Editing Drop shipping (section)

== Scams ==
Drop shipping has also been a component of [[internet]]-based [[work-at-home scheme]]s posted on [[social networking service]]s.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.michigan.gov/consumerprotection/Protect-Yourself/consumer-alerts/shopping/before-you-buy-or-sell-online| title=Drop-Shipping: What you Need to Know Before You Buy or Sell Online|publisher=[[State of Michigan]]}}</ref> [[Scam|Scammers]] will promote drop-shipping as a work-at-home scheme, in which victims will be sold a list of businesses from which drop shipment orders can be placed. These businesses may not be wholesalers, but other businesses or individuals acting as [[Reseller|middlemen]] between retailers and wholesalers, with no product of their own to sell. These middlemen often charge prices that leave little [[profit margin]] for the victim and require a regular fee for use of their services. In 2019, the Gimlet Media podcast [[Reply All (podcast)|Reply All]] investigated the drop-shipping phenomenon, exploring the way drop shippers microtarget<ref>{{Cite news | url=https://medium.com/positiveslope/attack-of-the-micro-brands-c0b7835c3633 | title=Attack of the micro brand | first=Scott | last=Belsky | work=[[Medium (website)|Medium]] | date=March 30, 2018}}</ref> their client, but also found that micro-shipping itself is a rather dubious industry in that, despite the promises of some of the most well-known drop-shipping proponents, few drop shippers actually make any profits.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/dvhe3l/117-the-worlds-most-expensive-free-watch|title=The World's Most Expensive Free Watch|date=2018-03-01|work=[[Reply All (podcast)]]|publisher=[[Gimlet Media]]}}</ref>

In 2016, ''[[Buzzfeed News]]'' published an article exposing unscrupulous drop-shippers in China, describing how customers were receiving products that were not as those were advertised, or not receiving any products at all.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/sapna/say-no-to-the-dress |title=Say No To The Dress | first1=Sapna | last1=Maheshwari | first2=Beimeng | last2=Fu | work=[[BuzzFeed News]] | date=April 5, 2016}}</ref>

One effect of drop-shipping scams is that customers who receive a drop-shipped package may realise that they overpaid for the item, return the item to the seller, then reorder the identical item directly from the manufacturer. The cost of processing the return and the loss of the unsalable returned product can result in significant losses to the drop shipper.<ref>{{Cite news | url=https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/why-its-nearly-impossible-to-stop-this-amazon-and-ebay/278622| title=Why It's Nearly Impossible to Stop This Amazon and eBay Scheme | first=Jason | last=Feifer | work=[[Entrepreneur (magazine)|Entrepreneur]] | date=July 27, 2016|url-access=registration}}</ref>