Should You Tell A Wholesale Supplier That You’re Selling Online?

When you are out there looking for Wholesale Suppliers to provide you products to sell online, there are times when they need to know that you are an Online Business versus a Brick and Mortar store, and times when it does not matter.

For example, when you are contacting suppliers through our Worldwide Brands Directory of Certified Wholesalers, it doesn’t matter. These companies already know that you are an online seller! They wouldn’t be listed in our B2B Directory if they didn’t work with you!

But what do you do when you’re contacting wholesale companies on your own? Many times you’re going to find that many wholesalers do not like to setup Retail Accounts / Dealer Accounts for those of us that exclusively sell online.

The Wholesalers Point of View

Let’s look at it from the wholesalers point of view. Most online sellers are fairly new to the whole world of wholesale. Wholesale suppliers know that they are going to have to spend a lot of extra time and effort helping those sellers and introducing them to new concepts.

There is also the big issue that many people that start an online business based on bad information, on not enough information, or start only half-heartedly without putting in a lot of effort. That means that these particular people are likely to setup accounts with Wholesalers, and then never follow through and buy anything.

Those things add up to what most Wholesale Suppliers consider wasted time. No business like to waste it’s time and unfortunately that’s the reputation that small online sellers have earned in the view of most Wholesale Suppliers. We know! We hear it everyday!

But, it’s certainly not deserved. There are many of us out here who are working very hard to market products online successfully. But, because of the many scam artists who sell people “Internet Business Packages” that don’t work, and because of those people who don’t put in any effort, all the rest of us are paying the price in the eyes of the Wholesalers. By and large, they all consider small home based online retailers to be a waste of their time.

So, What Do You Do?

Because of the fact that many wholesale suppliers are immediately going to turn you down as soon as they know you are an online retailer, there are some that say.. hey.. don’t tell them! Then of course, others that say, yes, always tell them.

What’s the right thing to do? Well, guess what? It’s somewhere in the middle, as most things are in life!

When you’re talking to a Wholesale Supplier about Dropshipping, they will usually already ask you if you are an online seller only. Plus they’ll probably have a place on their Account Application that will ask for your website address. So yes, it’s best to be totally up front with a Dropshipping Supplier about the fact that your business is 100% online.

Bulk Wholesalers are Different

But it’s a little different when dealing with Bulk Wholesalers. In the light bulk wholesale and large volume wholesale sections of our Wholesaler Directory, the suppliers are ALL willing to work with home based businesses, so there’s no question there! However, when you are looking for Bulk Wholesale Suppliers on your own though, you really don’t have to volunteer that information upfront, unless they ask you.

When you buy products in bulk, most of the time it doesn’t matter to the wholesale supplier how and where you sell those products. You bought them, they delivered them by case or pallet or truckload to you, and now the products are yours to do with as you wish. The wholesaler’s involvement with you is over, aside from normal customer service of course.

In this case, if you volunteer the fact that you are an online only seller without being asked, you’re giving out information that you don’t need to. Because that tidbit might just cause the Wholesale Account Rep to decide that you are too small to deal with in the first place and decide to not give you a dealer account at all.

If they ask, tell them.
If they don’t, leave it alone.

Never be dishonest with a wholesale supplier about this or any other issue. If they don’t want to work with a home based online retailer, and you tell them you are not one, when you really are, they will find out. It’s not worth the wasted time and effort. It’s also not worth it to break any Terms and Conditions contracts that could lead to legal proceedings!

Want to make sure that you are contacting suppliers that work with online only retailers? Find thousands of them here with us at WorldwideBrands.com!