This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hey, what's up? Welcome to a brand new week. Welcome as well to episode 1801, 1801. We are still going strong, approximately 1801 days since we started January 1, 2017. I'm so glad you're out there.
Now today I've got a listener question about dropshipping. Okay, dropshipping is the practice of having some other company send out the product you sell. So you take in the orders, you send the shipping address to the dropship company and they handle the physical shipment. And in some cases it's a great way to not deal with inventory or warehousing or any of the supply chain complexities that come with shipping. But of course there are also costs to doing this and there's a vulnerability.
If your dropshipping company drops out or if your dropshipping company drops the ball, who do you think the customer is going to blame? I mean, they ordered from you. They don't know anything about the other company. So today's listener is in a bit of a dropship quandary. How can she best protect herself with this vulnerability?
That's what we're going to talk about. Question and my answer coming up after this quick sponsor message. [Music]
Hello Chris, this is Tori and I've been following your projects for a couple of years. Thanks for all the helpful advice. I'm learning about dropshipping and have found a vendor that sells and ships expensive leather wallets and belts.
It seems like a good market to go into. Even though there's a lot of competition, there are also a lot of buyers. My concern is that this company isn't very responsive. I mean, they respond to my emails to slowly if at all. I often have to ask two or three times to get a simple answer about something and I'm worried that I could end up selling for them and then have problems with customers not receiving the items.
My customers would be mad at me, not the company because I'm the one who sold it to them. So is there some way I can protect myself? And do you think it's concerning that the dropshipping brand is so unresponsive? I'm looking forward to hearing from you. [Music]
Well, it's tricky.
I mean, sometimes people in companies are just not good at certain parts of their business. So Tori asks, do I think it's concerning that the dropshipping brand is so unresponsive? Well, it is concerning, but there's a chance that even though they aren't super communicative with her, they would still do a good job with customer shipments. That's absolutely possible and sometimes that's just how it is. But of course, she has to consider the alternative as well.
What if this dropshipping company is dropping balls everywhere? And also let's assume that they're not selling balls because that would get confusing. So my first question is, is there any other company that could provide these products? And if it's a particular brand of wallets and belts, maybe not, but if there is, it might be good to build another relationship. Otherwise, you could also just try it out and see how it goes.
Most likely your business isn't going to scale right away. It's not like you're gonna be taking in a thousand orders tomorrow or after having zero orders today. So you could just proceed and keep a close eye on it. And see how it goes with actual shipments. It's definitely a bit of a risk, but life is risky.
And the only way to know for sure is to see how that process works with real orders. And so whether you're willing to do that or not, depends on your comfort level. But am I concerned? A little bit concerned. Is there some way you can protect yourself?
Well, this is one of the vulnerabilities of dropshipping. So I think the main thing is just to pay attention and if you have any problems at all, as you go through the actual process, try to address them proactively. Don't wait for the problems to compound themselves. As soon as one thing goes wrong, try to address it and figure out what's going on. And then in the longterm, if it continues to be a problem, then you may in fact have to diversify or just not work with that brand.
So that's why I was wondering, is there any other company that could provide those products? All right, that's my quick response. Listeners, if you have a question or a comment, of course, come to sidehustleschool.com/questions. We will continue to feature them along with updates from listeners as they launch and grow their projects. I am cheering you on, whatever you're up to, wherever you are in the world.
And I hope you'll come back tomorrow. New episode every day. My name is Chris Guillebeau. You're listening to "Side Hustle School." [Music]
from the Onward Project.
