I’ve been in business for quite a long while but am moving my shop to Shopify from my own domain and wanting to take advantage of the collective app and drop shipping, for a variety of reasons.
I keep stumbling over two issues and wondering how others have solved them.
How to handle customers -existing and potential who have a very derisive attitude about drop shipping? Many are very happy when I tell them everything listed on my site is here, on site, but now I won’t be able to say that.
Everything will no longer ship out together, and I’m sure some customers will be a bit upset about it.
Do y’all tell people you’re drop shipping? If you do, does it impact your sales numbers? If not, what do you say?
Finally…a more rhetorical question, how do I / we work to change customer attitudes because so many seem to see drop shipping as “cheating” or somehow less honest / trustworthy than having every item physically on site?
Nobody says “we dropship.” What works is “we work with trusted suppliers who ship directly to you.” That’s honest and reframes it as a feature. Customers don’t care where it ships from, they care that it arrives on time.
For split shipments, just be upfront. A note at checkout like “Your order may arrive in multiple packages” handles it. The frustration comes from surprise, not from separate packages.
One thing that changes everything: dropshipping doesn’t have to mean China. If your market is the US, look into domestic suppliers like Spocket, TopDawg, or Trendsi that ship from US warehouses in 2-5 business days. When your dropshipped items arrive just as fast as your in-house inventory, customers can’t tell the difference and the “dropshipping = cheap and slow” perception disappears.
The key is being selective about your suppliers and making your site feel like one brand. If a customer can’t tell which products are in-house and which aren’t, you’ve done it right.
@Mateo-Penida got the messaging right, the “trusted suppliers who ship directly to you” framing and the multiple-packages heads up are exactly how you defuse both worries. I’d add the operational side, since you’re going with Collective specifically. Its inventory sync is native and live, so when a supplier sells out it flips to sold out on your store automatically. You won’t oversell or sell phantom stock, which is usually the real fear behind mixing the two.
Two honest catches with Collective though. Items ship in the supplier’s own packaging, so the “feels like one brand” goal has a ceiling, the unboxing won’t match your in-house orders no matter what you do. And it doesn’t generate invoices for those orders, so accounting gets messier, plus if a supplier ever drops you the listings can vanish with no warning, so keep a backup source for anything important. It’s also US and Canada only and needs Shopify Payments, in case that affects you.
Where you can actually close the gap on the one-brand feel: set realistic per-product dispatch and delivery estimates on the dropship items (via metafields) so timing reads consistent across the cart, and repeat the “may arrive separately” line in your shipping confirmation email, not just at checkout, since that’s where the surprise really lands. If you want a hand making the dropship and in-house products feel seamless on the storefront, happy to take a look.
Hope that helps! If it did, a Like and Marking it as Solution goes a long way and helps others find the fix faster too.
My customers will know the difference; there’s no hiding it as my own packaging, hand-written notes, and occasional freebies won’t be a thing on anything drop-shipped.
Also, yes, I am afraid of selling something that is no longer in stock on the supply side, and the resultant egg on our faces. I’ve steadfastly refused drop-shipping for that very reason (along with the fears companies will send out stuff in poor condition but either refuse to replace it or blame it on the shipper).
You cannot change public perception of dropshipping. It’s a flawed business model.
You’re in a unique position because most people either try all dropshipping or not at all. You have been the not at all. So, the question is why change? You’re not going to do yourself or your customers any good by getting into dropshipping. No matter which way you spin it, or reword it so it becomes misleading.. Plus you would be forfeiting any personal relationship you have, and any personal touches that make you stand out.
I wouldn’t do it. Not worth it. The customer doesn’t get a deal. You don’t get the good reviews. And no one makes much money except for the dropshipping facilities. The amount of failed dropshipping stores is staggering…
I’m changing because I will no longer have a brick and mortar location to store stuff. I don’t want to turn my house into a stockroom, and I don’t want to rent a storage shed with no a/c, and likely to have issues with vermin or even theft. Dropshipping fixes the issue until I can find a better solution, or indefinitely if it works out.
I’d say this is the thing – if you’re thinking about your existing customers, then be open to them, tell that you temporarily have no warehouse so items will be sent directly from the manufacturer, but these will be the same items you’e been sending them for some time.
Many prominent stores do that and customers are ok with this as long as they trust the business and looks like your customers trust you.
And of course, it depends on what products you sell.
Say, when I was buying my LG monitor, the seller was direct about “the goods being shipped directly from the the manufacturer” – I was ok trusting the seller, and of course, LG.
And I knew I wont’ be able to get this kind of a deal from LG directly.
Some manufacturers tend to not sell direct to customers at all and this is accepted too.
Dropshipping has this negative connotation when some “entrepreneur” is trying to sell random stuff of unknown reputation/quality from Aliexpress ten times dearer without putting much effort, which does not seem to be the case here.
As usual – ultimately it’s up to whether you have trust and whether you bring value to your customers.
This is opposite with Aliexpress dropshippers – potential customers will trust Aliexpress more and price is better directly from Aliexpress …
I don’t want to say “temporarily” because it may not be so temporary. I have, as I type this, a potential solution coming in the fall, but there are so many things that can go wrong I don’t want to count on it. This may simply be the new normal, and I have to find ways to make it work.
I don’t intend to be dishonest or misleading about anything. Of all the things a seller can do to irk me, lying to me is numbers 1-5. So, I want to up front about the situation, without making it sound like I’ve abdicated my chair or stopped caring.
Finally, I do admit I like the idea of being able to use this method to offer many more items than I would be able to offer otherwise. I love finding new products and new suppliers but have always had to work within the confines of capital and physical space; removing those limits may be a very exciting new chapter…but I recognize the potential for missteps that could sink the whole ship.
So, here I am, trying to find long-term solutions, even if the whole issue turns out to be temporary.
Many customers think of dropshipping as “cheating” because they are sceptical about the product quality and delivery timeline. As this depends on your supplier, you need to be careful about both product and delivery. Once these two are top-notch quality, you will earn customers’ trust. It’s important that you collaborate with trusted suppliers like dropXL, Doba, Spocket etc.
The real issue is expectation setting. If customers know upfront that some items may arrive separately, in different packaging, and on a different timeline, it feels honest instead of disappointing.
That’s a real concern. If you mix in-house inventory with dropshipping, the biggest risks are split shipments, supplier stock accuracy, and product quality. I’d suggest starting with only a few tested SKUs, and make sure your supplier can do QC + stable tracking before you show it as available on your store.
I’ve written my policies and such to reflect the new procedures, and written a blog post I think explains the situation. Am I allowed to post the link here for feedback purposes?
I have, as I type this, a potential solution coming in the fall, but there are so many things that can go wrong I don’t want to count on it. This may simply be the new normal, and I have to find ways to make it work.