Secrets of an Online Store

Posted by Michelle Eld on 16th Dec 2015

Secrets of an Online Store

Have you ever imagined what goes on behind the scenes of your favorite online store? Here at Filtration Montreal, we can only speak for ourselves, but it may not be what you think. How do we get your filters out so fast in the mail to you? How can we offer such low prices? Do we carry the entire inventory here? Let’s clear some things up for you.

We aren’t a brick and mortar store.

In fact, we’re just like online retailers such as Amazon: we sell the items you need and ship them out to you quickly and reliably.

We are a drop shipper.

This means we act as a distributor of filters yet we carry no inventory on-site. Entrepreneur defines drop shipping as an “arrangement between a business and the manufacturer or distributor of a product the business wishes to sell in which the manufacturer or distributor, rather than the business, ships the product to the business's customers.” This arrangement works well for many small businesses and start-ups because it keeps the overhead low so owners don’t have to worry about developing and producing products, tracking inventory and maintaining costly warehouse space. For Filtration Montreal, it means we can sell high-quality, brand-name products on our website for a profit without having to deal with product development and order fulfillment hassles. All Camfil items are shipped factory direct.

We don’t carry inventory.

Due to the above reasons, we don’t carry inventory here. I founded Filtration Montreal in 2008 out of a small office and it remains so to this day. Remotely, I -- along with other key personnel that help keep my business running – receive and coordinate orders, communicate with customers and grow my company. There is no brick and mortar store, which lowers our overhead and allows us to keep our prices low. We couldn’t possibly offer such low prices if we had to stock every item.

Secrets of an Online Store

We ship in bulk.

We don’t ship out single filters, only boxes of six or more filters. It’s nearly the same price to ship out an entire box as one filter, plus it’s the only way to offer free shipping.

No inventory means we don’t have leftovers.

Actually, that’s not exactly true. While we can limit the extra inventory we offer, we do have items that have been discontinued or that just aren't very common among customers. Speaking of uncommon items, do you know someone who needs a Camfil 7x20x1 furnace filter? We have never sold that size in our eight years in business. If you or someone you know could use that size, we would be happy to send a 12-pack at no extra charge!

We use Canada Post.

You may wonder why we use Canada Post over carriers like UPS or FedEx. The reason is that Canada Post makes it easy to have your package delivered to your house quickly – usually within a day or two. With those other carriers, the warehouse may be too far from your house, which causes delays of several days.

Got any more questions for us? We’d be happy to answer them! Comment here or give us a call at 888-315-0105.