ajna Posted January 21, 2009 Share Posted January 21, 2009 I would like to wholesale my products. I only have one store (my moms) carrying my products. sells are ok, but I would like to have my places carry my products. How do you guys who sell wholesale to retail shops recruit them? I thought about making a brochure with samples and taking them to places, but how would i approach them? Please tell me how you recruit wholesale accounts. TIA Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Fields Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 We don't recruit or advertise. All of our wholesale customers are candle customers who own businesses or who received one of our candles as a gift, liked it and wanted them for their business. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CSAS Posted January 22, 2009 Share Posted January 22, 2009 Make up some sort of price/scent/item list, whether it's a brochure, pamplet, or sheet. Make up samples that you can afford to give to them. It cost me $1.77 to make an 8 oz candle, that is worth it, if I acquire a wholesale customer. Approach one or two business in an area at a time. If they do not want to carry your product, then approach others in the same area. You don't want to approach 10 stores and then 10 stores want your candles. You would saturate the area and you wouldn't have reorders. Whatever you do, try and figure out how you want to handle everything, pricing, shipping, delivery, etc. Because once you start something, you will end up sticking with it to avoid losing a customer.Good Luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajna Posted January 23, 2009 Author Share Posted January 23, 2009 thanks so much. any one else? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajna Posted January 23, 2009 Author Share Posted January 23, 2009 I thought about giving tealight candles in the scents that i carry, but bring a candle in the jar that i use to show them what it looks like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Fields Posted January 23, 2009 Share Posted January 23, 2009 Let me amend my previous post. About 9 or 10 years ago we tried to get more wholesale accounts. We made up sample boxes and spent days and days going to gift shops and anyone we felt might carry our candles. We got one account from weeks of travel. What we found was that cold-call selling is very, very tough. The Retailer does not know you or your products; they do not know if you are a "mom and pop" concern who've been pouring candles for six months or a large candle mfg concern. Generally they were politely hostile. But, we could go to the Dallas Market and see candle makers there selling their products wholesale... and see retailers buying them. Dallas Market made the candle maker, regardless of size, legitimate. It amused us to see candle makers we knew who were the same size as us filling wholesale orders to retailers we had approached.So, bottom line...you and your products must appear professional. Market centers were too expensive for us, so we quit looking for wholesale accounts. But over the years we have accumulated around 100 through word-of-mouth. HTH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crafty1 Posted January 24, 2009 Share Posted January 24, 2009 great post. i thought about this too. for the wholesale accounts that we currently have, 1 came by word of mouth, another one is my hair stylists (go figure), one came from us participating in a give-away, and the others all came from us doing craft shows. we get approached often at craft fairs for wholesale information so this may be a way to get some wholesale accounts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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