An individual distributor is a person or an entity that buys Chinese wholesale products in bulk, warehouses them, and resells them to retailers.
Continue reading to discover how you can leverage bulk Chinese wholesale goods to become an independent distributor.
Discovering Your Niche
Niche is a commonly used term that describes your specialty or area of concentration in business.
Focusing on any particular niche will help you to specialize in a particular line of Chinese wholesale products. By specializing in one category of products, you will become known as the go to source for a certain type of product.
Narrowing down on your niche can serve to eliminate most of the competition, and simplify logistical nightmares when it comes to shipping, customs, and port duties.
Discovering your niche is easy, however it will take a bit of tedious research and networking.
How to conduct Product Research
The most critical step in discovering a niche is conducting proper product research. What you want to do is search your local area to find products that are missing or gaps in the market.
You can effectively do this by visiting stores, walking around malls, and taking notes on what you do and do not find.
Once finished, you will have some ideas on what your community needs, but is lacking.
The next step is to identify a qualified and trustworthy source of Chinese wholesale products so that you can begin sourcing your goods.
Nowadays, the sourcing of goods is mostly done online. Log in to your source of chinese bulk goods, and begin searching for the product you are looking for.
This website is an incredible source that is globally recognized and well reviewed.
You will find qualified, and well reviewed chinese suppliers that have been strictly vetted.
Google Trends
A very effective tool for discovering what people are searching for online is google trends. Google trends analyze the popularity of top Google search queries across various regions.
The information provided by Google Trends is updated every day. In addition, hot trends are updated hourly.
Google trends is most accurately used for predicting the rise of certain trending products or services.
For example, if you are interested in distributing electric bicycles, you can simply input electric bicycles into google trends to see if people are searching for that term, in which locations, at what frequency, and any variations of that term.
The tool is very informative and can help you discover a trending niche!
eBay Research
eBay can be leveraged as an amazingly effective and quick way to conduct product research.
Pro tip #1:
Log in to eBay and select any product category that you are interested in. Look for the word “hot” that appears next to some items.
Items are marked as hot when more than thirty bids have recently been placed on that item. Searching eBay for the products labeled hot will reveal what is currently selling at a fast rate.
You can also view old listings on eBay to get a feel for at what prices people is comfortable buying your products.
For example, if you are interested in distributing waterproof tents, you could search the old eBay listing to discover valuable information about how these products sell.
Purchasing and Showcasing Your Products
Buying quality products is the objective of every independent distributor. Top-notch products will give your brand a good reputation and help you earn loyal customers. In addition to building great brand loyalty, quality products will cause customers to serve as brand ambassadors on your behalf.
As an independent distributor, finding the perfect products will only be your first battle. You will have many other critical decisions to make. Where will you store your Chinese wholesale goods? How will you deal with surplus items you can’t sell?
These are key questions that you must answer. Keep reading to discover a few tips that may help you make some of the tough decisions.
Where to purchase your Chinese wholesale goods.
As an independent distributor of Chinese wholesale products, knowing where to buy your goods is critical. Normally, distributors invest a lot of money in buying stock. Therefore, losing money on low quality merchandise can be a dreaded nightmare.
There is one outstanding website that has taken the time to get quality and authenticated Chinese wholesale suppliers. They have done the leg work in aggregating quality companies for you.
The website Made in China exclusively features credible, high quality and reputable Chinese wholesale suppliers. In addition to having top quality Chinese suppliers, the sheer quantity of options is mind blowing. You can actually find anything, and any kind of a product in the world on this website.
All the products offered are grouped in various categories for your convenience. In addition, each of the different categories has a wide range of different suppliers and options to choose from.
How to save money on storage
In the beginning stages of your independence distribution business, you will want to keep expenses low. As you expand, new options will become available to you.
Consider storing your Chinese wholesale goods in your home. If you have the space, or can squeeze boxes into a corner of the garage, do it. It will help you to save money.
You may not be able to store large industrial air conditioners in your home. However, if your products are small enough, even the smallest of homes can fit a dozen boxes.
As your business expands, you can consider opening a warehouse, or storage container. These are the options you will have once business begins to pick up.
Deciding whether to open a retail store in your city
Opening a retail store can be a great way to get rid of your extra surplus. Sometimes you may not be able to wholesale everything to your customers. If you are distributing products that can also be retailed, then this can be a great option for you.
Start small with an online store. EBay and other ecommerce platforms can also provide you a channel to sell your surplus. As your company gets larger, you can open a retail store where you sell your products at a higher price.
Finding Retailers to Sell Your Product
If you want to be successful as an independent distributor, hard work will be a priority.
Discovering retailers to sell your Chinese wholesale products will be relatively easy. If you can afford to adopt a consignment model, you will find many retailers eager to take on your unique products.
Read below to discover a few tried and trusted methods of finding retailers to sell your goods.
Walk into retail stores and speak with the owner or manager face to face
First, you need to catalogue your products along with the prices. Today, this is often done digitally and displayed on a tablet.
Next, you can walk directly into stores in your community and ask to speak with the manager or owner.
Show them your catalogue, explain what you do, and offer to sell your products at a favorable rate upfront, or leave on consignment at a higher rate.
Making deals face to face is a quick way to establish rapport, and build a social and emotional connection between you and your customers.
Another major advantage of doing business like this is that is shows the customer you mean business. Owners are tired of taking phone calls after phone calls. They want to hold something in their hand. If the buyer wants to see your products, simply walk them outside to your car and show them your goods.
Set appointment with retail stores
Although personally visiting a retail store is a better way to perform your outreach, you won’t always be able to be everywhere at once.
Certain locations will be too far away to make a cold visit without setting an appointment. In this case, make a simple phone call to set a visit with the manager or owner to show your products.
You won’t always get them on the phone immediately, but perseverance will definitely win at the end of the day. If you’re in the business of distributing large sea scooters, you may not be able to fit them in your car. However, Setting an appointment to show a potential retailer your digital catalogue can go a long way in securing a new customer.
It is really important to separate yourself from the classic telemarketers when making your phone calls. Lead with the fact that you are a distributor of products. Making this fact immediately known will help you land a receptive listener.
Selling your surplus at public events and festivals
Festivals and public events offer large crowds of people who are ready to spend their money. These can be great opportunities to take advantage of impulsive customers who want to purchase something that has a wow factor. As an independent distributor, make it your prerogative to regularly act as a vendor at festivals in your city.
This is a great opportunity to promote your brand, and also network. You never know who you are going to meet. Simply putting a sign around your space that says, “Wholesale Options Available for Retailers”, can open you up to opportunities to meet new business contacts.
Furthermore, selling your products directly to customers at festivals will bring in a higher price that will offset many of your expenses and help to alleviate leftover products.
Expanding Your Business by Putting it on Autopilot
Increasing productivity can be achieved by setting policies that allow you to work on your business and not in your business. If anyone hopes to grow any business, they must work on cultivating it, and not managing the day to day operations. Therefore, utilizing some principles of automation can help you expand your independent distribution business.
Automation platforms generally do most of the work. Therefore, automating your sales and marketing as an independent distributor is the best way to go. This will enable you to dedicate more time to other critical aspects of the business.
Read on to find out simple tricks that will help you expand your business by putting it on autopilot.
Automate Customer Emails That Promote Your New Catalog Offerings
As your distribution network grows, you will inevitably take on new products. The lifeblood of any distribution company is finding new markets to capitalize on. This involves promoting new products, and expanding your catalog offering.
As new products become available you will want to set up emails to automatically send out your product catalog. Letting your customers know that you are now offering something new is definitely a topic they would be interested in.
Follow up this email with a direct phone call to your contact. The point of the phone call should be an attempt to close the customer on placing an order. If you cannot get your customer to place a new order, then you should at least set a time to come show your new products in person.
Often times, showing your new products to your customers may inspire them to place an order.
Set up an online channel for your retailers to re-order when their stock is low
Adopting a simple marketing automation strategy can efficiently help you manage your business. One approach to automation involves the taking of re-orders. If you have satisfied customers, they will eventually need to re-order your products. Therefore, creating a digital catalog that includes an ordering feature will streamline that process.
When your customers are ready to place an order, they can simply electronically order through your digital catalogue.
Most retail business owners are too busy to make individual phone calls to all their vendors when they need supply. If you do not have an electronic method of re-ordering this can actually cause you to lose customers.
Hire a third-party company to manage your sales
Outsourcing certain operations to partner companies is a popular method utilized by many companies around the world. Everything from customer service to sales can be properly managed by an outsourced agency.
We do not recommend that you outsource sales when you are just starting out in your business. No one will give the same commitment and dedication to your business as you. Therefore, in the beginning, manage your sales on your own.
After you are comfortable that you have many customers to attend to and cannot properly manage your sales, and fulfillment at the same time, outsource your sales efforts to another agency. This will allow you to focus on managing your business properly.
