Dropshipping in online trade

A question about dropshipping in online trade, in which Jordan's General Iftaa Department answered that the ruling on dropshipping depends on its form: prior agency, commission on links, and a forward sale (salam) with the price paid in advance are permitted, while selling goods before owning and possessing them is not. ¹

The questioner asked about the ruling on online trade through dropshipping. ¹

The Department answered that dropshipping is in practice a sale involving three parties: the owner of the website or online store, the customer, and the trader or manufacturer who owns the goods; the term covers several different forms with different rulings. ¹ In the first, the site owner obtains prior agency from the supplier to sell specified goods for a percentage or fixed fee, and the supplier ships to the customer directly: a permitted agency. In the second, the site owner displays a link to the trader's goods for a commission on each purchase made through it: a permitted commission or brokerage. ¹ In the third, the site owner displays goods without any prior agency or agreement, sells them to the customer before owning or possessing them, then buys them from the supplier and has them delivered to the customer: this is selling what one does not own, which is prohibited. In the fourth, he offers goods of specified description that he can supply, takes the price in advance and supplies them within an agreed period, asking the supplier to deliver to the customer's address: a permitted forward sale (salam). ¹ The Department noted that other forms may also go by this name, and each needs to be studied for its ruling. ¹

Jordan's General Iftaa Department published this fatwa on aliftaa.jo as no. 3754, dated 19 March 2023. ¹ The museum records this text as a historical document attributed to the body or scholar that issued it; it issues no ruling of its own.