How does drop ship inventory work?

[Opus]

Just curious how the drop ship inventory works? I was looking at an aquarium which states it is drop shipped from the manufacturer and there is no stock. Yet this aquarium is available and in stock at the manufacturer's site plus a couple of other online sites, which also state they drop ship the item. Do you just have a certain alotment to sell and you can't sell any more even though the manufacturer still has stock?

 

[mward]

So you buy it from a retailer and it ships from the manufacturer, this shouldn't matter to anyone where it ships from as long as you get your purchased item.

 

[SteveMM62Reef]

Very common for Heavy or Large Items. Rather than incurring the cost of shipping it to the Retailer, then to the Customer, item is “Drop Shipped“ from the factory. Just make sure you are video recording when opening package, as credits and returns can get tricky.

 

[Opus]

So you buy it from a retailer and it ships from the manufacturer, this shouldn't matter to anyone where it ships from as long as you get your purchased item.

Very common for Heavy or Large Items. Rather than incurring the cost of shipping it to the Retailer, then to the Customer, item is “Drop Shipped“ from the factory. Just make sure you are video recording when opening package, as credits and returns can get tricky.

I understand the drop ship part, it has been going on for ever. I just don't understand how the inventory works. BRS shows it out of stock and it ships from the manufacturer. You can buy directly from the manufacturer and they show they have XX in stock and it ships immediately. I also see the same item at other online stores that also say it is drop shipped from the manufacturer and that it is in stock and ready to ship. So I just don't understand why BRS shows it out of stock. My initial guess is they have an allotment from the manufacturer that they can sale and then that is it until they get their next allotment, but that is just a guess.

 

[SteveMM62Reef]

More likely they haven’t updated the availability of that item, happens all the time. When I was doing commercial HVAC, sometimes a part would show out of stock. A Call to customers service, would get the part on the way.

 

[Bulk Reef Supply Verified Sponsor]

Just curious how the drop ship inventory works? I was looking at an aquarium which states it is drop shipped from the manufacturer and there is no stock. Yet this aquarium is available and in stock at the manufacturer's site plus a couple of other online sites, which also state they drop ship the item. Do you just have a certain alotment to sell and you can't sell any more even though the manufacturer still has stock?

Each company does this a little bit differently, but in most cases, we get an allotment of the given item. If there is a particular drop ship item that you're looking for, but we're out of stock on, shoot a message over to our customer service team and they'll likely be able to get an ETA on when we expect to have it available for purchase again

 

[dedragon]

why is the drop shipment prices so expensive on the brs website though? For example an innovative marine tank from innovative ships for $100 while on BRS the drop ship price is $300?

 

[Bulk Reef Supply Verified Sponsor]

why is the drop shipment prices so expensive on the brs website though? For example an innovative marine tank from innovative ships for $100 while on BRS the drop ship price is $300?

There are a few tanks from IM that have oversized shipping charges. It should normally be $150 on our website for the IM tank/stand bundles. If you're seeing a price difference between the Innovative Marine website and the BRS website, just give us a call and more than likely we'll be able to price match for you.

 

[YOYOYOReefer]

I do warehousing on a large scale, we have about 16M square feet spread across the country. Very few vendors sites are directly linked to the manufacturers product inventories as much as you would think it is. The tech is out there but its not quite there for most companies yet. We have 40+full time programmers and bought our software vendor to keep up with ecommerce orders. We offer this service to customers, its a premium charge for it. Even when a manufacturer does have capability to provide the data to their retailers , many dont/cant update it in real time on their point of sale portals.

You would be surprised how many "drop shipments from manufacturer" come out of the manufacturers warehousing network, not out of the physical plant that just made it. We are the "manufacturers drop ship point" for hundreds if not thousands of products, yet we dont make anything in our buildings. The video games, home electronics, and appliance manufacturers are way ahead of most other industries in this regard.

the face of shipping and ltl in general has evolved alot in the last few years.