Dropship Direct Review 2018
Table of Contents
- Dropship Direct Overview
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of Dropship Direct?
- How much is Dropship Direct? What drop shipping services does it provide?
- What products can I sell with Dropship Direct?
- How do I sell products with Dropship Direct?
- How do I contact Dropship Direct?
- Is there anything else I should know about Dropship Direct?
- Conclusion
Dropship Direct Overview
Dropship Direct started catering to online retailers and manufacturers in 2004. The company is based in Lincoln City, Oregon, USA, with warehouse distribution and returns facilities in Saint Joseph, Michigan. Today, Dropship Direct works with 40 international companies to offer a wide range of consumer goods for drop shipping.
In this review, learn about what makes Dropship Direct a popular choice and see if it’s the right drop shipping company for your business.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of Dropship Direct?
Pros
- Free Service: Join Dropship Direct with absolutely no recurring fees. The free Lite Plan lets you immediately start selling products. Even better, you can also get the features of the Premium Plan at no cost if you meet certain sales targets.
- Easy Product Uploads: Dropship Direct gives you product data files to make publishing products to your store quick and hassle-free.
- Weekly Deals: Dropship Direct’s Weekly Deals take another 5% off the wholesale price of specified products – translating to more profit!
- Convenient Order Fulfillment: With Dropship Direct, you don’t need to deal with suppliers when processing customer orders. Just order what you need from their inventory and Dropship Direct will handle the rest.
Cons
- Small Product Catalog: Dropship Direct has a relatively small marketplace compared to other drop shipping companies.
- No Built-in Shipment Tracking: While you get tracking codes for each order, you’ll need third parties to effectively track your deliveries.
- No International Shipping: Dropship Direct currently only ships to residents of the US.
- Lackluster Customer Support: With no live chat feature and an inaccessible Help Desk, you’ll have to rely on ticket responses or wait for phone support.
How much is Dropship Direct? What drop shipping services does it provide?
Pricing
Membership to Dropship Direct’s Lite Plan is absolutely free! You can sign up with just your email address and immediately start selling products – no subscription needed. There are also no per-order fees or minimum order quantities. However, suppliers charge a 15-20% restocking fee for returned items.
Dropship Direct’s Premium Plan costs $37 per month and provides more functionality. It isn’t cheap, but comes with very useful features like product data files, more frequent product updates, plus a few others.
If you can average $1000 per month in sales, then Dropship Direct will waive the cost of your Premium subscription while still letting you enjoy Premium Plan benefits.
Services
On top of access to their catalog of products, a Dropship Direct membership provides you with some useful tools for your drop shipping business. These include:
- Wholesale Files: Dropship Direct lets you build data exports for marketplaces like eBay and Amazon, or for your independent storefront on Shopify and other similar services. Wholesale Files are up-to-date product information files that can be easily uploaded to your chosen store.
- Access to Restricted Brands: Available only to Premium members, Dropship Direct’s Restricted Brands gives you approval to resell products from certain manufacturing partners. Just send a request to Dropship Direct.
- Exclusive Brands Collection: Not to be confused with Restricted Brands, this catalog displays products that are available only on Dropship Direct. There are close to 3000 products listed and most are automotive parts and unique art pieces.
- Weekly Deals: Dropship Direct offers weekly specials where you can enjoy additional 5% discounts on their already low wholesale prices. Simply input the given discount code upon checkout to enjoy these deals.
- Custom Campaign Builder: For storefronts that aren’t readily supported by Dropship Direct, you can use the Custom Campaign Builder to build data libraries for your eCommerce platform.
- Basic Tutorials and Informational Material: Dropship Direct provides basic guides on how to use their service.
What products can I sell with Dropship Direct?
Product Catalog
Dropship Direct has a catalog of over 100,000 products from more than 1,100 different brands. Products cover multiple categories and subcategories, including apparel, electronics, home goods, and so on.
You can easily browse by brand and category, or choose to view the newest and best-selling products. Sort them by price, date, or alphabetical order. Useful filters also allow you to specify shipping options, so that you only see products with free or flat rate shipping.
Supplier Information
Dropship Direct provides members with handy supplier metrics for suppliers’ cancellation rates and true shipping times.
Dropship Direct doesn’t discuss how it screens suppliers. But since you won’t be dealing directly with suppliers, this shouldn’t be too problematic.
How do I sell products with Dropship Direct?
Order Placement and Fulfillment
Fulfilling customer orders is easy with Dropship Direct. When a customer places an order, simply head to Dropship Direct’s inventory page, find the product you’re selling, place it in your shopping cart, and checkout. Dropship Direct will handle the rest!
After enough transactions, you can place orders via email, FTP, or API to make the process even faster.
Delivery and Tracking
Dropship Direct only delivers to customers within the US, with plans to offer drop shipping in Canada and other countries Most of their inventory is housed in their Michigan facility, so you can expect orders to arrive quickly.
Dropship Direct has no built-in tool for shipment tracking. However, you do get tracking codes, so you can easily check on your orders and update your customers.
Returns and Refunds
Dropship Direct accepts returns for most products, minus a few exceptions. You have a set amount of time – depending on the circumstance – to file a return request with the company. Just submit one from your account page.
A standard 15% restocking fee applies to most products, while some suppliers will charge up to 30%. A re-delivery fee may also be added on top of this.
Check out Dropship Direct’s official website for more details.
How do I contact Dropship Direct?
Customer Support
You can reach Dropship Direct representatives by phone or support ticket. Phone lines are open 9AM to 5PM Eastern time. You can submit a ticket via their website, but responses will expectedly take longer. Unfortunately, Dropship Direct has no live chat feature.
Self-Help Sections
Dropship Direct provides a basic FAQ for your most common drop shipping questions. You can also find tutorials on how to use their Wholesale Files. They also have a Help Desk for more information, but as of this writing, the page has been inaccessible for several days.
Is there anything else I should know about Dropship Direct?
Before you can start selling products from the Dropship Direct catalog, you have to apply as a reseller. You have to provide your business details, personal information, and tax IDs when doing so.
Once you’re approved, you can immediately start using Dropship Direct.
Conclusion
Dropship Direct seems to tick all the necessary boxes when it comes to finding the best drop shipping company, especially with its free price tag. With streamlined product uploads and convenient order fulfillment, Dropship Direct does most of the heavy lifting for your business.
But upon closer inspection, Dropship Direct’s relatively small product directory and lack of international shipping can severely limit your sales. Add to that their problematic customer support, and it’s clear that the service is far from ideal.
The bottom line: Dropship Direct is worth a try, but you’re better off with some of the alternatives we’ve reviewed.