1. Merchant Account Violation: The terms of your Internet merchant account require that you not charge your customer until the order has been shipped. Your dropship supplier might take a few days to get your order out.



2. Inadequate Product Knowledge: Since you've never even seen the products you sell, how will you be able to answer customer questions about the product? Sometimes you can obtain sales literature or samples from your supplier to assist you in your product knowledge.

3. Increased Customer Support: When customers request information about a product, you will have to phone the supplier for product data and then contact the customer with the information. This can be very time consuming.

4. Responsible for Dropshipper's Actions: If your dropship supplier runs out of inventory, sends the wrong item, is slow in fulfilling the order, or experiences similar problems, you are the one who is responsible. You are the one that will have to apologize and straighten matters out with the customer.

5. Increased Competition: If you are not the exclusive source of the product, others can and will sell the same product from your dropship supplier.

6. Dropship Supplier Scams: Some suppliers claim to sell at wholesale prices but actually sell to you much closer to retail. Sometimes shipping and handling charges extracted are exorbitant. This, of course, leaves very little, if any, profit margin for you.

7. Loss of Control: If you maintain your own inventory, you have much more control over how quickly and securely your inventory is shipped.

Enjoy the benefits of drop shipping but be sure to avoid the pitfalls.