Buying Wholesale for Personal Use: Everything You Need to Know

Hacking into wholesale markets to buy your favorite products has never been so effortless. Have you wondered how stores make money selling your products from famous brands?

Yes, when you pay for a particular product of a well-known brand, how is the store actually making money if it’s the brand you’re paying for?

What if you want to buy personal accessories and fashion items but don’t want to shell out as much as it is being advertised for?

How do you buy a bag, shoes, clothing & apparel, grooming, and cosmetic product for less than the advertised price?

Not just clothing, but what if you could buy your favorite bag, shoes, cosmetics, household accessories, grooming products, jewelry and get a huge discount from its market price?

Yes! There is a way you could do that. And as we are about to find out, you can do that with the highly unknown and hardly tested hack of wholesale buying.

But how could you do that? Isn’t it for retailers or resellers to buy products on a large scale and then sell it to customers?

Absolutely, but there is a hack you could use to buy wholesale and this article is all about the art of buying wholesale for your personal use.

How to Make Money from Wholesale Buying?

Wholesale buying saves you a lot of money by allowing you to hack the market instead of buying from retailers who add their commissions and shipping costs to make huge profits. That is exactly how they keep themselves in business.

But to make your life easier (and cost-effective), wholesale buying is a great way to get around the market and get what you want at a much better price than what you would have in the highly competitive market.

However, there are other ways of making money from buying wholesale. One of them is reselling it for a better price. This article is not about reselling. It is about buying wholesale. But who doesn’t want to make money? Everyone does.

Let’s talk about it. Read through to find out how you can buy wholesale for your personal use as well as to make money.

If you are interested in buying wholesale for reselling, you shouldn’t miss this article.

What Does It Mean to Buy Wholesale?

To buy wholesale is to escape the conventional way of shopping and getting straight to the manufacturer or even a distributor. By doing this, you avoid the middlemen or retailers in the market, and by doing so, you also avoid the unnecessary amount you have to pay as the middleman’s profits.

Middlemen’s profits are commonly known in the market as the retail price of any product. What we are exactly looking to do is to find the minimum price of a product we wish to buy on the wholesale market.

However, this is not as easy as it sounds, but you have to work a little to save a lot.

Everything comes with a price tag, but in this article, we will talk about what lies behind the price tag. Is the price on the tag, the best price out there?

Absolutely not. Wholesale buying is one of the mystifying hacks of the market not known to most people.

If you are one of those people who doesn’t mind asking for a discount or shopping elsewhere to find a better deal, read on.

How to Buy Wholesale Without a License?

To buy in bulk, wholesalers usually require you to have a wholesale license or a business license. This helps you to buy wholesale regularly, but it is primarily meant for resellers who make huge profits from reselling the same products.

As a business, resellers have to maintain certain statutory licenses and a wholesale license or a business license is one of them.

But as a buyer who does not want to resell or do business with the items, what other options do you as a private buyer have?

Well, you need to understand and note that not all wholesalers require you to have a wholesale or a business license. They are open to private buyers and resellers alike. Usually, they have to be to grow their business. So, you need to be finding such wholesalers who do not require you to have a license and identify them to keep shopping in the future.

Apart from that, you could also negotiate with them on this particular requirement and most of them will give in if you come off as a polite and genuine person.

If you are going to buy regularly from them, they won’t mind making exceptions for you.

It comes down to how good you are with people!

How to Find a Wholesaler

This is the trickiest part. But let’s dare to venture into it. The first stop to shop wholesale that is even used by retailers is without a doubt Alibaba. Alibaba has a ton of sellers who exist to sell products at the minimum price a.k.a. the wholesale price.

It has a very simple interface to browse and find yourself into, with multiple options for a single product that you would wish to buy. They also ship the product into any part of the world, and that without a lot of hassles.

One search and you will find yourself in a world of eye-catching products with deals you can’t resist.

So, is Alibaba the only place you can go to?

Not at all. The internet is full of such places to find wholesale seller markets.

In my opinion, however, the best wholesalers can be found locally, which is close to where you stay. Now this will require a lot of footwork as compared to the online way of shopping, but trust me on this, it is worth every penny.

You get to examine the products and get a touch & feel of these products before buying them.

Other ways of finding wholesalers are to browse through online flipping apps.

These flipping websites or apps, actually meant for used home accessories or products are a great way for wholesalers to sell their products since people on such websites are looking for cheap and economical ways to get what they want.

Wholesalers know what you want and they cater to you accordingly on such websites. Usually, they keep their prices low, so that doesn’t leave a lot of room for negotiations.

But there is another thing you need to keep in mind when you go on such platforms. Be aware of scammers who may ask you to pay before you receive the goods.

Make sure to browse apps that are highly active or relevant to your state or locality to get the best deals at the greatest comfort.

How to Choose a Good Wholesaler

Now that we know ‘where’ to go find a wholesaler, let us talk about ‘how’ to choose a wholesaler.

There will always be a huge number of wholesalers who will saturate the market with their competitive prices and products.

But, to find the right wholesaler is important if you want to be buying now and again in the longer run.

Once you establish good relations with any business, they will be more than happy to have you as their patron.

However, there are always going to be people who just want to sell and do not give any thought to the customer service aspect of the business.

So, be alert and informed whenever you go out to buy from a wholesaler.

Also, who knows, you might find more than you’re looking for when you find the right wholesaler.

#1. Product Selection

You must know what you are exactly looking for before you venture out to find the right place to buy the product.

Select the product that will fulfill your needs. Are you looking for something that looks great or works great? That will be a good start to select the right product.

Another great way of selecting the right product is to read customer reviews about the same product on the internet. The product with the best reviews is probably the best product for you.

Recommendations and suggestions from friends are always a good way to know which product to go for since people close to you have higher chances of giving you genuine feedback.

So, it is recommended that you do good research and zero in on the product and the alternatives that you are looking for as well.

However, you can always keep your options for anything else that catches your eye when you browse through the products that the wholesaler has in stock for you.

#2. Budget

The goal of wholesaling for personal use or otherwise is to be as cost-efficient as you can. In other words, it is to ensure that you don’t go overboard with your purchases.

So, get your upper limit set and out of the way so that you don’t have to budge according to the market. Set your price and dig the market for your price, there are good chances that you will find the product for the price you set out for.

It’s great to have a designed budget for yourself so that you know how much you can spend and how much you need to save.

Also, there are festivals and seasons where you can give yourself the freedom to sometimes go shopping and gift yourself.

However, don’t be too optimistic or pessimistic. Thorough research of the product can never be ruled out before venturing out to buy your product.

#3. Reliability

In today’s world of online shopping where we meet with virtual identities, trust plays a big role in the transaction. But it also needs to be said that there are a lot of people who do not trust brands and sellers so easily because there are sellers who are not trustworthy.

There is always a risk involved whenever you are making a transaction, as to if you are getting equivalent value to the price you are paying.

That exact risk gets higher with the expense of your product. The more expensive your product, the higher the risk involved.

Hence, ask some questions if you have to and make sure that the person you are dealing with is honest.

Honesty breeds trust and trust breeds reliability. If the person you are looking to buy from does not stay true to his promises or anything about him seems fishy, address it immediately to avoid further problems.

It is a good principle to only trade with people whom you can trust to deliver you the best or people who have your best interests in mind.

#4. Customer Service

Whenever you pay in full, make sure you are compensated in full.

Customer service goes further than just making sure you receive the product worth your money and you should appreciate sellers who have great customer service.

Customer care is different from customer service, so please make sure you are getting the best of both.

Customer care is after you have become a customer, but customer service is before, during, and even after you have become a potential customer.

People with good customer service are good for business and best for long-term business.

Sellers who warn you about a product and give better recommendations without you asking for them- these are the kind of people who have your best interests in mind and go beyond being a seller.

Look for sellers who are actively engaged in you and the product you want to buy. The better their social presence, the more customer service you can get.

#5. Knowledge of the Products

Don’t always trust the seller to give you the right product. Do some work and get to know the product.

But at the same time, make sure that the seller knows what he is selling and the details surrounding thereof.

Check the brand and the user experience of the customers. The better the research, the better the deal. The internet can give you enough knowledge about the product, so the place you need to go to know more about any product is the internet.

However, it is also recommended that you visit some shops and get a touch and feel of the products to know what they are like.

Some questions you to ask yourself would be:

• Is this product exactly what I am looking for?
• Are there any alternatives to this product?
• Is this the best product out there?
• What are the customer reviews of this product?
• How long has this brand been in the market?

What If I Want to Buy Wholesale Products for Reselling?

We have understood all that we could about buying wholesale products for personal use and purposes.

But another objective of buying wholesale has already been discussed and that is reselling to make a good profit.

Now, if you want to buy wholesale with the intent of reselling, you have already learned more than enough in the previous section of the article.

However, we have got more for you. Read on!

#1. Reorder Points

What is a reorder point? In business, it is the minimum quantity of a product that you maintain in your stock before placing another order for a particular product.

When buying in bulk, the reorder point plays a huge role in your financials and inventory management.

It is understood that you are never going to buy the exact sum needed for your trade purposes. You might either exceed your requirements or fall short. But the best you can do is to make a calculated estimation to make sure you are at least in the ballpark.

As a business, you should make sure that you are buying exactly as much as you can sell. So, keep this in mind next time you trade from a wholesaler.

#2. Negotiate

If you are venturing into the reselling arena, you need to understand that it will be very crucial for you to master the subtle yet powerful art of negotiation.

Negotiations can either be money-making or deal-breaking. Hence, you have to know what you want and how much you want before negotiating. This means that you have to do your homework before you venture out to shop.

If there is a price you want the product for, don’t shy away from asking the same. You never know where your questions could land you.

Negotiations are ruthless, there is no room for mid-negotiation calculations.

You have to know the value and bring the price of the product down to its real value.

The seller will always try to overvalue the price of the product, but you have to reset the price.

#3. Storage

When buying to resell, storage is one of the initial problems that you will have to face, however, it is not very tough to get through this.

Identify the stock that you are going to be holding and accordingly identify how much area you’ll be needing to store your maximum inventory.

Your storage always has to be designed to hold the maximum quantity of products that you have set for your business.

Read also: Top 22 High-Quality Boutique Wholesale Clothing Suppliers

Final Words

The art of wholesale buying is one that is not hard to master, but it takes mindfulness and streetwise skills.

The whole idea of wholesale buying is to bypass the retail market and hack your way through it.

Apart from certain risks involved which we have warned you about, it is not very tough to find your way around the retail market.

What more? You could also end up making good money from wholesale buying if you put together the right skills to negotiate and resell the same products.

What else? Let’s get starting.

Read Also:

• Best Websites to Buy Wholesale Shoes
• Best Wholesale Swimwear Suppliers