HELP!! where do I start in finding good wholesale suppliers?

Hi,

I’ve been selling on ebay for some time now, going to various markets and picking up items for £1 then selling them on ebay for around £16 or more. It’s now time to branch out and establish this into profitable business. This requires a good wholesale supplier. In my naivety I rushed and bought some items via an online wholesaler only to discover after my purchase that numerous other sellers on EBAY were selling the same thing, some for as long as 6 months prior to my purchase. Needless to say my markup was virtually nothing as they were too many competitors.

Having learnt my lesson I’ve realised I’m going to have to source my own wholesale suppliers and negotiate prices myself, ensuring more profitable markup and less product exposure, meaning fewer competitors.

I have been selling women’s clothing on ebay, starting out with NEXT clothing, which does rather well on there. I go and pick up the bargains at NEXT outlets. This also revealed a market for plus size ladies as well as Big Cup bras (D – KK), these also seem to sell pretty well. I want to expand into all clothing not just for women but don’t know where to start.

I was reading one of the best ways to approach this is to contact say the manufacturer for NEXT clothing, ask for their list of wholesale distributors, then call them and ask if they’ll sell to a small business. Is that how it works???

I’m soo confused and alone on this this but I’m determined to make this work. Please help, also if you have info on any wholesale networking events they’d be appreciated. I’m based in London, UK. I’ll work with international wholesalers, I just don’t know who to trust.

Thanks

I can’t imagine that Next’s suppliers will sell items intended for Next to a small business as there will be a clause written into their supplier contract which states that they must not do this.

You’d be far better off making your own contacts with clothing manufacturers and getting them to sell other items to you. Part of this process is being resourceful and looking up / making contact with suppliers. I would suggest though that the place where you need to look for clothing suppliers is predominantly China as this is where most are made.

You could probably be sued for reselling Next’s (or any other company’s) products specifically in this manner, so I wouldn’t think it’s a very good long term business venture.