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Buy from one retailer to sell on my own retail website?

by MrBlobby
5 replies
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Hi,

I recently contacted a manufacturer whose products I wanted to sell on a drop-shipping basis or perhaps hold small quantities of stock. They replied to me stating that they don't do drop-shipping and that I currently do not meet their distribution criteria so they cannot supply me. I have seen their products on some websites at the RRP and on others at 25-30% off the RRP. I was wondering if it would be a good idea to list all their products on my website for the RRP and simply buy them from the cheapest retailers when I get an order. Would this be permissible? Would I be breaking any laws by doing this? How about the stock images? I could take the images from the manufacturers website, but would I then be in breach of copyright? Should I contact the manufacturer first to let them know what I plan to do?

Thanks in advance.

MrBlobby
#buy #retail #retailer #sell #website
  • Profile picture of the author justray
    I don't have a drop-shipping platform. I buy wholesale and sell through my site. My vendors gave me permission to copy images from their site only when I had the contract with them. I would continue to burn the phone lines until I found vendors who will work with you as drop-shippers. Also, think about shipping time--referring to line 4 in your post.
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  • Profile picture of the author MrBlobby
    Thanks for your reply. I'm not too worried about the shipping time, as at least one of the cheapest retailers does a cheap next next delivery for orders placed before 8pm. I thought that was pretty good. But the image use is a concern.
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  • Profile picture of the author n_touch
    I have seen that it is harder and harder to work with some companies when all you are going to do is sell online. The one thing that I have done in the past is worked with smaller store owners that are selling the product to help when they order. Many times, they can get their costs lower when they purchase more quantities and you would be helping them out. More purchasing power will help you both in the long run.
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    • Profile picture of the author OnlineStoreHelp
      Originally Posted by n_touch View Post

      I have seen that it is harder and harder to work with some companies when all you are going to do is sell online. The one thing that I have done in the past is worked with smaller store owners that are selling the product to help when they order. Many times, they can get their costs lower when they purchase more quantities and you would be helping them out. More purchasing power will help you both in the long run.
      This is right on. Most retail stores are working on a minimum of 50% gross margins (except for dog food, go figure), so there is some play to be able to buy from them at a 20% margin and 30% margin to you, if not higher. This helps them from a cash flow perspective as well since many stores have real short or no trade terms with their distributors. The only difficulty comes if they are large bulky items you will eat up a lot of that margin on shipping until you get your volumes up.
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  • Profile picture of the author MrBlobby
    Thanks for your thoughts everyone. Making a deal with another retail store is definitely something I'll look into.
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