust. 

How can Whistl help? Our inventory controls and regular reporting help to ensure that your online store accurately reflects the stock available.

• Stock being faulty

Products can sometimes be faulty or feature imperfections during the manufacturing process. While our picking and packing teams can identify damage or severe imperfections, faults with a product may not be evident until it is in your customers' hands.

How can Whistl help? When customers receive faulty items from our dropshipping fulfilment clients, Whistl can assist with the returns process and contact the manufacturers on your behalf to inform them of this lapse in quality control.

• Poor unboxing experience

Managing packaging in-house gives retailers more control over the unboxing experience, enabling them to create unique, personalised packaging that makes a lasting impression on their customers. While your orders will be repackaged and addressed in line with your business’s branding, it is more challenging to curate novel unboxing experiences when you are not personally involved in the packaging process.

How can Whistl help? Communicate your packaging or personalisation requirements to our dropshipping fulfilment team to ensure your customers have the best possible unboxing experience.

• Delays in shipping

Depending on where your customers are located relative to your supplier’s fulfilment centre, they may experience shipping delays while their order clears customs. This delay in order receipt can damage your relationship with customers, especially if expected delivery dates are longer than advertised.

How can Whistl help? Our fulfilment team has decades of experience dealing with customs procedures and cross-border shipping, so we will happily provide guidance and support in this area. 

• Low profit margins

The products available through your dropshipping supplier are also available to any other retailer partnered with that supplier or any supplier that purchases stock from the same manufacturer. While some retailers earn revenue through exceptional service and premium products, others lower their prices and profit from selling larger quantities than their competition.

How can Whistl help? We recommend researching when creating your digital catalogue. If you have to sell products close to wholesale price to undercut the competition, you may want to question their inclusion in your online store.

What to Consider When Choosing Your Dropshipping Fulfilment Supplier

• How reliable are they?

Partnering with new or untested dropshipping fulfilment suppliers can be incredibly risky for your company’s finances and reputation. Ask to do a site visit and review customer testimonials on the service. 

• What are their shipping costs?

It is common for dropshipping businesses to charge customers for shipping costs to maximise revenue. While your customers are unlikely to take issue with this, asking them to cover unreasonable shipping costs could make them less likely to order from you again or prompt them to abandon their purchase altogether. When choosing your dropshipping fulfilment supplier, consider whether their shipping costs align with what your consumer base would be comfortable paying.

• Where are their fulfilment centres located?

The location of your supplier’s dropshipping fulfilment centres will determine the shipment speeds you can offer your customers. The fulfilment centres' locations and access to courier agents could affect the daily order cut-off times and consumer order delivery schedules. 

Dropshipping Fulfilment with Whistl

With over 1.5 million square feet of fulfilment space strategically placed around the UK, Whistl can offer tailored solutions to online brands and retailers. When you partner with us, you'll be paired with an account manager who oversees the order fulfilment and provides regular updates on eCommerce fulfilment performance. 

Artilce Updated: January 2026