Wondering if Sourcinbox is the right tool for your dropshipping business?
Sourcinbox is a cloud-based fulfillment platform that makes it easy for ecommerce businesses to procure and fulfill orders from China.
They offer a wide range of features that can help businesses streamline their ecommerce workflow, including a centralized purchasing system, automated purchase orders, and inventory management.
But there are probably a dozen other dropshipping suppliers out there that offer similar features. So what makes Sourcinbox stand out from the rest?
In this Sourcinbox review, we’ll take a close look at the platform and its key features to see if it’s the right fit for your business.
What is Sourcinbox?
Sourcinbox is an end-to-end service provider for ecommerce businesses looking to automate their product sourcing and order fulfillment processes. The company offers a platform that allows businesses to source products, place orders, track shipments, and manage their inventory all in one place.
Sourcinbox was founded in 2015 by a team of professionals from various walks of life, including ecommerce, cross border trade, internet technology, and software development. The company is headquartered in Hangzhou, China.
Who can use it?
Services like Sourcinbox are mostly preferred by dropshippers and ecommerce entrepreneurs who are running their store on Shopify, WooCommerce, or selling on eBay, Amazon, or any other such marketplace.
Businesses these days want their operation to be as hands-off as possible and that is exactly what Sourcinbox offers. It allows them to build a leaner organization by automating their product sourcing and order fulfillment processes, which are otherwise time and resource intensive.
You might be interested in our: Top Dropshipping Agents Review
What are the key features of Sourcinbox?
Sourcinbox offers some features that are considered the standard in the industry, such as product sourcing, order management, inventory management, and shipment tracking. In addition, the company also offers a few unique features that we will take a closer look at.
1. Sourcing
Sourcinbox works with a network of Chinese suppliers to help businesses source products at the best possible prices. The company has a team of sourcing agents who will help you find the best price and quality for your winning product.
Related reading: Best Sourcing Agent in China
You can search for products by keyword, category on the Sourcinbox dashboard. Once you find a product you like, you can either add it to your store or place an order.
If you don’t have a specific product in mind but know what type of products you want to sell, Sourcinbox offers a “Product Trending” feature that shows you the latest trending products on their platform. Please note that Sourcinbox is the middleman here. All price negotiations will happen through Sourcinbox.
2. Storage
Sourcinbox has a 4000 square meter warehouse in Hangzhou, China. Once you place an order with a supplier, Sourcinbox will take care of the rest and store your products in their warehouse. Many such services levy a storage charge, or offer free storage for a certain time period after which they start charging.
Sourcinbox, on the other hand, offers free storage for all its customers with no time limit. As long as you are using their services, the inventory can be stored for free. You have the option to pre-order and store products in their warehouse before you even have a customer. This is a great way to reduce your lead time and increase your customer satisfaction.
3. Quality checks
Sourcinbox offers a free quality control service for all the products stored in their warehouse. Once your products arrive at the Sourcinbox warehouse, their quality control team will check each and every product to ensure that it meets your quality standards.
If a product does not meet your standards, Sourcinbox will either return the product to the supplier or help you find a replacement. This quality check service is included in the price of storage and is a great value-add for businesses that are sourcing products from China for the first time.
4. Private labeling
Sourcinbox can help you private label your products with your own brand name and logo. This is a great way to differentiate your business and build a strong brand identity. In fact, once an ecommerce merchant starts to generate consistent sales, they generally look to build their own private label business.
Sourcinbox has a team of designers who can help you design your brand logo and packaging. They also help with custom inserts, which is a proven way to increase customer loyalty.
5. Product photography
The days of using stock images are long gone and businesses are now using high-quality, custom product photos to attract customers and drive sales.
But with the inventory in China, it’s not always possible or practical to take your own product photos. This is where Sourcinbox comes in. The company offers a professional product photography service that will make your products look their best.
This service is not included in their basic services. This means you will be billed separately for this service. But, it is well worth the investment as professional product photos can help you increase your conversion rate and drive more sales.
The benefits of using Sourcinbox
Most of the services on offer by Sourcinbox are nothing novel. But they do offer some advantages over the competition. Here’s what.
1. Sourcinbox app
Sourcinbox is one of the few brands that decided that mobile apps were the way to go. The app, available on both Android and iOS, is well-designed and easy to use. Most businessmen these days are on the move or work remotely. The app allows them to easily keep track of their inventory, orders, and shipments while on the go.
You can place bulk orders (up to 400), track your existing orders, and view your inventory status directly from the app. The app also supports multiple languages, which is great for international businesses.
2. Flexibility
Sourcinbox’s APP is a very flexible option for businesses who are migrating from one platform to another or those who are just starting out. If you have preexisting products in your store, there’s no need to worry about losing them. You can simply ‘connect’ them to your Sourcinbox inventory and they will be available for sale on your new platform.
Sourcinbox offers one-click integrations with Shopify, Woocommerce, Yampi and Shoplazza. But you can also use it along with another service, like say Oberlo. That gives you a lot of freedom and flexibility when it comes to choosing the right platform for your business.
3. Fast processing
Sourcinbox’s processing times are pretty good. If you have pre-ordered inventory, it will be processed within 24-hours of arriving at their warehouse. That’s pretty fast considering that most other dropshipping suppliers take at least a couple of days to process inventory.
That said, if you have not pre-ordered your inventory, it can take up to 3-4 days for Sourcinbox to source the products, depending on the availability and another 24-hours to process it. This is still decent.
4. Personal account manager
Sourcinbox claims to offer a ‘personal account manager’ to all its customers. This is a great feature as it allows you to have direct contact with a Sourcinbox employee who can help you with any problems or issues you may have.
The account manager will also help you with product sourcing, give you recommendations, and provide tips on how to grow your business. That said, there’s no clarity on the TAT or the number of customers each account manager can handle. They are a team of about 40 employees. We are sure there’s a limit to how many customers each one can handle.
5. Pricing
Sourcinbox’s pricing is one of their biggest advantages. They don’t have any setup fees or monthly charges. You only pay for the inventory you order and the shipping charges. Everything else is free, including the app.
Businesses looking for a more personalized service than popular marketplaces like Aliexpress might find this to be a better choice. Especially because they do not have any recurrent charges in place.
The top drawbacks of using Sourcinbox
Just like any other big ticket dropshipping fulfillment service, Sourcinbox has a lot of features that sound great on paper. But it’s not devoid of its flaws. Here’s what we think can be potential drawbacks.
1. No barrier
Sourcinbox has no barrier to entry. This means, practically anyone can sign up and start to use the service. This is a common problem with every dropshipping supplier. Because they are looking for maximum number of customers, they don’t really vet their applicants.
More the merrier for them. But what happens when 10 of their customers are selling the same product and inventory runs out of stock in the market? Whose orders do they prioritize considering there’s no tiered system in place?
There’s no clarity on this from Sourcinbox. Also, don’t discount the fact that their customer support team might get overwhelmed with support requests, which means your query may get pushed down the queue, even if you are a business that’s generating 100 sales a day.
Sourcingbro’s solution: Low barrier to entry
At Sourcingbro, we want to make sure that our service is available to as many people as possible, including one-man operations. However, we also want to make sure that we are able to provide the best possible service to all our customers.
To that end, we have put in place a screening process for all our applicants. We take a look at your business, your experience, current sales volume, your products, and your target market before we decide to work together.
This may seem like a hindrance for some, but we believe that it’s necessary in order to provide the best possible service to all our customers, without cutting corners with our service quality.
2. Not transparent on product source
Many dropshipping services that offer end-to-end service will not tell you where they are sourcing your products from. This can be a problem because you have no idea whether these products are being procured at the right prices.
There’s always a price difference between a manufacturer and a supplier. Ideally, any service needs to be able to pass on these savings to the customers. If they are unable to do so, it might be an indication that they are markups on the products they are sourcing.
This can be a potential dealbreaker and something that you should be aware of when you are looking for a dropshipping supplier.
Homefish’s Solution: Complete transparency on vendors
We always aim to be as transparent as possible with our customers. This includes being upfront about the vendors we are working with and the prices we are paying for the products.
You can be confident that you are getting the best possible prices for the products you are sourcing through us. In fact, we share complete vendor information with our customers so that they can contact them directly if they have any questions.
This way, you can get the updated price list from the vendors themselves and be assured that you are getting the best possible deal.
3. Inventory is not guaranteed
One of the problems when a service does not reveal their sources is that they might not be able to guarantee inventory. This can be a big problem if you are looking to source products in bulk, or are consistently generating a good volume of sales.
Peak seasons bottlenecks are common across the industry. But if you can plan in advance and have a good idea about the vendor’s inventory, you can avoid these problems.
However, if your dropshipping supplier is not being transparent about their sources, you will have no way of knowing whether the products you are looking for will be in stock when you need them. This also happens commonly with services that have no barrier. Multiple merchants are selling the same products and when inventory runs out, the service is unable to guarantee when they will be able to source more.
Homefish’s solution: Done for your inventory management
At Homefish, we take the inventory management burden off your shoulders. We work with vendors that have a good track record of maintaining inventory levels and are able to meet the demands of our customers.
We also work with multiple vendors who offer the same products. This way, if one vendor is out of stock, we can source the products from another vendor.
This way, you can be confident that the products you need will be in stock when you need them. We also monitor the inventory levels of all the products in your account and give you regular updates so that you can order in advance.
4. Shipping weight is based on estimations
The shipping weight is one of the most crucial, yet underrated, factors in shipping. It determines the cost of shipping and has a huge impact on your margins.
However, many dropshipping platforms like Sourcinbox do not take the time to accurately weigh the products they are shipping. Instead, they rely on estimations that are often inaccurate.
You might be overpaying for shipping because the service is overestimating the weight of the products. This can cause a significant impact on your bottom line, especially if you are shipping multi unit orders.
Homefish’s solution: Accurate product weights
At Homefish, we receive the accurate weights of all the products from our courier partners themselves. This is automatically synced to your account dashboard. In other words, you can be confident that you are only paying for the shipping weight that is being charged by the courier.
This way, you can avoid overpaying for shipping and keep your margins healthy.
5. No payment credit
An ecommerce business relies heavily on cashflow. The cashflow must be fluid inorder to place repeat orders with your vendors, pay your employees and other operational costs.
One of the biggest problems that businesses face is delayed payments from payment processors.
But you have to pay Sourcinbox upfront for all your orders, regardless of whether the payments have been processed or not. This can cause a huge strain on your cashflow, especially if you are a small business.
Homefish’s solution: Weekly payments
At Homefish, we understand the importance of cashflow for businesses. That is why we have a weekly payment schedule. You can choose to pay us once a week, instead of paying upfront for all your orders.
This way, you can avoid the strain on your cashflow and keep your business running smoothly. It allows you that extra buffer to wait for payments to come in, without having to worry about delayed orders.
The Bottom Line
Sourcinbox does offer some really good features. They can help you with private labeling as well as product photography. Their app in particular, makes it easy to manage your orders and track your shipments, even on the go.
However, their lack of transparency, inaccurate shipping weights and upfront payment schedule make them a less than ideal choice for businesses.
At Homefish, we have solutions designed to keep your business running smoothly. From complete transparency on vendors to accurate shipping weights, we have you covered.
If you are still on the fence about which dropshipping fulfillment service to choose, get on a call with us.
