How Do You Buy Wholesale?

[cheapherk]

I am looking to start a small online store, but I have no idea how to purchase items wholesale. I e-mailed one company directly who makes the product I'd like to sell, but they have not responded. Naturally you have to be able to aquire things cheap enough in order to make a profit. Any help would be appreciated.

[James Mann]

Hey there cheapherk and welcome. You should introduce yourself and
let us know a little about who you are.

You will find tons of friendly help here, but it is a community and we like
to get to know each other, so don't be shy.

As for information on wholesale. Robert C. Potter has a great guide for
Wholesale products.

You can find his site at productsforresale.com

Robert is a great guy and you won't go wrong getting his guide.

[fast-pack.com]

Can you share what you are looking to sell. Someone here might know of a source for you.

[cheapherk]

I'll be glad to introduce myself... I am a teacher from Delaware. I've never owned or operated any kind of business before. I'm looking for a way to supplement my income. Wouldn't mind starting something that might eventually grow. I am interested in selling computer related items, but I'm open to anything. In the past, I've done numerous ebay auctions (under this name). The majority of purchases I make now are done online, so why not attempt a small store of my own?

Thanks for the warm welcome.

[Lynn Terry]

Hello & Welcome to the SSWT Forum

When you say "online store", I assume you plan to build a website around the products you would like to resell? To find wholesale distributors, you might try doing a search at Google, such as: http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=n ... Bwholesale (or get more specific with the search, such as: 'dell+wholesale' or 'monitor+wholesale' etc)

You might also consider Affiliate Programs - many of these will give you the HTML code to place on your own web pages to display the products and track your sales. Here are a couple to consider:

http://simplythebest.net/affiliates/aff ... uters.html

http://www.gateway.com/programs/affilia ... asp?seg=hm

I know that Dell has an Affiliate Program too. You can always do a combination of wholesale + Affiliate Programs. The perk to being an affiliate is that there is no upfront expense, no inventory to stock or shipping to worry with - you simply make commission on the sales you refer to that company. You could work with several merchants, offering a variety of items such as software, hardware, access to tech support lines, driver downloads, etc.

Keep us posted as to what you decide - and of course if you have any questions!

[uniquelyyours]

Hi cheapherk welcome,

When you get a chance as well you can also checkout it is where many companies who are either wholesale companies I'm quite sure many are the 'middle men' but it doesn't hurt to check them out. I found a great local company that sells clothing when I was looking for inventory for ebay. Many do require you have a resale certificate or tax ID #. You will need to do some research here so be prepared to look for want you are looking to do. good luck Thanks
Michelle

[HowardH]

[Mike Merz]

Hey, All ..

Chris Malta's has long been a top wholesale resource ... recently receiving very positive reviews from Entrepreneur.com and eBay Radio.

They tout a list of over 700,000 products (they give you the wholesaler listings ... not the products. ).

Regards,

Mike "also a fav of eBay resellers" Merz

[HowardH]

[Mike Merz]