Shipping

Payments + Shipping & Fulfilment
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Topic summary

A newcomer to dropshipping is seeking clarification on fundamental operational questions:

Key Questions:

  • Where to source products for dropshipping
  • Where products should be shipped/sent
  • Whether to purchase inventory in bulk upfront or order items individually as customer orders arrive

Status: The discussion remains open with no responses yet. These are foundational questions about the dropshipping business model, which typically involves partnering with suppliers who ship directly to customers without holding inventory.

Summarized with AI on November 1. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
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I am new to the dropshipping game and I’m not sure how it works. My main questions are: Where do I buy my products from? Where do I send them? Do I need to buy in bulk or do I buy products as orders come in?

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Welcome! The concept of dropshipping might seem confusing at first, but trust me, it is quite simple.

You do not buy products in bulk. You rather have a supplier who manages the products. Once a customer orders a product from your Shopify store, you buy the product from the supplier, and the supplier ships the product to the customer.

So, therefore:

The products are supplied by a dropshipping supplier.

The orders will be delivered directly to the customer

You pay for goods only after receiving an order

Begin with understanding the flow of orders and suppliers available, and then move to product and store development before scaling :slightly_smiling_face:

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Hey @Oumieda,

In dropshipping, you don’t usually buy inventory upfront. Instead, you work with suppliers who already have the products. When a customer places an order on your Shopify store, you then order that item from the supplier, and the supplier ships it directly to your customer, not to you.

So in simple terms:

  • You source products from suppliers (commonly platforms like AliExpress, Temu, or dropshipping marketplaces).

  • You don’t send products anywhere yourself. The supplier handles shipping to the customer.

  • You usually buy products one order at a time, only after a customer has paid you. That’s what keeps startup costs low.

Once you get a bit more comfortable, some sellers do move into buying in bulk or using private warehouses to speed up shipping and improve branding, but that’s more of a next step, not something you need on day one.

If you want to make this easier as a beginner, an app like Dropshipman can help. It lets you browse products, connect with suppliers, place orders, and track shipments all in one place, instead of doing everything manually. It’s especially useful when you’re still learning how the whole flow works.

Hope this helps a bit! If it does, feel free to mark it as a solution so others can find it too!

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