Not sure where you are located but usually places like Los Angeles and New York have tons of wholesalers. You can visit their showroom and check them out. If you cant visit them, you should at least try to visit ASD las vegas show and you will find thousands of them attending the show.

ASD Las Vegas | ASD

Try alibaba.com, not sure if your niche works there.

Try the Closeout News - they publish a monthly newspaper type publication and another wholesale type publication that I cannot think of the name right now - they also have some of their newspaper edition advertisers posted on their website - you used to be able to buy a sample issue for around $5 but I am not sure if they still offer samples - would not hurt to call and ask? - Closeout News - Closeouts, surplus & wholesale merchandise and liquidation

zeke,

Personally, I HATE the look of AdSense on shopping carts however, one or two of my competitors do have them on their sites. It's really up to you. However, I would temporarily turn off AdSense while you phone around your manufacturers/distributors - they may not care about AdSense ads being on your site but you never know.

Also, as has been said, many manufacturers/distributors won't care too much if you don't have products on your site.

When I was starting out I loaded up my shopping art with about 10 'made up' products of the type I wanted to sell. Then, when I called the manufacturers they could get a good 'feel' of what my site was about.

Just be honest and professional. If you haven't yet got any real products on your site, tell them. I found that having a professional approach about how I was going to run my business made a real difference in getting a positive response from suppliers.

More TIPS:

1. Always make the first approach to a supplier by phone
2. Follow up the phone call with an email along the lines of 'Thank you for taking the time to talk to me earlier...'
3. Your emails should always come from your website domain and not your personal 'yahoo' or 'gmail' account.
4. Make sure your emails contain a signature at the bottom. You should at least have your website URL, phone number, fax number and mailing address

It's all about being professional.

Zeke, I'm also a long time retailer. The advice on going to shows is good. That's where I've always found my best contacts. I've been to ASD a couple of times and several others. The shows offer not only product but potential for building relationships, which as you know are invaluable.

And don't worry about not having any product in your store right now. You said you once owned a thriving store. Simply tell them that and be up front. I think that experience will add credibility to your inquiry.

- Good luck!

Hi,
You must try "Alibaba". They are working for many years and providing best results to their customers. Actually they are dealing with wholesale market and a wide range of products is available over there. You will really enjoy by visiting it.

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contact manufactureres directly... stop wasting time with sites that sell you the info.... you need to dig... get out the YP and look up manufacturers in your city/state and start calling them.

we built a nationwide business this way and sold truckloads of merchandise to chain stores... all from home

I have the same question. I'm not in a huge city like New York.

You should take a look at Worldwide Brands. Will cost you a bit, but you'll have access to a ton of wholesalers and dropshippers. Also, Alibaba can work well for you too. You might have to go thru some ups and downs when working with an overseas merchant, but keep doing it and you'll find someone legit who can give quality merchandise a low and profitable price.

Here is the problem with wholesalers and even manufactureres today. They also have accounts on eBay and Amazon and you will be competing against them at prices that will be hard for you to turn a profit (although they will not tell you they have accounts on those sites, they will even deny it). Alibaba was mentioned and it seems importing may be the way to obtain merchandise at cost that will yield a decent price margin. Good luck, it seems selling on eBay is going to the big boys...not the same.

In the Chinese marketplace there are giant wholesellers they have direct connections with factories or own a factory themselves, problem is the language barrier and the payment barrier, if you break through them you are in.. what you need to do is have connections with the right people to let you obtain the right supplies at the right price and with those people who don't sell to everyday people, just sell wholesale.