Dropshipper are like those double-edged swords you need to be very careful about. If you have chosen a trustworthy and reliable dropshipper it can signal good news for your eBay business. However, the online community is filled with fraud dropshippers and trusting them can be difficult. Here are some reasons why dropshipping can be risky for your eBay business.

Stock availability

One of the biggest occasions when dropshipping can backfire is when the dropshipper runs out of stock of an item. It happens all the time and the worst part is that no one is to blame. Logistics, lack of communication and a host of other reasons can play spoltsport on the dropshipper. The result can be a nightmarish experience for your eBay business. You may have already promised a customer an item but when you contact the dropshipper you find out they do not have enough stock. While this may not be as big a problem with smaller volume sales, for the large orders it can be a big blow to your business. It negatively affects your business reputation and credibility online.

Lack of refund policies

If a dropshipper delivers a faulty item, chances are you will end up having to pay the compensation for the damages. Most dropshippers do not have exclusive returns policies and are not very customer-friendly when it comes to refund policies. If a product is damaged or faulty and the customer asks for a refund or suitable compensation, you will have to pay the amount from your pocket. Again, if the sale is for a small volume of items it may not amount to much of a loss but for bigger bulk orders it can greatly hamper your profit margins.

Supervision and administration

The other drawback of using dropshippers is that you will need to spend a lot of your time supervising their activities. Right from ensuring that you place the order with the dropshipper, to making sure your customers receive the items they purchased on your store and checking to see if there was any problem. While dropshipping provides the convenience of not having to store anything physically or having a physical store, it can take away a lot of your time in supervisory and administrative activities.

Dealing with many dropshippers

You may have received many emails from so-called dropshippers who say they can deliver any kind of items for you. However, these are just brokers or middlemen who are not the real dropshippers. The actual wholesellers or dropshippers will only specialize in a particular domain and supply certain specific items. They will not be supplying any and all kinds of items. Thus, if your eBay store has a vast array of products up on sale, do not expect to be doing business with only one dropshipper. Chances are, you will be doing business with several dropshippers at the same time. This automatically ups the amount of supervisory work, administration and problems you will encounter with these dropshippers.

eBay looks down on it

Another reason why dropshipping maybe a bad idea and even unethical is because eBay does not condone dropshipping at all. They hate the idea of dropshipping and only recognize one company – World Wide Brands as an authentic dropshipping company. If you do not have items in your possession and have still put it up for auction it can be disastrous if you are not leveraging the services of World Wide Brands. If any problem should occur at a later date, you will not have the backup or support of eBay simply because they do not tolerate dropshipping.

Reputation at stake

The problem with dropshippers is that they are not concerned with your reputation on eBay. Logically and from their perspective it makes sense because as long as they are getting their commissions from you they are not bothered if your credibility on eBay is affected because of their fault. Thus, if items are not in stock in their inventory or if they have dispatched defective or damaged items, it is not their responsibility. Yet, as an eBay seller, it can badly damage your reputation. You can expect future sales to fall and prospective customers to be wary of buying items from you if they see a bad review from a buyer. Since eBay has so many sellers, all wanting to get the business of customers, you need to be really careful about selecting dropshippers. Even a single mistake can cost you all future sales on eBay!