Dropshipping from China, when the model holds and when it does not

First: a warehouse in China ships to the buyer. The date is longer, customs treatment depends on the parcel, returns are slow. Good for a few dozen light pieces. Bad for a promise of a day or two and for cash on delivery.

Second: a platform holds the same SKU in a European warehouse, so the courier runs shorter. The date can be acceptable, but you have not seen quality control. Unit price is usually higher. It is entered separately, not mixed with a China price in the same sentence.

Third: you import a lot and ship from your warehouse. That is no longer dropshipping. That is wholesale. Invoice, packing list, duty and VAT enter. That is why unit margin is often better as soon as the SKU repeats. The frame is landed cost from China.

Catalogue, order pass-through and a tracking number are the platform’s job. CJ, Hypesku and Pergrine run that layer. They are not a factory. Same-SKU comparison is in the platform comparison.

You still own the product page, the buyer relationship, returns and the truth about the date. If the platform changes source without your approval, the ad still shows the old photo. Catch that before the campaign: may they swap supplier, and does the sample come from the same warehouse.

Weight and breakage. A lamp, a chair and anything that scratches in a courier truck do not take the same maths as a case or a sleeve. Per-piece delivery overtakes the saving on purchase price.

Colour and electronics. Like the photo is not a spec. If the SKU needs CE, a driver or a stable shade, a catalogue is not enough. Then it is factory and inspection before the carton closes.

Returns you did not count. If every tenth buyer returns, and the return goes back to China, the card price is false. Write the percentage before the ad budget.

A brand that does not exist. A white box is not your brand. Packaging from China makes sense when you have volume for print, not on a first order of five pieces.

Move to factory and warehouse when the same SKU sells week after week, when claims eat the ad, or when the buyer wants cash on delivery and a date of a few days. Then buying from China and a supplier check are not a later level. That is how price stops surprising you.

Do not open the shop before that decision. Sequence from SKU to site is in how to start an online store with goods from China. Payments and cash on delivery are in Shopify for Serbia. Cash items before the first lot are in what a DTC brand costs. DTC here means selling to the end buyer under your name.

We do not replace the platform as a catalogue and we do not run your ads. We choose whether an SKU may even go without stock. If it may, we close the sample and source-swap rules. If it may not, we run a factory shortlist, quality control and import.

Shop setup, up to an agreed number of products, is a separate ecommerce from China package. Put one SKU in the brief, whether goods may go to the buyer from abroad or must sit locally, and whether cash on delivery must work from day one.

Dropshipping from China makes sense as a test of one SKU, not as a warehouse that does not exist. You still choose product, price, description and what you do when a carton arrives damaged. The platform sends the order. It does not hold QC on your sample and it does not calculate landed cost for you.

One air order is not the same maths as a sea lot. Air is costly per kilo and fast. Sea is about 35–52 days and only makes sense when you know the SKU sells. Factory MOQ is often larger than a test. Then you either pay a higher unit price, or the test is not wholesale.

Before you promise a date to the buyer, add supplier time, freight and customs. Category research still takes 1–3 weeks if you choose seriously, and a sample 2–5. Skipping a sample to be first in the ad comes back as a claim.

Move to a lot when the same SKU repeats, when LCL or FCL drops unit price below a single parcel, and when you can hold inspection before shipment. On sourcing execution above 2,000 USD that inspection is standard.

Your name on the box is not dropshipping. That is a lot with packaging, a print minimum and a box date in the same plan as the product. The agreement from 1 July 2024 and a COO enter when you import as a company, not when each envelope goes as a small parcel without that paper. HS still decides duty.

Stop if margin disappears as soon as you add freight, returns and scrap. Continue the test only if unit economics stand on paper before the ad. The sales channel is a separate decision from sourcing. Ecommerce from China does not replace choosing the goods.