When you dropship, you never handle the products you sell. The supplier sends them straight to your customer, so the first person to open the parcel is the person who paid you for it. If anything is wrong with it, your customer finds out before you do.
The simple way round this is to buy one of the product yourself, delivered to your own address, before you put it on your website.
Why it matters to you
Even though the supplier sends the parcel, your customer bought it from you, so the law treats you as the seller. If the product is faulty, is not as described or does not do what it should, your customer is owed a full refund, and that refund comes from you. Ordering a sample is the cheapest way to find out about a problem before your customers do.
What to look at when it arrives
- How long it took to arrive. Write down the day you ordered it and the day it came. That is the delivery time to put on your website, rather than the one the supplier advertises.
- How it was packed. Your customer will receive it in exactly the same packaging, so make sure you are happy with what they will see.
- Whether it matches the description. Check the size, the colour, what it is made of and what comes in the box. If anything is different, your own product page would be wrong.
- The instructions and labels. Check they are in English and that nothing a UK customer would expect is missing.
- Whether you would be happy with it. If you had paid your own price for it, would you keep it?
Take your own photographs
Once you have the product in your hands, you can photograph it yourself. Your pictures will show the real thing, and they will make your shop look different from all the other shops using the supplier's photographs of the same product.
If it is not right, do not sell it
A product that arrives late, broken or different from its description will cost you refunds, and on every refund you have already paid the supplier and the card fee. If your sample is not right, try another supplier or choose another product.
