Okay. It's time we talk about dropshipping shipping times. I'm going to give it to you straight COVID-19 has impacted dropshipping shipping times. And right now, as a filming, it's taking about a month for products to get from suppliers, to customers in major e-commerce markets like the United States and the United Kingdom Now these longer shipping times, they completely freak out new dropshippers.
I see it every single week but the funny thing is they don't freak out customers. After all, if customers weren't willing to wait that long for products Oberlo wouldn't exist, dropshipping wouldn't exist. I wouldn't exist, but I do exist. And Oberlo exists, and customers are willing to wait for products that they love. Dropshipping shipping times are not business killers.
And I want to talk to you about why that is and what you can do to ensure that your business thrives despite longer than overnight shipping times first, the why remember back when you did your product research, the first criteria for winning products that you looked for was you were looking for a product that customers either couldn't find in brick and mortar stores, or wouldn't even think to search of in online stores. There's a reason that was the criteria you were looking for.
And just so you know, I'm going to talk even more about that honey dispenser. I'm like obsessed with it. Let's pretend I'm a customer and you want to sell me that honey dispenser, you market the honey dispenser to me by running a Facebook ad. And that Facebook ad appears in my Facebook feed. That's how I first see it now because I'm on Facebook I'm not in shopping mode when I see this honey dispenser, I didn't go on Facebook looking for a product that would solve my sticky honey on the table needs no, I went on Facebook looking for dog adoption videos.
So I could waste a few hours. This is important because when I see your honey dispenser video, I'm going to stop scrolling and I'm going to think, Whoa, I want that. That's what I'm going to click on your Facebook ad also because your Facebook ad will be great because you've finished this course and followed the lessons about Facebook ads. After I click on your Facebook ad, I'll arrive at your product page. And as I read the product description that you wrote for this honey dispenser, I'll read that the honey dispenser will take a few weeks to reach my doorstep due to popular demand. And I think fine, just give me that honey dispenser.
The reason that's going through my head is because I didn't wake up that morning thinking, Oh shoot, I need to buy a honey dispenser. My life was no poorer without a honey dispenser in it. But then I encountered the honey dispenser and it's a problem solving product that I never knew existed. And I never knew I wanted it. And because it costs less than $25 and requires no research, all I'm thinking is why not buy it? Okay. Yeah.
Maybe some customers are going to compare prices. They might go to a competitor site like Amazon or eBay and look up this product. If they can figure out the search terms to try to see if they can get it for cheap in later lessons, I'll walk you through sentence by sentence, how you can write product descriptions and FAQ that put customers' minds at ease when it comes to those longer shipping times, I'll also tell you how to communicate customers after it's shipped.
So you can answer customer questions about where their product is and how long it will take for the product to get to their doorstep. I just want to mention personally, I've run dropshipping stores where it's taken up to three weeks for customers to receive their products. And I would say only maybe one in every 10 orders does a customer even bring up shipping times. Even then the customers have been really nice about it. And I've been able to answer the questions just by looking up a tracking code. A lot of aspiring store owners will quit right now.
They'll hear about long dropshipping times and they'll decide this will never work. And they'll walk away from all the work they've put into their business to this point. Do not be one of those store owners. This will be hard advice to follow. If you're building your store while the COVID-19 pandemic is still affecting dropshipping, there are a lot of people who are going to say a month is way too long. I'm not going to build my store.
There are lots of steps you can take to build your store without spending a lot of money on ads. In the meantime, especially if you're watching this lesson while the COVID-19 pandemic is still affecting dropshipping. You're probably hearing a lot about how long dropshipping times are and how now is not a good time to start. I beg to differ. Now is still a great time to start building your business. You may just have to do things a little bit differently. I've left a link in the description below to a YouTube video where I go over all the kinds of ways you can build your store without spending a lot of money.
While the COVID-19 pandemic passes, be bold, don't quit and build your online store. I'm here to help you every step of the way.
