| We actually agree with this, we saw that inside Shopify. Bigger retailers are getting smarter about this and enforcing vendor SLAs. Meaning requirements like: 1. Accurate product listings 2. <24 hour ship times, enforced 3. No manual steps, only automated / integrated 4. Easy returns, funded by sellers 5. Sellers based in the same country Drop ship can range from very small and generally not very durable online retailers to massive and very sophisticated retailers. In the case of the sophisticated ones, you may not even know the difference. Amazon for example has been drop shipping a lot more, but because of their vendor SLA people can't tell it's not from FBA. It's mostly just about good vendor SLAs, local suppliers and short ship times. The other thing we're seeing is a continuum where people start out drop shipping, and then move to wholesale when the volume grows. That way 1. Consumers get access to smaller / newer brands early and then 2. Eventually the experience gets more controlled. We do both, just generally because our customers are growing but also because you really need both to make the experience good. |