In drop-shipping, one sells an actual item through one’s platform. They market the item to be sold to the customer and collect the profit that they set.  One does not act as an intermediary; they are the transacting party. They simply do not take a fee or commission for undertaking a task. As such, it falls under the ambit of the impermissibility of selling what is not in one’s possession.

In your case, while similar to a drop-shipping model, if it is such that you have an agreement with various companies that you will help market and sell their products on their behalf and take a certain monetary compensation per item through markups, it will be permissible. This would then be a juʿāla (reward-based) agreement. However, it cannot be that you market products, have customers purchase them, then you go to purchase them from third parties. There must be a pre-existing agreement between you and the companies that you sell their product on their behalf for an agreed amount. For example, if a customer needed to be refunded, either the other company issues the refund directly, or you issue the refund and the other company compensates you for it, as you were simply selling on their behalf. However, if you must issue the refund without any recourse to the other company, it means that you are not selling their product, and the model is most likely a drop-shipping one instead of juʿāla.

For more details on drop-shipping agreements, kindly refer to this fatwa.

And Allah knows best.

Mufti Ammar Ahmed
Graduate, Darul Iftaa Chicago

Reviewed and approved

Mufti Abrar Mirza
Head Mufti, Darul Iftaa Chicago