Profiler

I am involved with a couple companies, one of which is quite large, and primarily are suppliers (I wont call them wholesale, as they only deal with national accounts direct, not even distributors) of electrical products.

As a new route to market, I believe becoming dropshippers may be beneficial to them.

How should someone go about becoming a dropshipper?

Is it as simple as offering products for sale that are delivered direct to consumers on customers behalf, or am I missing something?

What do potential customers want in a supplier?

any thoughts or pointers would be appreciated.

zoe85

That is pretty much it. Here is what they consider the makings of a Tier One Dropshipper -

Hold their own stock.

Be willing to ship in single units.

There is no Minimum Order Quantity of any sort.

Ship "blind", using their customer's (the actual seller / order taker) address and contact info in all dealings with the actual buyer. This means no sales literature of their own in the package, etc.

Have a standard wholesale cost on the goods, although a "small order fee" may be accessed for orders under a specified amount.

Not a big deal, actually. Just ship one unit under the seller's name is the basic requirement.

From their perspective, is it going to be profitable for them to handle small orders shipped to many addresses? This does take an entirely different handling method than redistribuing cases of products.

Also, are the products something that can easily be sold retail, either from a website or an auction?

Are they branded goods? If so, how will the brand owner feel about selling the products in this way? Some do not want their brand bandied about on the net.

Not that it matters, but I think there may be a bit of communications gap across the pond. I see a number of references here to electrical items. To me that is wire and switches and circuit breakers and such, the sort of thing an electrician would install.

But at times I have the feeling you may be referring to what I think of as small appliances as electrical items? Toasters, blenders, mixers, etc.

Or even electronics goods?

No matter, the dropshipper part would be the same. Just can't imagine dropshipping a wall outlet.

Profiler

zoe85,

thanks for your prompt comments.

By electrical, I mean the umbrella of products - electronics and appliances, but not accessories, components, fitings etc!

The people I work with are either the brand owners or exclusive/major importers!!!

Time to think on........

zoe85

Here an electrical distributor sells stuff from the meter box on the outside wall to the receptacles and light fixtures in the building, plus outside lighting.

Games, small tv's, radios, etc are Consumer Electronics.

Washers, dryers, large tv's, etc. are Home Appliances, with the washers, dryers and fridges as White Goods.

Vacuums, blenders, toasters, etc. are Small Appliances.

Probably never all handled by the same distributors / wholesalers and very few retailers have them all under one roof.