BusinessGuardianAngels.com
Looking at the Manufacturer and Wholesaler Relationship |
Owning a business can be a lot of fun, but there are times where you might get a headache just thinking about your responsibilities. One way to ensure that your company runs smoothly is to have a good relationship between the retailer and wholesaler if you are selling products. There are many businesses out there and some deal in services or trade. For the purposes of our article here we are looking just at the product selling businesses. To make things simple we will glance at the business relationship from the point of view of the retailer.
A retailer is in business to make money as is any business. The method for making money is to sell products. These products can be clothes, jewellery, trinkets, etc. As the owner of the business you will decide what you want to sell and seek out the distributor or wholesaler that can provide this for you. There are things to consider when choosing a wholesaler:
A wholesale representative is often a sales person. This means they try to get you to purchase their product. You have to distinguish between what they tell you and the value the product actually has to offer. You want to be able to work with a representative that you can get along with and also one that understands business. The person you work with has to be willing to ship or bring you the items you wish to have in your store.
The products you purchase need to reflect the cost. You will mark up the items in your store to make a profit; therefore, the lower cost the product is to you the easier it is to make a product. Still, any product you have needs to be quality and have durability to please the consumer. Any price you pay the wholesaler does need to reflect the value of the product.
A wholesaler needs to be able to fulfil your order needs. For example, if you are a medium sized shop and you know a certain product sells very well you may order over a thousand of that item. In turn you want to make sure the wholesaler can provide it when you need it. This takes planning so that you order the product before you run out, while still providing time for the wholesaler to get the product. Often the wholesaler is purchasing from a manufacturer before they can get it to you.
Lastly you will need a business contract that will stipulate how much you are going to pay per product and how long you intend on doing business with the wholesaler. Sometimes you may find another company offering similar products so you might want to switch wholesalers. The basic idea is to have a legal agreement both parties are held to with the option of terminating the agreement when one or both parties agree.