Finding profitable wholesale accounts is not as hard as you think it is. Most people make that assumption because they first focus on trying to secure wholesale relationships with super big name brands (like Lego, Apple, Nike, etc.), which is almost impossible for normal Amazon sellers. While landing a wholesale account with a big name brand might be hard, it’s much easier (yet very lucrative) to find smaller, lesser known brands to start wholesale relationships with. I’ll show you how in this blog post.
Plus, near the end of this blog post, I’ll share with you the number one strategy that has lead me to the most long-term successful wholesale accounts.
In a previous blog post I gave you my top 9 reasons why you should consider adding wholesale sourcing to your Amazon FBA business. You may have read that post and started thinking, “Great, Stephen, I’m convinced. I definitely want to try out wholesale sourcing, make my business more streamlined, and protect my seller account. Now where do I find profitable wholesale suppliers?”
That type of question is where we end up any time we want to make a change in our business. “OK, I see my sticking points, and I’m ready to press on to get beyond them. But how do I take that next step?”
With finding wholesale suppliers, your possibilities are really only limited by your creativity. Ultimately, you want to find unique wholesale accounts where you can develop a great business relationship with your supplier and provide an awesome product to Amazon customers.
After I share these 5 strategies, I’ll tell you which one of the five wholesale sourcing strategies that has had the biggest impact on my Amazon sales.
Five ways to find with profitable wholesale accounts:
1. Trade Shows
All throughout the year you can find a trade show going on in areas all across the U.S. (Or in other countries! Don’t limit yourself geographically) and in all niches of products. Think trade shows for toys, bridal products, baby items, kitchen gadgets, home and garden, crafts, you name it.
Beyond those niche trade shows, you can also find larger trade shows and markets where you can find products across all categories presented in one show. The biggest trade show out there is called ASD, and it happens in Las Vegas every March and August.
If you live in a big city, chances are there are trade shows and markets happening nearby throughout the year. I recommend doing a Google search for trade shows in your town or somewhere you can travel to, and check out what’s coming up in the months ahead. Most of these types of shows are free to enter, and you can walk around the exhibits, talk with the exhibitors, and see what types of products are available at the different booths.
One thing you should keep in mind is that two different types of exhibitors set up booths at trade shows: manufacturers and distributors. A manufacturer would be a direct connection to the source of the product, without any middle man. If you get a wholesale account with a manufacturer, you will likely need to make purchases in larger amounts, but you will get a better price per unit. With a distributor, you are usually dealing with a middle man. You can make smaller purchases, but you will pay more per unit.
2. Trade Show Websites
Even if you can’t attend a particular trade show, you can benefit from signing up for the show and doing research on the exhibitors. On the trade show website you can get access to the vendor list and their contact info, which you can then use to call or email for more information on the products they offer.
Whether you attend in person or make contact through the trade show website, it’s all about making connections with the vendors, asking good questions, and developing a relationship that could lead to a mutually beneficial arrangement. You will need to have a resale certificate to open a wholesale account once you have made that connection, so be sure you have your certificate on hand before starting the process to open an account.
3. Product Packaging
This may seem overly simplistic, but finding wholesale sources really doesn’t have to be that complicated!
Pretty much every product you can imagine is going to have the manufacturer’s name and contact info printed right on the product’s packaging. If you can only find the name or part of the contact info, use Google to find the rest of the info, and you’re one step closer to making contact and finding out how to open a wholesale account.
If you have an awesome retail find that you would love to sell more of, check out the product packaging for that contact info and see if you could start buying that product at wholesale prices.
One strategy you can use to get an edge on your competition is to think of products that are made locally to your town or area. What is your area known for? Food products can be especially profitable, if there’s a local favorite that can’t be found in other parts of the country. Find these types of products on your local shelves, get the manufacturer’s info off the packaging, and start making contact.
4. Search a vetted wholesale directory
Try searching a wholesale directory like Worldwide Brands. Now, I want to tell you up front, that this is the only suggestion on finding wholesale sources that comes with a one-time cost, but if you use it the right way, then it can be worth the investment. In fact, I’m glad there is an upfront cost to use this service because if it were free, then everyone would use it and the sources would not be as good.
Why is there a cost to get connected with these wholesalers? Because Worldwide Brands has done the hard work for you and has found countless wholesalers who have stated they will sell to Amazon resellers. Some wholesale companies don’t like selling to Amazon sellers, but with one click of a button on the search page, you can have Worldwide Brands only give you the search results that contain Amazon seller approved wholesalers.
Now, as with anything, you’ll still need to do the hard work of finding which wholesale companies have profitable items, but once you find them, you can order and reorder again and again. Note: Worldwide Brands also promotes dropshipping, which we do not recommend (see #2 on this blog post for more on why), but for someone wanting to create wholesale relationships with wholesalers, this is a good start.
NOTE: Right now, Worldwide Brands is offering a temporary savings of just over $100 off their lifetime membership of access to hundreds of vetted wholesale accounts. Check out Worldwide Brands here, click on the Order Now button, and see the savings you’ll get.
5. Amazon Best Sellers
Again, it doesn’t have to be overly complicated to find great ideas for wholesale sources. You can research the popular items in your favorite category by checking out the Top 100 sellers and looking up their manufacturer’s info online.
To make it even easier, we have created a quick link, fulltimefba.com/bestsellers, to take you right to the Amazon best sellers page, where you can drill down from the main Amazon categories. Once you find a product you are interested in researching, click to go to the product page, and you should see the name of the manufacturer listed below the product title. You can then do a Google search for their contact info and start the process of opening a wholesale account.
Pro Tip: I do not recommend opening wholesale accounts with companies when Amazon is selling the product. Even if you think you can get a great wholesale price, Amazon is likely getting an even greater volume discount, and it’s too hard to compete. You should also check out the sales history on Keepa to see if Amazon is out of stock now, but might have been on the listing in the past. There are plenty of other products out there, so move on to ones where Amazon isn’t currently on the listing or doesn’t seem like they’ll come back in stock in the future.
There you have it, my top 5 ways to find products where you can open a wholesale account. The key to getting those accounts is to just make contact. Get the door open, start a conversation, ask for a catalog, ask what you need to do to apply for an account – it really doesn’t have to be more complicated than that. In fact, if you want to learn about the next step in the process, I’ll share with you exactly how to successfully land wholesale accounts.
Stephen’s Favorite Wholesale Sourcing Strategy:
So out of the five wholesale sourcing strategies I listed above in this blog post, there is one that outshines the rest by far. It’s the strategy that has lead me to find multiple wholesale accounts from which I reorder month after month and has made me thousands upon thousands of dollars: Amazon’s Best Sellers!
The other four strategies focus on getting the wholesale account first and then hoping the wholesaler has items that are good enough to sell on Amazon. But when you reverse the order of what you do by first focusing on finding a winning product and then seeking to get the wholesale account, then you already know you have a profitable item that sells fast!
This wholesale sourcing strategy has another name:
Reverse Wholesale Sourcing.
It’s called “reverse” because it’s the only strategy where you find a fast-selling item on Amazon first… and then reach out to get the wholesale account. This strategy is what finally helped me to find multiple profitable wholesale accounts.
Would you like to learn about reverse wholesale sourcing? My wholesale mentors, Dan and Dylan, put together a free webinar coming up focused on teaching the Reverse Wholesale Sourcing model. The good news is that this free video series is about to take place and you can sign up for free today!
Sign up for the wholesale webinar here and you’ll begin to learn just how possible selling wholesale items on Amazon really is!
*This post was updated for 2024
Stephen, Can I put the wholesale spread sheet through TA? Do you know how to do it? Any directions would be helpful.
Yes, you can upload the wholesale spreadsheet as a CSV file to Tactical Arbitrage to be able to have the spreadsheet calculated and the data given to you so you can make the best sourcing decisions possible. Get a 10 day free trial for Tactical arbitrage here: https://www.fulltimefba.com/TA with coupon code FULLTIME10
You always have a way of breaking things down for me! Thanks for this post, I’m looking forward to the webinar!
Too Many Different Software Tools
Hi Stephen, While I appreciate you sharing the opportunity that is available from The Wholesale Formula, I am getting very confused as to choosing the “proper” or “best” software tools for my new FBA business. You have your tools (Camel, Keepa, XRay, etc.) yet TWF has their suite of recommended tools they use.
How can I as a new FBA business know which ones best serves me? Thanks, Chris
Just pick one… and try it out! If it’s a keeper then keep it and add another tool. Keep what you like and what provides the best results and ditch the rest.
What is the turn around for most companies that customers can expect thier product?
What do you mean? In regards to the turn around from point A to point B… what are the points you’re asking about?
Great article. Is the blog post of how to successfully land wholesale accounts already up? Thanks
Yes! Here is the link: https://www.fulltimefba.com/how-to-successfully-land-wholesale-accounts-for-amazon-fba-sellers/
Hi Stephen Thank you for the info I am from Morocco Can I give a hand in this field especially since I am from another country and I have a seller account on Amazon Thank you
Yes, in fact this might help you: https://www.fulltimefba.com/international
Hello Stephen would like to know if you have any article with tips for those who buy at auctions, bstock suplly for example, from now thankful!
I do not have tips for those places. I like to buy from places that give me itemized invoices or receipts.
Hi Stephen,
Thank you for the information. What’s a “resale certificate” that you mention that we need to bring at the trade shows?
Blessiings<,
Victor
Google the name of your state and “resale certificate” and you’ll find what it is and how to get one for your state (each state is different).
Ok. Great. Thanks so much. We live in Vancouver, Canada, so I found this page:
https://canadabusiness.ca/government/permits-and-licences/
Just did a search from the link “permits and licenses search”.
God bless<,
Victor
Thanks for the guide!
There is a tab at the top of the screen that says “Load CSV.” Click that and you’re on your way.
Hi Stephen,
Thanks a lot for this article. i am trying to get into wholesale for my Amazon FBA business. With respect to getting wholesale prices from either manufacturer directly or the distributor, the challenge is manufacturers tend to sell in large quantities with accompanying high total price. Thus going through a distributor gives you chance to get smaller quantities. How can one overcome the challenge of high quantities with manufacturers?
This is actually a myth that is not true all the time. I have multiple wholesale accounts where I can my only one of an item… or a minimum of 2 or 4. You don’t have to go too deep or one item, or spend too much money to for most wholesalers. Click here for more: https://www.fulltimefba.com/top-5-wholesale-sourcing-myths-for-amazon-fba-sellers/
Thanks a lot
Hi Stephen. Thanks for your post. A few questions for you. I am a new Amazon seller, so I am trying to keep costs to a minimum. 1. When applying for wholesale accounts, do you think it’s important to have your own email host as opposed to gmail or outlook, etc? 2. I have found that many best sellers are sold by Amazon or are private label products. How do we find the “second best sellers” so to speak? Thanks in advance!
1. I think it might help wholesalers to take you more seriously if you have EM@businessname.com instead of EM@genericemail.com. But I don’t think it’s a deal breaker.
2. Amazon actually only sells 2% of the items sold on Amazon (There are 512 million items sold on Amazon and Amazon is only selling 12 million). So there are TONS of opportunities to find items not being sold by Amazon that are still best sellers. I have found them, and others have too. It’s possible, but takes time. But that time is well spent and rewarded when you start selling those items.
Hope this helps!
Stephen,
I see you’re promoting TWF now, it’s August 2019. Big question; if it’s so massively profitable, why is it just 1 strategy you use rather than your entire business model?
Panda, student and long time follower
Two reasons: 1) Because I like to have multiple streams of income. 2) I enjoy doing RA and OA so that I can be the best teacher and blogger that I can be.
Hi Stephen,
I need inventory for my fba business any good suppliers? It’s honestly hard for me to find suppliers. I will be attending trade shows soon.
Thanks
Good place to start for verified wholesalers who are good with Amazon resellers: https://www.fulltimefba.com/worldwidebrands
Hi Steve,
Thanks a lot for your responses. I looked at the wordlwidebrands site. I have attended TWF and i am trying to scale up. I am incurring monthly expenses with tools subscription and just wondering if this price is value for money. Really need profitable wholesale accounts.
Worldwide Brands is a one time fee, and if you put in the time and work to search for the winners among the duds, then it’s worth the fee. If you’re looking for an easy list of brands that are profitable, then this is not what you’re looking for. You gotta work through the duds to find the winners, like in most arbitrage scenarios.
Hello. I am based in the UK. Does the Wholesale Brands website contain wholesalers in the UK? Would it still be worth joining?
Hello,
I loved the article. I do have a question for you though. When asking distributors/suppliers do you need to have an LLC and a a reseller certificate?
Thank you,
Nathan
You just need a sales and tax use permit…. sometimes called a reseller’s certificate. It helps to have a LLC or S-Corp to get this certificate.
Awesome article, I was wondering is it worth it to do Amazon Fba in 2020? People on youtube have been talking a lot of crap about it. And I personally have done dropshipping and seen success but, I was interested and thinking about doing Amazon FBA but, don’t know if I should get started especially since I live in Canada and there’s no such thing as “LLC” here but, there’s Corporation.
Yes, now is a GREAT time to join the ranks of Amazon sellers…. I still believe we are still in the early days Amazon reselling. You can still, with a corp in Canada, sell on Amazon.com or Amazon.ca very well. Here is how I’d start selling on Amazon that will lead to success: https://www.fulltimefba.com/jumpstart
Hello Stephen,
As stated very good article. But I find your replies equally if not more informative and valuable.
I am looking for some help getting a wholesale account product to increase sales. The manufacturer wants me to apply for 2 truckloads a month on a NET90 credit line,… the product has No FBA seller and isn’t moving at that volume. I believe it could move because it’s a relatively popular Brand and due to several other similar products moving at 7x’s that rate.
I’d appreciate it if I can discuss with you a bit before I go on or even during the process.
My first thought is always to focus on selling items on Amazon with a proven selling track record. I would personally pass, but if you know how to set up advertising, it might work… but I don’t recommend making decisions on “might” unless you’re very confident in your decision based on a lot of experience of driving traffic and causing sales.
Hello Stephen,
Thank you for the information! I am very interested, or beyond interested in the ideas you present here. I am ready to make moves and invest in a brighter future. Do you recommend a book to get me started along with the information you provided?
Thank you, Darnell
Here ya go: https://www.fulltimefba.com/wholesaleguide
Have you had any problems with wholesalers revoking your seller status?
Do you mean wholesale brands who decided to stop selling to me? I have not had any issues with that happening to me. Of course, if a seller does not follow MAP pricing and prices under the agreed upon price then a brand can decide to stop selling to that seller… or sometimes a brand might get into an exclusive selling contract with someone else and might stop selling to that seller, so it is possible for a brand to stop selling to you… but it’s super rare when that happens.
I would just like to say your a great teacher and very infomative. I have gained so much knowledge in such a short time. Thanks!!!
That means a lot to me. Thanks!
Hi Steve
Always informative posts on so many topics. Have you personally used Worldwide Brands for Wholesaling? Appreciate it.
I have use Worldwide Brands. As with any sourcing strategy, it’s not an easy answer to finding inventory… you gotta look through a lot of duds before you find a really good winner. But the winners are out there. https://www.fulltimefba.com/worldwidebrands
Thanks for your valuable content, keep posting.
I am so lucky that I’ve finally found this article. It has huge information for me, and well prepared for people who need this. I am sure this must be completely useful. I am a person who deals with this. Thanks for sharing this informative post with us.
Oh wow I came here from a random link from another website. This is so informative content. There are many things to learn. I really appreciate your efforts. All concepts are so brief. Thanks for sharing.
The post is written in very a good manner. I am happy to find your distinguished way of writing the post. Now you make it easy for me to understand and implement the concept. Thanks for sharing.
I think this is an informative post and it is very useful and knowledgeable. therefore, I would like to thank you for the efforts you have made in writing this article. Please keep sharing!