A wholesaler with a good product range receives dropship enquiries every day. Most come from people who have not yet sold anything, want no minimum order, expect product photography and want to know the margin before deciding whether to build a store.
A small number come from established sellers moving real volume. Telling them apart quickly is the entire problem.
Decision 1: decide whether you offer it at all
Dropshipping suits some businesses and ruins others. Picking, packing and shipping single items is a different operation from sending pallets, and if it does not suit your warehouse, saying so publicly saves everyone time.
Decision 2: publish the qualification criteria
Trading history, existing sales channels, expected monthly volume, whether they hold a trade account and whether they sell on marketplaces. Published criteria filter out most speculative enquiries before they reach anyone.
Decision 3: be clear about fees
Per-order handling fees, packaging costs, shipping rates and whether there is a monthly charge. Sellers calculating margins need real numbers, and vagueness here attracts exactly the people who will be disappointed later.
Decision 4: explain how orders flow
Manual submission, a spreadsheet upload, an integration with common platforms or an API. Integration availability frequently decides whether a serious seller proceeds.
Decision 5: settle branding and packaging
Whether parcels are unbranded, whether the seller's inserts can be included and whether returns come back to you or to them. Sellers care enormously about the customer experience carrying their name rather than yours.
Decision 6: handle marketplace sellers carefully
Marketplace resellers can damage pricing and brand presentation. Publishing your policy on marketplace listings, minimum advertised pricing and which channels are permitted protects your other stockists.
Seller: Do you offer dropshipping? Assistant: The trade page explains the dropship service, including who it is available to, the per-order handling fee and the platforms that integrate. Could you tell me what you currently sell, which channels you sell through and roughly what monthly volume you are doing? The team reviews applications against those criteria.
Decision 6b: product data and images
Online sellers need photographs, descriptions and specifications they can publish. Explaining what you provide, in what format and whether images can be used commercially, is frequently the difference between a seller launching your range and quietly choosing a supplier who made it easier.
Decision 7: protect existing stockists
Shops that buy stock and hold it deserve better terms than someone shipping from your shelves with no commitment. Pricing tiers should reflect that, or your best customers will notice.
Decision 8: stock visibility
Nothing damages a dropship relationship faster than a seller taking an order for something you no longer hold. Explaining how stock levels are shared, whether a feed is available and how quickly it updates tells a serious seller whether they can trust your range on their storefront, and it is usually the question that separates a supplier who is set up for this from one who is improvising.
The valuable version
An established seller with real volume and their own audience is a genuinely good partner, and worth onboarding properly, in the way described in warehousing enquiries from growing online brands.
Accounts and screening
Applications stall for predictable reasons, covered in trade account applications that stall, and early questions do the filtering, as in receptionist screening questions. Pricing and minimums are covered in minimum order and pricing questions from trade buyers.
How SpideyChat handles it
SpideyChat for wholesalers and distributors answers dropship questions from your published policy and captures trading details for review. You can see handover on the demo, and plans are on the pricing page.