Dropshipping hair is definitely the best way to start a hair business when you don’t have the funds for a large inventory. Dropshipping has recently become the most popular way to start a business. It is labeled by many “Youtube” entrepreneurs as the way to make six figures and even become a millionaire! We have heard so many successful examples of dropshipping businesses in other fields, but is it truly the best business model for your start-up hair brand? In this article, we will dig deep into the pros and cons of hair extensions/weave dropshipping and the traditional retail hair business model.

Traditional Hair Business Model — good for big spenders, you have full control of your business

Before dropshipping became popular, the traditional retail business model is “buy bulk in wholesale, sell at retail“. Retailers will come up with a big budget and buy sufficient inventory for any possible orders. You can control the price, warehouse, inspections, inventory count and all other important aspects of a business. The same thing applies to hair businesses. A hair business retailer would make a good listing of their products in-store or online, and they should be good to go! But the hair industry is a very specific market that can be different from clothing, cosmetics, shoes, and other products with fewer variations. let’s take a look at the pros and cons of traditional hair business retail mode.

Pros: full control of your business

1. You control when you can restock.
2. You know exactly what your inventory count is.
3. You can arrange packing, shipping, and control how you want to ship to your customers.
4. You are fully stocked up and can feel confident about quality control.

Cons: requires large investments, increased risk, more labor work, limited inventory

1. You need to spend more than thousands of upfront money. For example, you need to buy at least 3 bundles for each length available from 10″ – 30″ or even longer. That easily adds up to 60 bundles, paired with enough closures and frontals, the number goes even higher. If you want to offer more products such as wigs, each wig can be $100-$200. You will need upfront investment for your inventory
2. Due to the upfront investment, you can only include limited products that you can offer customers. This limits your earning ability.
3. You need to package and ship yourself. Meaning that your time cannot be spent on marketing, customer service, and other things. The post office closes at 5 pm every day and does not wait for you to finish your Instagram editing.
4. The risk of an item not getting sold is increased. The risk of getting a bad batch of hair and wasting your investment is increased. This even happens with the biggest hair companies. Risk of security danger is increased (People can do anything to get some hair nowadays. robbery happens to both big hair companies and small hair companies all the time!)

Dropshipping Hair Business Model — Cost-efficient, hassle-free but no control

Dropshipping hair is a fully developed business model that allows the retailer to hold little to zero inventory. The retailer doesn’t need to spend investment for hair inventory. Often times, they don’t need to get involved in the quality control, warehouse, packaging, and shipping process.

It is truly a hassle-free way to start a hair business when you don’t have the budget to ball out. This is almost the case for every entrepreneur, you can hold a full-time job while focusing on your hair business marketing. Your vendor will take care of your shipping process completely. All you need to do is to report the same order to your vendor and also tell them your customer’s address. It does sound very easy, but before you are so enticed and about to jump up and start your hair business now, let’s take a good look at the pros and cons of the dropshipping hair business model.

Pros: low requirement, no investment, zero hassle, and time-saving

1. Require no investment to get started. You don’t need to buy inventory for this one.
2. No hassle. Your vendor will take care of packaging and shipping for you. You can hold a full-time job while making money selling hair.
3. Low risk for your investment. You don’t spend until you get paid! There aren’t going to be unsold, unpopular items in your stock for ages. If you don’t like the vendor, you can switch at any time!

Cons: you lose control of your business

1. You do not know your stock situation. Most of the vendors give you very little time to prepare if the stock is out.
2. You can’t control quality. You will have to establish so much trust with your vendor to trust them to dropship hair to your customers.
3. You don’t know how your items have been packaged. Or in fact, no one is even there to handle your packaging.

Dropshipping hair from a Chinese vendor, Ali-express

Besides the regular cons of dropshipping hair, there are some BIG TERRIBLE THINGS red flags about dropshipping from a Chinese hair vendor.

Cons: too risky, do not recommend

1. You cannot drop ship from a Chinese vendor who you don’t know. Most of the Ali-express hair vendors are a middle man trading company or low-quality hair factories that will make you lose big time on your investment for their horrible quality hair.
2. You cannot communicate with a non-English speaking vendor.
3. You cannot return bad products, shipping to China or India will cost you more than the original hair.
4. You don’t have an online website to look up any listing or price.
5. You don’t know how they handle details of your packages or hell, if they are going to write their own names all over your company’s products! (This has happened to more people than you think)
6. A lot of hidden fees here, here and here.

Pros: Nothing really besides cheap price.

1. Very cheap price (debatable depending on quality).
2. If you really trust your vendor (you have visited them and their factories, inventories in China or India and are sure that they won’t try to finesse you), maybe you can try it out.

Dropshipping from US-based vendors?

There are some US vendors out there like Branded Hair Extensions. What’s great about US-based wholesale hair is that you get security and fast customer service because these companies are in the same time zone as you are.

Cons: Expensive hair, required sign up fees, limited products.

1. More expensive, in fact, a lot more expensive to a point that the mark-up might eat up a lot of your profit.
2. Limited product listing due to the fact that they have to buy the stock first from a Chinese vendor or Indian vendor.
3. Although most US vendors advertise fast shipping, many generally require processing time to confirm your order which delays the order. Also, same-day processing generally only applies to before a certain time frame in a day (for example order before 12 pm enjoys same-day processing, which is unlikely since most people order online at night time).
4. Require a high sign-up fee to join the dropshipping program.

Pros: Fast customer service, easy communication, more trustworthy.

1. Accessible customer service.
2. Most trust with quality.
3. Easier communication with customer service that does speak English.
4. Easy to handle a return.

We can’t help but introduce Branded Hair Extensions here. Branded Hair Extensions is the only luxurious level wholesale hair company that combines pros in dropshipping hair from both the US and China. Customers can enjoy US customer service Monday-Saturday while paying the lowest price available in the US hair market. We partner with the pioneer hair factories and have instant access to any hair products. Processing is 24/7 and shipping is 3-5 days. We also offer the best private labeling service available for hair businesses by packaging your hair in the most precise way as your request for each order and print out custom Thank you note for free! Chat with us now to see how we operate and can benefit your hair business.

Is Drop Shipping Good For Your Business?

It’s very obvious that traditional hair business is a safe, secure way to do business with big budgets while dropshipping is the newly popular business model and is proven to be doing just as good for those who don’t have start-up investment! Dropshipping hair can either create a full-time job for you or get you a side-hustle earning. We definitely recommend starting your hair business by drop shipping hair and slowly develop into buying bulk hair. No matter if you are dropshipping hair extensions or buying in bulk, you are always under the risk that your vendor imposes on you. The most important thing is that you have a reliable wholesale hair vendor in place so the hair quality is always guaranteed.

Wanna start your hair business? Chat with experts.

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