Whether you’re an online reseller or have a physical retail shop finding the best suppliers can be a time consuming and traditionally difficult task. Often involving either going to trade shows, searching the internet for hours and dealing with hundreds of emails and meetings just to stock a line of products.

This guide is here to show you the best way in which you can find whole suppliers for resellers and retailers quickly, efficiently and access millions of products in one simple place, saving your time and money in the process.

Best wholesale suppliers

Finding the best wholesale suppliers for your business will depend on a number of factors which we’ve taken into account including the range of products, ease of ordering, order minimums, ease of re-ordering, initial set up, shipping and location factors as well as some other factors.

Let’s get straight into looking at the best options available for your business.

Online Marketplaces - Recommended

The most popular method for most businesses nowadays is to use B2B marketplaces to source products due to the speed, range of products, ease of use and other factors.

Pros

There are numerous reasons why you should consider an online marketplace including:

• Largest range of suppliers/products all in one place
• Easy and quick to sign up to
• Order from different brands/wholesalers all from one account
• Often financially protected if a supplier doesn’t deliver or closes
• Often have lower MOQ (min order quantities)
• Ability to communicate and negotiate still
• 50% off your first order on platforms like Faire

Cons

There are a few smaller downsides to marketplaces for sourcing your products from and these include:

• Competitors also have access to the same products as you do
• May be harder to meet suppliers in person

Trade shows

This is the most traditional method and involves going to expo’s and trade shows where you meet potential suppliers face to face, this can be time consuming and often there are only a few major trade shows each year so you may have to wait for them to come around.

Pros

Tradeshows can be a great however some may not be, so you may find you end up wasting time attending ones which aren't good, however they are great due to:

• Meeting suppliers face to face can be one of the best ways to create relationships
• Often very industry specific so you can find a range of wholesalers and suppliers in one place

Cons

As mentioned above there are some negatives to using this method to find suppliers including:

• Often happen once or twice a year so you may have to wait for them to come around
• Can be expensive to exhibit so you won’t end up finding the smaller suppliers there
• Can be busy
• Crowded shows mean sometimes suppliers only want to target the bigger customers and not smaller ones
• Can cost to attend some tradeshows whether this is price of tickets but also travel, hotels, etc

Directly contacting suppliers

Reaching out to wholesale suppliers directly can be an effective way to get products however this can take time and it can be tricky to find them in the first place.

Pros

This can be a fantastic way of doing business as you'll speak to the company producing the products directly, the positives of this method are:

• Direct relationships with suppliers can be made
• No commission involved
• Communication can be quick

Cons

This option doesn't come without its downsides though, including:

• Very time consuming to find and reach out to suppliers directly
• Can be difficult finding the right person in the business to speak to
• Often wholesalers/suppliers will have poor websites which mean viewing their range and finding them in search engines is hard to do
• Some may only want to deal with businesses with large initial orders

Faire - the wholesale marketplace - Our recommendation

With over 100,000 brands on Faire.com it’s no surprise that it quickly has become the go-to wholesaler for businesses to order from whether you’re a retailer with a physical shop, a reseller online, chain of stores or any other type of business that sells products.

It’s free to join as a buyer looking to purchase stock and it’s also free to sell your products on Faire if you’re a supplier/wholesaler. 

For resellers

Faire has made its place as a firm favorite for those looking for wholesale suppliers for resellers and this is down to multiple factors including its huge array of brands/suppliers (over 10,000),the millions of products available for you to order, and the platform itself in which it makes it super easy to place orders, re-orders, pay, track orders, communicate and more.

The range of products on the platform range is impressive and the core categories it covers include:

• Home decor
• Food & drink
• Mens and womens
• Beauty
• Wellness
• Jewellery
• Kids and baby
• Pets
• Paper/Novelty
• And much more

You can narrow your search to find the perfect products to sell with a variety of different filters as well as traditional search where you can find products by keyword, product or brand name.

You can filter your results down by:

• Location - i.e search for products just from your own country, just the US, just Europe etc
• Brands - if you’re after a certain brand name you can narrow it down by this
• Made in - search by the country in which the product was made in
• Ship window - narrow your search by products that ship fast
• Brand values - select values such as eco-friendly, handmade, gives back, not on Amazon, Organic, women-owned, black-owned etc
• Lead time - choose lead times such as 3 days or less
• Pre-order by month - select the month you need to order by

Payment terms

You can opt to pay for the products you order on Faire in two main ways and these are:

Buy now, Pay Later - this gives you up to 60 days to pay for your order after you place it, this is interest-free as well which can help your cash flow. The amount you’ll be able to get will vary depending on your eligibility.

Payment on shipment - This method charges you when the items are shipped.

For suppliers

If you’re a supplier yourself then Faire is a fantastic platform to list your products meaning you can access tens of thousands of stockists and resellers who are actively looking to purchase stock to sell to their customers.

To get in front of this number of potential customers would take a huge amount of effort, time and money however by using a platform like Faire you can skip this and get in front of them straight away. 

This makes Faire a fantastic option for both companies new to selling wholesale online as well as those who have existing relationships with retailers/resellers who may want to expand their customer base.

Secure and on-time payments

One of the big advantages of Faire for suppliers is that they take care of all payments from customers and in doing so they guarantee you payment as well as these payments being on time which can be a game changer for cash flow for suppliers.

Order management

Faire has built an impressive platform with tech in place to make it easy and powerful to manage your orders, communicate with your customers and grow your B2B orders online.

Increased orders both domestically and internationally

Currently Faire has a massive reach in Europe, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and America and new markets are coming to the platform in the near future. This means you can reach both B2B customers in your own country as well as new ones in countries abroad a lot easier through a platform like this in comparison to doing this manually and all the regulations and restrictions you’d need to manage when doing it yourself.

Additional free marketing

Another advantage of using Faire is that you’ll benefit from the marketing that Faire does for their platform, as they push their platform as well as the individual products and suppliers on it to their customers with a large marketing budget; this essentially will help your orders increase via the platform.

Connect your POS

Faire gives you the ability to connect your point of sale (POS) system into your Faire account, this can be via Shopify or Square. 

The advantages of this include:

• Save time by importing your Faire orders into your POS automatically
• Automatically upload products, images and descriptions in bulk
• Flexible workflows with the ability to sync, edit and split orders and products
• See your inventory levels so you know when to re-order so you’re never out of stock

How much does Faire cost to wholesalers?

Faire charges a commission on orders, however this varies depending on the type of customer. You'll see the different

No commission for existing customers

One of the great things about Faire is that it allows you to bring existing customers on to the platform and they don’t charge a commission for this, meaning you can bring your current resellers and retailers on to Faire for free and pay no commission. This does allow you to manage everything in one simple place, of course it’s not required to do this.

New customers - 25% on first order and 15% on reorders 

Faire currently only charge for new customers who find them through the marketplace. For these customers they charge a 25% commission on opening orders and then 15% on re-orders.

Faire shipping

Due to Faire’s size they have been able to negotiate preferred shipping rates so when you sell items on Faire you can simply print pre-paid shipping labels from the portal, alternatively if you have shipping already sorted and the process works for you then you can simply do it as you normally do and Faire reimburse these shipping costs to you. 

When Faire pays you

Faire guarantee payment to you 30 days after an order is shipped or if you need or want the money faster you can opt to get it the next day for a 3% fee.

Who are resellers?

Put simply resellers are the people that sell products directly to consumers, this can be done through a physical shop (bricks and mortar) or online either through a businesses ecommerce site or through platforms such as Amazon (Amazon FBA), eBay, Etsy, Notonthehighstreet or a number of other marketplaces.

Typically these resellers (also known as retailers) will purchase directly from wholesales or the companies that produce the products themselves and then add a mark up/margin to the product and sell to the consumer. 

This is how business has been done for many years but with the rise of the internet and tech this has changed over time with new companies coming in which have helped resellers connect with wholesalers faster and more efficiently. 

Traditionally, resellers would have to find, contact and negotiate deals with wholesalers or suppliers directly themselves and this would take time, now however there are other options available.

Wholesale vendors for small business

Small businesses face certain challenges when it comes to purchasing inventory to sell, mainly this is down to volumes with some vendors having minimum order quantities (MOQ) which can often be too large/many for smaller businesses to place. This means they are sometimes limited to the number of suppliers that they can order from and the products that they can order.

Companies like Faire have come along though to help change this issue and give solutions to those looking for wholesale vendors for small businesses and independent retailers. They’re platform gives you access to tens of thousands of suppliers and due to the big reach, ease of order placement and economies of scale that these suppliers have on this platform often the MOQ’s are much lower than if you were dealing directly with them.

Wholesale suppliers - What and who are they

A wholesaler is a company that sells products in bulk to other businesses, they typically don’t sell to the public (although some companies like Costco essentially do) and they most often have a minimum quantity that you can buy. For example you can’t just buy one or two mobile phone cases from a wholesaler, you’d need to order a min of 25. 

Because of the bulk buying element they can sell these products at a lower cost per item price than a consumer would find and so the businesses that purchase these can resell them with a markup and make a profit.

The wholesalers purchase their products directly from manufacturers who don’t sell these products directly to consumers (often due to their setup) and the wholesale vendors typically have large warehouses where they store all of this stock.

Steps to finding the right wholesale supplier for your business

This process will differ depending on the type and size of your own business. If you’re an online reseller who sells on marketplaces your process for finding the right wholesaler will be different to a chain of 50 physical stores in a country looking for new products to stock and sell.

You can however follow similar steps and adapt your strategy depending on your business.

1. Identify Your Requirements

Making sure you understand all of your needs for the products you’re trying to source can be a key part that will essentially help save you time. 

This includes:

• Products - Clearly outline the types of products you intend to sell, including the required quality, quantity, and variety.
• Pricing - Determine your pricing model and how it influences your choice of suppliers.
• Delivery/shipping - define your required delivery frequency and lead times you want to work to.
• Ethical and industry standards - It’s advisable to consider suppliers that align with specific ethical and environmental standards that your company or industry either require or you adhere to.

2. Research the supplier options

The next step when you’ve set out your requirements is to find the suppliers that will fit with these needs. The main ways in which this can be done includes:

• Using online marketplaces - Companies such as Faire offer you the ability to browse millions of products from thousands of wholesale/suppliers in one place 
• Industry tradeshows - Attend trade shows specific to your industry where suppliers showcase their offerings.
• Supplier Directories: Use platforms like ThomasNet, Kompass, or Alibaba to identify global suppliers.
• Google - You can do your own searches with keywords to find suppliers who have products that you want to sell
• Networking - reach out to your professional network to seek recommendations for suppliers and wholesalers, this can include looking in local trade publications, chambers of commerce, and business network events.

3. Assess each supplier

Look at all of the different aspects of the supplier, from the range of products, the quality of them, shipping, pricing and more to make sure they fit with your needs.

Most of the time you’ll want to check the below:

• Reviews - if possible look into the reviews of the supplier or look to see who else uses them, if you’re unsure you can often do test orders or get samples so you can see the quality of the products and the overall experience. 
• Financial health - This is a much harder point to check but making sure that a supplier’s business is in a good place means you reduce the risk of the company collapsing or shutting down with your money and no products to show.
• Location -  In an ideal world you’ll order from suppliers who are located in the same country as you as this can mean faster delivery, supporting local businesses and so forth, however many suppliers overseas can often still be worth considering, just make sure to factor in extended lead times, import tax and other factors.
• Scaling - If you know your business will grow fast and you’re likely to need increasing volumes from suppliers, it’s worth checking with them first that they can deliver the quantity that you may require in the future. 

4. Contact and speak to them

There is no replacement to actually speaking to wholesalers/suppliers, whether this is directly, in person, on calls, via email and messaging on wholesale platforms or anywhere else. 

Make sure to consider these points when doing so:

• Request Information -  Make sure to get all of the information you need, such as their product catalogs, wholesale pricing, and minimum order requirements.
• Request samples - Pictures and descriptions can only go so far, nothing beats having a physical product in your hands for you to feel, test and look at.
• Ask questions - Ask as many as you need to, whether it’s about lead times, payment terms, samples, environmental and ethical concerns and more.

5. Negotiate

Depending on the quantity and your relationship with the supplier you’ll be able to negotiate certain terms such as pricing, minimum order quantities, shipping and delivery, payment terms, exclusivity clauses and more.

In general the bigger the orders and the more you spend with a supplier the more negotiating power you will have.

6. Build and maintain relationships

Relationships can be crucial when it comes to business and this is no different when it comes to dealing with suppliers and wholesalers.

The key to this is great communication, working together to make sure everyone is happy, raising any concerns as soon as they arise and ensuring everyone is on the same page throughout the relationship. 

Wholesale Suppliers conclusion

Finding the best wholesale supplier for your business is crucial and can be directly related to the success of your business, so it's worthwhile spending time looking at all the different ways to finding these suppliers.

Our recommendation if you're a reseller would be to certainly look at wholesale marketplaces like Faire so you can see hundreds of thousands of brands and products in one place, we'd also recommend the same if you are a supplier yourself and looking to get in front of as many retailers, resellers and potential customers as possible.

Although suppliers can be found on places such as Alibaba which focus on goods from China, this can be a lot more effort to source these and compared to platforms like Faire it's a much harder task which a much higher chance of having quality issues, longer lead times and having to deal with lots of individual suppliers directly.

Don't forget if you decide to try out the online B2B wholesale marketplace that is Faire you'll be able to get 50% off your first order here.

Wholesale suppliers FAQ

Below you'll find some of the more common questions relating to finding the right wholesale supplier for your business.

What questions should I ask a wholesale supplier?

When selecting a wholesale supplier, it's important to ask about their experience, the range and quality of products they offer, and how their ordering process works. Inquire about how long they've been in business to gauge their reliability, request a detailed product catalog to ensure their inventory aligns with your needs, and understand their quality control measures. Additionally, clarify the steps involved in placing orders, including account setup and purchasing procedures, to ensure a smooth partnership

Can anyone sign up to Faire?

Yes, anyone can sign up to Faire.com, whether you're a supplier looking to sell your products or a retailer aiming to purchase and resell items. Faire is designed to be accessible for both established businesses and newcomers who are just starting out. If you're new to retail and want to test the waters by selling products, you can easily use Faire to browse and purchase items that fit your niche. The platform provides a user-friendly experience, making it simple for you to explore products, place orders, and even discover unique brands that align with your store's identity.

What minimum order quantities (MOQs) can I expect?

The minimum order quantity (MOQ) will vary depending on the supplier you choose and the type of products you're interested in. Some suppliers may offer low MOQs, starting with as few as 5 units, which is ideal for small businesses or those testing new products. Others may require you to purchase in larger quantities, sometimes in the thousands, especially for more specialized or high-demand items. It’s important to review each supplier's terms carefully, as MOQs can also be specific to certain products. Understanding these requirements will help you plan your inventory and budget effectively.

How can I verify the reliability and legitimacy of a wholesale supplier?

To verify a wholesale supplier's reliability, start by researching their reputation through reviews and testimonials from other businesses. Check their website for detailed company information and ensure they have valid business credentials. Request references or proof of business registration, and if possible, ask for product samples to assess quality. These steps can help you confirm the supplier's legitimacy and trustworthiness.