Something Different Wholesale, DK Wholesale and Widdop and Co. each run a branded dropship platform on Esetrix
London: UK wholesalers are adding a channel alongside the showroom and the rep visit: a dropship marketplace under their own name. Retailers sign up, choose products from the wholesaler’s range and list them on their own online channels. When a shopper buys, the wholesaler ships the order direct. The retailer holds no stock.
Three established UK suppliers now run this model on Esetrix. Something Different Wholesale, a giftware importer and distributor founded in 1999, runs Something Different Connect with more than 2,000 products. DK Wholesale, a Manchester distributor of watches, clocks and domestic appliances with more than 40 years in the trade, runs DK Connect with more than 2,000 products. Widdop and Co., a gift and home supplier trading since 1883, runs Widdop Dropship with more than 4,000 products from over 30 brands.
Also worth a look: Unlikely Collaborators and The Jar Present The Perception Box Adventure, an Immersive Exploration of How We Create Our Reality and From Gothic Television to Page and Screen: Kathryn Leigh Scott on Crafting Timeless Characters and Stories.
Why Something Different automated it
Something Different saw requests for a dropship service rise sharply as online orders grew during the pandemic. It first ran the service in-house with manual processes. Giftware orders are typically low in value, and the business concluded it needed automation to keep the channel profitable.
It moved the channel onto Esetrix and launched Something Different Connect. Product listings, stock levels, orders, payments, returns and refunds now sync automatically between its stock system and each retailer’s sales channels, including Shopify, eBay, Amazon, WooCommerce, EKM and TikTok Shop.
“Our retailers were asking for dropship faster than we could process it by hand,” said Jane Wallace-Jones, CEO of Something Different Wholesale. “Giftware is a low order value business, so every order we handled manually cost us margin. Automating it means we can offer the whole range to sellers who don’t want to hold stock, and still make it pay.”
What it gives each side
For retailers, it means a wider range with no money tied up in stock or warehouse space, listed on the channels they already sell on. For wholesalers, it adds a channel that reaches online sellers who don’t want to buy stock upfront, with control over which retailers join, what they pay and how much stock is allocated to the channel.
Esetrix has tracked the results across the wholesale marketplaces on its platform. On one, orders in the eight weeks before Christmas 2025 were more than 130 per cent higher than in the same weeks of 2023. On another, orders in the year to August 2026 were more than 140 per cent higher than two years earlier. On a third, weekly retailer sign-ups rose by more than 170 per cent in under three months.
“Most wholesalers already have retailers asking for dropship,” said Tejas Dave, Founder of Esetrix. “What stops them is the cost of handling single-item orders by hand. Once listings, stock and payments run automatically, dropship becomes a channel a wholesaler can grow under its own brand and on its own terms.”
Wholesalers interested in launching their own dropship marketplace can arrange a discovery conversation at www.esetrix.com.
ENDS
Notes to editors
■ Something Different Connect: www.somethingdifferentconnect.co.uk
■ DK Wholesale dropshipping: dkwholesale.com/pages/dropshipping
■ Widdop Dropship: widdopdropship.co.uk
About Esetrix
Esetrix is a marketplace platform. Wholesalers, importers and brand owners use it to run dropship and trade marketplaces for their retailers under their own brand. Retailers use it to add third-party range without buying stock. The platform automates seller and supplier onboarding, catalogue management, stock updates, order routing, payments and fulfilment.
Media contact
CONTACT Tejas Dave, Esetrix
EMAIL partnership@esetrix.com
PHONE +44 330 113 9893