DropCommerce: US Dropshipping

[EDITED] I changed it from 5 stars. i gave it 5 because I was asked to by the dev team so the Shopify algorithm favored them, and I did not want to be rude with them as I was still trying to use their service. I felt disingenuous with my rating, and since I’m not using it now, I will correct it.

My summary is that it favors only merchants with particular niches, and it’s absolutely NOT for people looking to dive into dropshipping business with no customer-base (leads). The reason why dropshipping with Ali, which DropCommerce devs are dead set against, worked is the products could be retailed cheap on Amazon and eBay, and shipping costed little to nothing all on top of the fact that Amazon, which the dev is also dead set against, can drive customers TO YOU with minimal upfront.

On the contrary, you CANNOT do that with products on DropCommerce; they’re too expensive for sale on Amazon. They don't even want you retailing things there even if you see an opportunity. This is backwards thinking as Amazon's logistics is top notch, and their FBA storage is perfect for dropshippers who can't have inventory to themselves. Shipping also is medium to expensive; it’s especially high with Canadian suppliers, and that will limit your margin. (Consider as well that you need to run advertisements on social as well if you don’t already have followers.) If it’s not bad enough, you are NOT allowed to resell them for lower prices than the suppliers do, so you can’t possibly offer competitive prices on items that are already expensive; we’re talkin like above $70, and you can’t run sales. Therefore you might as well just go on Faire or TradeKey to wholesale from the same suppliers. Some suppliers are registered on those. I should mention, and I don’t think most users know this, but they can ban you for violating this hidden rule. Moreover, suppliers don’t reply, or even if they do, they do very late, so when there is an issue with an order, good luck, CS is your only chance. They also boast 7-day fulfillment, but I’m not so sure; some things are made-to-order in Asia, and I’ve seen comments say their shipments were late (even after covid).

So my problems are with both the app itself and their service: 1) App is buggy and you need Chrome on Windows, basically, 2) People are having a hard time getting in touch with suppliers via the chat system 3) There is a lack of product variety 4) the service is more expensive than Spocket when it comes to Private Labeling which is essential. Speaking of which, I realise why Spocket offers both Chinese and US suppliers. (Because having US suppliers only may not be very profitable.)

That said there are still pros like 1) many products being pretty and photogenic for SNS promotions, 2) CS being responsive and nice, and 3) the ease of placing orders, but I feel like the cons outweigh these pros atm. 3 stars because I was peer-pressured to give a rating. Otherwise, it definitely has potential to be a good profitable service. You’ll find cool suppliers. But it favors only merchants with particular niches.

Love how many vendors you have for drop shipping, but the prices are very high. Most are already passed the retail price on the internet then to mark it up more to make a profit makes it difficult to get things sold quickly. Then the monthly fee is a bit high also so try to get the yearly plan which is a decent price. HOWEVER the ease of use is amazing and the staff was quick to respond to my questions and concerns. Prices and fees receive a one star rating, the other two stars are ease of use and great customer service.

My rating and ultimate departure from DropCommerce is due to poor communication. The chat box says it can take up to 3 hours for a response, but it actually takes 24 hrs and sometimes as long as 72 hrs (with no resolution). In addition, the suppliers do not respond to your messages either. I was trying to process an order but the payment due to the supplier was incorrect. My first message to the supplier was on 9/25, my first message to DropCommerce was on 9/26, and on 10/2 after multiple attempts decided to find another app and suppliers. Please note as of 10/19 I still haven't heard back from the supplier. The other issue I was trying to resolve was that the inventory from my suppliers wasn't syncing with my store. Whenever DropCommerce responded (24-72 hrs later) they would give me generic/scripted answers, which didn't resolve any of my issues.
Delayed responses and no resolutions can be frustrating when you're trying to run a business. More importantly, it can be bad for your business. Thankfully my store is new so I was able to pivot before it impacted my customer service. Imagine if I had a ton of orders and couldn't fulfill them for 1 week or longer.
You should really consider having 24 hour/7 customer service with sufficient employees to respond in a reasonable amount of time. Providing exceptional service is important to us and we need you all to accomplish that. UPDATE: Shortly after discontinuing partnership with DropCommerce, I had to reach out to them regarding a billing concern. I am happy to say that the response time was quick and efficient. Shiera was proactive in fixing the problem before responding; she even expedited the request. My issue was resolved immediately and I am satisfied with the outcome. In addition, my concerns above were addressed and full accountability was accepted. I am happy to hear that they are working diligently to improve the service as a whole, including supplier relations. I look forward to testing out these changes and reporting back with a satisfactory update. Thank you for your assistance, Shiera.

First and foremost, I love this product. The app itself makes finding reliable suppliers with amazing products incredibly easy. The integration with the Shopify site is fantastic, and I appreciate the detail to which they allow product importation. Where this app lacks is customer service. I purchased the website build out package which promises 3 months of automated shipping help. I have not gotten the help I need with a single shipment, and have had to complete them all myself, despite following the team's instructions and switching on automated shipping. The one shipment they did assist with, they didn't even pay out for both suppliers so only one of the products from one supplier was fulfilled-- so I had to follow back up and complete the order myself so that my customer could receive the full order they had already purchased and paid for. Then, when I reach out to customer service (which I've done multiple times), they are less than helpful. I didn't purchase their most expensive plan and pay for automated help to receive little to no true support, with customer service reps that could seem to care less if my problem is solved. TLDR; The app is great, the customer service team is less than helpful.

Selection for my niche is pretty good, not a large selection but some interesting first time items. Had a customer place their first order, recommended charge for shipping to the customer was 4.90, but when placing the order they charge you 10. There is a small disclaimer completely unnoticeable until order checkout about ability to charge 2.99 by completing sales fulfillment (so they reimburse you if you make enough sales) but only limited to 20 orders a month. I'm technically losing money to shipping at the moment, now I have to decide to charge the customers the full shipping price or increase retail price which either way looks bad for the business. Wish this was brought to the seller's attention in the first place, and DropCommerce should just feature this disclaimer as a promotional opportunity rather than an obligation to complete orders to a certain limit.

The app itself is pretty well done, better then most really. The issue here is that most of the products on here are priced terribly high leaving no room for profit. There are quite a few products where once you pay shipping and for the product, the total is substantially higher then the suggested retail of the price, which makes little sense. Other items on here you can find online selling for less then what you can actually buy them for on here, again makes little sense. If you can spend a lot of time and effort you can find a few items that might actually provide profit and offer faster shipping then most other places. 3 stars simply because its a well done app, if only there was something profitable to sell it would be a winner.

Shipping is not 2.99 or less to ship from US to Canada. It's 9.95 US on each item. Cost prices are high already and to add a profit and shipping items becomes too expensive for the consumers.

I signed up for the free trial and cannot get a hold of anyone to cancel before the trial is completed. DO NOT pay for the full year up front. I'm afraid I'm not going to get my money back.

**update: they did refund my purchase, however, the app still was not a fit for my needs

I really really want to like this App, but I have yet to find anything worthwhile to sell that will make a profit. Items cost are already high, then you have high shipping, their commission, etc. You also need to account for credit card charges, etc.

I've researched over a dozen products now and find that they are selling online for very low prices, which in effect leaves about a 5% to 9% margin IF I were to buy from DropCommerce. That's just to small a margin. And if you consider returns, ad costs, operation costs or other issues, you can't break even.

If you were scaling up it might work, but then at that point you could have other choices such as an agent in China, or even operate a small warehouse. So at this point, I want to love the fact that there are US and Canada products, but with too few products, high prices already factored in, and high cost of shipping, you cannot make a profit.

I have tried nearly all of the drop shipping apps. The DropCOmmerce app lacks some features to make it easy to import in bulk, but I have been assured they are working on such features. Still, I am sold on the selection of quality goods not found anywhere else, and therefore will continue using DropCommerce. Afterall, it's what you're selling that is important.
Gene Gilmore