[jamaicabound]

(07-15-2017 02:23 PM)WeekendCasanova Wrote:  

1) The packaging does not show the true cost. In your fulfillment service (Oberlo), you leave a note to the supplier that you're dropshipping, and they do not include the cost, receipt, or invoice. Only the product.

This is 100% incorrect assuming your talking about shipping to USA customers. Anyone who's ever ordered a product off Ali Express knows this. I'm not talking about invoices inside the package which most sellers don't include anyhow, I'm talking legally a package cannot enter the USA through customs without a declaration on the package which clearly states what's in the package, the quantity, and the cost. Now many sellers lie about the cost but typically lower not higher so in reality your customers are probably seeing a lower cost than you actually paid which in some ways makes it look even worse.

2) Shopify encourages dropshipping. If you have a slow-shipment time notice in your FAQs, receipts etc, your customers are less likely to file a chargeback.

Never disagreed that Shopify doesn't encourage dropshipping, Shopify has a dropshipping guide and regularly blogs giving tips on how to do this as well as promotes apps which assist iwth it so nobody is saying SHopify doesn't allow dropshipping.

That said you act like customers are actually going to read an FAQ. On my website during checkout I have GIANT BOLD RED lettering explaining something to customers and almost none of my customers actually read it. You can put it right front and center in front of people's faces and in my experience most people don't read. Ask any eBay or Amazon seller about this, you'll clearly have dimensions of your item and you'll still get someoen messaging you, what size is this shirt or whats armpit to armpit. I must answer 10 questiosn a day stating "that's explained in the description". Most people don't read.

3) I've had maybe 2 chargebacks in over a year of running stores. I've never lost a chargeback, and have NEVER heard of someone being blacklisted for getting a chargeback issued against them.

If it's working for you awesome keep doing it but just browse reddit or any ecommerce forum and you'll see dozens if not hundreds of people crying about chargebacks. As far as being blackballed just do a google search of high risk processors, that industry wouldn't exist if people weren't blackballed. The last merchant processor I got wanted to see 6 months of processing history and while not typical I was told that I was high risk when I had 1 single chargeback which I won over the course of hundreds of successful transactions. One chargeback typically isn't a huge issue, I think industry average is about 1% but excessive chargebacks will get your processing terminated and you'll have a hard time finding new processing. BTW Stripe and PP are not real processors, youd ont have a true merchant account your setup with hundreds of other people.

4) Most stores ARE upfront about their shipping times.

Some people are super upfront while others try to hide it in fine print deep in an FAQ page which IMHO is counterintuitive as they are better off bing upfront and losing a few sales than dealing with dozens of customers repeatedly messaging or calling asking about tracking info.


Are people successful dropshipping, absolutely, more power to them. I still say the vast majority are not successful and in the day and age of Amazon where people pretty much expect packages in two days with easy return policies ali express dropshipping isn't exactly a great customer experience.

At the end of the day most dropshippers will rightfully say this...look there's a very specific type of customer who will buy my product, they like the cheap price and are willing to wait a bit, nobody else matters, and that's true. If you can find those customers you can do well for yourself.