Review on BilisBenta, a Dropshipping Service in the Philippines – an Actual Customer Experience

BilisBenta is a dropshipping platform in the Philippines, launched last December 2020. Here in this post, is an actual user experience of their service written in a form of Open Letter to its management. This post doesn’t aim to bash the company but to give an insight to people who are planning to enter ecommerce business specifically dropshipping in the Philippines. This same letter is already sent to BilisBenta’s communication channels.

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Background of BilisBenta

Bilisbenta is an automated dropshipping platform and fulfillment company that helps people save time and money. BilisBenta simplifies your dropshipping business by allowing you to build and deliver products on Lazada, Shopee platform in an easy way

ABOUT US
We desire to help the community of business-inclined people and aspiring entrepreneurs in E-commerce providing them the easiest start thru a dropshipping platform, enabling them to sell via Lazada and Shopee platform and .com website supplied by merchants both local and international

VISION
We want to become the go-to-dropshipping platform with our efficient automated system, proven track record in the E-commerce industry, and determined support team who desire to make a difference in our Dropshipper’ lives and future businesses. Partnership with Bilisbenta will create more opportunities for Filipinos inside and outside of the country giving them a source of income at the comfort of their own home 24/7

MISSION
BilisBenta was launched to make the dropshipping business accessible to anyone who wants to start an online business easy, fast, and hassle-free. BilisBenta promises to provide a start to all aspiring entrepreneurs, with or without knowledge and experience in dropshipping.

An Open Letter to Sir Chester Sy and BilisBenta Management

Hello Sir Chester,

Good day po.

I am a subscriber of Bilis Benta for 6 months, and today, I decided to no longer renew my subscription.

I am just sad that i have to come up with this decision knowing that your dropshipping service is good opportunity to start a business at this time.

I’ve been a Lazada seller for one year now, and it’s been the bread and butter of our family. With my experience and knowledge on how to operate a Lazada shop- branding, SEO, SKU optimization, Lazada policy and compliance, marketing and operating a back end fulfillment, i thought that i know how to operate a dropshipping business in Lazada.

However, I got a hard time to scale my Bilis Benta Lazada shop for the reasons of out of stock and inventory syncing issue. And as a subscriber, this is out of our control. I availed of a dropshipping services knowing that the inventory and fulfillment side will be taken care of, but I am disappointed that this will also be our headache and a major consideration for our marketing.

On our first few months of subscription, we spent on Facebook Ads to market the products. I can say that the items under Home Blends are sellable and can be markedup with a higher profit. But several times that not all designs and sizes are available (despite availability in our seller account inventory) and we have to request our customers to select another design. 

With the advent of Home Buddies, Home Inspiration Blogs and Pages, customers already had their intended colors and designs of the items they want to purchase online. Because of unavailability of design and sizes of the products that we are marketing (that we thought available), we have a lot of lost sale and worst, angry and unsatisfied customers when an order was dispatched by the BB team before a customer can confirm the replacement to avoid the OVL of our shop. There was this time that BB sent a soap instead of a bedsheet  with a note to just file a refund. We were so embarrassed that time because customer tagged us as a bogus seller and left disparaging reviews on all of our Ads. The only thing that we can do to our customer is to ask for a sincere apology and issue a refund, but me and my staff is still being disheartened with a negative review when our motivation is to give the best service that we can do to our dear customers.

There were other customers who are willing to choose a replacement design of their orders, but when we inquired it to the BB team, out of stock na din pala. It is also taxing on our side as a subscriber to go back and forth between customer and BB’s fulfillment team with the items available.

This was mid March 2021 and we first decided to stop our FB Ads marketing, still giving hope that Bilis Benta’s stock syncing issue and inventory will improve over time.

We then decided to just focus our marketing in the Lazada platform alone. Volume of orders have declined, but we understood that since organically optimizing an SKU takes some time. However, kahit konti na nga ang order from our side, we still have to deal with the same stock syncing and inventory issue.

Last June 18, we have a customer who ordered a Lavender bedsheet. Bilis Benta team advised us that the design is out of stock and recommended a replacement. Customer do not want another design so she cancelled the order. But come June 23, same customer was able to purchase the same Lavender bedsheet in our store. There is a 5 day interval between the two orders and i believe that the stock syncing wasn’t accurate for that long.

There were some rumors with other subscribers that stocks were being prioritized to those who are selling “big-time” on your platform. I believe not, since we are all paying our subscription fees.

Yesterday morning, I am requesting if BB’s customer support can directly contact our customer for the design replacement but insisted that it is not BB’s duty. If the problem was caused by BB’s stock syncing issue, why not should your side resolve this issue by reaching out directly to the customer?

If i am a mere reseller of your products, i would let the out of stock issue slide. But i paid for a monthly subscription for your dropshipping service even if i wasn’t able sell anything from your platform. And beside, the tagline “Hustle with a Hassle” of BilisBenta is not true to its promise.

I went into great length to write this letter hoping that this will be your basis for improvement as a business.

I left this same letter on BilisBenta’s Facebook page yesterday but the review section is now hidden.

Sent also this same letter on your messenger yesterday (June 24 at around 1pm) and got only a seen icon at the bottom of my message.

I believe it is just fair that people who are considering your service should have an insight on the actual user experience of your dropshipping service.

I understand that Bilis Benta is still a new business and things are continually being sorted out. But for now, i conclude that this service is not yet for me.

I wish Bilis Benta well.

Thank you so much and God bless.

Written on June 25, 2021

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Screenshot of the subscriber’s BilisBenta Dashboard where she has subscribed for 6 months for BilisBenta’s dropshipping service. Subscription fee per month for the Home Blends catalog is Php11,999 as of June 2021.

The following pictures are screencapture of conversation with BilisBenta’s Customer service where multiple SKU of different orders in a certain day (March 2021) are out of stock.

Screencapture of conversation with BilisBenta’s customer service when the subscriber’s Lazada shop went OVL (temporarily suspended from getting an order in Lazada platform) due to out of stock and system automatic cancellation.

The soap incident where there was an out of stock SKU, and BilisBenta’s fulfillment team has sent Soap instead of the actual product with a note that the item is out of stock and just file for a Return and Refund.

Screenshot of reviews from disappointed customers when BilisBenta’s team did an “auto-replacement” of orders. In ecommerce platforms like Lazada and Shopee, customer reviews are a big deciding factor to convert an interested visitor into a buyer.

The same letter written to Mr. Chester Sy’s personal messenger at 1pm, June 24, read on the same day. No reply as of time of writing (June 25, 2021, 4pm)

Again, this post only aim to give insight to people especially Filipino who are considering to enter the ecommerce industry in the Philippines.

The writer of this letter understands that some are risking their life savings to start a business at this time of pandemic. Sharing this so to give insight for the decision making of the people who may get value from this experience.

Related Keywords: BilisBenta Review, Review of Dropshipping Service in the Philippines