Dropshipping

[lesliekirk]

Back in 2013 I had asked about Dropshipping. Bill's answers worked back then but now I need a 2023 Miva 10 solution. How are store owners handling the need for dropshipping?

[William Davis]

Back in 2013 I had asked about Dropshipping. Bill's answers worked back then but now I need a 2023 Miva 10 solution. How are store owners handling the need for dropshipping?

lesliekirk, those are workaround solutions. The ideal solution would be Viking Coder's Vendor Manager (4.34c) module from back in the old days (MM4.24c OpenUI) stores, anything else is nothing more than a hack in my humble opinion and here is why "Use Viking Coders Vendor Manager in old MM4.24, are there similar MM5.5 solutions?" -the same applies to Viking Coder's Affiliate Manager, it's not just triggering alternate template emails, there is a lot more to it than that.

[Kent Multer]

What specific features do you need to support drop shipping?

I have a Shipping Manager module that's been used by a few clients over the years. It allows items in an order to be shipped from several different locations, using several different shipping methods. It doesn't send emails to the vendors, but that would be an easy feature to add. If you're interested, you can contact me to discuss it in detail.

[lesliekirk]

What specific features do you need to support drop shipping?

I have a Shipping Manager module that's been used by a few clients over the years. It allows items in an order to be shipped from several different locations, using several different shipping methods. It doesn't send emails to the vendors, but that would be an easy feature to add. If you're interested, you can contact me to discuss it in detail.

Thanks, Kent, let me see if I can get more details. It sounds like this store owner has a few very heavy items that the manufacturer ships directly for them.

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

If its only a few items, the 'simple' method is to poll the basket contents on the INVC screen, and if that product is there (either using product codes or custom field), trigger a SMT SendEmail() function to the vender.

That being said, a robust 'Drop Shipping' set of features would be an awesome addition to Miva and its probably going to come more of a prevalent need in the future.

[William Davis]

What specific features do you need to support drop shipping?

I have a Shipping Manager module that's been used by a few clients over the years. It allows items in an order to be shipped from several different locations, using several different shipping methods. It doesn't send emails to the vendors, but that would be an easy feature to add. If you're interested, you can contact me to discuss it in detail.

Kent Multer, that's great, but still lacking other key features a true Drop Ship "Vendor Manager" solutions provides.

Examples:

1. Send Vendor email of order placed with a packing branded slip copy to enclose with order.
2. A method for Vendor to quickly notify Customer and Merchant order was shipped (e.g.: Date, Carrier, Tracking Link) with store branding, and most important
3. A tracking system that keeps tracks of all orders placed with each drop shipper and order details, status, amount due to drop shipper, amount paid to drop shipper, date paid to drop shipper, method paid drop shipper, payment transaction confirmation code, Monthly statements, etc. to facilitate reconciliation between merchant and drop shipper.
4. Dream Feature - Pay option, once drop shipper is ready to be paid, click and it would automatically issue payment (e.g.: Digital Wallet, etc.).

Viking Coders Vendor Manager did all that (with the exception of the last feature), it was a very slick solution.

We tried the manually, we were forced to quickly abandoned drop ship orders because there is no way to manually keep track of all that without a Vendor Management solution.

[Kent Multer]

Hi Bill,

Features #2 and 3 on your list require help from the vendor. If they have a server with an API, it's possible for a Miva module to find out the status of an order. If they don't have an API, the module can provide a way for the vendor to notify you of updates in the order status. Or the vendor can just notify you, e.g send you an email, and you can update the order status manually in the admin pages; that would be OK if the volume of drop-shipped orders isn't too high.

#4 is more complex. The Miva store is designed more for collecting money than for paying it out :^) . But there's probably a way to do it.

[alphabet]

A robust 'Drop Shipping' set of features would be an awesome addition to Miva and its probably going to come more of a prevalent need in the future.

I think a vendor drop shipping email had always been on the Road Maps but they later decided to stay focused on Miva's core competencies as this was more of a 3PL function.

the 'simple' method is to poll the basket contents on the INVC screen, and if that product is there (either using product codes or custom field), trigger a SMT SendEmail() function to the vender.

You're right. That's about as simple as it gets.

I've been using a Store Morph solution ( requires toolbelt) for over ten years. I then built out on its features such as custom Vendor Email Templates and estimated ship dates for customer emails and merchant reviews.

Each product is assigned a custom field vendor code and turnaround time. Then for baskets with multiple items it uses SendMail() to send a purchase order email to each unique vendor.

My vendor data is held on a NoSql Firebase database so the Miva DB is never touched.