Blind shipping, and what your customer should never find out

Blind shipping means the box that arrives at your customer carries your company name and return address, your packing list, and nothing that identifies the shop that did the work. For a distributor or another decorator subcontracting overflow, that is not a nicety — it is the whole basis of the relationship.

What it covers

• Carrier label shows your company name and return address.
• Packing list is yours, with your reference numbers rather than ours.
• No branded tape, no branded inserts, no compliment slips.
• Nothing in the carton names the decorator.

The three places it leaks

In practice blind shipping fails in the same three ways. First, the return address on the carrier label defaults to the shop because nobody configured the account. Second, a garment tag or a poly bag carries the decorator’s sticker from a previous job. Third — and this is the common one — an email from the shop reaches the end customer directly because they were copied on a thread about artwork.

Blind shipping is an account setting, a packing habit, and an email discipline. Miss any one of the three and it is not blind.

Getting it right

• Set the blind-ship details once when the trade account opens, not per order.
• Keep end-customer contact on your side. We correspond with you, you correspond with them.
• Tell us if drop-shipped blanks arrive with a supplier packing list inside — those go in the bin, not in the outbound carton.
• Ask for a photograph of a packed carton on the first order. It is the fastest way to confirm the setup is right before it matters.