Types Of Suppliers
Know your suppliers and how they can help your business
Suppliers are essential to any retail business. Depending onyour inventory selection, you may need a few or dozens. Sometimessuppliers will contact you through their sales representatives, butmore often, particularly when you’re starting out, you’llneed to locate them yourself–either at trade shows, wholesaleshowrooms and conventions, or through buyers directories, industrycontacts, the Business-to-Business Yellow Pages and tradejournals.
Suppliers can be divided into four general categories.
1. Manufacturers: Most retailers buy through companysalespeople or independent representatives who handle the wares ofseveral different companies. Prices from these sources are usuallylowest, unless the retailer’s location makes shipping freightcostly.
2. Distributors: Also known as wholesalers, brokers orjobbers, distributors buy in quantity from several manufacturersand warehouse the goods for sale to retailers. Although theirprices are higher than a manufacturer’s, they can supplyretailers with small orders from a variety of manufacturers. (Somemanufacturers refuse to fill small orders.) A lower freight billand quick delivery time from a nearby distributor often compensatesfor the higher per-item cost.
3. Independent craftspeople: Exclusive distribution ofunique creations is frequently offered by independent craftspeople,who sell through reps or at trade shows.
4. Import sources: Many retailers buy foreign goods froma domestic importer, who operates much like a domestic wholesaler.Or, depending on your familiarity with overseas sources, you maywant to travel abroad to buy goods.
Excerpted from Start Your Own Business: The Only Start-UpBook You’ll Ever Need, by Rieva Lesonsky and the Staff ofEntrepreneur Magazine, © 1998 Entrepreneur Press
Suppliers are essential to any retail business. Depending onyour inventory selection, you may need a few or dozens. Sometimessuppliers will contact you through their sales representatives, butmore often, particularly when you’re starting out, you’llneed to locate them yourself–either at trade shows, wholesaleshowrooms and conventions, or through buyers directories, industrycontacts, the Business-to-Business Yellow Pages and tradejournals.
Suppliers can be divided into four general categories.
1. Manufacturers: Most retailers buy through companysalespeople or independent representatives who handle the wares ofseveral different companies. Prices from these sources are usuallylowest, unless the retailer’s location makes shipping freightcostly.
2. Distributors: Also known as wholesalers, brokers orjobbers, distributors buy in quantity from several manufacturersand warehouse the goods for sale to retailers. Although theirprices are higher than a manufacturer’s, they can supplyretailers with small orders from a variety of manufacturers. (Somemanufacturers refuse to fill small orders.) A lower freight billand quick delivery time from a nearby distributor often compensatesfor the higher per-item cost.
3. Independent craftspeople: Exclusive distribution ofunique creations is frequently offered by independent craftspeople,who sell through reps or at trade shows.
4. Import sources: Many retailers buy foreign goods froma domestic importer, who operates much like a domestic wholesaler.Or, depending on your familiarity with overseas sources, you maywant to travel abroad to buy goods.
Excerpted from Start Your Own Business: The Only Start-UpBook You’ll Ever Need, by Rieva Lesonsky and the Staff ofEntrepreneur Magazine, © 1998 Entrepreneur Press
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