Some Dropshipping Questions

Hi, new to the forums, hope i am posting this question in the right section considering it regards dropshipping.

I'm currently putting together a plan to do dropshipping, but on a viable long term basis rather than finding viral items, i really do not know how this will work out for me but i have a game plan in place to do such a thing.

So that does bring me to questions some may be able to answer;

Does dropshipping work if i dedicate my source to one niche area and stick to it, eventually being able to use money to move from drop shipping to being able to own the product myself and become an online retailer with physical goods?


When dropshipping, and someone wants a refund, i'm curious of how the refund would operate.
I'm aware i'm acting as the middleman, the person making the 'retail-like' sale, without having to own the product. However if the product gets to them and low and behold, the chinese crap is broken. I would normally say i'm liable, but being the procurer of the sale but not the shipping agent not goods-owner am i really the one who not only has to have a broken item sent back to ME and then sent back to china, but also lose out on the money?
How does anyone else work in this situation or is their a fine-line of what to do?


Sorry again if this is in the wrong area, but i'm curious about the small extra tid bits of information. Seeing everyone talk about money gets me flustered but there is more to it than just opening a shopify store and making advanced plans to move to barbados with my millions of dollars.

I think you should try PoD (print on demand) services before dropshipping.
Its smaller than Dropshipping but easier and less task to do

Uproar said:

Does dropshipping work if i dedicate my source to one niche area and stick to it, eventually being able to use money to move from drop shipping to being able to own the product myself and become an online retailer with physical goods?

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Yes, stick to your niche and eventually brand yourself. Do it from the get go if you can and have the resources for it.

Uproar said:

I would normally say i'm liable, but being the procurer of the sale but not the shipping agent not goods-owner am i really the one who not only has to have a broken item sent back to ME and then sent back to china, but also lose out on the money?

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As far as the customer is concerned, YOU are the supplier and distributor. They're buying from you and not the Chinese vendor so you're liable for their money. If the customer receives broken goods, ask them to send you a picture and forward it to the supplier. In almost every case the supplier will ship out a replacement free of cost. Or, you'll be refunded for your order and then you can refund the customer if they choose to go that route (they settle for the free replacement almost every time). You get a few odd cases where the customer asks for a refund from the first email to you and even go on to threaten to report you to the authorities or their bank.

You'll sleep better if you just refund the customer when they ask for it. Don't fight them and they might consider buying from you again.

ngocdang83 said:

I think you should try PoD (print on demand) services before dropshipping.
Its smaller than Dropshipping but easier and less task to do

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PoD? I've honestly not heard of this before.
However retail is not something new to me and drop-shipping is just something of the same kind but different package to learn. Well thats the way it looks.

Cryogenesis said:

Yes, stick to your niche and eventually brand yourself. Do it from the get go if you can and have the resources for it.



As far as the customer is concerned, YOU are the supplier and distributor. They're buying from you and not the Chinese vendor so you're liable for their money. If the customer receives broken goods, ask them to send you a picture and forward it to the supplier. In almost every case the supplier will ship out a replacement free of cost. Or, you'll be refunded for your order and then you can refund the customer if they choose to go that route (they settle for the free replacement almost every time). You get a few odd cases where the customer asks for a refund from the first email to you and even go on to threaten to report you to the authorities or their bank.

You'll sleep better if you just refund the customer when they ask for it. Don't fight them and they might consider buying from you again.

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Hey at least my thought process that dropshipping may become obsolete is wrong! The goal is to make a brand, but then eventually build a viral on the side but i need something to stay to make a positive income and build up to something great.

The refund process is just as i expected, i'll be taking the fall and even without proof that it's broken. huh. The post was insightful and i really appreciate it all! thank you for taking your time to get back to me with all this.

Uproar said:

The refund process is just as i expected, i'll be taking the fall and even without proof that it's broken

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Always ask the customer to send you an image of the damaged product. Put it in your refund policy that you don't refund people unless they send you images of the damaged product and within 2 days of delivery.

Cryogenesis said:

You get a few odd cases where the customer asks for a refund from the first email to you and even go on to threaten to report you to the authorities or their bank.

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Seriously, what do you mean by some customer would even threaten to report to authorities ? For fake product ? or ?

cindyrose888 said:

Seriously, what do you mean by some customer would even threaten to report to authorities ? For fake product ? or ?

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If the delivery date is even slightly delayed they start panicking and call your business a scam and then proceed to send threatening emails. They also like to spam the Facebook page with comments like,"Don't buy from this company they're a scam" .