Robert Dyas, Bensons for Beds, Wilko and Kingfisher all have one thing in common – they are high street brands that operate a drop ship model for third party suppliers. Today we speak to Ed Bradley, CEO of Virtualstock, who help connect retail suppliers with high street brands wanting to expand their assortment.
Ed discusses the pros and cons of drop ship vs marketplace, the profitability of a drop ship model and why looking at net profit is more important than the gross margin on a sale, how to identify assortment opportunities and when to move a product from drop ship to stock, or take a product out of stock and keep it as a drop ship alternative for customers.
In this video you’ll find:
- 00:00 Introducing Ed Bradley & Virtualstock
- 03:26 Retail Strategy – Drop shipping vs Marketplace
- 08:25 How to become a supplier to a high street brand
- 09:53 Why all high street brands need a drop ship model
- 11:45 How to identify assortment range opportunities
- 13:12 Balancing net profitability, drop ship and stocking product
- 15:46 Supplier profiles for high street drop ship
