Dumpling Review: Earn $35 per Order Delivering Groceries?

According to the company, 1,000s of small businesses across all 50 states use Dumpling.

For anyone looking to start their own business, Dumpling can be a good choice.

How Does Dumpling Work?

Dumpling has two apps – one for business owners and one for customers who’re looking to have groceries delivered.

As a shopper, you use the Dumpling Boss app. The app allows you to run your own personal shopper business from your phone.

Here’s how it works

Step One: Sign up

The first step is to sign up to become a Boss, which you can do here. You need to be at least 21-years old to sign up with Dumpling.

To get started, you need to pay a one-time set-up fee of $19.99

As part of the setup, you get:

• A Dumpling credit card shipped to you immediately
• Personal webpage creation
• Access to the Dumpling Boss app that you can use to run your business
• Dumpling app for your clients
• Direct deposit setup
• A bonus of 100 business cards for free! These have a $20 value.

Once you have paid the account setup fee, you will then be enrolled in a monthly plan. The good news is that there’s a free plan called the Starter plan. The business setup automatically enrolls you in the starter plan. It comes with fewer features than the paid plans though.

Now, as your business grows, you can choose to upgrade your plan in the Boss app to a paid one. There’s the Pro plan, which costs $29 a month and the Tycoon plan, which costs $99 a month.

Like I said though, the Starter plan is free so you don’t need to pay a monthly fee to use Dumpling if you don’t want to.

Step Two: Shop for groceries

Now, you’ll be able to invite new clients to book you for shopping, and view and filter client orders right from your phone using the Dumpling Boss app.

You can get the app for iOS and Android.

The good thing about Dumpling is that it allows you to shop at tons of different stores, so you aren’t stuck shopping at specific retailers.

This is because the Dumpling Boss credit card works at any grocery store that accepts Visa. A lot of stores take Visa cards so you can shop pretty much wherever you want to. And, the card is pre-funded for each order, which means that you can shop for the client without having to pay any funds yourself.

Step Three: Make money

With Dumpling, you can set your own pricing. So, you get to choose how much you charge to shop for and deliver groceries to customers.

How Much Money Can You Make with Dumpling?

According to Dumpling, average earnings for business owners is more than $35 per order. So, how much money you make will depend on things like how many orders you complete and how much money you make per order.

Is Dumpling Legit?

Here’s how Dumpling is reviewed on a few different platforms:

• Trustpilot: 3.4 stars, which is an “Average” rating.
• Google Play Store: 3.7 stars.
• App Store: 4.2 stars

Dumpling doesn’t have a ton of reviews, but the reviews it does have are above average. There are some negative reviews, most of which are about the fees the company charges. I’ll go into more detail in the pros and cons section below…

Dumpling Pros & Cons

Okay, so let’s take a look at some pros and cons of the company:

Pros

We’ll start out with the positives…

Deliveries are flexible

You can choose the deliveries you want to make. It’s pretty flexible too, as Dumpling offers things like scheduled deliveries that enable you to plan your schedule out ahead of time.

You can set your own rates

You aren’t stuck with earning a set amount. Instead, Dumpling allows you to set a pricing structure that suits your business, which means that you could increase your income.

Dumpling vs Instacart: You have more control compared to Instacart

Compared with other delivery services where you are working for a company, you get much more control with Dumpling because you have your own business.

Many users praise Dumpling for the amount of control it offers them.

One user on the Google Play Store says:

• “I am a current Dumpling Boss, albeit a newbie joined 5/2020. So far I am loving it! It is everything I don’t like about those “other” guys. Shoppers control their own business! But still get lots of support from the Dumpling platform. Can’t wait until my business is going well enough to permanently retire from those “other guys”.

A shopper echoes a similar sentiment in their review on the App Store, saying:

• “If you want a business this is it! Having the freedom to create your own business model, flexibility. Having a more personal relationship with clients is the best. Our Clients have peace of mind knowing they will have the same shopper weekly, bi weekly or once a month. Wish I could give it 100 star rating!!”

Cons

Now, let’s take a look at some aspects of Dumpling that aren’t so great…

Dumpling charges fees

In addition to the setup fee we discussed earlier and any monthly fees if you want to upgrade past the Starter plan, you also need to pay two fees per grocery order.

This includes a credit card processing fee and a platform fee.

The amount you pay in credit card fees depends on the type of monthly membership you have:

• Starter: You pay 3.9% of the order total, including gratuity, plus 30 cents.
• Pro: You pay 3.2% plus 30 cents.
• Tycoon: You pay 2.8% plus 30 cents

The platform fee is 5% of the cost of deliveries for all membership levels.

Quite a few shoppers complained about this, with one on the Google Play Store saying:

• “Dumpling charges exorbitant fees, you’re far better off handling your own credit card processing. The functionality of this app is a joke. Customers get estimated pricing that is 1,000% higher. Should be zero stars!”

Another shopper says:

• “The platform fees and credit card processing fees are outrageous!”

Another shopper also complains about fees, saying:

• “Platform AND processing FEES? The membership options are middle man scams! As a shopper I have to pay a ridiculous amount of money each time I use your APP. My customer isn’t even happy and this is the first shopping list we have done. I got charged over $20 that was half my tips!!! And there’s no real useful features during the shopping its just a list. This is a scam. Who charges THIS MUCH WHEN I DO ALL WORK!”

You could be responsible if the customer doesn’t pay

Okay, so Dumpling does pre-fund the card you use, but if the client doesn’t have sufficient funds to cover the order, you could end up covering the charges yourself. At least, according to the Dumpling Terms of Service, which states:

• “If a Client for whom a Business Owner performs Business Owner Services does not make sufficient payment, the Business Owner agrees to pay all amounts necessary to cover the charges, and Dumpling reserves the right to withhold all or a portion of the charges owed to Business Owners to accomplish the foregoing.”

Because with Dumpling you are, technically, working for yourself with your own clients, you may have to reimburse Dumpling if the customer’s card doesn’t have sufficient funds to pay the tab.

Looking at reviews from Business Owners, this doesn’t seem to be much of an issue though. But, it’s definitely something that Business Owners should be aware of.

Overall Verdict

Dumpling is one of those companies that isn’t a scam, but it’s not super well-rated either. It really seems to vary from person to person. Some people make lots of money with it and really enjoy using the platform to build their own personal shopping business.

Since it does give you more control over how and when you work, as well as how much you earn, than Instacart does, Dumpling could be a good alternative for you. It does have its caveats though, like the high fees.

If you’re looking for an Instacart alternative it may be worth a try.

What do you think about Dumpling? Have you ever used the platform? Share your Dumpling reviews with us in the comments section below.