In this guide 6 sections
Hold stock for the fast sellers, where dispatch speed, bench testing and control over returns win the order, and list a distributor’s inventory for models that sell slowly. Slow models only tie up cash. Most stores run both, chosen SKU by SKU.
What changes when the distributor holds the box
You never touch the goods. The distributor keeps the units in its own warehouse, and your store reads their quantity from a CSV, XML or API stock feed that refreshes on a schedule. Each paid order goes back to them as an API call or an EDI file, and they pick, pack and ship it to your customer.
Holding stock reverses this. You raise purchase orders, receive cartons, scan serial numbers or IMEIs on the way in, and shelve each item by bin location before a single sale happens. Cash goes out first. In return, you control the packing, the dispatch cut-off, the bench test for dead-on-arrival units and the exact box a customer receives.
Where supplier stock feeds and price changes bite
A feed is only as fresh as the distributor’s warehouse system, so a slow refresh lets you sell units that left the shelf that morning. Overselling is the standing risk.
Prices move overnight as well. A distributor can change cost price or withdraw a model after a firmware recall, and your listing keeps the old margin until the next import runs.
Set the rules before the first import. Hide any SKU whose quantity drops below a safety floor, and block any price that lands under your minimum margin, so a stale feed cannot sell at a loss. Map these fields on day one.
- Distributor SKU and manufacturer part number
- EAN or GTIN, to match each product to your catalogue
- Cost price, with the date it last changed
- Quantity per warehouse, not one combined number
- Lead time when the distributor is out of stock
- Last updated timestamp for the whole feed
Who answers for warranty and returns?
The buyer comes to you first. That holds whether the unit sat on your shelf or in the distributor’s warehouse, and the distributor’s terms do not replace the consumer rules of your own country.
When you hold stock, a dead-on-arrival phone is swapped from the shelf the same day, and the faulty unit goes into an RMA batch for the manufacturer. With dropshipping you wait while the distributor issues an RMA number, receives the return, tests it and finally credits you for the unit. The customer waits through all of it.
Write the return route down for each SKU: customer to you, customer to distributor, or customer to the brand’s service centre. Then print it on the packing slip.
Shipping speed and the promise on the product page
Stock on your shelf ships the same day if the order lands before your carrier cut-off, and the parcel carries your own packing slip. A distributor has its own cut-off, its own courier and sometimes a handover that adds a day before the parcel even leaves the building.
Mixed baskets are another trap. A laptop from one distributor and a charger from another arrive as two parcels on two different days, and customers read that as a mistake.
Show a delivery estimate for each SKU instead of one promise for the whole store, and carry these fields back into your order page.
- Cut-off time for same-day dispatch
- Courier and service level used
- Tracking number sent back into your store
- Split shipments flagged on mixed baskets
- Branded or plain packing slip
How to split your range between the two
Hold stock where turnover is steady and the unit is cheap to store, such as cables, cases, chargers, earbuds and memory cards that sell every week. They ship in small cartons.
Dropship the costly, slow or bulky lines, such as large monitors, television sets, workstation laptops and niche models that sell a few a month. The distributor carries end-of-life risk. You carry only the listing.
Use dropshipping as a trial too. List a new range from a distributor, watch it for a quarter, then bring the winners onto your own shelves once the sales justify a pallet. Start this week by exporting your last three months of orders, sorting by SKU and marking every line that sold weekly.
Stock or drop decision sheet
One row per SKU, all on a single page. Columns cover EAN, units sold each month, cost price, shelf space, distributor lead time, feed refresh interval, warranty route and return route. The last two hold the decision, either hold, drop or trial, and the date it will next be reviewed.
Open a blank worksheet to printQuestions owners ask
Can one electronics store use both models?
Yes, and most do. Keep a source field on every SKU, either own stock or distributor, so the cart, the stock sync and the packing slip know which route an order takes.
How often should a distributor feed refresh?
Ask how often their counts update. A feed pulled hourly from a count taken once a day is still a daily count, so match your refresh to what the warehouse actually reports.
What happens when two distributors list the same model?
Match them on EAN first. Then set a priority rule: many stores pick the lower cost with stock above the floor and fall back to the second distributor when the first sells out.
Who handles a faulty device under warranty?
You answer to the customer first. Then you recover the unit through the distributor’s RMA process or the brand’s service centre, so agree that route in writing before you list the product.