Dropship Wholesale Distributors – What Makes a Good Wholesaler

Dropship wholesale distributors can make or break your reselling business. This is especially true if you are running a tight ship, a one-man online operation selling your wares on Ebay, Yahoo Auctions, or simply via your online store. You would need reliable dropship wholesale distributors as your business partners in order for your business to grow by leaps and bounds. This is even more vital for your business growth if you are selling products in a competitive market. Let us look at some secrets to assess if you should do business with the dropship wholesale distributor.

Assuming you have conducted a search for your potential suppliers either from the search engines or local newspaper ads and now have a list on hand. The next task is to evaluate each of these dropship wholesale distributor according to some criteria.

Dropship Wholesale Distributors Criteria 1 – Established and Reputable

It is important to work with dropship wholesale distributors with a good reputation. Honesty and reliability are two key business principles to adhere to in this wholesale business. If you are sourcing from overseas, you may not have the luxury to converse face-to-face with your suppliers. The only handles you have are their track record. You may check out their business practices at Better Business Bureau if they are located in US. If not, find out which are the national or government agencies that govern business registrations and licensing. Drop a note to find out if there have been complaints lodged against them. Of course, there are other avenues to find out more such as work-at-home or auction forums. These are great places to educate oneself on the reseller business and be alerted to scams.

Dropship Wholesale Distributors Criteria 2 – Overseas Dropshipping

Depending on your target customer base, whether it is local or worldwide, your needs can be different. It is crucial to clarify this with the dropship wholesale distributors. If your market is in US and your dropshipper operates there, you would not have any problem. However, you may encounter shipping difficulties if your dropshipper cannot make deliveries to your buyer destinations. Find out where the dropshipper ships to and establish where your market is. But one point to note: if you intend to expand your business and make more sales, it works well to find wholesale distributors who dropship internationally.

Dropship Wholesale Distributors Criteria 3 – Pricing

Never pay too much or too little. If the wholesale distributor charges an exorbitant rate, avoid it. There are many dropship wholesale distributors who are willing to settle for lesser. While this is true, you also must not fall for the cheapest deals either without careful consideration. There must be a reason for the depressed prices. Ask the dropship wholesale distributor and make sure you are satisfied with their answers. Sometimes, the poor product quality could be the reason. Expect a reasonable discount of at least 15% off the retail price when you deal with the dropship wholesale distributors.

Dropship Wholesale Distributors Criteria 4 – Credit and Payment Conditions

Every business owner needs to sort this out with their suppliers. It is no different for you as a reseller. Remember to ask several key questions like: Do you have to pay them upfront per sale? Accumulate and pay monthly or quarterly? What are the modes of payment such as whether they accept paypal or credit cards? Are they offering a 30-day or 60-day credit term?

Once you have built trust and rapport with your dropship wholesale distributors, you can negotiate for longer credit term, etc so that you can save on payment transaction costs which can add up.

Dropship Wholesale Distributors Criteria 5 – Product Quality

Product quality is of utmost importance to your reselling business. If your wholesale distributors play you out by delivering inferior-quality merchandise or worse still, send bootleg products to your customers, the hard-earned reputation you have painstakingly built over the years goes down the drain. Never allow this to happen to you. If you are dealing in bulk which you should, request for a free sample. Think long-term and it makes sense to at least have a feel of the product before you sell it to anyone, especially if the item commands a higher profit margin such as MP3 players. You may even consider ordering one for yourself just to test it out.

You can run a successful business just by reselling products supplied by dropship wholesale distributors. Learn more tips about sourcing for wholesale products at my blog and find out where business owners like you are getting their supplies.

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