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What percentage of small shopify stores' whole business is dropshipping cheap Chinese garbage at huge mark ups?

by cwkoss 6y ago

pie420 6y ago
105%
notahacker 6y ago
probably not higher than Amazon marketplace's...
bluGill 6y ago
Less than you might think because of all the small stores where the whole model is to offer something, collect money, and not ship at all. I don't buy from shopify or facebook anymore, and probably won't even if they clean up their act.
- mtnGoat 6y ago
  This is a real problem! I think Shopify is starting to keep rolling reserves to combat it too. So they are switching to other payment methods.
stickfigure 6y ago
Probably not as large as you think? Print-on-demand is huge, and almost everyone prints domestically.
Spivak 6y ago
That’s the whole business of most stores. Trying to pin that on the web hosting platform seems odd. Being on Shopify is basically zero signal as to whether the product is any good.
- tomnipotent 6y ago
  > That’s the whole business of most stores Most stores buy and hold inventory, taking on the risk of not selling that inventory. Dropshippers send the order to someone else to fulfil, and are essentially glorified lead generators.
- cwkoss 6y ago
  I don't consider the majority of drop-shippers to be economically productive businesses: they are charging a premium because their customers don't know that they can buy the exact same SKUs from AliExpress. Customers of these business often pay 2-5x mark up on items based on marketing and lack of information, because these business are effectively just pure marketing plays. There are certainly good small businesses, both on Shopify and elsewhere, and some would be hurt to some small degree by this change. I'm simply arguing that the majority of business which would go broke without the use of the FB ad system tracking panopticon are not the sort of small business which are societally useful or that we should mourn their loss. "Small businesses going bankrupt" typically is thought of a negative thing, but there are flavors of small businesses where it is really a net societal good.
  - Alupis 6y ago
    > I don't consider the majority of drop-shippers to be economically productive businesses: they are charging a premium because their customers don't know that they can buy the exact same SKUs from AliExpress. That's certainly selling drop-shippers short. They provide products, at prices people are willing to pay for convenience, trustability, etc. They handle complaints, shoulder the risk of returns and/or damaged in shipment items, pay for their own advertising/marketing and more. Many Tier-1 distributors enjoy their relationship with drop-shippers... and many customers enjoy that very same relationship too.

What percentage of small shopify stores' whole business is dropshipping cheap Chinese garbage at huge mark ups?

by cwkoss 6y ago

What percentage of small shopify stores' whole business is dropshipping cheap Chinese garbage at huge mark ups?

pie420 6y ago

105%

notahacker 6y ago

probably not higher than Amazon marketplace's...

bluGill 6y ago

Less than you might think because of all the small stores where the whole model is to offer something, collect money, and not ship at all. I don't buy from shopify or facebook anymore, and probably won't even if they clean up their act.

mtnGoat 6y ago
This is a real problem! I think Shopify is starting to keep rolling reserves to combat it too. So they are switching to other payment methods.

stickfigure 6y ago

Probably not as large as you think? Print-on-demand is huge, and almost everyone prints domestically.

Spivak 6y ago

That’s the whole business of most stores. Trying to pin that on the web hosting platform seems odd. Being on Shopify is basically zero signal as to whether the product is any good.

tomnipotent 6y ago
> That’s the whole business of most stores Most stores buy and hold inventory, taking on the risk of not selling that inventory. Dropshippers send the order to someone else to fulfil, and are essentially glorified lead generators.
cwkoss 6y ago
I don't consider the majority of drop-shippers to be economically productive businesses: they are charging a premium because their customers don't know that they can buy the exact same SKUs from AliExpress. Customers of these business often pay 2-5x mark up on items based on marketing and lack of information, because these business are effectively just pure marketing plays. There are certainly good small businesses, both on Shopify and elsewhere, and some would be hurt to some small degree by this change. I'm simply arguing that the majority of business which would go broke without the use of the FB ad system tracking panopticon are not the sort of small business which are societally useful or that we should mourn their loss. "Small businesses going bankrupt" typically is thought of a negative thing, but there are flavors of small businesses where it is really a net societal good.
- Alupis 6y ago
  > I don't consider the majority of drop-shippers to be economically productive businesses: they are charging a premium because their customers don't know that they can buy the exact same SKUs from AliExpress. That's certainly selling drop-shippers short. They provide products, at prices people are willing to pay for convenience, trustability, etc. They handle complaints, shoulder the risk of returns and/or damaged in shipment items, pay for their own advertising/marketing and more. Many Tier-1 distributors enjoy their relationship with drop-shippers... and many customers enjoy that very same relationship too.