Too risky to drop ship apparel?

[cazzina]

Hey everyone,

I've been doing extensive research on drop shipping in the past couple of weeks and I found products in two different niches that could turn out to sell well, but I want to start with one of the two niches to be able to focus on them. So, one of them is clothing (not gonna go too much into detail here)- But I was wondering: Isn't it kinda risky to drop ship apparel? I mean, if I drop ship mugs or kitchen gadgets for example, they don't have to fit, while all bodies are different and chances are that a lot of customers won't be happy with the fit of the clothes, which would lead to a lot of refund requests (which won't be easy considering that the drop shipping would happen from China).

Would you recommend to stay away from the apparel niche? Or how could I solve that problem? Thanks!

 

[CaptainKorruptz]

If you want to drop ship the apparel, make sure you include sizing charts, where you can convert "Chinese sizing" to other countries. Then also make sure you include a return policy, either stating that they will return it to an address supplied by you, or that you won't need to return the product and to let them tell you if it is too small or too big and you will send them a new one at no cost.

Sure its risky, but so is gadgets could easily get a broken item or not what they expected, you could also look to see if there is a drop shipper who has domestic returns.

Just my 2 cents, I sell tee's with other products and don't seem to have many returns

 

[msyaz]

Follow your heart and your mind. If you know its risky, don't do it. Do something that you know which is less risky

 

[Marcel Freiberg]

I worked for a large retailer a while ago. The returns for clothes are very high. It depends highly on your product. Bikinis form example got 70% return. Socks on the other side have 8% returns. Normally this is not a problem because of the very good margin. Bikini bought for 2,5$ and sold for 50€.

 

[ilais]

Piece of advice>> it's too risky = you'll have to deal with refund because the shirts quality are often bad!
So I suggest you look for POD companies and believe me there are a lot.. just google them + try to focus on the base price of the products as well as the shipping to the US and worlwide. Hit that LIKE Button for me^^

 

[INCC]

My first dropshipping business was clothing niche and i can tell you its definitely the worst one.. They will send constantly wrong sizes, as i pointed out on every product that they need to order 1 size bigger it didnt help much.. The Chinese will send whats available, they just trying to "pass" you that and hope you wont return it.. im not saying that happens constantly but it happens from time to time.. second, all those clothes are so low quality and have so much issues that many buyers want to return, those who dont.. will leave you negative feedbacks into trustpilot.. i had like a 85% negative feeds there and nothing i could do about it.. It's just the quality is not up for standards and people get pissed off because they have waited the package too long.. Fortunately for me i managed to sell my site for 10k and someone else took over the curse. So think twice, it's really pain in the ass niche.. i suggest choose something else.

 

[BeastOfEcom]

DO NOT drop ship clothing from China.

It will be refund central due to clothing not fitting

 

[Betty1994]

DO NOT drop ship clothing from China.

It will be refund central due to clothing not fitting

What SHOULD an individual drop ship?

 

[DrDuran]

don't necessarily have to go for China there are drop shippers in Europe too

 

[Marcel Freiberg]

As usual products which little weight, no returns, a buying price < 5$ per piece, legal, no or little competition, ...
choose wisely

 

[cindyrose888]

I worked for a large retailer a while ago. The returns for clothes are very high. It depends highly on your product. Bikinis form example got 70% return..

In the end WASTING ALOT of time. Even though the profit margin is high. Also, dealing with all those returns/complains/enquries is a BIG HEADACHE. I rather earn less. Less stress.

Someone mention Gadgets. Well, other than NOT in good working condition. still got to deal with buyers asking TECHNICAL Questions ! Ouch

 

[plottsch]

In the end WASTING ALOT of time. Even though the profit margin is high. Also, dealing with all those returns/complains/enquries is a BIG HEADACHE. I rather earn less. Less stress.

Someone mention Gadgets. Well, other than NOT in good working condition. still got to deal with buyers asking TECHNICAL Questions ! Ouch

Get interns. Wast their time. High margins pay for them in my experience. Interns learn and are useful for higher level stuff after a while.

 

[Dillon]

Use common sense while picking brands to do, unless you want to deal with the legal troubles.

Hope that helped!

 

[LLboss]

don't necessarily have to go for China there are drop shippers in Europe too

Can you name one?All i find in EU its wholesalers.

 

[DrDuran]

Can you name one?All i find in EU its wholesalers.

hi sorry i was researching drop shippers from my niche and the factory was based in Poland, i just researched a lot of shops that were related to my niche and googled their products and backtracked to find the drop shippers in Holland. it's just a lot of research cant give any off top of my head because im not in that business yet

 

[cindyrose888]

Get interns. Wast their time. High margins pay for them in my experience. Interns learn and are useful for higher level stuff after a while.

Nah no need interns.

 

[Akanagi]

Lolz I have a clothing dropshipping website and i'm not having all these issues exposed above.
I do make sure to choose top quality suppliers and every time I make a sale, I buy the item on aliexpress and I attach a message with "please do send the right size and top quality as i'm dropshipping for you, I want my clients to be happy etc. etc." In every 100 sales i will have 2-3 max 5 unsatisfied clients, in case they are not happy with the product well cant do nothing about that. In case its the wrong size or colour i make a replacement.

There is plenty of money to be made in the clothing niche. Its just about choosing the right audience and how you present yourself to it.

 

[Fang Yu]

There is a lot other apparel company with good quality product out there. Aliexpress isn't the only one. It's more valuable to sell 10 product that cost 200$ a months and not 100 product at 20$. Just think of it, it is a good niche but you have to work hard to stand out.