Dropshipping from China or your own stock in Europe: which to pick?

In dropshipping, the order placed on the online store is passed to a supplier, most often based in China, who ships it directly to the end customer, with no stop in a stock held by the seller. In owned stock, the goods are bought in advance, delivered to Europe, then shipped by the seller or a logistics provider once the order is placed.

This difference changes who controls the goods before shipping, who negotiates the purchase price, and who answers to the customer if something goes wrong. A third model sits between the two, white label or private label: the product is bought in bulk and customised before being stocked, which keeps an existing product base while moving closer to owned stock.

In dropshipping, the lead time to the end customer depends directly on international transport from China, often several weeks by postal service or express. A long lead time remains one of the most common criticisms of this model.

In owned stock, the international lead time is absorbed upstream, when the order is placed with the factory: the customer receives their order within the timeframes of a standard European carrier, often one to three working days. This shorter lead time has a cost, that of tying up cash in stock before selling anything.

Since 1 July 2021, all shipments from a third country to the European Union are subject to VAT, regardless of their value, with a mandatory electronic customs declaration. For shipments of 150 euros or less, this declaration is made via the Delta H7 service. The rule applies in dropshipping, where each parcel crosses the border individually, just as in owned stock, where the goods cross the border in bulk before being resold.

The IOSS, the Import One-Stop Shop for VAT, is an optional scheme that simplifies declaring VAT on distance sales of goods imported at 150 euros or less: the operator registers in a single member state and declares the VAT collected each month, without registering in every country of consumption. This scheme is mainly of interest to dropshipping; with owned stock, import VAT is paid once on the customs value of the batch, then sales VAT is charged normally to the end customer.

Under French law, using dropshipping does not change the seller's obligations towards the end customer. The business that concluded the sales contract remains liable for the product's compliance and for meeting the announced lead time, even when production and shipping are handled by a supplier in China: it is not the supplier who answers to the customer, it is the seller.

The Consumer Code's statutory fourteen-day right of withdrawal applies the same way in dropshipping and in owned stock. In practice, a return on a product shipped directly from China costs more to organise, or is not offered at all, for lack of a return address in Europe; with owned stock, the warehouse also serves as the return address.

In dropshipping, the seller never physically sees the product before it reaches the customer: no quality control is possible between the factory and the customer's mailbox, and the packaging remains the supplier's, rarely customisable for small quantities. In owned stock, the goods pass through a warehouse before the sale, which opens up the possibility of quality control on receipt and packaging under your own brand.

This difference weighs on margin. A dropshipping supplier sells at a higher unit price, since it processes each order separately; a bulk purchase for owned stock is negotiated lower, against a minimum order quantity, often one hundred to one thousand units depending on the product. Margin per unit increases with owned stock, but only after that stock has sold: the financial risk shifts to the seller.

Since 13 December 2024, European Regulation 2023/988 on general product safety, known as the GPSR, requires that a product can only be placed on the EU market if there is an economic operator established in the Union responsible for its compliance: manufacturer, authorised representative, importer, distributor or fulfilment service provider. This obligation applies whatever model is chosen, dropshipping or owned stock, as soon as the product is a consumer good sold to a European consumer.

Other obligations apply depending on the country of sale. In France, anyone placing products subject to extended producer responsibility on the market must register with ADEME's SYDEREP registry and obtain a unique identifier since 1 January 2022, under penalty of a fine of up to 30,000 euros. In Germany, any company putting packaged goods into circulation must register free of charge with the LUCID registry, with no minimum threshold. Owned stock makes these steps easier; in dropshipping, the Chinese supplier assumes no European obligation in the seller's place.

Dropshipping remains useful for testing a product or a market without tying up cash. Switching to owned stock is justified when several signals add up: a steady volume of orders on the same references, a return rate that weighs on profitability, and delivery times that become a brake on sales rather than a mere inconvenience.

The switch does not happen all at once. A common intermediate step is to order a first pilot stock, in a small quantity, to validate quality and packaging before committing to a larger volume. Some sellers keep dropshipping to test new references, while managing already-validated products through owned stock.

Sorva is a brokerage and trading house active between Europe and China, with a Chinese-speaking team in Guangzhou and a team in Paris. We buy the goods in China and resell them delivered, which lets us support a first pilot batch in dropshipping just as much as a full switch to owned stock, with quality control before loading and transport through to a warehouse in Europe.

In most cases you pay no fees: you open a file, we negotiate the merchandise on your behalf and we take a commission on its ex-works value. For a complete launch, from product and factory sourcing through to the online store, our Produce and deliver and Turnkey business packages cover production, transport and, for the latter, the launch and automation of your store.