Before the days of simplified eCommerce set-up, wholesaling was a brand’s best bet for success. Through the wholesale model, brands could source and craft quality products, plan manufacturing & cash flow, build a brand reputation and then use that reputation to place their items in larger chain stores – both brick & mortar and digitally. As an outcome, brands could build a loyal clientele and assist retailers in doing so as well.
Brands would sell their products at wholesale prices, and retailers would buy the products in bulk at a lower price. Wholesale strategy works great with brick-and-mortar stores or across online marketplaces, although it is limited. And with eCommerce growing at crazy speeds, brands needed to supplement their wholesale strategy to scale their digital sales. Many of the fastest-growing and most popular brands gained their fame exclusively online through both wholesale and drop ship.
“Cymbio was the secret tool that allowed our company to meet revenue and profitability goals despite facing the most challenging year in business.
I remember initially being hesitant to adopt their system out of concerns of potentially losing the “much needed” department store budget. However, once implemented — which was a seamless process — we achieved triple-digit online growth with the same partners.
In addition, the broader assortment allowed us and our retail partners to identify the next generation of bestsellers. By using a more data-driven methodology, we were able to aggressively introduce high-performing styles to more doors at retail.
It’s clear that without business innovations such as Cymbio, brands will be at a disadvantage against their competitors and will be at risk of losing revenue.”
Raisa McDowell (Director of Sales for Melissa Shoes, USA)
Melissa launched the Frozen sandal back in September 2019 on Nordstrom. With drop ship, Melissa was able to maximize sales by turning feeds on before orders were received to the warehouse, as well continuing to sell without any breaks once a size or style sold out.
Wholesale is great for many reasons. The thing is, many brands stop there. Let’s discuss how drop ship compliments your eCommerce strategy and business.
- Drop ship is the perfect way to test different styles that buyers are unsure of. Once the style starts selling, you’ll have the data to speak for itself and can suggest bringing in more variety through wholesale and in-store.
- Drop shipping allows you to broaden your product assortment and provides a more prominent presence of your brand on the retailer’s website.
- You’ll be able to test new categories.
- Time to live is exponentially quicker.
- Drop ship allows you to react to trends quickly, in real-time, for example – if combat boots are trending although the buyer didn’t purchase this item, you’ll be able to sell them MUCH faster through drop ship.
- Overcome Open-To-Buy (OTB) – buyers are limited in OTB, and drop ship allows them to showcase more products. It is much more profitable to have 40 overall styles with 20 on drop ship than just 20 styles through wholesale.
- Time-To-Market – you’ll be able to have all styles set up for drop shipping prior to your shipments arriving, so as soon as the goods hit your warehouse, you can start selling versus waiting for the orders to be shipped and processed to the retailers’ warehouse.
- If a style sells out, you can quickly flip to drop ship while you wait for the re-order to be shipped and processed (if the retailer supports this). Essentially you’ll save sales for those few weeks as the reorder is being processed.
- Drop ship allows you to test and add additional colorways of specific styles and items.
Wrap Up
In a fast-paced business, being able to scale quickly and multiply your money, time and effort is a massive win for your business. By offering drop shipping to wholesale customers, you’ll be able to prioritize establishing relationships with these buyers and grow your rapport and reputation. Drop ship brings the power back to you as a brand and enables accelerated growth. So what are you waiting for?