Finding Distributors for Your Products

Stock your shelves with products from middlemen, not manufacturers

By Linda Formichelli, Freelance Writer

Unless you run an organization with sales in the millions, you'll purchase goods from distributors and not directly from manufacturers. But distributors vary in all sorts of ways, from simple things like prices, discounts, and minimum purchases to more complex issues such as whether they drop ship goods to your customers and whether they share up-to-date inventory information with you.

By finding the right distributor, you can:

Manage your cash flow with a mix of consignment and cash payments.
Use drop shipping to get goods to customers faster and keep your inventory low.
Locate goods that you can sell exclusively in your area.

Read the trades

One way to find manufacturers of products you want to sell is to browse through trade magazines that target that industry. Distributors often advertise in trades.
Try: Yahoo! and TradePub.com have lists of trade magazines sorted by topic. The National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors (NAW) publishes a free, four-times-per-week e-newsletter, SmartBrief, with distribution news on what's happening upstream of your business. Modern Distribution Management also publishes a regular online newsletter.

Scan distributor directories

Instead of searching for individual manufacturers, browse through directories of distributors.
Try: Find distributors of products from dolls to self-defense items at ezGoo or WholesaleGopher. To locate distributors of particular types of products, use the American Society of Association Executives' directory of associations (entering a keyword in the search box) or search the NAW member list.

Find a finder

If you'd rather let someone else do the work for you, consider businesses that connect you with distributors.
Try: USellCorp puts you in contact with drop shippers and helps you build a Web site to showcase your offerings. Worldwide Brands hooks you up with drop shippers.

Take in the whole picture

Before signing on with a distributor, you'll need to know what their wholesale prices are, how they ship, how they charge you, their returns policy -- in short, your costs and the benefits you'll get in return.
Try: Learn whether the distributor has generated any consumer complaints by doing a search on the Better Business Bureau Web site.

Get all promises and agreements in writing. Make sure you understand your rights and responsibilities.
Look for hidden fees, such as an added cost per drop ship.
Ask for goods on consignment, especially untested products, to improve your cash flow as you establish new product lines.
Find out whether a distributor offers co-op advertising opportunities or marketing displays for in-store use.
To help market these goods, build a professional Web site, compile a mailing list, and trade ads with complementary businesses.