How does the drop shipping work? If I order from a drop shipper site; as a customer I wouldn't expect to need to pay any custom charges but if they directly ship from the manufacturer won't I get charged?
Amazon is a bad example as there is plenty of people using it to dropship directly from China too, just with a lower average price.
Just like Wish Amazon is far from direct.
Edit:// because people always seem to think Amazon automatically has good pricing. Things that don't sell so often and are amazon warehoused have a recurring cost for the seller. Who do you think is paying that? Some categories still have a 300% or more markup on Amazon.
Yes, yes, pedantically speaking of Amazon the business this is true. Rhetorically speaking of Amazon the metaphor for cheap online stuff, who cares? Would anyone have felt the need to "well ackshually" me of I'd written "Walmart"?
Exactly :) honestly I am so thankful that Amazon has zero dominance and we have actual hard working, tax paying, businesses providing an amazing service
If dropshipping was to be used as valid fulfillment method, e.g. what Amazon is doing without customers even realizing it, the customer will not get charged anything. Because either the goods are already imported by the supplier of e.g. Amazon. Or because the dropshipping seller is the importer of record and wll be charged with tariffs and so on.
You do get charged. The drop shipper just charges a lot more for the same item that you could order on Amazon for less.