Guest Author - Scott Prock
You may have noticed by now if you do a search on any search engine for "wholesale anything" you will be looking at a search resulting in millions of possibilities.
The reason for this is every discount retailer has discovered using the word "wholesale" will get them tons of traffic, but 99.9% of them are far from wholesalers.
Because of this it gets harder and harder to find the true wholesale businesses.
The best way to get past this is to become educated on how the wholesale industry works.
I could write a whole book on this topic, but this information is only designed to give you an outline of the industry.
Manufacturer
At the top of the ladder you will have the manufacturers, those who actually create the products.
--> Direct Distributor
Sometimes only referred to as the "Distributor", these companies have huge and logistic systems in place to move (sell) massive amounts of products to the many "Wholesale" distributors.
Some manufacturers will only have a few direct distributors at most, their sole purpose is to get the products into the supply chain.
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----> Wholesale Distributor
The wholesale distributor will have more sales options, some will sell directly to retail businesses, others may sell to "wholesalers" and some will sell to both.
Similar to the direct distributor, the wholesale distributor wants to move large quantities of merchandise, as they make their money on volume sales, often times operating on slim margins, they are not interested in small quantity sales.
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----------> Wholesale
The wholesaler is where most retail businesses are able to purchase products from. A wholesaler will sell to the retail business in whatever quantities that suit the retail business, often times offering price breaks for large quantities.
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In order to get the best price on products, you want to buy as close to the manufacturer as possible, and your ability to get that close will rely mostly on what type of product you are seeking.
Some products, such as electronics are mass produced and the best you may be able to hope for is an account with a "Wholesale Distributor" but even then you will need to be equipped to move a large amount of products. If you prove to the distributor that you are capable of selling the amount required at retail you have a great chance at an account with them.
Other industries such as crafts, may allow you to purchase directly from the manufacturer as these type of manufacturers are not well known for producing large quantities of product, thus they won't have the same requirements as other markets.
One of the quickest ways to finding sources is to start at the top and contact the manufacturer of the products you're interested in carrying. Ask for their sales department, and once you have them on the phone ask them for the contact information of their main distributors. Once you have that information do the same with the distributors, all the way down to the wholesalers.
With this information you can make your own deals with which ever level you can purchase at.
Enjoy . . . Scott
