IdoSell Shop supports wholesale and retail online stores conducting sales in a dropshipping model due to built-in mechanisms automating processing orders in an open ICDF standard

Do you have an online wholesale store and you offer shipping products in a dropshipping model? If yes, we have just prepared the first open online wholesale store solution enabling taking orders in a dropshipping model, with a full automation of their processing through wholesaler's WMS. Are you considering retail sales without the need to store products? You can start placing dropshipping orders in IdoSell wholesale stores supporting such way of order processing even today.

A few words about dropshipping

Dropshipping means a situation, when a shop does not offer its own products, but when receiving an order, places an order for necessary products in a wholesale store. Then the wholesale store ships products to a final customer. This sales model comes down to what it was originally made for – it attracts customers, sales and promotes products. However, the very ordering process is commissioned to a wholesale store. Thus, wholesale stores do what they can do best - manage, stores and efficiently send huge amounts of products. This combination of experiences creates dropshipping.

Dropshipping in IdoSell Shop

In IdoSell Shop we support both sides of conducting sales in this model - (B2B stores), as well as (B2C stores). Our solutions aim at automation of repetitive tasks, also in case of dropshipping orders.
For conducting sales in a dropshipping model we used an open ICDF standard of exchanging information concerning order processing between shops. Thanks to ICDF it is possible to connect both stores and suppliers, by creating connections automating sales, without the need to create complicated mechanisms. ICDF is an open standard which can be used by any shop solutions, even by solutions competitive to IdoSell Shop.

Handling dropshipping orders in IdoSell Shop

Now every online retail and wholesale IdoSell store is equipped with mechanisms dedicated to dropshipping mechanisms enabling taking orders from external sources automatically – we named it CustomerAPI-ICDF. It is a set of API endpoints supporting the ICDF format – they enable an efficient data exchange between wholesale and retail online stores when it comes to dropshipping orders (checking product availability, placing orders, checking order status). ICDF is open, so wholesale and retail online stores based on other selling solutions can also use it.

Now uploading orders to IdoSell Shop wholesale system is possible if a wholesale store makes an interface for uploading such orders available through e.g. an appropriate website or if a shop interested in placing dropshipping orders will program uploading orders to a wholesale store via CustomerAPI-ICDF based on the ICDF standard.

We are currently working on a solution which will allow all IdoSell shops for automatic order placement in wholesale stores which make placing orders in an ICDF standard possible. Thus, in all IdoSell wholesale stores which have such mechanism already available.

What does CustomerAPI-ICDF enable?

A set of dedicated CustomerAPI-ICDF endpoints enables wholesale stores to take dropshipping orders, and retail stores cooperating with wholesalers can be polled about e.g. order statuses, a list of supported couriers can be downloaded, or a previously placed order can be cancelled.
In short it means that a store uploads to a wholesale store orders of their customers. There is no need to make any phone calls, send emails with printouts or orders. A wholesale store receives a list of orders to be processed.
The process of placing orders can be divided into the following steps:

• a customer places an order in an online store
• the online store uploads the order into a wholesaler's system
• the wholesale store receives a new order (marked as a dropshipping order on the order list) with billing data of a store and a shipping address of a final customer.
• the wholesale store sends the order to a customer. The store receives and automatic email notification about shipping an order (in the future a notification system will be automated with webhooks)

Are you a developer? Learn more about the ICDF

If you are a developer working on creating a mechanism for placing dropshipping orders or uploading basket content in your system, have a look at ICDF.