Another article's title could be: Making money off poor Chinese kids . If you put together the word "dropshipping" and the alternative title I've just mentioned, you might already understand why I'm so angry about this.

Most widely known secret in the world

So what is dropshipping?

It is a retail method where the store owners don't keep products in stock. Instead, after they receive an order from customer, they purchase the item (much cheaper) from a manufacturer and tell him to ship the product directly to that customer.

Example situation:

Your friend Ricky needs a new shoes.
Your friend Adam manufactures shoes and sells a pair for 30 bucks.
Ricky is willing to pay 70 bucks per shoe pair

See it? As a good friend who wants the best for your friend Ricky (customer), you kindly offer yourself that if he gives you those 70 bucks, he'd get a package with his brand new awesome shoes within a week. And of course, with free shipping and lifelong guarantee. If Ricky is still not sure, then promise him some stupid "1 out of 100 wins" competition or some other bullshit. BOOM! He's in. Now you call your friend Adam, give him his 30 bucks and he sends a pair of shoes to Ricky. You haven't even seen the product but made a profit out of it. Now you can enjoy your hard-earned 40 bucks....

Dropshipping schema (Source)

"What's wrong with that? They are actually all happy, aren't they?"

Well, yes and no. What if your friend Adam would be selling those shoes for 2 bucks instead of 30, would work 14 hours a day in a filthy conditions and he'd get beaten by his wife if he said he can't continue? What do you say now? Are they all still happy?
That's exactly the crucial requirement for the dropshipping business to work - buy the products as cheap as possible, not minding anything else except the price. And as we all know, there's no better way how to buy cheap stuff than order it from China or India, where 10 year old kids can easily work up to 12 hour-long shifts. Daily.

So what I'm actually most disgusted from?

I mean...I know I'm not saint either. I do mostly wear clothes produced in China, Bangladesh or India because they are cheap. BUT! At least I don't misuse the system even more to my own advantage. I honestly feel and urge to puke all over my screen when I see these young guys doing Youtube videos how they made crazy gains on Shopify, selling stuff from AliExpress for the tenfold price. If they at least had to do some work with it - but it's literally layed out out there for them, dropshipping platforms, drag-and-drop shop creation platforms, everything - just a couple of clicks and it's up and running. If noone notices their online shop, well noone has to know they even tried. And if they get lucky and earn couple of thousands? Well, now they proudly carry themselves as enterpreneurs. I understand they are not the main cause of these problems, big whale companies are. But I still can't get my head around it, how do they manage to walk the streets so proud of themselves, for basically fucking over people of their own age, not fortunate enough to win the birth loterry.

Hundreds of these awful tutorial videos and not a single one of them mentions who actually produces the sold items. And they all know who...

Are these also already victims of this?

During my travels in Asia, I've seen hundreds of beautiful kids. I can't help myself but think whether they already started working for these "successfull enterpreneurs" from the western world or not yet. Usually, there are not many other options for them.

Naran-kaghan valley, Pakistan

Jaisalmer, India

Somewhere in Rajasthan, India

Thanks for reading!Martin

Note: If you want to read more about kids in Asia, being enslaved and working for western industry, I recommend you a novel Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry.

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Mother tongue version

Alternativne meno clanku by mohlo byt: Ako zbohatnut na ukor deti v Cine. Ak si date dokopy slovo "dropshipping" a spominany alternativny nadpis, pravdepodobne uz rozumiete o com idem pisat.

Vseobecne zname tajomstvo...

Co je dropshipping?

Je to obchodna metoda kedy obchod neskladuje produkty na sklade. Namiesto toho ich po kupe od dodavatela (omnoho lacnejsie) priamo posiela zakaznikom. Obchod/e-shop je vpodstate v tomto pripade len mediator.

Priklad (btw takto nejak som si vzdy predstavoval slovne ulohy z ekonomiky :D)

Vas kamos Peter potrebuje nove topanky.
Vas kamos Adam vyraba topanky a predava ich po 30 euro.
Peter je ochotny za topanky zaplatit 70 euro

Vidite to? Ako dobry kamarat chcete pre Petra (zakaznik) samozrejme len to najlepsie a preto sa ponuknete, ze pokial Vam da svojich 70 eur, tak vsetko zanho vybavite a do tyzdna najde pri dverach domu krabicu s jeho novymi topankami. Samozrejme, dorucenie zadarmo a dozivotna zaruka, ako inak. Pokial Peter stale vaha, slubte mu moznost vyhrat nejaku hlupu premiu alebo nieco podobne. BOOM! Peter suhlasi Teraz uz iba zavolate Vasmu kamosovi Adamovi, zaplatite mu 30 eur a poprosite ho nech posle jeden par topanok na Petrovu adresu. Vy ste produkt ani len nevideli/nedrzali, no na celom procese ste zarobili. Teraz si mozete uz len uzivat tazko zarobenych 40 eur...

"Co je na tom zle, ved vsetci su spokojni, ci?"

Hmmm, nie..Co ak by Vas kamarat Adam predaval tie topanky po 2 eura namiesto 30, pracoval by 14 hodin denne v strasnych podmienkach a pokial by povedal, ze potrebuje pauzu, zmlatila by ho jeho zena?. Su pri takomto scenariu stale vsetci spokojni?
A to je presne zaklad celeho dropshippingu - kupit produkty najlacnejsie ako sa len da, nehladiac na nic ine ako cenu. A ako vsetci vieme, lacne produkty je najjednoduchsie objednat z Ciny a Indie, kde 10 rocne deti bezne pracuju 12 hodinove smeny. Denne.

Z coho som ale najviac znechuteny?

Ano...ja tiez niesom svaty. Vacsinou taktiez nosim oblecenie z Ciny a Bangladeshu pretoze su lacne. ALE! aspon nezneuzivam system este viac len pre moje vlastne potreby. Mam chut vracat ked vidim tych 20 rocnych chlapcov na Youtube ako robia videa o tom, ze zarobili obrovske peniaze na Shopify predavanim veci z AliExpressu za desatnasobne ceny. Keby s tym aspon naozaj mali trochu roboty a bol by to ich napad...Ale momentalne je naozaj vsetko na internete pre dropshipping predpripravene, od vytvorenia samotneho e-shopu, kontaktovania dodavatelov atd atd...Par klikniti a cely obchod bezi. Pokial Ich e-shop nebude uspesny, nevadi, nikto sa o tom nemusi dozvediet. Ale pokial sa zadari a zrazu spravia par tisic eur? Zrazu su to mladi a hrdi podnikatelia...a pritom vsetci dobre vedia komu by mali tie peniaze realne patrit. Rozumiem, ze dropshipperi niesu hlavni zneuzivatelia lacnej pracovnej sily v Azii - velke firmy su. Stale mi ale nejde do hlavy, ako sa mozu tito chlapci hrdo prechadzat po uliciach vediac, ze vpodstate AKTIVNE zneuzivaju ludi v ich veku, ktori nemali stastie v loterii miesta narodenia.

Stovky podobnych tutorialov a nikto z nich nikdy nespomenie, odkial pochadzaju produkty a kto ich naozaj vyraba....a pritom to vedia vsetci

Su uz aj oni obete?

Pocas mojich potuliek v Azii som videl stovky nadhernych deti. Neda sa mi nerozyslat nad tym, ci uz aj ony dnes pracuju vo fabrikach pre tychto mladych a "uspesnych podnikatelov" zo zapadneho sveta, ktori sefuju biznisu z detskej izby v podkrovi. Zvycajne tieto deti nemaju vela inych moznosti..