Dropshipping vs Order Fulfillment Companies: What’s the Difference?
Meaghan has provided content and guidance for indie retailers as the editor for a number of retail publications and a speaker at trade shows. She is Fit Small Business’s authority on retail and ecommerce.
Katie-Jay aims to put answers in the hands of small business owners by leveraging over 10 years of retail and hospitality experience. With a background in gemology, she specializes in jewelry and luxury ecommerce.
This article is part of a larger series on Retail Management.
In the world of ecommerce, dropshipping and order fulfillment companies are often debated or incorrectly referred to interchangeably—but their differences make a direct comparison tricky. While they both offer solutions for merchants seeking outsourced fulfillment services, they apply to entirely different business models.
- Dropshipping involves partnering with manufacturers and suppliers to accept orders for their goods without actually having them in stock.
- Conversely, merchants using fulfillment companies hire them to outsource the work of storing, processing, and shipping inventory that they own.
Understanding these differences is key to finding the right method for your small business.
To the customer, both buying experiences may seem exactly the same—but behind the scenes, the two methods are very different. Here’s an overview of each system.
Dropshipping vs Order Fulfillment Services Quick Comparison
Dropshipping | Order Fulfillment Services | |
|---|---|---|
What is it? | A fulfillment method and retail business model in which the retailer markets, sells, and accepts orders for inventory that the supplier owns and fulfills | Part of a fulfillment method in which the retailer outsources the resource-intensive tasks involved in order fulfillment to third-party companies |
Key differences | Inventory is owned, stored, and shipped by the supplier | Inventory is owned by the retailer and shipped by the fulfillment company |
Dropshipping partners are manufacturers or wholesalers of the goods they sell | Order fulfillment partners are companies selling access to their infrastructure | |
Minimal capital is required to start a dropshipping business | Substantial capital is required to start a business that would benefit from order fulfillment services | |
Who is it right for? | Retailers with limited capital | Retailers with sufficient capital to invest in large upfront costs and long-term growth |
Sellers that want to test out certain products, markets, or strategies | Sellers that are confident in the performance of their goods | |
Merchants that don’t want to invest in the space and workforce of their own warehouse | Merchants that don’t want to invest in the space and staff of their own warehouse | |
Recommended solutions | DSers is a popular dropshipping app within Shopify, our top-recommended ecommerce platform | ShipBob and Red Stag Fulfillment make our list of best fulfillment companies |
Watch the video below or continue reading for an in-depth look at these two business models:
What Is Dropshipping?
Dropshipping partners are manufacturers or wholesalers; in this process, they own the inventory—the retailer does not. Customers place orders and make payments on the merchant’s site, and then the merchant buys the ordered goods from the dropshipper. The dropshipper receives the original order information and ships the product directly to the consumer.
By marketing, selling, and providing customer service for the dropshipper’s goods, the merchant becomes a third party that receives a profit. As the retailer in this arrangement, you set the selling prices, so the final margins are up to you.
What Is an Order Fulfillment Company?
The part of the retail supply chain that receives, processes, and ships customer orders is called fulfillment, and many merchants choose to outsource the tasks involved to third-party fulfillment companies. They are enterprises specializing in handling inventory, processing orders, and shipping goods for other businesses.
When retailers hire fulfillment companies to assist their operations, they buy goods to be listed on their site and deliver them to the fulfillment center. Then, whenever a customer places an order, the details are routed to the third party, where the merchandise is packaged and shipped.
Order fulfillment can sometimes be effectively done in-house, which is a popular option for small-scale businesses and startups. As the business develops and order volume outgrows available space, labor, and time, it makes sense to hand those duties off to a partner company.
Key Differences of Dropshipping vs Fulfillment Companies
Both concepts are alternatives to starting a brick-and-mortar retail business by running your store online, but they represent two separate business models with fundamental differences. The most important contrasts between dropshipping and fulfillment companies are in the possession of merchandise, operations and control, relationship dynamic, and associated risks.
Ownership of Inventory
One of the biggest distinguishing factors between dropshipping and order fulfillment companies is the ownership of inventory.
Merchants that partner with fulfillment companies own goods they need help managing. Their inventory is purchased in bulk from wholesalers or manufacturers and then delivered to their fulfillment partner. The investment required to buy stock prior to selling it can be hefty, but this comes with a high level of control over offerings and profits.
On the other hand, retailers operating through dropshippers never possess or own the products they sell. Merchandise stays with the supplier until it is shipped to the customer. The retailer pays for goods as they are ordered, so no investment in inventory is required. This saves them on overhead costs across the board, as storage and warehouse staffing expenses are nonexistent.
This hands-off approach to ecommerce offers lower financial risk, but usually means the seller can’t be sure of the quality of their offerings. Retailers that run dropshipping operations rely on reviews left by other sellers to know whether or not a product will satisfy their customers.
Operational Control & Reliability
Though the day-to-day duties of running each type of operation vary significantly, both methods take shape by starting an online store through an ecommerce platform like Shopify. Regardless of your business model, this requires plenty of research, setup, and marketing. Sourcing products to list on your site is where the two methods start to diverge.
Dropshipping retailers often use dropship marketplaces like Oberlo to browse products and connect with suppliers. From there, goods can be turned into listings with a single click by integrating the platform with your online store. This part of the process is more straightforward and streamlined than its traditional ecommerce counterpart, which involves seeking wholesalers, forging relationships, and placing bulk orders.
When customers buy goods from a dropshipping merchant, the order is forwarded to the wholesale supplier. Certain dropship platforms can automate this step, but in any case, some level of attentiveness is required. Sellers must monitor their dropship orders to ensure they are being fulfilled and reach out to their suppliers when any lapses occur.
Fulfillment companies offer automatic order routing as well, but their efficiency comes with a much more reliable guarantee. This allows sellers partnering with them to spend minimal time on order processing.
Customer service obligations differ in each business model, as well. Due to long delivery times and inconsistent product quality, dropshipping retailers often need to dedicate a sizable amount of time to helping their customers. These variables are more reliable and controllable when working with a fulfillment company, so complaints are minimized. Many fulfillment partners can even perform your customer service-related duties for you.
Relationship With Your Partner Company
The relationship between retailers and dropshippers has a different dynamic than that of retailers and fulfillment companies.
In the dropshipping model, suppliers provide retailers with access to their inventory and infrastructure. They focus their operation on manufacturing, wholesaling, and fulfillment and partner with merchants to take care of the rest. By providing marketing, customer service, and sales channels, retailers complete the supply chain for them. Each party benefits from reduced workload and expenses.
In this sense, we can think of dropshipping companies and their retail partners as having a symbiotic relationship. On the other hand, order fulfillment companies and their partner merchants maintain a much more customary business relationship.
Ecommerce merchants hire fulfillment companies to take care of resource-intensive tasks for them. These third-party order fulfillment partners provide access to their infrastructure in exchange for payment. Their relationship with their retail partners is linear and traditional—they are selling a service that solves a problem.
In addition to the general dynamic of both business relationships, communicating and working with each type of partner company is a very different experience for sellers. Since fulfillment companies are hired and paid by the merchants they support, they make it easy to customize and monitor their services.
Conversely, dropshipping suppliers tend to be more rigid in their operations and tougher to communicate with. Many of these popular wholesalers are located in Asia, so distance and language barriers can become hurdles, as well.
Risk & Impact
Any ecommerce venture requires some level of risk. And the success rate of dropshipping operations can be low (with one frequently cited stat pegging it at 10%). That’s a staggering number of failed businesses, but the minimal investment of time and money required to start a dropshipping store means those failures are potentially small blows.
Much of the risk associated with this business model comes from ease of entry into the dropshipping arena. Many sellers don’t realize how small the profit margins are, how high the return rates can be, and the level of market saturation.
A traditional ecommerce operation, whether or not its fulfillment tasks are outsourced to a third-party company, has a similar or slightly higher success rate according to various reports—but the associated risk is high. Investing in unmovable inventory can be financially devastating, and sunken overhead startup costs are often destructive, too.
In either case, experts recommend knowing your market well—with thorough research and a carefully-chosen niche—before taking the dive into starting an ecommerce business.
What’s Better for Your Business?
The heart of the matter is that dropshipping partnerships and third-party fulfillment companies work for retailers with different problems to solve. If you’re planning to start an online store but aren’t sure which business model is right for you, consider your available resources and expectations.
Bottom Line
Dropshipping and order fulfillment companies are business concepts that belong to two separate categories. Online retailers can benefit from outsourcing their fulfillment process using either of these methods, but the entire model of their store is dependent on which they choose.
A retailer with the available capital to buy inventory in bulk wanting to avoid investing in their own warehousing operation would do well partnering with an order fulfillment service—like ShipBob and Red Stag Fulfillment.
On the other hand, a merchant that doesn’t have the capital or desire to make a large investment in an unproven product or marketing strategy would find more value in a dropshipping partne such as Oberlo.
Ready to begin dropshipping? Check out our guide on how to start a dropshipping business.
