Drone Buying: Foreign or Domestic

        When looking to purchase industrial drones, a company will have many options depending on what they are looking for and how comfortable they are with buying overseas.  A quick Google search for purchasing drones in bulk returns many searches that can be useful.  When entering specifics such as what country and specs you can narrow your search to what fits best with a company’s needs.  If a business is looking to purchase from the United States, WYNIT.com is a wholesale technology company that sells drones in bulk as well as all of the accessories needed for delivery.  They have a wide variety of drones that have different accessories, power and flight time.  In contacting the company they do not offer discounts for bulk orders, which is a negative.  The drones that would be best for industrial use cost about $4,600 a piece which includes shipping.  Since this company is located in the United States payment can be made with cash, check, credit card, etc without worry.  This company buys directly from the manufacturer and acts as a wholesaler so there is a markup and shipping cost added into the price which inflates the cost that purchasers have to pay.   Other places to purchase drones include Amazon, best buy and other electronic stores.  They do not provide the service or bulk abilities as wholesalers and manufacturers but they do provide reliability and guaranteed shipping.  Due to the retail aspect of these websites they are not viable options for drones to be purchased from.

        The largest country in terms of drone manufacturing is china.  They are a large manufacturing company and it’s not a surprise that they also make drones.  China’s large network of manufacturing and wholesaling lead to the creation of a website called alibaba.com.  Alibaba is an online marketplace for manufacturers to sell products in bulk to companies that would not normally know about the product or the manufacture themselves.  Alibaba helps to connect purchasers who do not have the resources or the contacts to do business in China with manufactures who do not have the ability to find buyers in other countries.  Alibaba has its own store just for drones and makes it easy to search and buy drones in bulk.  Alibaba allows a buyer to contact and speak with the manufacturer directly, which many times allow the buyer to work out a lower price with the seller.  Alibaba takes the hassle out of buying things in bulk from China, it is relatively safe as sellers are rated and users can comment on the level of service.  The site is constantly looking for counterfeit and scam sellers so the buyer gets what they pay for.   The sellers are experienced so they are used to shipping to the United States which makes receiving what you buy easy.  Alibaba also allows for a buyer to purchase through escrow.  This is when the buyer puts the payment into a third party account, once the payment is confirmed the seller then ships the product to the buyer.  Once the buyer confirms receipt and is satisfied the payment is then released to the seller.  This helps to prevent unhappy customers.  Also, since Alibaba’s goal is to provide bulk sales to other countries, they handle all of the currency exchange which allows a US based business to pay in USD and not have to worry about the currency exchange, which can be an issue when buying abroad.  The drone that best fits delivering products costs $9000 on Alibaba.  This drone is for sale by a verified seller who uses escrow and has done many dealings in the United States.  Like all Alibaba sellers, you can negotiate lower prices for orders over 100.  Even though Alibaba does everything it can to provide safe and secure sales, nothing is perfect.