How To Find Wholesale Sources For Niche Products 

One of the main things you will need to consider when you first start marketing niche products on your online store or eBay, is the competition which you will face from the retailers in your area. One way to overcome this competition is by locating a wholesaler who will supply your products to you at a low enough price, which will allow you to make a profit while selling at competitive prices.

When looking for a wholesaler, it is a good idea to try and locate one locally. This is because you will stand to save quite a bit from not having to pay for shipping charges. You could easily run out and get your stocks from a local wholesaler, or locate one which will be able to provide you with economical or free delivery.

Since wholesalers do not advertise their services, it can be difficult to locate a trustworthy and reliable wholesaler. However, there are some tips and advice which you can use to locate a wholesaler you can trust for your niche product marketing business. Some of them are as follows:

1.       The local trade directory or Yellow Pages is a good place to get started when looking for wholesalers in your area.

2.       You might also find some websites, such as www.wholesalecentral.com or www.wholesalequest.com to be useful resources. Typically, you will be able to browse through the various categories or perform a search to help you locate wholesalers who can provide you with the niche products you have identified. The other option which you might want to explore is to look for keywords such as “wholesale directory” or “wholesalers” in search engines such as Google.

3.       The third and widely practiced method to find reliable wholesalers is by attending trade shows and events organized by the various trade associations, which have many reputable wholesalers as members.

A good method of identifying useful tradeshows is by registering with a trade association which has wholesalers carrying the products you would like to sell to your niche. You will be kept informed of their local and / or international events and activities through their website or newsletters.

The other strategy you can use to identify trustworthy wholesalers is by performing a search on specific trade websites such as the Trade Show News Network (www.tsnn.com). Additionally, you could perform a search on your favorite search engine for keywords such as “trade show directory”, or by including a keyword related to your niche in the query, such as “cleaning products trade shows”

4.       Finally, you could pay a visit to your local brick and mortar store which carries the same products which you have identified are marketable to your niche. Inspect the packaging carefully to check for the contact information of the supplier. Once you have identified the supplier, you can then contact them to ask if they are willing to supply you the same products since you are in the same area. If they are unable to do so, they will usually be able to put you in touch with a wholesaler who will be happy to supply you with the products you require.

When you have gathered enough information on the potential wholesalers who can supply you with your niche products, you will have to do a background check on each one of them to determine which ones are trustworthy, and which ones will most likely be waiting to fleece or cheat you. You will also want to ensure that they are a registered business selling genuine items, and not pirated ones which will get you into unnecessary trouble.

You will also need to find out their terms of doing business, including payment terms, return policies, shipping charges and other relevant information. If possible, you should also get feedback from their existing or past customers to determine if they are a reliable and easy to work with wholesaler.

The final thing you will need to be aware of is that your wholesaler will supply you products in bulk, to be further sold to your customers. If you are just starting out, you might find this to be quite prohibitive. In this case, one method you could use is to approach other resellers who are selling products similar to yours and work out a joint venture of some sort. You could, for example, share the cost of buying stocks with your partner and target different market segments so that you do not end up competing with each other.