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Selling Wholesale Made Easy (4 Tips For Small Businesses)

Selling Wholesale Made Easy (4 Tips For Small Businesses)

Is your small business struggling to stay afloat? When you’re first starting, finding customers and making consistent sales can be a challenge. Even if you have an excellent product, scaling takes time. This delay can put stress on your finances and endanger your entire business. This is why many store owners consider selling wholesale to increase sales significantly.

Learning how to sell wholesale can bring in revenue that might save your company. Not to mention, it’s easier than you think to get started and turn it into a lucrative revenue stream. You really only need a few loyal wholesale buyers to keep you in business.

In this post, we’ll discuss why it’s a good idea to sell wholesale as a small business. Then, we’ll provide you with four tips to help you get started right away. Let’s get to it!

Why Your Small Business May Want To Start Selling Wholesale

Launching a small business is a risky task. While the growing e-commerce world has made it more accessible, nearly 20 percent of businesses still fail in their first year.

Moreover, scaling is cited as one of the biggest obstacles for small businesses. This may be particularly true if you sell a highly niche product or a limited number of items.

However, the good news is that selling wholesale can help you organically grow your small business faster. Let’s explore how selling wholesale can benefit your business below.

1.  Selling wholesale can boost your cash flow significantly

Wholesale customers can order hundreds to thousands of dollars worth of goods in a single transaction. By catering to wholesale buyers, you can expect a significant increase in average order volume and value. 

This boost in cash flow not only provides stability but also allows you to grow your business. With a steady income stream from wholesale deals, you gain resources to invest in outsourcing competencies you may not have expertise in. As a result, you free valuable time and resources to focus on core activities, such as product development and market research. 

Selling wholesale can help your small business grow faster
Selling wholesale can help your small business grow faster

2. Wholesaling allows you to enter new markets with less risk

Expanding into new markets often entails significant financial costs and economic uncertainties, which can be daunting for small businesses. However, selling wholesale presents an opportunity to tap into new markets with lower risks. 

By establishing relationships with wholesale buyers, you leverage their existing customer base and market knowledge. This strategic collaboration makes it easier for you to reach customers who may not have tried your products before. 

Selling wholesale allows you to explore new markets with reduced risks
Selling wholesale allows you to explore new markets with reduced risks

Furthermore, selling wholesale reduces the cost of marketing and promotion when you expand into new markets. Instead of dedicating resources to costly advertising campaigns, you can rely on your wholesale partners to promote your products to their customers. 

3. It increases customer lifetime value

Customer lifetime value (CLV) refers to the total revenue a customer generates throughout their relationship with your business. Selling wholesale can boost customer lifetime value significantly by conducting transactions in larger volumes. 

Selling in bulk also allows you to provide competitive pricing to your wholesale buyers. This means they can enjoy discounted rates, which further incentivizes them to make repeat purchases. In the long run, this fosters customer loyalty and strengthens your relationships with wholesale buyers.

4. Selling wholesale enhances business credibility 

Wholesale customers are always on the lookout for reliable suppliers that can meet their demands for bulk orders while maintaining product quality. When you establish your business as a wholesale supplier, you demonstrate your capability to handle large-scale operations and improve your credibility in the industry. 

Furthermore, selling wholesale provides an opportunity for your business to work alongside established retailers and brands. When your products are stocked along well-known industry names, it enhances your brand’s perceived value. 

Being a reliable wholesaler enhances your credibility as a small business
Establishing your business as a reliable wholesaler can enhance your credibility in the industry

Satisfied wholesale customers are also more likely to spread positive word of mouth about your brand, which can solidify your reputation and attract more wholesale buyers to your business. 

Selling Wholesale As A Small Business: 4 Tips To Get Started

Now that you know some of the potential benefits of wholesaling, let’s discuss practical tips on how to sell wholesale as a small business. Let’s jump right in!

1. Use an all-in-one wholesale software

For every online business, a powerful website is critical. This is equally true for any small business hoping to offer wholesale.

However, a wholesale business (even a small one) will require some unique features. This will include functionalities to accommodate wholesale order forms and special wholesale pricing. If you’re not using a straightforward tool, setting all of this up can take a lot of time and effort.

To get started right away, we recommend using an all-in-one software solution like our Wholesale Suite plugin:

How to sell wholesale: use the Wholesale Suite plugin
Wholesale Suite streamlines and upgrades your wholesale business for e-commerce

In addition to wholesale pricing and order forms, our plugin allows you to easily perform almost every task required for your online wholesale business. For instance, the plugin lets you easily create unique user roles and set minimum order quantities. It can even help you manage your taxes.

Moreover, Wholesale Suite integrates with essential e-commerce plugins such as WooCommerce and Advanced Coupons. You can even pair it with our lead-capture tool, which allows you to easily create a user registration form for wholesale customers.

2. Attend trade shows

Finding customers is likely one of the biggest challenges you face as a small e-commerce business owner. While wholesaling can help you overcome this obstacle more easily, you’ll still need to put in some work.

If you want to kickstart your new wholesale efforts, attending trade shows can really accelerate the process. For instance, if you live on the west coast and you want to start selling your artisanal chocolate to retailers, you might want to attend the Northwest Chocolate Festival:

How to sell wholesale: attend trade shows such as a chocolate trade show
A sample trade show

Trade shows offer an excellent opportunity to get your name out there. The great news is that there are highly niche events for pretty much anything you can think of. From chocolate to outdoor gear, if you do your research, you’re likely to find the right trade show for your business.

It’s also a good idea to stay as local as possible. This way, you’ll put less strain on your shipping system. Plus, local merchants may be more likely to pair with you if they prioritize sustainability.

3. How to sell wholesale via social media influencer partnerships

These days, every brand needs a strong social media presence to be successful. This is just as true for wholesale businesses.

Moreover, when it comes to wholesaling, social media can rapidly boost your sales. That’s because finding just one loyal client on a platform can make a huge difference.

How to sell wholesale as a small business on social media.
Partnerships with influencers can expose your small business to a wider audience

It’s a good idea to partner with influencers in your product’s niche. To gain exposure, you can either start an affiliate program or simply offer product samples to highly-relevant influencers. You might want to aim to work with micro-influencers, as they tend to have smaller, but more faithful followings.

Keep in mind that if your goal is to boost your new wholesale business, you’ll want to get the attention of retail buyers as opposed to individual consumers. These professionals may be scouting social platforms for new and exciting products.

4. Scale slowly

Wholesaling comes with its own set of unique challenges. Unsurprisingly, the biggest is probably stock shortages. Low profit margins and rapid fluctuations in demand can also cause issues.

As a small business, you may not have experienced this type of stress on your sales funnel or these unique hurdles before. In order to prevent or reduce the risk of these common mistakes, you’d be smart to focus on slow scaling.

You’ll want to make sure your entire wholesale pipeline is running seamlessly before you accept too many wholesale clients. That’s because you likely won’t be able to accommodate lots of new wholesale customers overnight.

It may also take some time to find the right wholesale prices. To help you out, you can use our free wholesale price calculator.

However, if your new wholesale business is going well, you also shouldn’t shy away from success. Once you’ve ironed out any issues with profitability, shipping, and quality control, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t continue expanding your wholesale business.

Conclusion

Running a successful small business is never easy. However, selling wholesale could be the strategy that breathes life back into your online company. This strategy offers the following key advantages for your business:

  1. Boosts cash flow
  2. Allows you to tap new markets with less risk
  3. Increases customer lifetime value
  4. Enhances your business credibility

When you start wholesaling, you’ll need to actively seek wholesale clients and adopt the appropriate tools for your new business model. To review, here are four tips on how to sell wholesale as a small business:

  1. Use an all-in-one software solution such as Wholesale Suite
  2. Attend trade shows to connect with new local clients
  3. Partner with social media influencers to get the attention of retail buyers
  4. Scale slowly so you can keep up with demand

Do you have any questions about how to sell wholesale as a small business? Let us know in the comments section below!

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