Wholesale Lists – Tools to Find Trustworthy Companies

If you are selling products on the internet these days, you obviously know the importance of wholesale lists. Every time I open my email I am reading of someone else getting scammed by fake wholesalers and their too good to be true “lists”.

For those of us who are new to online marketing and do not know what wholesale lists are, here is a little bit of background for you.

Wholesale lists are basically a compiled list of contacts, email links, and phone numbers used to buy merchandise. Most of the time in bulk at a discount price to be sold for profit. Wholesale lists are 100% legal and have proven to be for a number of people including myself, a literal gold mine.

I assume if you are reading this, you have some interest in obtaining a reliable wholesaler. Back when I started my internet marketing career, there were no such “lists”. I had to do the research myself, and suffer the pitfalls of making bad choices. Luckily for me, back then there were not many scammers out there. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said today. The internet is chock full of people trying to make a living off of the ignorance of those less informed.

Some things you can do to keep yourself on the right track when creating your wholesale lists start with your internet browser. Mozilla Firefox, and Google Chrome have some great extensions to help keep you on the right track. I especially like WOT (Web of Trust). Its available for both browsers and I suggest you use it. WOT allows users to input a “trustworthiness” indicator right next to the Google search results. Green for very trustworthy. Yellow for semi trustworthy and so on. I personally will not deal with any wholesaler in the yellow to red sector. Another great tool is the NetCraft tool bar. NTB basically does the same as WOT but uses a host of other references to make its trustworthiness rating. One of the things I like most about NTB is it will tell you where the webpage is being hosted. A good indicator of a fraudulent site would be the location of the web-server. If its in the Ukraine, its probably not a good one to deal with.

The World of Wholesale Distributorship. Distributors are the operators who move the product from manufacturer to market. Unlike the retail distributors who sell directly to end users, the wholesale distributors transfer the products from their warehouses to companies that either employ the products in their own operations or further sell the products to consumers. Wholesale distribution firms do not sell directly to the end users. A wholesale distributor generally runs an independent firm in order to buy and sell products. Such operations are carried out from warehouses. At these warehouses, merchandise is received and transferred to customers. The basic difference between a wholesale distributor and a retailer is that a wholesaler works in a business to business realm, instead of selling directly to the buying public.

Wholesale distribution is a field which requires excellent negotiation skills, the ability to locate hot items and good salesmanship. The goods are bought at lower prices and sold at prices that are higher but still attractive to the customers. A wholesale distributor must possess sales skills as well as finance and business management skills and the ability to serve the customers well.

Wholesale distribution companies are usually set up in areas where land is cheap and getting warehouse space is affordable. A person looking forward to start a wholesale distributorship business has three options, the first of which is to start form scratch. The second option is to buy an existing business, while the third option is to buy a business opportunity. Each of these three options has its own pros and cons.

The basic operations to be performed upon starting awholesale distributorship business are defining a customer base and finding your suppliers. An important step in starting a wholesale distribution business is leasing a warehouse for storing the products. A wholesale distributor performs a number of functions in his day to day routine including sales, accounting, shipping, receiving and customer service. They also have to contact customers, process orders, support customers and do market research. Most of the wholesale distributors rely on software packages for handling of multiple tasks like inventory control, bar coding, accounting and client management. The potential customers of a wholesale distributor are retail businesses, retail distributors, exporters, other wholesale distributors and the federal government.

Wholesale – How To Get Into The Business

Getting into the wholesale business has become a very attractive thing to do these days, especially with how easy it is to sell things over the Internet. It’s gotten to the point where you don’t even have to handle product anymore. But before deciding to dive in head first, there are some things that you should know. These tips will come in handy.

The first thing you need to do is ask yourself why you want to get into the wholesale business. Is it because you want to work with other businesses and help people make money or is it because you think it’s an easy way to make a quick buck? Believe it or not, the wholesale business is very demanding. You need to have a lot of up front capital to buy product and unless you’re going to have someone else store the inventory for you you’re going to need a warehouse as well. You’re going to be dealing with hundreds of thousands of pieces of inventory and shipping things all over the world. Most retailers expect to get 30 days to pay. What happens if they go out of business before they do? Wholesaling is a very risky business.

The next thing you have to do is study your competition. If you plan on entering a market where there are already dependable distributors you’re going to have a tough time of it. You want to get in a market that needs a wholesaler if you want to have a good chance to succeed.

After that, you need to take a look at your financial situation. You have to have a lot of up front capital to get into wholesaling. You have to make sure that you have the resources to establish a relationship with a manufacturer. Also, can you afford to wait 30 days to get your money from the retailers? Startup costs, taxes, property rental and insurance can eat you alive before you ever get your feet off the ground.

Then, you’re going to need a business plan. You’ll have to get together with lawyers and get advice from consulting services. If you are unfamiliar with the wholesale business you have a lot of education ahead of you.

The next step is applying for all the licenses that you’re going to need. There are certain tax laws that you are going to need to be aware of that apply only to wholesalers, such as tax exempt status for goods moved between manufacturers and other retailers.

You’re also going to need a location for your business. You need to get a warehouse, an office and make sure that people know where to find you. If you’re going to build a warehouse you better make sure you are aware of all the zoning laws. The last thing you want is to have your warehouse torn down because it is in a residential district.

Then comes the marketing. That’s right. Just because you’re in business doesn’t mean people are going to know it. You’re going to have to place ads at a number of places including newspapers, Internet, magazines, etc. Advertising is expensive so be prepared.

Finally, when you are in business you better make sure you take care of your customers. That means getting the product to them, answering their questions and taking care of any problems that arise, and problems WILL arise.

Don’t forget one thing. You’re not going to be running this business alone. You’re going to have employees. You’ll need to pay them and possibly fire some if they do a poor job, which means hiring new ones. This is an ongoing, never ending process that is incredibly time consuming in itself.

So, you want to be a wholesaler? Just make sure you know what you’re getting yourself into.

William King is the director of Wholesale and Wholesalers Directory. He has 18 years of experience in the marketing and trading industries and has been helping retailers and startups with their product sourcing, promotion, marketing and supply chain requirements.

Now that you have taken the time to read this post, why not take the time and read my many other posts, am sure you will find what you need.

1 Comment

• 

  By lee min ho, September 26, 2011 @ 2:48 am

  We’re a group of volunteers and starting a new scheme in our community. Your website provided us with valuable information to work on. You’ve done a formidable job and our whole community will be grateful to you.

Other Links to this Post

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

Leave a comment