Wholesale Part 2: Research The Store

Yesterday we talked a little bit about wholesale. Generally shops want to pay you around 50% of your retail price. They also want to pay you Net 30, which means they have 30 days to pay you after they get your items. Both of these is pretty standard practice. However, you are in no way required to do either. Ultimately you set your terms.

I do not offer Net 30 to any business at first. It has caused me to not get a few accounts but overall it has not hurt my business. After a shop has made a couple of orders I send them a Net 30 account application. I ask for general information and at least three business references whom they have done business with for at least a year. I call the references and make sure they are in good standing. I do this will all of the businesses I wholesale to.

Doing a little research can save you a lot of time, energy and money. If you are thinking about contacting a shop in your area you should do a little recon first. Go to the shop a couple of times and see how they operate. Do they have several works from local artists? Make note of the names of the artists you know and ask them about the shop. Check out the shop online. See if they have a lot of followers on Facebook and Twitter.

It is much easier to do business with smaller locally owned shops. However, smaller shops usually do not have the money to buy outright and will usually offer you consignment. While checking out the shop you might want to ask the manager(a lot of time this is also the owner) if they buy wholesale or just do consignment. Ask if they are buying and if so, when would a good time to come by to show them your product. Never do this with a shop full of people or if they are busy in any way. It is always best to talk to them when they are not busy.

Find out as much as you can about the business. If you think it is a good match, set up an appointment to show your items. Go to that meeting prepared to sell. Tomorrow I will be talking about how to be prepared for your initial meeting. I will go over what to bring and what questions you need to ask the store before agreeing to sell to them wholesale.