Where to find wholesale Shoe Buyers in USA? 8 Tips that You should Consider before Buying

Sarah Ahmed
Get Ecommerce Right!
8 min readNov 24, 2020
Photo by Clint Bustrillos on Unsplash

Any adjustment screw is as relevant for a retailer as the purchase prices and the conditions of the procurement of goods — after all, these have a direct influence on your profit.

So it’s no wonder that optimizing purchase prices is one of the most important tasks in business for many retailers. In this post, I want to show you what tips to keep in mind before making your next purchase in order to get the most out of your business.

Tip 1: Obtain products from the manufacturer

Why this tip is an attractive option for many retailers is obvious: Products direct from the manufacturer are usually a lot cheaper because no profit mark- ups from middlemen increase prices.

Negotiating the price with the manufacturer may also be easier than if the products were purchased through others and third-party suppliers. The principle applies: the closer you buy to the source, the cheaper the products will be.

Tip 2: get bankruptcy goods or remaining stock

Another possibility to minimize the purchase prices is to purchase bankrupt or remaining stock goods. Bankruptcy goods are goods that are sold for a cheaper price because the company had to file for bankruptcy and is reducing inventory.

The quality of the goods is therefore not affected by the price reduction. This also applies to remaining stock. These are goods that are sold for a cheaper purchase price because they are taken out of inventory or production. Obtaining your goods at residual or special item markets can therefore be worth considering.

Photo by Nicholas Bui on Unsplash

Tip 3: Shop on wholesale marketplaces

Wholesale marketplaces on the Internet are only intended for commercial users and are intended to offer wholesale second hand shoe suppliers and sneaker buyers a common platform. In most cases a registration is required for this, with which your commercial activity must be proven. After browsing through the goods, you can often make direct contact with the supplier on such platforms and possibly negotiate.

The top 10 marketplaces are listed below

· Amazon

· eWorldTrade

· Alibaba

· Shopify

· Ebay

· Ecwid

· Etsy

· Global sources

· Go4world

· Aliexpress

· Rakuten

Tip 4: Compare prices and conditions

Unfortunately, it is not enough to compare prices and negotiate conditions at the beginning of business — in a dynamic market the custom shoe manufacturer prices and private label shoe manufacturers are also dynamic and have to be compared and negotiated again and again if you want to stay on the ball. Otherwise it can easily happen that you overlook new, cheaper wholesalers or importers and thus give away parts of your profits. A strategic change of course on the part of a provider, a company merger or current trends in the market can also cause purchase prices to fluctuate.

So you have to question the existing business relationships with your suppliers again and again and, if necessary, renegotiate them. You should also include the additional purchase costs such as shipping costs and fees for small delivery quantities in your selection of suppliers, regardless of whether you are reviewing existing contracts or comparing several new suppliers.

In addition to the purchase price and the ancillary purchase costs, you should also consider other factors, even if these make a direct comparison difficult.

For example, which suppliers offer bonuses, support you in other ways, provide interesting advertising material or are on a friendly basis with you so that you are made aware of new products and trends in good time?

Tip 5: negotiate prices and conditions correctly

The right negotiation of prices is often difficult for many shoes retailers. Basically, there are probably natural negotiators and useful seminars to learn this skill, but a few simple basics can be useful in the next negotiation:

Regardless of whether you want to renegotiate prices or conditions with your existing women shoe supplier or want to start negotiations with a new kid shoes supplier — you always need a starting point for the negotiation.

Current events such as the entry of new Spanish baby shoe suppliers into the market or a change in the market situation are particularly suitable for this. Changes in the production or composition of products or a relocation of production to another country can also be used as a starting point. Even if you are a long-standing customer, bought particularly large quantities in the last fiscal year or want to buy large quantities in the coming fiscal year, this can be a reason for a price reduction.

You should also start the negotiations with a clear goal in mind. What would you like to achieve in the ideal case, what prices can you still live with and under what circumstances is a collaboration out of the question for you?

If you have asked yourself and answered these questions in advance, you will be able to appear more confident in the negotiations and appear more consistent in your ideas. Negotiating partners without a clear goal in mind often appear insecure and can be pushed too quickly in a certain direction.

In addition, feel free to drop the door in the house: Some suppliers or salespeople want to postpone the question of the price for as long as possible — especially if it is excessive.

By asking about the exact price and conditions right at the beginning of the negotiation, you take the lead in the conversation and show that you cannot be held off so easily.

Be consistent and credible throughout the negotiation. If you go into the negotiation with clearly defined goals and are reasonably open to your negotiating partner (for example, do not start a new negotiation for invented reasons), this should happen by itself.

Despite the opposing wishes for the business relationship on the part of the retailer and the supplier, a partnership should be the goal. Ultimately, you both want to benefit from each other, and a friendly, loyal supplier will be of more use to you in the long term than someone with whom there is underlying enmity. Most people value open, friendly dealings with one another in their professional life and are often more successful in negotiations than an authoritarian style and exertion of pressure.

By the way: New suppliers are often more inclined to respond to the wishes of their potential customers. However, they also have less experience with reliability and cooperation, which is why it can be helpful to maintain relationships with new and well-known suppliers. You can find out about new suppliers and importers in appropriate directories, at trade fairs and through research on the Internet.

As described under tip 3, not only the price but also the other conditions influence your choice of supplier in the best case. Often, suppliers are also more willing to accommodate you in terms of conditions than to compromise on price. If you don’t succeed in the latter, try a longer payment term, a volume discount or something similar.

Tip 6: negotiate payment terms or use a discount

A payment term is an agreement between you and the supplier that the invoice will not be paid until a later point in time after receipt of the goods. This has an advantage for liquidity if the bill can then be partially covered by sales.

Photo by Morgan Housel on Unsplash

The advantages of payment terms are therefore obvious:

The equity capital is conserved and is available for long-term investments in fixed assets, the credit lines are not so heavily used, which is beneficial as a risk buffer for a fluctuating course of business, and there are also less interest on loans. In addition, the payment term is a loan from the supplier, which is usually granted without interest. In addition, agreed payment terms that are met create trust in the business relationship.

In order to negotiate a payment term of 20 to 21 days, which is common in Germany, you should be very familiar with your business and your liquidity situation in order to be able to argue based on this. You can find more information about negotiating a payment term here .

A cash discount , on the other hand, is a price reduction that is granted to you if you pay the invoice within a predetermined period of time. The percentage is usually between 2–3%, but can also go up to 5% if the period of time is relatively short or even a direct debit has been agreed.

A supplier offers you this option because it allows them to increase their liquidity themselves, even if this affects their profitability. If you take the cash discount, i.e. pay in good time and receive the price reduction, the situation is reversed for you: The fast payment will strain your liquidity, but increase your profitability.

Photo by Jaclyn Moy on Unsplash

Tip 7: Manage and read electronic shopping data correctly

A purchase is not a one-time thing, which is only about purchasing goods cheaply once. It can be just as important to properly analyze the purchases made in order to be able to better coordinate future purchases.

As a shoe retailer in UK, you can only shop really cleverly if you not only orientate yourself towards the cheapest prices and conditions, but also know which products are top and which are flop. You can obtain this information from product and quality-related information systems which, for example, show you the number of complaints or the turnover of goods or provide an indication of whether the pricing is correct. An overview and helpful tips regarding the various information systems and their tasks can be found here.

With the respective information systems, it is important to note which information is delivered and how you deal with it.

Otherwise you could quickly be tempted to put the numbers into a nice way: “I have just bought a lot of goods, I will certainly get that back in later.”, are sentences that are often said but will not help you in the success of your business.

Tip 8: create structures for online purchases

Finally, I have an important tip for you with regard to shopping online irrespective of the product: As a digital marketing advisor, I often find that the receipts are always missing, especially when shopping online. This is not only annoying for me, it can also have devastating consequences for you

To avoid this, you have to create internal structures. The collecting of receipts is otherwise easily lost, especially for smaller orders that are placed “quickly”.

Another problem with ordering in online retail is that invoices are often only available in digital form: they are no longer sent by post, but only as a PDF by e-mail. With some wholesale ladies sneakers suppliers it is also possible that invoices are not sent at all, but have to be downloaded by you yourself in the customer area. In such a case in particular, you have to be particularly careful that you call up the receipts and save them securely.

Conclusion

“The profit lies in purchasing” is an old business adage that is still valid today. Using various tips, you should be able to keep the costs for the procurement of goods low — for example, always keep an eye on the suppliers, renegotiate prices and conditions, secure longer payment terms and discounts and make sure to keep receipts correctly.

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Sarah Ahmed
Get Ecommerce Right!

Digital Marketing and Social Media Savvy/ Writer love to write about current affairs and economic affairs/ Commerce graduate