Shopify Collective transforms how retailers view product extensions via dropshipping, a high-volume low-control supply method, to curating a direct to consumer partnership. Dropshipping creates a retailer's product catalogue through purchasing products from anonymous overseas vendors who do not provide any product quality assurance, relationships with the vendor, and shipping may takes weeks. With the Shopify Collective, merchants are curating a product offering by adding products from vetted Shopify stores to their catalogue in direct contact with the vendor. This enables retailers to have real-time inventory, a single source for order management, and total control over descriptions, images, and pricing. The Shopify Collective also enables zero-cost upfront inventory, and freedom for retailers to test products with zero risk while continuing their fulfillment velocity and similar quality of service from what they are used to. Most of the vendor stores are located in the same region which may decrease the total shipping time for a customer and sellers can compete with recently expanded Amazon-like fulfilment marketplaces. Whereas with dropshipping, a customer may receive an average product in a poorly packaged shipping box from a factory direct source, retailers are able to work with partner stores to align the brand, packaging and marketing with the product offer for a more premium experience. The transition from a high-risk logistic model, to the Shopify Collective structures represents a very strategic catalogue refresh from a hit or miss method of trying out a large quantity of products to see if any of them actually sell, to a much more purposeful made decision to build your product catalogue with data-based items that fulfill your strategy. Products can now be curated to suit complementary products, time of year, or exclusives making enhanced purposes for the retailers store. Eventually, this will yield positive supplier relationships, cheaper wholesale pricing and more stable margins. In conclusion, the Shopify Collective enables a much quicker to execute product catalogue strategy, simpler to facilitate, and it has trust as its foundation; ultimately providing all the upside of dropshipping without the negatively impacting your brand. Retailers who are truly wanting to grow their business see Shopify Collective as not just another sourcing option they can explore, but as a strategy to build a more sustainable customer focused offering.
Shopify Collective can provide us with the opportunity to collaborate with other quality brands of the same values. Sondercare can reach out to high quality brands that fit into its established image of luxury and design-driven products, instead of randomly finding products to add like the old version of dropshipping. For example, we can collaborate with high-end bedding brands or smart home technology companies by offering products that naturally complement its hospital beds. The common way of traditional dropshipping involves sourcing the products at large, international markets where there is less control over their quality. This will result about cheap, generic products that do not measure up to our premium standards and may possibly damage our brand. With Shopify Collective, we can expand its product catalog while maintaining focus on quality, luxury & brand alignment.
A revolutionary platform, Shopify Collective enables the retailers to design their own exclusive product line using among other independent suppliers. This gives customers wide and distinct choices of products unlike in traditional dropshipping which is mainly dependent on few suppliers. The Shopify Collective allows shopkeepers to have more connections with their suppliers and more control in their products. It also aids in mitigating shipping logistics in the form of cost and time making the entire shopping experience a better one.