What is Blind Drop Shipping and Can You Do It?
What is blind drop shipping? If you’re looking for a way to make money online, you may have come across this term. But what is it? And can you really make money from it?
Blind drop shipping is a method of order fulfillment where the seller does not reveal the identity of the supplier to the customer. This can be done for a variety of reasons, but most often, it’s used as a way to avoid competition with other sellers who may be selling similar products sourced from the same supplier.
It can be tricky to set up blind drop shipping because you need to find suppliers who are willing to work with you and ship products directly to your customers without revealing their identities. However, if you’re able to find reliable suppliers and build good relationships with them, blind drop shipping can be a great way to earn an income online!
What Is Blind Drop Shipping and Is it Good For You?
So, what is blind drop shipping? Blind drop shipping is a type of product fulfillment method where the retailer does not reveal to the customer that the item is being shipped from a third-party supplier. This can be beneficial for both the retailer and customer as it can help to keep costs down and improve delivery times.
While this seems like an ideal solution, it’s dependent on your current supply chain management process.
Conviction is a B2B commerce integration platform that helps wholesalers who drop ship to manage their network of retail partners and integrate with them seamlessly.
Some of our customers are using our software with Shopify, and some even have it set up to blind-drop-ship for their wholesale partners.
In this article, we explain the concept of blind dropshippers, why you should do it (if you are a wholesale or retail who engages in the practice), and how to do it on Shopify.
How Does Blind Shipping Work?
To arrange anonymous or “blind” shipping, a supplier will coordinate with their logistics provider to remove the carrier’s original bill of lading after the goods clear customs and are delivered to the destination.
A double-blind shipment is one in which the freight forwarder provides an incorrect final address to the supplier. This way, only the freight forwarder (and the shipper) know where the shipment originates and where it’s going.
Blind Shipping vs. Dropshipping
Dropshipping usually involves a straightforward system in which an eCommerce store serves as a marketplace for manufacturers’ products. Because the costs of branding and customized items can add up quickly, dropshippers often choose to avoid blind shipping.
Dropshipping can help businesses reduce costs, but this leaves them vulnerable to losing customers. Without a return address, buyers can easily contact the supplier to get a better price than the drop-shipper is offering.
Or, perhaps even worse, is the risk that your competitors could find out which manufacturers you work with.
One disadvantage to using blind shipment is that your costs will be higher. Another is that you’ll have another link in the supply chain, which increases the risks of errors.
Working with a shipping company that you trust is essential when sending out products. Blind shipments, where you don’t know where your product is going, can be risky.
Dropshipping is less risky than blind shipping because there are no minimum volume requirements. You don’t need to invest as much in customer service and marketing, which makes it a more viable option for small businesses.
When it comes to manufacturing, you can place orders for just one part of the product if that’s all the client needs. This is an advantage that blind shipping doesn’t have. With blind shipping, delivering small quantities of items becomes unnecessarily expensive.
This is because of the cost of handling the blind bill of lading and the minimum cost.
Can You Blind Dropship From AliExpress?
It is possible to use both Curren and LiGe to drop ship watches from Aliexpress. We reached out to both suppliers and both confirmed that they support the model.
Before working with a supplier on AliExpress, we recommend sending a message to them asking about this. Here’s the reply we got:
“Hi, We do indeed allow dropshippers to use our service with no receipt, invoice, or promotional material in the shipment. Thanks for asking!“
As a drop shipper, it’s important to add a note on the AliExpress checkout page requesting that the seller remove any invoices, QR codes, promotions, or brand logos from the shipment.
Dropshipping apps like Oberlo or Dsers allow you to add a note that your supplier will ship the item directly to the customer.
8 Best Blind Dropshipping Suppliers
Here are the 8 top suppliers of wholesale products you can use for a blind-dropship business.
1. AliExpress
The most popular online marketplace for beginning dropshippers is AliExpress. It has millions upon millions of products and ships globally.
On AliExpress, you can find everything from clothing to beauty products to sporting goods to electronic gadgets to home goods.
With more than 200,000 vendors, including direct manufacturers and wholesalers, the AliExpress marketplace offers a huge range of products.
Many of its suppliers also offer a “blind” or “dropship” service, where they ship your products directly to your customer’s door.
2. Alibaba
Alibaba is the world’s largest online business-to-business trading platform, with more than 5,900 different product categories and over 40 different industries represented.
All of the Chinese suppliers on the Alibaba platform are subjected to business verification and authentication processes to ensure the quality of their products.
With the launch of the new Alibaba Dropshippers platform, you can now launch your own real, legitimate, profitable, and scalable eCommerce store with no minimum order requirements.
In contrast to sites like AliExpress, you have to reach out to each seller on Alibaba.com to see if they offer any support for your type of business model. This can be a pain, but it’s well worth it to find someone who meets your criteria.
3. Banggood
The online marketplace Banggood sells over 1 million products in over 30 different categories. From electronics to fashion, they have it all.
Founded in 2006, Banggood has 100+ suppliers across several regions in China, with more than 37 international warehouse locations, and relationships with major shipping companies like FedEx, USPS, and TNT.
This keeps costs low and allows them to ship their products to 200+ countries around the world.
As a dropship supplier, you can avail of 5% to 20% discounts on most products on BangGood. All orders are 100% anonymous, so your customers will never know that you did not ship them yourself.
Banggood is a great alternative to AliExpress and Alibaba because it has no membership fee.
4. CJ
With a network of over 200 warehouses in countries like the USA, Germany, Britain, and France, CJ can deliver most products to you within 7-22 days. Plus, all products go through a quality inspection and packaging process before they’re shipped, so you can be sure you’re getting high-quality items.
If you’re looking to start your own online store, check out CJ Dropshipping. They offer all the services you need like printing, shipping, and customer service.
You can sell any item available on the CJ website for free.
5. EPROLO
With so many suppliers and relationships, EPROLO can purchase over 90% of its products at a cheaper price than on sites like Amazon and eBay.
EPROLO is committed to providing the fastest shipping times possible so that you can get your products to your customers as quickly as possible.
EPROLO is currently free, but for $99/yr and $0.99/order, you can have access to additional features, such as customized packaging, gift wrapping, and personalized cards.
6. Wiio
With expert sourcing teams, Wiio’s goal is to provide affordable, quality products to customers.
When your products arrive, we repackage them so that there is no trace of the third party seller. That way, only your brand name will be on the shipment.
One of the great advantages that Wiio offers is the ability to help with product photography, product video shooting, custom card inserting, and branded packaging. This makes it possible for your brand to stand out from the competition.
There are no monthly or hidden fees for using the service.
7. Modalyst
With more than 1,000 suppliers, 100,000 products, and 30,000 brands, Modalyst is one of the largest and most comprehensive product directories out there.
With its partnership with AliExpress, you can source any products on the world’s largest marketplace with no minimum quantity. This makes it easy for you to get started on sourcing and fulfillment without worrying about ordering in bulk.
All vendors are required to ship products in plain packaging, and to follow blind shipment guidelines. This ensures customers receive their items on time and without any complications.
You can use the free version of Modalyst to import up to 25 products and only pay $35 a month for unlimited imports.
8. Printful
If you’re looking for an easy way to sell more than 288 unique products with your own custom designs and branding, then check out Printify.
With Printify, you can turn your custom design into high-quality, professional-looking products that you can sell online.
The categories of products offered by this company are men’s, women’s, and kids’ clothing and accessories, as well as home décor, kitchen, and office gadgets.
Printify is committed to ensuring that your dropshipping orders are sent without any of its branding appearing on or inside the shipment packages. This guarantees that your customers will only see your brand when they receive their orders.
This vendor does not charge you any fees for their services. You only pay for the cost of the products you buy and shipping costs.
Platforms like print-on-demand services like Apliiq, or custom t-shirt sites like Teelaunch, allow you to create and sell your own designs without having to deal with any physical stock or shipping costs.
Conclusion
What is blind drop shipping? If you’re looking for a way to make money online, blind drop shipping could be a great option for you! It can be tricky to set up, but if you find reliable suppliers and build good relationships with them, it can be a great way to earn an income.