As a dropshipper, you wouldn’t want customers to accidentally find out from the shipping packages that they can buy your products from other places at a cheaper price. It might not only damage your brand image but also potentially results in returns and refunds.
Blind dropshipping is a method to solve this problem.
So, what is it and how can you start applying it to your own eCommerce business?
Blind Dropshipping Definition
Blind dropshipping is the activity of using a third-party seller or manufacturer to fulfill your customer’s order and deliver the shipment with no trace that it’s related to your supplier. This eliminates confusion for the customer about the product’s origin and makes your business more ethical.
For example, someone orders an X item on your online dropshipping store. You purchase it from a Y manufacturer and instruct the company to blindly dropship the item directly to your customer. When the customer receives X, there’s only information about your brand but nothing about Y in the shipment.
Blind Dropshipping Vs. Dropshipping
Essentially, blind dropshipping works pretty much the same as dropshipping. Both are eCommerce fulfillment models in which you sell products without owning them and hand off all back-end processes (e.g, inventory, packaging, shipping) to third parties.
The only difference is that you take an extra step to keep your suppliers a secret in blind dropshipping, whereas this doesn’t guarantee to be the case in the normal dropshipping model.
Is Blind Dropshipping Legal?
Blind dropshipping is 100% legal. As stated in Amazon policies, the only accepted dropshipping model on the platform is blind dropshipping. It means that you must remove any packing slips, invoices, external packaging, or other information in connection with a third party before shipping an order.
Famous brands like Gymshark, Zappos, Wayfair, Fab, and Gilt also employ blind dropshipping to maintain customer satisfaction when receiving orders.
Blind Dropshipping Pros & Cons
Aside from all the benefits like the normal dropshipping model such as getting started easily, minimum startup costs, low risk, making passive income, here’re the additional pros of blind dropshipping:
- Protect your brand reputation: Although dropshipping is a legit business model and sometimes provides products at a much better price than many physical retailers, shoppers will still feel like being ripped off if they find out that you sell an item more expensive than it should be. And, they might expose this on social media, which can negatively affect your brand reputation.
- Avoid confusion: Since customers have no idea about third parties involved, they know who to contact if there’s any problem with their orders.
- Avoid losing customers: Dissatisfaction is not the only reason that your store loses repeat buyers. If there’re promotional materials on shipments, customers might end up going directly to your supplier’s website to buy other products next time.
- Hold a competitive advantage against competitors: Blind dropshipping helps you build a more trustworthy and reliable business, which is crucial when competing against other dropshippers and small brands.
And, besides sharing all the drawbacks with the normal dropshipping model like having no control over the supply chain or branding difficulty, below are other cons of blind dropshipping:
- Not all suppliers support blind dropshipping: This usually happens with new sellers and manufacturers where they don’t have enough experience with this model.
- Can be more expensive: Suppliers might have to print custom labels or repackage orders, which can result in extra processing fees.
- May have longer shipping times: Longer processing times typically lead to longer delivery times.
Can You Blind Dropship From AliExpress?
It’s entirely possible to do blind dropshipping from AliExpress. For proof, we contacted Curren and LIGE (2 popular Chinese watch suppliers on the platform) regarding whether they support the model, and they both said yes.
We also recommend that before working with any supplier on AliExpress, send a message asking them about this. Here’s a quick template:
“Hi, do you support dropshipping with no receipts, invoices, or promotional information in the shipments?
Thank you in advance!”
Another important thing to do is to add a note on the AliExpress checkout page saying that “I’m dropshipping. Please REMOVE any invoices, QR codes, promotions, or your brand name logo in the shipments. Please ship as soon as possible for repeat business. Thank you!”
Shopify dropshipping apps such as Oberlo or DSers have a feature to help you add this note automatically when fulfilling your store orders.
8 Best Blind Dropshipping Suppliers
Below are the 8 best suppliers that support blind dropshipping.
1. AliExpress
AliExpress is the most popular Chinese dropshipping marketplace among beginner dropshippers because it’s completely free to access, has millions of items, and supports global delivery. Its product categories range from fashion, jewelry, toys, beauty & health, sports, electronics to home improvement.
Currently, AliExpress has over 200,000+ sellers and direct manufacturers. Like we have mentioned earlier, most of them will do blind dropshipping if you leave them a message.
For more information, check out The complete guide to dropshipping from AliExpress.
2. Alibaba
Alibaba is the largest platform for global B2B wholesale trade with 5,9K+ product categories in 40+ industries. All Chinese suppliers on here have to go through business verification & authentication processes to ensure authenticity and product quality.
With the recent launch of the Alibaba Dropshipping Center, you can now start a real Alibaba dropshipping business with no MOQ (minimum order quantity).
Like AliExpress, you have to ask individual Alibaba suppliers whether they support blind dropshipping.
For more information, check out The complete guide to dropshipping from Alibaba.
3. Banggood
Banggood is a Chinese marketplace that focuses on high-quality goods. As of now, it provides more than 1M products in various categories, from clothing, phones & accessories, consumer electronics, jewelry & watches, home appliances, to heath protection.
Having been around for more than 10 years, it has developed a supplier network in 100+ Chinese regions, 37+ overseas warehouses, and strong relationships with well-known carriers like DHL, EMS, and UPS. As a result, Banggood can keep products at a low cost with fast shipping to 200+ countries globally.
By becoming a Bangood’s dropshipping partner, you get 5% – 20% discounts on most items on the platform. All orders are guaranteed to be blindly dropshipped with no trace that they’re from Banggood.
Similar to AliExpress and Alibaba, Banggood has no membership fee.
4. CJDropshipping
Next, we have CJDropshipping. The most special thing about CJ is that it can help you source any dropshipping products from China, not only on AliExpress but also on 1688 and Taobao.
With a network of 200+ warehouses in China, the USA, Germany, Britain, Australia, France, and many other Asian countries, CJ is able to deliver most products globally within 7-22 days.
Before your dropshipping products getting shipped, they will go through a quality inspection and packaging process. This is to ensure that items are in good condition and have no information related to Chinese sellers remained.
Besides, CJDropshipping offers services like custom dropshipping branding, print on demand, warehousing, Cash On Delivery (currently only available in limited Asian countries), and winning product photography.
You can start selling any item available on the CJ website for free. For sourcing and warehousing costs, visit CJDropshipping service fees for precise information.
5. EPROLO
With relationships with thousands of suppliers, EPROLO was able to source over 90% of AliExpress products at a very low price. Many of them are even cheaper than on AliExpress.
What is most impressive about EPROLO is the shipping times, allowing you to deliver your customer orders to the US/UK within 5-8 days and Europe within 8-12 days with Express Shipping methods.
Currently, EPROLO is free. However, you can pay an additional $99/year and per-order customization fees to have access to advanced features, including custom labels, hangtags, packing bags, gift cards, and scotch tapes.
6. Wiio
The next great platform that supports blind dropshipping is Wiio. With an expert sourcing team, it’s able to collaborate with various Chinese suppliers to provide products at a competitive price.
When items arrived at Wiio’s warehouses, they go through a repackaging process to ensure that there’s no trace of third-party sellers aside from your brand on the shipments.
Another strength of Wiio is that it can assist you with product photography, product video shooting, custom card inserting, and branded packaging to make your brand truly stand out.
Concerning pricing, Wiio has no monthly fee.
7. Modalyst
Modalyst is one of the largest dropshipping directories on the internet. It has over 1000 suppliers, ranging from private label manufacturers, indie brands to AliExpress suppliers.
Furthermore, Modalyst is an official technology partner of Alibaba, enabling you to import any Alibaba dropshipping items to your store and fulfilling them with no MOQ.
As stated in Modalyst’s fulfillment policies, all suppliers have to deliver orders in neutral packages and follow blind shipping standards.
Modalyst is free to use with an importing limit of 25 products. Paid plans start from $35/month.
8. Printful
The final one we’d like to mention is Printful. It’s the leading print-on-demand supplier to help you create and sell more than 288 customizable products with your own designs. Main categories include men’s and women’s clothing, fashion accessories, drinkware, wall art, pet goods, and other home & living items.
Printful guarantees to blindly send your dropshipping orders without its branding anywhere on or inside the shipment packages.
In terms of pricing, this supplier is entirely free. You only have to pay for the costs of products and shipping fees.
Besides Printful, other print-on-demand platforms like Printify, TeeLaunch, SPOD, CustomCat, Apliiq, or Gooten also support blind dropshipping.
Conclusion
The purpose of blind dropshipping is not only to hide your business secret but also to maintain a high level of customer satisfaction.
It’s also very easy to start. Just ask your suppliers to remove any invoices, promotions, and any information with reference to their brand before delivering your dropshipping orders.
The rightful owner of The Clever Business. I review & curate the leading suppliers so you don't waste time scouring the internet.
