How To Sell Your Product Wholesale and Reach More Stockists

How to sell your product wholesale? How to get new stockists? How do I get my product into stores?

If you have typed this into google before, then you are not alone. “How to wholesale my product” is one the most common questions I get as a Wholesale Business Coach and Strategist. It is also the reason why many people find me, as this is something I am super passionate about.

Helping brands grow their wholesale revenue stream, increase sales and exposure by being in amazing stores or stockists around the world is one of the best ways to grow a product-based business. From my 25 years of experience in the retail and wholesale industry, selling your product wholesale is the fastest and most effective way to scale your product-based business!

If you want to wholesale your product and are you keen to have other retail outlets sell your product for you, then read on!

First, let’s just establish why wholesaling your product is a good idea for your business.

Here are my 5 top reasons for wholesaling

1. Exposure: By selling wholesale you can get your brand and products into some amazing stores and in front of new customers that would be almost impossible to reach yourself with your own DTC marketing.
2. Mass distribution: Can you afford to open 100’s of your own Retail stores? Probably not (or not yet even)so this is your chance to get the retail stores selling your product for you. Think of them as sales agents that can showcase, spruik and share your story.
3. Credibility: Yep when someone else says hey I like this product and I want it for my store. Others will or might too!! Especially if they are fancy store that everyone loves and covets to buy things from. Certain stores stocking your range can give you instant street cred.
4. Volume: By selling wholesale you sell larger amounts of product so you need to order more from your supplier which by increasing your volume you can get better costs prices!. Sooo in turn you get better margins on your product and more profit. Yay winning.
5. LTV and CAC: ‘LTV’ means your customer life time value. Wholesale customers can have huge LTV therefore once you get em it is so worth trying to keep em. On top of that, they can cost way less to get in the first place, compared to DTC customers – that is your CAC (customer acquisition cost).

Ok so now that we have the reason you want to wholesale out of the way. Let’s get into how to get into stores and your products on store shelves and into wholesale!

7 Tips On How To Sell Your Product Wholesale And Get More Stockists

1. Trade Shows

Yep there I said it. Trade shows are one of my favorite ways to help brands like yours get into the wholesale game.

Maybe not the most popular option (due to costs and timing) but so so effective! Being seen and getting in front of buyers when they are ready to buy is invaluable. The cost is low over the lifetime of the stockists and it removes barriers to buying.

2. With the right catalogue (also known as a look book, line sheet, range book)

In my opinion, you definitely need a physical and a digital catalogue. Your catalogue needs to be one that is easy to read, easy to order from and tells your customers everything they need to know without looking at another document (like an order form).

As a buyer, I don’t want to have to go back to your website to check prices, look at images or what sizes your products are available in.

Give me everything I need to know in one pdf or physical document. Including your terms and how to order. Having an accurate catalogue also streamlines the process of selling your product wholesale, which encourages you to keep going.

3. Packaging is key

Make your packaging Retail ready! What does that mean?

Here are a few things to consider:

• Do you have the right swing tag/s, outer packaging and information on your product?
• Does it sit well on a Retail shelf?
• Or does it attract attention? Does it match your brand positioning?
• Do the colors match or blend in with other items? How will it be displayed?
• Go into Retail stores and check out other like products and see what you can learn or find out.
• What attracts you to a product?

4. Persistence beats resistance

You have to keep reaching out to more and more and more potential stockists all the time. Guess what? You are going to get rejected. Again and again and again.

But you have to keep going, and keep tweaking or editing your approach. If your conversion rate online is around 2-3%, do you get upset and forget about it? No, it is expected and is very normal.

It is the same thing here. There may be a million different reasons someone doesn’t buy your product.

Don’t give up!! See the next tip to help you 👇🏼

5. Be highly targeted

Get down deep into who your customers are, find out where they shop as well as what other brands they buy.

Doing this market research will help you be highly targeted in terms of who you approach to be a stockist of your range.

Understand that your product business is not for everyone, and that is ok.

Get to know your customer’s behaviour so well that you instantly know the stores you target are going to be just right for you too!

6. Use a Sales Agent

Don’t love sales?

Guess who does? Sales agents!!!

It is in their wheelhouse, their jam, their passion to sell, so let them do it!! Sales agents have the contacts and relationships with store buyers already. As sales agents focus solely on sales, they only get paid when they get a sale.

If you can find a good agent, they are worth their weight on gold. Investing in a sales agent’s services might just be what you need to wholesale your product.

That being said, make sure that you view the costs of an agent as an expense in your business. DO NOT think of it as part of your COG (costs of goods).

7. Boutique markets

This is such a great way to get in front of buyers who are always looking to stand out and have something new and different.

As a retailer myself, I would always go to boutique markets and try and find the latest brands, latest products, something cool and different. It has the added benefit that you get retail sales DTC, it is less expensive than trade shows and you can get direct feedback also.

Great Australian ones include Finders Keepers, Big Design Market, Handmade Canberra and Bowerbird Market.

Key Takeaway: How To Sell Your Product Wholesale

So I hope that helps give you a kickstart into trying to get your brand/product/range into retail stores and more stockists. From doing trade shows, being persistent with your outreach, to using a sales agent, selling your product wholesale or getting stockists for your brand is easily achievable with the right strategies.

You definitely do not need to cold call or cold DM anyone (in fact I highly recommend you do not do this!)

In my Build your Profitable Product Business Roadmap, I dive deep into how to wholesale, how to have multiple revenue streams for your product business and how to increase your revenue and profit!!

You can jump in anytime and start your journey to profit now. Get instant access to everything you need to easily (and effectively!) build your profitable product business.