Blind Shipment

What is a Blind Shipment?

A blind shipment is when a seller (distributor) hides the identify of a shipping company from a buyer. In essence, the buyer does not know who or where his goods were originally shipped from.  The buyer receives his goods as ordered and believes the shipment were sent directly from the seller.

In this type of shipment, the shipper sends the shipment directly to the buyer without disclosing his identity. Instead, the information of the distributor is put on the goods label.

This type of shipment is mostly requested by the distributor who wants the name of the shipper or manufacturing company concealed. For this, the buyer is completely 'blind' and unaware of who exactly shipped the goods.

The reasons for blind shipment

The distributor has several reasons for concealing the identity of the shipper. The two main reasons are:

• To prevent direct contact between the shipper and the buyer
• To avoid a situation of letting the buyer know that the goods are third party products

In some cases, the distributor may use "double blind shipment". This means, both the shipper and the buyer deal with the shipper directly without any knowledge of each. Basically, the shipper does not know the identity of whom he is shipping to likewise the buyer.