Orders from your customers are often shipped directly from the manufacturer to the customer in a dropshipping model. Customers might know through invoice the information you don’t want them to know.
As an example, suppose you are a reseller, and a customer orders a package of a computer from you; the order is shipped by your supplier. It includes the actual invoice and your supplier’s name when it gets there. In contrast to what the consumer paid you, the invoice lists a substantially lower price. In this case, your customer might want to place a future order directly with your supplier, cutting you out of the picture.
So how do you address this issue? Blind shipping, a dropshipping best practice, protects the identity of your supplier. Continue reading to discover more about blind shipping.
What is Blind Shipping?
Blind shipping is a method of delivery when the shipper, the customer, or both have their names and addresses hidden on the shipping labels.
Third-party sellers who serve as a sort of middleman between wholesale suppliers and customers frequently engage in this practice.
In order to create a blind shipment, the seller’s information is substituted for the third-party vendor’s information on the shipping label, leaving the buyer unaware of the source of their order.
Why Use blind Shipping?
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Let’s use an example to better understand this. Consider that you sell things that you import from Mexico. There is a chance that your clients will bypass you and place their purchase straight with your supplier if the packaging includes the name of the supplier. If you use blind shipping, you can prevent this and keep your clients.
4 Benefits of using Blind Shipping
The practice of blind delivery is frequently requested by distributors. Following are some ways that this approach can help eCommerce stores:
- Protective Benefit
Online retailers, particularly competitor enterprises, frequently look for attractive deals by learning where other distributors receive their products. Business should therefore take great care to protect its confidential sources. One method to create such a protective advantage is dropshipping.
- Client Retention
Blind shipping’s anonymity keeps your online customers from placing purchases directly with the manufacturer and encourages them to come back to your brand.
- Brand Integrity
Utilizing blind shipping enables you to create a consistent consumer experience across all of your products. Clients can clearly recognize the products you sell because just your contact information will be used to deliver all of your purchases to customers.
- Increase Profit Margin
You can change product prices based on your markup and let the cash flow once you have established yourself as an established brand rather than one in an ocean of thousands of eCommerce sites.
Difference between Blind Shipping and Dropshipping
People frequently mix up the phrases “dropshipping” and “blind shipping.” Dropshipping is a type of shipping where products are delivered right to the customer’s door from the manufacturer. Blind shipping is the practice of removing the supplier information from the BOL (Bill of Lading) before it reaches its destination in order to maintain the shipper’s secrecy.
How to Blind Ship?
You should work together with a freight forwarding company to conduct blind shipping. The speed and quality of your delivery will improve dramatically as a result of working with a trustworthy provider. Blind shipping uses three different bills of lading since its objective is to keep information from the consignee and shipper. They consist of:
- When the shipment is being picked up, a bill of lading from the shipping company is presented.
- A bill of lading issued during delivery to consignees.
- A properly completed bill of lading including information on shipping and delivery provided to the courier.
Apart from that, several couriers handle blind delivery in various ways. Except for UPS, USPS, and FedEx, not many international courier services offer blind shipping. For blind shipping, some couriers, like UPS, have additional specifications that must be met.
You should collaborate closely with a third-party logistics business because this process requires handling the three bills of lading in order to keep things organized. Contact your preferred courier via phone or sign up on the courier’s website to blind ship.
How Does Blind Shipping Work for Ecommerce?
When delivering goods from the manufacturer to the customer directly through an online store, blind shipping is employed. The steps involved in blind shipping are as follows:
The supplier substitutes your company’s name for theirs on the BOL (Bill of Lading) .
- The BOL is delivered to the recipient without disclosing the supplier details.
3. The carrier is then issued the BOL, which is subsequently dispatched straight to your consumer.
Conclusion
Blind shipping is a legal means to guarantee that your business is protected, that buyers do not immediately bypass sellers and take their business to suppliers directly, and that neither parties go over the sellers’ heads. Blind shipping is useful when a business is unique and can provide services or products that are otherwise hard to find or rare.
While achieving success with blind shipping is comparatively easier, it’s important to realize that the procedure is different from using (3PL) third-party logistics. Blind shipping has been used for a while and has helped many businesses all over the world in maintaining their identity safe and operating according to their own conditions.
FAQs
Before shipping a client purchase straight to the consumer, an online retailer will “blind ship,” which involves removing the supplier’s name from the BOL. It is a typical dropshipping best practice that keeps buyers from purchasing directly from a brand’s supplier and instead from an online retailer.
The invoice that is attached to a shipment is known as a bill of lading (BOL). It frequently includes information about the suppliers and importers, as well as specifics about the items being transported. The supplier information is removed from an order before it reaches its destination when it is shipped blind.
When discussing dropshipping, the term “blind shipping” is used. Since the dropshipping business model involves sending orders straight from the supplier to the customer, a blind shipment hides the supplier’s identity before a package is sent, leading the recipient to believe it came from the retailer. So blind drop shipping gives you complete anonymity.
Blind shipping is a legal way to ensure that your company is safeguarded, that customers don’t immediately bypass sellers and do business with suppliers directly, and that neither party oversteps the sellers’ authority.
