Blind Drop Shipping Suppliers | Double Blind Shipment | Blind Shipment in Logistics Examples | Blind Shipment UPS

What Is Blind Shipping? Keep Your Business on the Safe Side

Every standard dropshipping delivery includes the supplier's contact, sometimes on the shipping labels, so the recipient can track down and contact the drop shipper in search of better prices or enhance their own supply chain. This can be harmful if your competitor selects this method to obtain your supplier's information and gain a trustworthy supplier for himself. Thus, to prevent these situations business owners use blind shipping or blind dropshipping suppliers.

With blind shipping, the customer receives a package with only the store contacts. All other information is hidden so there is no way to find the supplier's information. A good example is to ship like Amazon, which uses its warehouse contact information on the order instead of the original seller's, so only the shipper is unknown. This leaves customers with access to important information, but not commercially sensitive supply chain data. Not every e-commerce store can fulfill blind shipping on its own though, especially those relying on a third party logistics blind shipment company. Implementing robust data services can enhance the efficiency of various operational processes in a business setting.

What is Blind Shipping?

Blind shipping is a type of drop shipping. Blind shipping is when the receiver of the package does not see who the supplier or the shipper is. This way the receiver cannot track and contact the supplier. The result is a competitive advantage blind shipping provides by not giving access to your supplier list to potential competitors. The information could allow them to optimize their supply chain, so it is better for ecommerce businesses that they do not have this information.

Using Blind Shipping

As a rule, all the supplier's details are listed in the document called the Bill of Lading (BOL). It serves as proof of receiving the load into transit and unloading it at the destination. It is also used for insurance purposes and proof of ownership. Moreover, the BOL is a loading receipt ("lading" is an archaic form of "loading"), which lists all the items that are being transported, their quantity, origin, and destination.

Since in dropshipping, websites serve only as a storefront, and all the physical handling is done on the supplier's side, you need a third party, usually a freight-forwarding company, to make the shipment blind. The said company exchanges the BOL with one of its own, which contains only the store's contact details or is left blank. Hiring a freight-forwarder adds extra costs to your shipping, so weigh all the expenses against leaving your shipments unprotected from prying eyes. Blind shipment UPS is available even to smaller stores, but the fees may outweigh the risks of leaving the contact information in the open for some of the business owners. However, if you do choose to ship blind, there are a number of ways ecommerce businesses can benefit.

Benefits of Blind Shipping

The blind shipment method has clear advantages:

Client Retention: By anonymizing your suppliers, you deprive your clients of the opportunity to deal with them directly.
Brand Consistency: Blind shipping allows you to have a unified customer experience across all items and suppliers. Each order will use the same shipping method, come with the same contact information and documentation.
Higher Margin: When you're positioning yourself as a unified brand rather than a marketplace, you can increase your markup.
Protection Against Competitors: If you use blind shipping, neither your clients nor your competitors can secretly go directly to your manufacturer. What is important is that your competitors will not contact your manufacturer to negotiate better prices for their products. With no information on a shipping label or anywhere else, a blind ship solution allows your orders to be shipped directly without worry.

Disadvantages of Blind Shipping

As with everything, blind shipping has also some disadvantages to it:

Lack of Information: Customers put lots of emphasis on the information about the product, where it came from, where it was manufactured, and so forth. Concealing this information through blind shipments can put you in a very bad light and create a lack of trust.
Asking for Refund: How can you be sure that either your manufacturer or supplier delivers your merchandise in a good shape to your customers? An incorrect final address can mean goods are lost forever. You have no influence over quality control, so if the merchandise is damaged, customers do not necessarily know who to ask for a refund using this drop shipping approach. The additional costs also eat into your profit margins.

Blind Shipping vs Drop Shipping

With dropshipping all information about suppliers and the overall supply chain is available. That, however, opens up vulnerabilities that may lead to client loss. The supplier's contacts can be used by the client who seeks better prices and the competitor who can gain a valuable partner through your store. Blind shipping and dropshipping are functionally close, but it is the application that sets them apart. The ability to hide that important data about the supply chain that makes blind shipping and dropshipping different.

The main downsides of blind shipping are higher shipping costs and the addition of another link in the supply chain. Also, adding a freight-forwarding company requires an extra level of trust in both the safeties of merchandise and the management of delicate information.

Dropshipping has one key advantage, though: the absence of any volume requirements. Blind shipping becomes unreasonably expensive when you only need to deliver a single item due to the minimal cost of handling the blind BOL (Bill of Lading).

Both basic dropshipping and blind dropshipping require considerable investments into client services and marketing to be successful, so the increase in price is more than justifiable.

What Is Double-Blind Shipment?

Double-blind shipping is when the receiver of the package and the manufacturer do not know about each other. With a double blind shipment, the receiver cannot see where the package came from. Likewise, the manufacturer does not see where the package is being delivered to.

You may want to use double-blind shipping and hide the final destination from the supplier. Double-blind shipping is more expensive, as it requires more work from the freight-forwarding company, which has to create additional paperwork on both ends of delivery.

Double-blind shipments may be suitable for certain situations, but the additional cost and workload do restrict the viability of the double blind shipment. To make double blind shipments practical, it really needs high-cost products or large shipments, where the additional costs are negligible compared to the overall value of the shipment.

What Is Blind Freight Shipping?

Yes, blind freight shipping is also possible. It is the same as blind shipping but in bulk. You only need to ask your carrier to remove the Bill of Lading where all the suppliers' details are listed. This way your customers cannot see who the supplier is, preventing third party sellers from gaining that information.

How to Start Blind Shipping?

First, partner up with a freight-forwarding company to start blind shipping. Major carriers usually don't offer blind shipping, but FedEx does.
Second, sign an agreement that gives FedEx (or any other freight-forwarding company you're working with) power of attorney over the shipment. The filling-out process with FedEx has to be done manually for every delivery and it is the same with most companies for a typical blind shipment.
Last, state which items you want to ship as blind shipments with FedEx freight. The carrier will handle the rest.

How Does Blind Shipping Work?

Freight-forwarding Company: Partner up with the right freight forwarder. FedEx offers services similar to blind shipping.
Sign an Agreement: To start blind shipping you will need to sign a document with a freight-forwarding company, called a blind shipping agreement. Don't worry it is a 1-page long document.
Set up Shipping Options and Methods: Limit the shipping options for the products. You can do so with help of shipping software like Calcurates which offers advanced shipping rules and restriction features.