Drop Shipping programs continue to increase in popularity as they allow retailers to shift the burden and cost of order fulfillment to their vendors. Additionally, drop ship programs provide retailers with the opportunity to carry many more products, which is a benefit to aspiring vendors.
Shipping on behalf of a retailer is serious business, as orders must represent the retailer well. Therefore, retailers have devised stringent guidelines encompassing every detail of the drop shipment, including packaging, presentation, speed of fulfillment, shipment carrier and service and finally, the data back to the retailer, which enables them to communicate seamlessly with their customer.
a2b understands Drop Shipping. We support programs with dozens of retailers. And due to our sophisticated technology, we can often do so at the highest levels of integration, making the process extremely efficient while simultaneously making the retailer happy.
How We Do It
Drop Ship orders start with an order feed, typically via EDI (Electronic Data Interchange), or via a retailer’s online portal. a2b is pre-integrated via EDI with all major retailers making set-up a snap.
When the order is transmitted to a2b, our system identifies it as a Drop Ship order for the specified retailer, which then controls how the order will be processed, including how fast the order must be shipped, what packaging is to be used, and any other retailer-specific guidelines must be followed.
A retailer-branded packing slip is printed (typically pre-approved by the retailer) as well as a retailer-specific shipping label.
Data is immediately transmitted back to the retailer, including what was shipped, tracking and updated on-hand inventory quantities available for the retailer to sell.
Returns are just as important to a successful Drop Ship program. As items from Drop Ship orders are returned to a2b, we process the return quickly and gather all of the information required by the retailer, including item condition and reason codes. This information is then automatically transmitted back to the retailer.