A dropshipping distributor is a person or a group of people who distribute manufacturers’ merchandise to wholesalers or retailers, and sometimes they are manufacturers’ representatives in one way or another.
Why do merchants need a dropshipping distributor?
There are many suppliers on the market, and it requires a lot of time, money, and efforts to sort out the good from the bad. For amateur merchants, lack of experience may be the leading reason they easily get into fake suppliers’ traps.
Many big manufacturers/ suppliers don’t work directly with merchants/retailers because they sell products in huge quantities only and/or have no means to contact retailers directly. They rely on distributors for letting their merchandise go public.
One more reason why merchants can’t reach out to suppliers directly is geographical distance. In fact, most suppliers are based in China, the largest manufacturer of the world, while merchants come from all over the globe. Flying all the way to China is definitely a bad idea to evaluate a supplier’s credibility.
Therefore, merchants definitely need to find themselves a reliable distributor who can:
- Work with reliable suppliers and then supply good quality products for their store.
- Offer them good product fulfillment services (packing and shipping included)
- Give them a visual description of products.
Everything has its own benefits and drawbacks, and distributors are not an exception. Merchants need to pay attention to the following drawbacks before making any decisions:
- Merchants, of course, have to pay money for their services (they can choose to pay monthly or annually)
- Merchants are given access to a few manufacturers/suppliers only.
- The price offered by distributors is higher than the price by suppliers (That price difference is distributors’ profit)
- Merchants face fierce competition (because many distributors can supply many merchants with the same products and fulfillment services).
