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Manufacturers as true dropshippers?

by mguy
1 replies
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It seems to me that the truest meaning of a dropshipper is a manufacturer with capability to 1.) accept your payment and 2.) ship to the final consumer.

The rest are just resellers who also have the same capability but added a (significant) price for their service. These resellers may add convenience.

Dropshipping is the system of selling without carrying inventory and can be done if the source has those two capabilities.

Was that right?
#dropshippers #manufacturers #true
  • Profile picture of the author OnlineStoreHelp
    I wouldn't necessarily agree. A dropshipper may be a manufacturer, a distributor or a wholesaler. Not all of them will agree to dropship.

    A manufacturer may or may not dropship, depending on their size, desire to sell and capability to handle one off orders.

    A distributor many times has a distinct territory that they have an exclusive for. Many times distributors can give you tiered pricing (buy 1-2, its X, buy 3-5, its Y, buy 6 or more its Z) A distributor may be a wholesaler as well. Sometimes they dropship, sometimes they dont.

    A wholesaler is someone that can buy from either the manufacturers or distributors and sell it to you at the wholesale price.

    IMO unless you have good margins a distributor can be a godsend, especially if they dropship. They have enough volume to negotiate preferential shipping rates, DIM waivers and distributor pricing.

    Based on all of these, if the manufacturer says you can't dropship, doesn't matter if they do on other products, no one will dropship.
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