Blind Shipping — Pros and Cons

This is a guest post by Jared Marcus.

Running a production business or any other business connected to manufacturing or selling goods means you will always have to find the best shipping solution. This is especially important when we talk about online sales. Two main branches that pretty much shape your company are the import and export strategies you use. The entire production line and sales channels depend on it. With that in mind, it is time to discuss one of the shipping strategies that is becoming more and more popular every month — blind shipping!

I will explain this term and take you on a short but interesting ride where you can find out everything about blind shipping and its pros and cons. For starters, let’s see what blind shipping is.

The Definition of Blind Shipping

In a few simple words, the term “blind shipping” refers to a shipping process where neither buyer nor seller knows who the other one is. This convenient shipping method has proven to be a good solution for many companies. Nevertheless, it still has some negative sides. Before I get into those, let me explain how blind shipping works.

How Blind Shipping Works

Blind shipping is an easy process to understand. To provide an example, let’s say that you are running a company that sells clothing. A company who manufactures clothing items offers blind shipping. What they will do is sell their products to your company at a factory price. After that, you will sell those products made by the manufacturer to other customers.

In this example, the manufacturer, as the one who offers blind shipping, does not have to think about selling their products directly to the customer. They sell clothes directly to your company, and you resell them later. In the same manner, the customer doesn’t buy directly from the manufacturer but from resellers.

The Pros of Blind Shipping

Out of so many effective shipping and warehousing services, blind shipping can play an important role for any seller. Exporting goods has become a lot simpler than before, so let’s see what advantages blind shipping provides.

Save Time and Focus on the Profit

First of all, when it comes to the pros of blind shipping, one of the biggest advantages is that the seller does not have to think about the stock market. Furthermore, when you think about it, sellers normally have to deal with things like warehouse organizing, working with multiple sales channels, organizing shipments, etc.

Blind shipping gets rid of all of that, and the seller can focus their time and energy on two things — marketing and profit. They remain blind to everything else.

Blind Shipping Minimizes the Cost

Shipping can be a costly process, mostly because it includes warehouse organizing and various other tasks performed by employees at the selling company. It is a time-consuming process that has a lot of steps to be completed. Blind shipping can eliminate those steps, and that’s why the seller can save a substantial amount of money.

Blind Shipping Maximizes Profit

Let me go back to my example of how blind shipping works. I explained above that the customer does not buy products directly from the manufacturer but from resellers. Factory prices are much lower, so if there were no options like blind shipping, resellers would not make much money, since everyone would buy from the manufacturer.

However, by utilizing blind shipping, the reseller gets to set the selling price and make money in the process. Simultaneously, you as the manufacturer do not have to think about the number of sales or the market. That is the reseller’s task. Since you export goods directly to the reseller and not to the customer, your earnings will always be constant, if not higher.

No Inventory Management or Production Phase

If you are using blind shipping to acquire products for selling, you don’t have to think about the inventory management or production phase. Everything is delivered to your warehouse, where you can send it to stores and prepare for selling. The only concern would be to prepare your warehouse for shipment by cleaning, so your products are in mint condition.

Cons of Blind Shipping

I am sure that all of this sounds fantastic. Nevertheless, as I mentioned earlier, there are also some negative sides to blind shipping. It is time to see what are the disadvantages of this shipping strategy.

The Lack of Information

Put yourself in the spot of the buyer. If you purchased a product, you would want to know who made it, where it came from, and who to talk about any issues related to the product.

The lack of information, in this case, can create mistrust between both sides.

There Is No Quality Control

If you own a manufacturing company and you sell your products to a seller, you have no idea in what condition they will sell the product to the buyer. The process of quality control is out of your hands.

Defining Responsibilities

While blind shipping has multiple advantages, it can also create problems. For example, let’s say that a customer buys a product from a reseller. The product is faulty, and the customer wants a refund. The reseller may refuse to refund the customer because they claim they received the product in that condition and sold it directly to the customer. Also, the manufacturer could claim there were no issues with the product prior to sending it.

You can see how this process can quickly create complicated situations. When using blind shipping, the best advice is to always make a contract with a bank agreement. An even better solution is to only contact a licensed and trustworthy shipping company.

Blind Shipping – Pros and Cons Explained!

We can safely conclude that the pros of blind shipping outweigh the cons. If you follow all procedures and cover your end with a sealed and well-made contract, you can protect everyone’s rights. Blind shipping offers amazing opportunities for business, and it helps to increase both the effectiveness in manufacturing and return on investment.

This was a guest post by Jared Marcus.

Author Bio

Jared Marcus has worked in manufacturing and sales for 10 years. By learning all the tricks of the trade, he acquired a vast base of knowledge and experience. Currently, Jared pursues a career in writing, where he has a bright future as a passionate blogger and freelance writer. Most of all, he focuses his articles on providing valuable tips and advice in order to help business owners improve their companies.