Thanks to your marketing efforts, you have reached many customers, located across the world. If many are located in one specific area, say in the North East of the USA, you can send the products to a distribution center located there. But if your customers are spread out across numerous different countries what then? Dropshipping from China could be the solution you need for getting products to them.
Why dropshipping from China is a good solution
If your products are relatively small and light, they can be drop-shipped directly from China. Thanks to international agreements between Post Offices, the cost is relatively low. If customers can wait a little longer for delivery, it may be the best approach.
At Sofeast, we’ve managed dropshipping, as well as more conventional batch shipments, for tens of customers around the world in the last few years. Contact us so we can study your project and provide feedback and a quotation, including possible postage costs to our required locations.
Here’s a graphic that shows how dropshipping works:
The steps when dropshipping from China with Sofeast are generally as follows depending on if you have already purchased products or not.
If you have yet not purchased products
1. You send us a product reference.
2. We source it from local suppliers (who we vet) and confirm the product cost to you.
3. We order samples to confirm the quality reaches your needs.
4. We quote you on shipping options.
5. If agreed, we purchase the products on your behalf.
6. We confirm packaging materials with you and purchase them as well.
7. We receive both the products and packaging at our Dongguan facility.
8. We do incoming quality control (IQC) on each received batch of products.
9. Our system receives orders from your Shopify, Woocommerce, etc, accounts on a daily basis.
10. We fulfill your orders within 1-3 working days, including repacking, labeling, and shipping to the forwarder. Shipping numbers are pre-allocated so that you can see the order as shipped straight away.
11. We follow up on the shipment until it is received in case there are any issues on the way.
If you have already purchased the products yourself
1. We receive your product sample at our Dongguan facility.
2. We quote shipping options to you.
3. We confirm and purchase the packaging.
…Points 7-11 are the same as above.
We will need to understand your expectations on the following points. Discussing these forms part of the initial stages of the engagement. If you are unsure, our supply chain management team will advise on appropriate options:
- Shipping method & cost
- Packaging types to be used
- Any special details per order – for instance, certain orders may qualify for a free gift which would be added to the package before shipping
- The ability to connect our system to your e-commerce software, for instance, Shopify, so we can fulfil your orders as they arrive and can seamlessly order more stock if levels of inventory reach a certain point
- How returns should be handled
Yes, we have an MOQ of 500pcs per batch at least for dropshipping projects. If the number of pieces is lower than this, the unit cost would increase accordingly.
Importers now require tailored solutions to save on costs by selecting the most suitable shipping lines and rates that fit their product specifics best.
When getting a quotation for your dropshipping project, our team will include a list of the best shipping lines and rates to fit your needs based on your order quantities to be shipped per SKU per month:
- If the order quantity is > 500 pcs per SKU per month we can quote 10 countries per SKU for free.
- If the order quantity is > 100 pcs per SKU per month we can quote 5 countries per SKU for free.
- If the order quantity is < 100 pcs per SKU per month we can quote 2 countries per SKU for free.
If more quotations are required for shipping lines and rates outside of those provided for free, we can certainly help you at the project management rate and our team will be happy to estimate the time needed and provide an estimate in time and USD.
In general, dropshipping takes place from our Dongguan facility within China, where your suppliers deliver the products to us EXW.
Our warehouse here is set up for dropshipping and we also provide a full range of services you need as a dropshipper:
- Warehousing
- Consolidation
- QC inspections
- Kitting
- Assembly
- Product testing
Pros
- No need to have a warehouse and its associated costs and time to manage as you use our facilities and costs are all included.
- Sofeast packs and ships your orders.
- Sofeast handles your inventory and can even track its levels etc for reordering.
- You don’t need to handle returns in case of an issue as our customer support staff and warehouse staff will take care of this.
- You can ship importing products to your country, store them there, and then fulfill them domestically if you like.
- Your products can be stored in China, which is probably quite a lot cheaper than in your own country.
- Products can be manufactured, inspected, packaged, and shipped from one location which saves time and logistics costs.
- Shipping small packages from China isn’t actually expensive.
- Our specialist China fulfilment center is affordable, knowledgeable about many e-commerce and online sales platforms, and can source packaging, conduct QC product inspections, etc, for you. This all-in-one dropshipping service saves you a lot of headaches.
Cons
- Customers will need to pay shipping and other costs over vendors with local stock.
- Packages can take 2 weeks or so to reach Western customers from China.
- If unable to travel to China, it may be difficult for you to manage the fulfilment if working with directly your manufacturer. The language-barrier may lead to shipping mistakes, etc.
- Companies who import large numbers of products and fulfil locally may be more desirable as they provide ‘local stock.’
- You have to put a lot of faith and trust in Chinese partners if handling the dropshipping process yourself.
We generally provide dropshipping from our 3PL facilities here in South China as a service to customers who’re already working with us on projects, rather than as a standalone solution.
Please contact us to discuss your needs and get a quotation and we will advise.
In some cases, a client’s special requirements lead to some extra project management charges. If you want to keep your dropshipping budget under control, here are some situations that we’d advise you to avoid:
- Forgetting to mention some of the SKU variations in advance – the project will be much smoother if we have a clear view of the situation from the start, with all the details, clearly laid out in a spreadsheet.
- Having products come to us from your suppliers in a disorganized way (e.g. no packing list of inaccurate packing list; no markings or improper markings on the boxes…). We have to assign some people to open boxes and check all the details, which can take a lot of hours and add significantly to your budget.
- Requesting quotations for many countries – we generally provide quotations for 5 major countries, and anything above that leads to extra charges.
- Requesting quotations several times – if some elements of the packaging change, for example, that leads to the need to re-check quotations, and that’s extra work that needs to be charged.
- Providing us with a total budget and requesting us to look for the ‘best fit’ options – this may lead to complex market analyses that consume a lot of time.
What does dropshipping from China with Sofeast cost?
We have managed drop-shipping, as well as more conventional batch shipments, for lots of customers in the past few years and every project starts with a discussion before we provide a tailored quote specific to your needs.
Hit the button below and provide us with a few project details so we can get back to you with your initial estimate.
