The Chinese New Year of 2023 is incoming! For many dropshippers, the Chinese Year Period has always been a critical time for their dropshipping business. Shipping delays, products shortage, and countless customer complaints, if haven't experienced dropshipping during Chinese New Year before, you have no idea how hard it can be.
But if you prepared well, you will find the Chinese New Year is also a time full of opportunities to become a winner.
So how exactly can the Chinese New Year influence your business? How to keep your business running normally during the Chinese New Year? Well, let's get started and find out!
What Is the Chinese New Year?
Chinese New Year, which is also known as the Spring Festival or Lunar New Year, is the biggest national festival for people in China. Traditionally, the Chinese New Year event lasts 15 days, and the time can be extended according to local customs. During the Chinese New Year, all the workers in China will get a long period of holidays. So they can use the holidays to celebrate the reunion of the family after a year of hard work.
However, this also means most factories, companies, supermarkets and even convenience shops will become unavailable during the Chinese New Year. Therefore, most Chinese family needs to stock daily supplies in advance to make sure there are enough food and items to enjoy the festival.
For international eCommerce business owners, running a business during the Chinese New Year can be a great challenge.
How will the Chinese New Year Affect Your eCommerce Business?
As long as you work with Chinese suppliers, the Chinese New Year event will affect your eCommerce business significantly.
For now, the 2023 Chinese new year officially starts from January 21st to January 27th, lasting 7 days. However, this doesn't mean the whole event only lasts for 7 days. In fact, the Chinese New Year period can be much longer than you expect.
Manufacturing Delays
In the past years, factories in China would gradually turn off their machines and close their workshops in the middle of January. By doing this, factories can save more budgets while letting workers have more to spend with their families.
However, the absence of factories means you may not able to find a good supplier for your dropshipping products. So once your current supplier is on holiday, you may need to take time to find another supplier or wait until the holiday ends. This result will eventually lead to a manufacturing delay for your orders.
Pandemic Influence
In fact, the 2023 holidays may start much earlier than ever before for dropshippers. First of all, the pandemic influence has been keeping bouncing back throughout 2022 in China, and the situation is still getting worse in the winter. Due to this fact, many factories in certain high-risk areas are under serious restrictions.
To avoid another pandemic outbreak, these factories have to let their workers start the spring holiday earlier. Meanwhile, the Chinese New Year holidays may also be extended since many workers may need to have quarantine while traveling between their workplace and hometown. This means many factories may not able to work for an entire month from January to February.
Products Being Out of Stock
According to the records of the past year, many factories in China will clear their inventory at the end of every year so they can prepare new products for the next year. And since factories usually don't get many orders at the end of the year, some factories may even not open from January 10th till February 15th.
So what will happen if you want to ship products from the suppliers to customers in that month? It is highly possible that the supplier need take 15 or even longer time to send the products. This is because the factories may already sell out all of their stock or they don't have available workers to manufacture and send the products.
Therefore, even if the factories are back to work after the holiday ends, it will still take some time for them to manufacture a new batch of products and reschedule their work plan. As a result, if you are getting an order during the Chinese New Year, you may need to wait for your Chinese supplier for can more than 15 days to get the products ready.
Shipment Delays
Even if you are lucky enough to get available products from suppliers during the Chinese New Year, your orders may still not arrive in time. Because the Chinese New Year is shared by all the people living in China, which means the shipping or courier companies that you work with will also have long-term holidays.
Although the shipping companies usually will not have an entire month of rest like factories, the delay will still be significant for dropshippers business. In the past, the shipping company usually arrange their holiday around January 25th to February 8th, and each company will have its schedule for the holidays.
Thus, even if your products are available, the shipping may still encounter several days of delay after suppliers send the products out. To prepare for the shipment delay in advance, you may need to ask for a schedule from your shipping partner before the Chinese New Year.
Customer Complaints
What is the most headache part about manufacturing and shipping delays? It is the endless customer complaints. Nowadays not many people can wait for a product that takes one month to deliver. If customers can't see or track the products that they ordered, they will probably come to you and starts to complain about your store shipping service.
Moreover, some upset customers may directly ask for a refund or cancel the order and eventually leave a negative review on your store. Such results can bring a lot of damage to your store and your business. This is why there are so many new dropshippers who stopped running their business after they experienced dropshipping during the Chinese New Year.
How to Prepare Your eCommerce Store For the Incoming Chinese New Year?
Now you understand no matter whether you are doing dropshipping or wholesale business, it is always a good choice to prepare for the incoming Chinese New Year. But as a dropshipper, what exactly should you do?
Purchase Inventory in Advance
There are multiple options that you can choose to prepare for the Chinese New Year. If you cooperate with manufacturing company outside of China, surely you can choose to work with suppliers in different countries. However, it is really hard to find stable and cheap suppliers outside of China, not to mention the shipping and product costs can be way higher as well.
So, should dropshippers just simply close their store during the Chinese New Year? No, there is still another option you can choose: Purchasing inventory stock in advance
Use China Warehouse
Since the suppliers will not able to provide the products during the Chinese New Year, so you should purchase enough inventory and keep them in a warehouse located in China. Then every time your customer order a product, the warehouse staff can directly ship the products from the warehouse to the customers. By using this method, you can minimize the negative influence of product shortage problem during the holiday period.
Therefore, if you do not know how much stock you should prepare, you can base it on your monthly order amount. Because the Chinese New Year period will last for an entire month, so you can calculate how many winning products you sold every month, then purchase the same amount of products to stock in a warehouse. Besides, many successful dropshippers would purchase the amount one and half a month in advance, in case of manufacturers need more time to make the products after the new year.
Use International Warehouse
Although stocking products in a China warehouse is a good option, it still can't completely get rid of the influence of shipping delays during the Chinese New Year. That's why some experienced dropshippers prefer using an international warehouse outside of China to stock their products.
For example, if your target market is in the US, then you can find a US warehouse provider to help you stock the products from China. Then once your US customer places an order, the warehouse can send the product directly to the customer within 3-7 days! Such a great and speedy shipping service can make your business grow way faster than your competitors.
However, the cost of an international warehouse is usually much higher than a Chinese warehouse because of the different labor costs. And you also need to plan in advance to ship the stock one month ahead before the Chinese New Year comes, so you must make sure that you can sell all these products. Thus, purchasing international warehouse inventory is mostly suitable for experienced suppliers who got enough budget.
Find Trust Worthy Fulfillment Service Provider
If you want to know where to find available warehouse providers, CJdropshipping is here to help you. On CJdropshipping, you can choose to source from various Chinese suppliers and then stock your products in CJ warehouses. Our professional warehouse staff will keep your inventory safe and sound. Once your customer places an order, the warehouse staff will send the product directly to the customer. Thus you don't have to wait for the supplier to send the products anymore.
In addition, most Chinese factories tend to clear their stock at the end of the year, so they would be more likely to sell their products at lower prices in bulk. This also means it is the best time for you to ask them to provide a discount for purchasing their stock.
Prepare Your Store
Shipping during Chinese New Year can be really different than your previous dropshipping experience. Therefore, you also need to update your store shipping and service policies to inform your customer in advance.
During the Chinese New Year period, you can set your store shipping time a bit longer than regular days, also adding some information about explaining why the shipment can have delays sometimes. As long as your customer aware of notifications and terms, they will be more patient when unavoidable delays happen.
Moreover, if you got some stable customers and you also have their contacts like emails. You can also send emails with special notifications after customers placed orders on your site. Such notification would improve your customer shopping experience and help you get fewer complaints from impatient customers.
Keep in Contact with Your Supplier and Shipping Company
Always feel free to keep in contact with your supplier and shipping partners. Because as a dropshipper, you will not need to arrange the shipping or make the products on your own, this also means most of the time you also do not have much information about the products and shipment as well. Thus, getting this first-hand information from your supplier and shipping partners is important for your business, especially in times like the Chinese New Year period.
For example, you will need to know when your supplier factory will close so you can purchase inventory in advance. Also, you need to be informed when your fast shipping channel may become unavailable due to the holidays. Although some factories and companies may inform their clients when the holiday comes, most factories do not have enough staff or time to do it.
So you should always remember to ask the suppliers and shipping companies when they will be off during January and February. So then you and your business can have a complete plan throughout the Chinese New Year.
Cooperate with CJdropshipping
Does CJdropshipping Also Have Days Off During the CNY?
If you are currently working with CJdropshipping, you may also wonder whether CJdropshipping will have holidays during the Chinese New Year period. Just like all the other companies that base in China, CJdropshipping also celebrates the national Chinese New Year every year, so our dedicated staff can have good rest after a year of hard work.
However, this doesn't mean CJdropshipping will be off during the Chinese New Year. In fact, CJdropshipping always values your business as our own business, so we won't abandon every single order even if it's holiday time. When the Chinese New Year comes, CJdropshipping will arrange available staff for every international warehouse. Meanwhile, the online agents will also work shifts to help you check all of your orders, and the tickets that you posted on CJdropshipping will also be solved during the holidays.
How Do I Know When My Suppliers Have Days off During the CNY?
If you wish to know when your supplier and shipping channels will be unavailable during the Holidays, CJdropshipping will also help you solve it. During the Chinese New Year period, all the CJ agents will be in contact with suppliers and factories. Once the suppliers confirmed their holiday dates, your dedicated agent will also send you a notification through email or chats to help you prepare your inventory and store.
Also, our logistics team will get first-hand information from all our shipping couriers and partners, once a shipping channel is confirmed to be unavailable during certain days, we will also inform you through emails and notifications. So if you wish to know when your preferred shipping channel will be unavailable during the Chinese New Year, please stay alert with our site notifications and emails.
Wrapping It Up
In conclusion, although the Chinese New Year period can be a difficult time for many dropshippers, it also is a good time to scale up your business. Because if you are prepared well, you will be one step ahead of your competitors.
If you have any other questions, please feel free to contact CJ's online chat room, our 24 hours online customer service will be there for you. If you have any thoughts about CJdropshipping or suggestions for us, please also feel free to post a ticket to us. Because at the end of the day, all our work is meant to help your business grow smoother and faster.
Happy New Year, Happy dropshipping!
