Has anyone done a hybrid model of dropshipping with shipping myself? I’d like to do gift baskets and would keep a low inventory to compile and ship those myself. Rest I would drop ship. I’m wondering if this would overcomplicate things.
Hybrid is normal and worth doing. Plenty of stores hold a little inventory for the stuff they assemble and dropship the rest.
The real thing to plan for is the split, not the idea itself:
- track your gift-basket components as real inventory so you don’t oversell a basket you can’t build. the dropship items you don’t stock, so leave those untracked or let the supplier feed stock.
- an order that mixes a basket + a dropship item ships in two packages on two timelines. set that expectation on the product page and in the confirmation so it doesn’t feel like a delay.
- keep the two fulfillment paths clearly separated (a tag or a dedicated location for what you ship vs what the supplier ships) so picking is obvious.
it doesn’t overcomplicate things if you decide up front which SKUs are yours and which are dropshipped. the mess only happens when a product could be either.
Thank you! All good advice.
Happy to help 
If you have any issues, feel free to reach out