Dropshipping and own stock: does it make sense to combine them?

When you embark on the adventure of eCommerce, it is very common to have doubts. One of the most recurring is to what extent it is worth investing in creating our own stock or if, on the contrary, it may be more interesting to opt for a model like dropshipping, and sell third-party products.

And what if I tell you that, to a certain extent, you can combine both models? Of course , it will always make more sense, for reasons of profitability and control over the business, to sell your own products. But do not rule out relying on this other sales model in certain cases.

I have set out to show you that dropshipping can help you, even if you are a bit skeptical now.

To make the text more agile, we have used a specific category as a reference: small fashion brands.

It is not a casual choice, we have done it this way because it is specific enough to give concrete examples, but at the same time, it can serve as a reference if you sell other types of products.

Let’s go for it.

Although we all have more or less clear the concept, it is worth giving a brief explanation to provide context.

Basically, it is an online sales model, in which we market a series of products that we do not physically have in a warehouse. In fact, at a logistical level, the product never passes through our hands.

When an order comes in, we directly send that order to an external supplier, who will be the one in charge of managing, in a transparent way for the customer, its delivery.

This has a number of important advantages:

It also has some disadvantages, which, in fact and by opposition, are the advantages of managing your own stock, but we will talk about that a little later, for now just keep the positive.

This is the most standardized business model, the traditional one. You simply manufacture or buy your merchandise, and carry out an integral eCommerce exercise, since you personally take care of each and every detail of the sale.

It is surely the first option for anyone who starts to undertake, and it undoubtedly has some important advantages worth highlighting:

Therefore, it is the ideal model for those who seek greater control over the business, as well as higher margins. In exchange for that, and seeking greater viability for the future, they are willing to assume a greater workload, responsibility, and risk as well.

The short answer is: yes. But not for all businesses, nor in all cases. Let’s see  an example of an online fashion store, imagine the situation.

You have a certain budget to invest, but you want to start your business gradually. The idea is to build a customer base and, in the medium term, consider making the leap to a more ambitious (and profitable) model.

On the other hand, you are clear that you do not want to give up the important decisions of your own business.

You could opt to sell on a marketplace with some solution like Amazon’s FBA where they take care of the logistics and management part, but that not only requires a certain investment, it also means that the growth of your business is limited to the platform and, in addition, having to compete with very strong sellers in the fashion segment, who can be very aggressive in terms of prices (since they do have margins).

But there is a more interesting solution, and it involves setting up your own online store, with your own stock, but relying on dropshipping.

This has several advantages such as: