shipper:
(plural: ‘shippers‘; for the right pronunciation of this word, please click here)
a shipper at a sea port
a person (or a company) who enters into a contract with a shipping line or ship owner for carrying goods from one place to another by sea;
a person or company that acts as a middleman between a person or company that wants to send goods by sea (consignor) and a person or company that receives the goods (consignee) by sea,
a shipper getting his goods cleared
A shipper may be the seller or the buyer of goods (cargo) or may be an agent who arranges for some goods to be delivered legally from one port to another; a shipbroker, however, is a just a broker or agent that arranges for some goods (cargo) to be carried and delivered legally from one port to another, but nothing to do with the buying and selling.
There are several agencies at work when some goods are sent from one place to another, especially from one country to another, and, when the goods are moved by sea, some of the names we hear are the shippers, shipping agents, shipbrokers, forwarders or forwarding agents, and consignor and consignee.
After the globalisation of the trade and commerce, air and ship transport businesses have flourished and shippers and shipping agents world over are all making good money.
Note 2: A ‘drop-shipper’, on the other hand, is a wholesaler who supplies goods to the retailers or customers directly transported by sea. For an article that explains what dropshipping and a dropshipper are, please click here.
