Many eCommerce entrepreneurs start small, with an online store or a physical location, a few new products, and perhaps one or two employees. However, practically every start-up must take a risk at some point. Selling wholesale brands can be that step forward, allowing small firms to expand and sell in large quantities.
Selling wholesale allows you to access a larger audience, worry less about individual sales, and make more money. It does, however, require proper preparation.
Let’s look at what wholesale is and some of the benefits that come with it before we get into wholesale selling strategies.
What is Wholesale?
The act of selling your products in large quantities to a third party so that they can resell them at a profit to their customer base is known as wholesale. When someone places a wholesale order with you, you’re offering your products at a lower price than retail so the recipient can benefit.
The Benefits of Wholesale
On the surface, it may appear that you are losing ground. However, there are several benefits to selling wholesale:
- More time for your business: When an Australian wholesale partner distributes your items, you have more time to focus on producing new products, improving your brand, and marketing your business.
- Changes in the market have a smaller impact: Economic and market shifts can hit hard and fast if you offer your items to consumers through the retail approach only.
- Fewer marketing costs: When selling directly to people, marketing is costly. You may sell to a smaller audience while still increasing sales when you work with retailers by selling wholesale to them.
- Increased brand awareness: Selling to individual retail consumers necessitates a laser-like focus on the target market. When you sell wholesale in bulk to retailers, your customer base grows organically (often in unexpected directions).
Your time is precious. Selling wholesale allows you to reclaim part of your time while perhaps increasing your revenues. It’s an uncommon case in which everyone benefits, but it does require foresight.
6 Tips for Selling Wholesale
Retailers who purchase your brand at wholesale can help you raise brand awareness, acquire new consumers, and expand your business. However, making the wrong decisions can result in large volume loss as well as a significant waste of time and money.
The following suggestions will assist you in forming strategic alliances with the right companies, selling wholesale in bulk, and increasing your profits.
1. Identify retail stores
The first step is to find retail outlets you would like to stock your products. You most certainly had a target customer (or consumers) in mind when you created your product. Consider these demographics and look for retailers and online businesses that cater to them.
You may also look online to learn what kind of boutiques and eCommerce sites are popular in your area and across Australia. Then, contact store owners and inform them you’re interested in selling wholesale to them. Tell them you’d like to learn more about their customers and which products are the most popular.
2. Develop a pricing strategy
Everything you create isn’t guaranteed to sell well as a wholesale item. Wholesale products perform best when profit margins are already high, i.e., they don’t cost much to produce yet sell well at a higher price.
When it comes to wholesale pricing, a decent rule of thumb is to twice whatever it costs to create the product. When selling wholesale to retail suppliers, this offers you a 50% profit margin, but it still leaves leeway for the receiving party to mark up the price and profit.
For wholesale products, establish a minimum order quantity. This way, you’ll have a good sense of your margins before you place an order with your manufacturer.
3. Consider a standalone wholesale site.
It’s tempting to skip the wholesale website and utilise a paper or digital order form when starting your wholesale business. Keeping your transactions exclusively offline, on the other hand, can cause problems for your wholesale suppliers and make bookkeeping more difficult for you.
Create a website dedicated to wholesale buyers instead. As a result, customers will be able to create their own login credentials and shop from your wholesale site as if it were a traditional eCommerce site or online store.
A wholesale website allows you to display wholesale-specific pricing and segment your wholesale and retail orders more easily. This simplifies bookkeeping, particularly if your wholesale site is linked to an accounting application.
Suppose you already operate an online retail store. In that case, you may be able to add a wholesale feature for selling wholesale to your existing website, allowing wholesale customers to register and gain access to wholesale pricing on the one platform.
4. Contact prospect wholesaling partners.
Make a list of these prospective wholesale partners, such as wholesale companies, retail stores, and supply chain partners. Identify who would be a suitable fit for your product and target market. After that, begin contacting out to see who could be interested in collaborating with you.
Instead of utilising a boilerplate email, personalize your communication. Because these companies are potential vendors, demonstrating genuine interest is critical to developing relationships.
Asking for a partnership shouldn’t be done right away. Introduce yourself, explain what you do, and why you’re interested in their company. If they’re in eCommerce, mention a product or blog post from their site, or complement their local retail location.
5. Network, network, network
In business, networking is usually a good idea, especially when creating a wholesale business or band.
When it comes to meeting brilliant craftspeople, business owners, drop-shipping partners, trade exhibitions, and even life science conferences are gold mines. Gather business cards and meet as many people as possible. You never know when you’ll meet your next wholesale vendor, someone with a new idea, or a collaborator who can help you enhance your business’s logistics.
Trade exhibitions are also an excellent opportunity to meet new Australian wholesale customers. There will always be other business owners and people interested in your products from a retail standpoint at trade events.
In any case, this exposure will only benefit you.
Don’t forget to make use of social media. LinkedIn is an excellent place to meet other business owners and possible wholesale suppliers. Local Facebook groups can also help you connect with local retailers and those with similar business interests.
6. Take advantage of online stores.
While physical retail channels are a no-brainer for wholesale, large online companies should not be overlooked.
Wholesale was once available on Etsy, but it has since been discontinued. Australian wholesalers, on the other hand, can still reach a wide internet audience through eBay, Amazon, and quality online wholesale directory.
Many eBay Australian wholesalers purchase in large quantities and then resell on eBay. Look for products similar to yours and inquire directly with the sellers to see if they would like to become wholesale buyers. This person could then buy from you as a regular wholesale customer and resell your products on their eBay store.
Amazon wholesale works in a similar way. Look for Amazon stores that sell similar products to yours and contact them to see if they’d be interested in purchasing from you. They can then sell the products on Amazon or other online platforms. This allows you to access a large online audience without you having to perform heavy labour in terms of listing optimisation.
Growing with Wholesale
The wholesale industry is vast and intimidating to novices. However, keep in mind that you’re still selling to clients; they’re just buying a lot more than those who purchase on your website or visit your store as a direct consumer.
When shopping for manufacturers, do your homework. Don’t hurry into something you’re not confident about, and make sure to include any relevant business partners or parties.
Finding your first retailer will most likely take some time. Nonetheless, your efforts will be rewarded with fewer marketing expenditures, a larger customer base, and the earnings and time needed to expand your company beyond your greatest ambitions.
