Podcast Episode 148 – How We Found Our Top 5 Wholesale Accounts

Have you been struggling to find sustainable methods for identifying long-term wholesale accounts? In today’s show we’ll be unpacking the strategies that helped us find our top five wholesale accounts. From reverse wholesale sourcing to wholesale trade shows, we’ve got you covered!

Listening today, you’ll learn our tips for how to do research based on your competitors’ storefronts, using an Amazon virtual assistant, as well as how your hobbies could help you discover a profitable niche item to sell on Amazon. We also discuss wholesale directories, including how to identify ones that are worthwhile and the best ways to navigate their contents. For inspiring advice on how to get great wholesale accounts, make sure you listen today!

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Key points from Episode 148:

• Learn how we found our top five wholesale accounts.
• How we used reverse wholesale sourcing on a series of kitchen items.
• Examples of the research we’ve done based on our competitor’s storefronts.
• How trade show wholesale websites gave us access to contact information for a range of brands, even though we didn’t visit the trade show in person.
• Ask yourself whether one of your niche or hobby items could be sold on Amazon.
• How to use a wholesale directory to find valuable leads.

Links and resources mentioned in this episode:

• Worldwide Brands Wholesale Directory (limited time sale at $100 off)
• FREE “How to Get Started Selling Wholesale Items on Amazon” Workshop Webinar (limited time opportunity)
• FREE “How to Find Wholesale Accounts That Brands WANT You to Sell on Amazon” Workshop Webinar (limited time opportunity)
• The Wholesale Formula program

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Episode 148 Transcript:

[INTRODUCTION]

[0:00:01.8] ANNOUNCER: Welcome to The Full-Time FBA Show. In each episode, it’s our goal to help you turn part-time hours into a full-time income, selling almost anything on Amazon. Now, your hosts of the show, Stephen and Rebecca Smotherman.

[WELCOME]

[0:00:22.3] STEPHEN: Welcome to episode number 148 of The Full-Time FBA Show. Today, we’re going to talk about how we found our top five wholesale accounts so we talk about wholesale sourcing in this episode and with me to talk about it is my wife and business partner, Rebecca. 🎵 (singing) How are you doing, Rebecca? 🎶

[0:00:37.3] REBECCA: I’m doing great. That was funny.

[0:00:39.9] STEPHEN: I don’t know why I sang your name but it’s worth singing sometimes.

[0:00:42.9] REBECCA: It works.

[0:00:43.4] STEPHEN: That’s good. So yeah, we’ll talk about this on today’s episode of The Full-Time FBA Show, finding wholesale accounts on our top five wholesale accounts.

[DISCUSSION]

[0:00:54.4] REBECCA: So before we get started in our conversation today, we want to make sure that if you are not already, that you sign up for the full-time FBA newsletter. You go to fulltimefba.com, you’ll find a place where you can sign up, subscribe to get the newsletter, it goes out once a week. We’ve got links to upcoming blogpost, podcast episodes, videos, all sorts of information that you can use to make your FBA business more successful. So be sure and do that, fulltimefba.com.

Now today, we’re going to be talking about how Stephen and I found our top five wholesale accounts that we sell from in our Amazon business. So finding wholesale items to sell on Amazon is a very profitable way to run your FBA business but it can be difficult at times and there are several different strategies you can use for discovering profitable wholesale items to sell and we’re going to talk with you today about how we found our top five and their different methods.

We’re hoping to share with you multiple different strategies in the hopes that one of them will stand out to you, maybe more than one of them will stand out to you and that you’ll get some ideas for how to look for these accounts that could really add great profits and sales to your business.

So today, we’re not going to be talking about the specific brand names, we’re not going to share with you the names of the companies that we found that would be something that is – that we protect, just like any other FBA seller is going to protect their information about where they’re sourcing directly their inventory because – I mean, would you want to tell thousands of people where you are finding your best inventory? Probably not.

So we’re not really interested in doing that either but we do want to share with you our strategies and so we’re going to talk in generalities about the accounts that we found and we’re going to talk more specifically about how we found them.

[0:02:49.0] STEPHEN: So the first one that we’re going to talk about today is a kitchen item or a group of kitchen items that we sell on Amazon and the way we found them is called reverse wholesale sourcing and I learned this from the guys from the Wholesale Formula and it’s basically going to Amazon, finding items that are well ranked and selling already and then, contacting the brand directly and so, we’re able to go through and do it ourselves.

We’ve outsourced it to a VA and so we’ve been able to find really good seller on Amazon and reach out to the brand directly. And see if we can get a wholesale account. So we were able to find an item that’s been a kitchen selling item and then all the other types of items that they also sell and it’s just been an awesome opportunity. In fact, we’ve had this wholesale account, I think since 2015 and it just continually is a great replen for us to sell on Amazon.

[0:03:41.0] REBECCA: Yeah and you’re really looking for replens whenever you do wholesale sourcing. If you can find something that sells for that many years and is consistently profitable, that’s gold.

[0:03:50.6] STEPHEN: Yeah, and if you don’t know what a replen is, it’s basically an item that once it starts to sell out, you replenish. You already have access to where you can find more of the same items and can replenish your inventory so you don’t ever go out-of-stock.

[0:04:03.8] REBECCA: So that first method is reverse wholesale sourcing and that is a method where you’re doing research on the Amazon website, you’re using some other tools to look at the data that Amazon provides about their sales and then you find the item that you are interested in selling and contact the brand.

The second method that we wanted to talk about is something that I have done with my VA over the last several months and have found some really great accounts that we’ve opened up in the arts and crafts category. We’ve opened up two in particular that we have been able to make multiple orders from and these are accounts that we found by – it was also on the Amazon website but it’s a little bit different from reverse wholesale sourcing and that we were really doing research based on our competitor’s storefronts.

This is a method that you can use for retail arbitrage or online arbitrage as well but finding competitors who appear to be selling items that are either similar to what you already selling or what you’re interested in selling, find sellers who have a very robust storefront and then looking through their items and seeing if there’s anything that you think would fit well on your inventory and then going from there and contacting, going from there and searching for that inventory that you can source yourself and so we’ve been able to do that in arts and crafts category and so far, it’s going well for us.

We’re hoping to expand that. It is something that I do with the help of my virtual assistant and she’s really great at helping me with that research. So the first method was reverse wholesale sourcing through research on Amazon. The second one is by searching through our competitor’s storefronts.

[0:05:47.4] STEPHEN: And the third one –

[0:05:48.9] REBECCA: I was going to say, and tell us the third one, Stephen?

[0:05:50.9] STEPHEN: The third one has to do with tradeshows, wholesale trade shows but this is the best part, I didn’t even have to go to the tradeshow itself. A lot of times, tradeshows will have websites that you can sign up for the trade show on and I was looking for some wholesale sources and decided to sign up for a tradeshow that was in another town that I was never actually going to go to but when I signed up for the wholesale tradeshow website, I got access to contact information for so many brands.

So I reached out to a lot of brands and there was one brand selling some home décor items, like, I think this is back in 2016 and we started selling those items and got that wholesale account and have been selling and replenishing those items since 2016. Wholesale is a great replen source and it’s just been really cool. So you could go to a wholesale trade show to get some ideas but if you wanted to just stay home, you can also just sign up for the wholesale tradeshow website and get access to all the brands that are going there and reach out and try to find something good there.

[0:06:50.6] REBECCA: So the fourth method that we have used for finding wholesale items to sell on Amazon is one that’s really pretty basic and doesn’t really – it’s not really a research based method but we have an item that we sell in the grocery category that we have been selling, I think since 2020 and it has sold really well for us.

It’s a seasonal item and the way we found it is that I was looking for this particular item myself for something that a project, a cooking project that I was doing and I had an idea of what I was looking for but I didn’t exactly know where to get it, searched for this particular item on Amazon.

I didn’t know the brand, I was looking for an item not a brand and so I found the item I was looking for, found the brand that I was interested in using it for my project. I ordered it for myself and used it and loved it and was looking at where can I get more of this and noticed, “Oh, they do wholesale accounts.” Well, what do you know? I like to sell wholesale items on Amazon.

So in addition to using this item myself and getting some really great information from their website that I have been using in my own kitchen, we were able to open up a wholesale account with them and have been selling that item as a replen for the past three seasons of when this item is used during this season and so that’s been really great and that’s the way that you can –

If you do things, I’m not just saying for grocery items but for any type of item that you might be interested in using for a hobby or something around your house or whatever possibility that you might be looking for, a niche type item that you use, always be thinking through, “Is this something that I could be selling on Amazon?”

If you find it on Amazon to purchase for yourself, it might be something that you could look in to getting a wholesale account that you could then sell that item to you. So just keeping your eyes open for things like that is also a really good method of sourcing for wholesale items. Now, that’s not when we had found over and over and over again to be a method that we can duplicate on a regular basis but it is one that we’ve used and found good success with when it has worked.

[0:09:03.8] STEPHEN: Yeah and we have been selling it since 2020 consistently when it’s been in season and it’s just been awesome. So the last item that we’re going to talk about on how we found our top five wholesale accounts is going through a wholesale directory. Sometimes there’s wholesale directories that are worth investing in because you know, the ones that are free are not really worth the time.

Anyone could have access to that, but if there is a wholesale directory that is behind a paywall, then maybe what they are selling is valuable and so I signed up for a wholesale directory. It is a one-time payment with lifetime access and it gives you access to tons of wholesale brands that are available to sell on eBay or Amazon or in your stores and so the cool thing about the wholesale directory I found is you could actually filter it to only show you wholesale brands that allow Amazon sellers to sell their items on Amazon.

So the link to find this is fulltimefba.com/worldwidebrands and so Worldwide Brands is a conglomeration of a bunch of different wholesale brands that you can pay to get access to and get their contact information and find out if you can find some items to sell on Amazon. Now of course, if this is just like retail arbitrage wholesale sourcing is that you need to spend a lot of time going through a lot of duds before you find a winner.

So when you – that’s the same thing with wholesale sourcing with this directory. I had to go through a lot of duds but I ended up finding a really good wholesale account to sell some of their kitchen items on Amazon and so it’s been really great. Again, fulltimefba.com/worldwidebrands. If you are going to listen to this episode right after we drop it, right now they are offering a $100 off coupon.

If you go to that link, fulltimefba.com/worldwidebrands, you can gain access to that and some savings right now but even at full price, it is worth it to get access to those Amazon approved wholesale brands.

[0:10:56.9] REBECCA: So just to kind of sum it up today, we’ve covered five different methods of sourcing that have enabled us to find out top five wholesale accounts that we sell from on our Amazon account and the first one is reverse wholesale sourcing by doing research on the Amazon website, finding items that are selling well and then contacting the brand in order to open an account.

The second one is doing that research through your competitor storefronts and finding items that are selling well to open up accounts with those companies. The third one is using tradeshow websites to source for inventory that you can sell on Amazon. The fourth one is making sure that you’re always keeping an eye out for potential wholesale accounts with items that you have purchased for yourself or that you have found around your house that are selling on Amazon and are open to opening up a wholesale account with your company.

The fifth one is using a wholesale directory like Worldwide Brands to find accounts with companies that are open to selling on Amazon. So hopefully, some of these different sourcing strategies have given you some ideas of ways that you can branch out in your own wholesale sourcing or get started in wholesale sourcing.

If you are interested in some free training about how to get started with wholesale sourcing, if this is something that you are interested in and are looking for how to get started, then we invite you to a free wholesale workshop that is coming up on August 9th. You can register for it now, fulltimefba.com/wholesaleworkshop and that will help you get started, get some ideas about where to go in the beginning stages of getting your wholesale business up and running on Amazon and again, that link is fulltimefba.com/wholesaleworkshop.

[0:12:48.0] STEPHEN: Yeah, many of the ideas that we have talked about today we’ve learned from the guys at Wholesale Formula and they go much deeper in this free workshop. So we hope to see you there at fulltimefba.com/wholesaleworkshop.

[CLOSING CONVERSATION]

[0:13:02.0] REBECCA: Just a reminder, as always you can find the show notes for this episode at fulltimefba.com/148 because this is episode number 148. Any of the links that we have mentioned in this episode can be found on that page as well as the transcript if you are looking to read back through what we have talked about, fulltimefba.com/148.

[0:13:22.0] STEPHEN: Next week on the show, we’re going to talk about some wholesale strategies, how to turn a no into a yes because unfortunately, a lot of times when you reach out to a wholesale brand and you tell them you sell on Amazon, they say no. Well, we’re going to show you next week that that’s actually good news and how to turn that no into a yes so that you can sell those items on Amazon for them and they will be so happy you sell their items on Amazon.

We’ll share with you how next week on The Full-Time FBA Show.

[OUTRO]

[0:13:51.0] ANNOUNCER: That is all for this episode of The Full-Time FBA Show. So head over to fulltimefba.com/podcast, where you will find the show notes and links from this episode. While you’re there, subscribe to our newsletter where you’ll get several free downloads of our popular and helpful Amazon FBA resources. Now, take action on what you have learned today so you can find success at turning part-time hours into a full-time income with Amazon FBA.

[END]