Benefits and Drawbacks: Drop Shipping

When you’re in business, and a customer buys an item that you JUST ran out of… the logical conclusion is you find one and have it drop shipped to them. In an emergency this is fine, maybe even expected. But as a general rule? Let’s look at that.

Benefits: You don’t see the merchandise, its sent directly to the customer. No expensive warehouse to buy/lease, no expensive merchandise to sink money into that might or might not sell. No staff to keep track of said merchandise, and no risk of theft or damage.

Drawbacks: You don’t see the quality of said merchandise. Good, bad or indifferent, you never see it so you can’t testify to it. Also, you don’t know what’s on hand when someone places an order (what if they ran out before your customer’s order and don’t tell you?). Any returns are still your problem not that of the company shipping for you. Something shows up damaged (or not at all), the customer comes to you, not the shipper.

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