I thought dropshipping was a gray area. Shopee's criteria came down to just one number.

"Isn't dropshipping a violation of the terms of service?"

I've been asked that many times.

Honestly, I was scared at first, too.

Selling without holding inventory. I kept thinking that if Shopee found out, my account would be banned.

But when I looked into it, the story was simple.

What Shopee officially recognizes isn't the term "dropshipping."

It was a feature called "Pre-order."

A system that allows you to extend the period from payment completion to shipping by up to 10 days.

Selling products that take time to source as pre-orders.

This is the official way to do it on Shopee.

I think many people know this much already.

The problem is what comes after that.

Just because you use pre-orders doesn't mean you can do it indefinitely.

According to an article by a Shopee expert, the percentage of pre-order products in the entire shop must be kept at 20% or less.

For beginners, it's even stricter; starting at under 10% is recommended.

When you look at the numbers, that's all there is to it.

It's neither gray nor black.

The line you need to follow is clearly defined.

I also looked at the example of Shopee Malaysia to see how it works in a neighboring market.

The Late Shipment Rate (LSR) threshold was relaxed to 15% in February of this year, but it was tightened back to 10% in April.

The Non-Fulfillment Rate (NFR) is considered healthy when it is below 10%.

The numbers vary by region.

However, what they all have in common is that they are managed by numbers, not by intuition.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adV7RNWnLJY

The reason I've been able to continue dropshipping is probably just this.

I always keep the pre-order ratio in the back of my mind.

When I get anxious, I don't try to power through it; I look at the numbers.

That alone made the anxiety of the gray area disappear.

The fear of not knowing the numbers was greater than the fear of not holding inventory.

That's what I think now.

I wrote about how I actually systematized this after setting the criteria here.