Distribution

What is the quickest way to get more distribution in convenience stores and supermarkets?

Easy, Get better products. Don’t be a market maker; remember you are not in the distribution business to launch products with your own money. You are in it to use other’s money to launch products and once they are proven sell them yourself.

When you see a new product ask about their sales in supermarkets or pharmacy, ask who else has distribution and then ask how much they are spending in advertising of the product in TV, Radio or Print.

That’s a good start!


Thanks,


Jorge Olson

How to Choose Your Wholesale Products

What type of Wholesale Business is the best for you? It really depends of many factors including what you like, your capital, abilities, time and more. You should start by deciding the types of products you would like to wholesale and distribute. To do this you can look at business models, pricing structures, and distribution options. Now, to start, you should just “look around” and find products you like.Think of any product that you might have in your home right now.

Chances are good that it went through the wholesale process unless it was made by hand and given directly to you from that person that made it. If you’re thinking about getting into the profitable business of wholesale distribution, it can help to understand that types of distributors there are and where you might be able to fit in.

One of the fastest growing markets is the health and beauty distribution. Everyone needs certain health products on a daily basis, and stores need to be able to provide these goods at lowered prices. You might want to focus your efforts in this area when you’re first beginning a wholesale business. Not only are these kinds of products inexpensive to purchase, they are also in high demand on a consistent basis. You will also find that they are easy to transport and that you will be able to manage them without a large truck or warehouse. These products are also much easier to mark up in terms of price, while can lead to larger profits for you.

Electronics has always been a great wholesale distribution market as everyone wants the latest in consumer goods. When you look at things like video games and personal electronics, these items tend to be quick sellers, even when they’re not new. Whenever a new item comes into the market, consumers flood to get their hands on it. You can use this to your advantage. By realizing that electronics will never be a fading trend, you can start focusing your efforts on a certain category of electronics – personal digital music players, for example – and keep a wholesale business running based on that knowledge. Even those that aren’t interested in buying the newest models will want to have the technology that everyone else has, but offer it to their customers for a lower price.Another good market for wholesale distribution is nutrition.

Creating a wholesale business that focuses on nutritional supplements or gadgets is a clear winner as people are more interested than even in making sure that they are healthy and fit. And these kinds of items aren’t limited to nutritional stores anymore as well. Even your local gas station is now carrying the latest energy drinks so that travelers can get a little boost of energy. And you can make sure to cash in on that trend.The truth of the matter is that if there is a product that you like, there is generally a distribution market for it. Take some time to look around you favorite stores to see what kinds of items are in demand and what you might be able to offer them. You may be surprised at what is missing from the market place and where you might be able to help fill these kinds of gaps.


Jorge Olson is a consultant, speaker and entrepreneur and owns several Wholesale Distribution companies. His latest Website teaches you step by step how to get started and make money in Wholesale Distribution. You can find it at http://www.LearnWholesale.com

Business Development Beverage Trip to Mexico

Please join us on a Business Development trade Mission to Mexico City to explore new business opportunities and close deals.

See the full Agenda at: http://www.mexicobeverage.com/index.php?pr=Trip_to_Mexico_Dec._06

Date: December 7-10, 2006

Investment: $1,850 plus airfare

Last Day to Pay: November 15th


Investment includes 5 star accommodations at a beautiful boutique hotel in Mexico City, all food and beverages, transportation in Mexico City via private chauffeurs and all conferences, meetings, consultants and tours.

What’s not included? Airfare and any alcoholic drinks.


Description

This Trade Mission will get you in the middle of the action of the wholesale distribution and export business in Mexico and Latin America.

It is not your traditional seminar. It’s a business opportunity trip; a hands-on learning experience where you can not only learn but also close business all in the same trip.

You will learn how to export to Mexico and be introduced to retailers, wholesalers and distributors as well as brokers, consultants, lawyers, accountants, merchandisers, promoters and every person you need to do business in Mexico.

See the full Agenda at: http://www.mexicobeverage.com/index.php?pr=Trip_to_Mexico_Dec._06

Wholesale Distribution eBook now gives you more

Now the ebook on how to start a wholesale distribution business gives you 2 free directories of suppliers with purchase.

Visit www.DistributionBusiness.com to find out more about the eBook.

Wholesale Distribution Business

Start your own Wholesale Distribution Business

I get many questions about how people can start their Wholesale Distribution Business. How to get customers, how to search for suppliers.

Now you can learn everything you need to learn from this informative website. Subscribe to the newsletter to get articles, reports, and suppliers.

www.WholesaleDistributionBusiness.com

Export and Sell Your Products To Mexico By The Truckload

How to Export to Mexico

Copyright © 2006 Jorge Olson

Selling products to Mexico is easier than ever. Mexico is the #1 importer of US products in the world. There is a need for all types of products including food, beverages, electronics, cars, tools, candy, toys, clothing, everything.

Mexicans are so eager to buy that they come to the USA looking for products instead of waiting around for someone to call them and sell them something. They visit US trade shows, organizations and many companies. I constantly have someone in San Diego visiting from Mexico to speak with me on how they can find products of all kinds to export.
Who’s looking for products? Mainly wholesale distributors and retailers. They are looking for products to sell in retail stores or to other distributors in Mexico, most of the time they will buy truckloads of product and export them to Mexico themselves, handling the shipping, imports and tariffs.

Why do they do this? Why are they so eager to buy US products? Simple, they don’t have Mexican made products they can sell and they want to be the first to carry a new American product. They know if they are the first to market with a new product they can make a lot of money very fast. After that they just restock their customer’s shelves.
The big question I’m asked by my consulting clients is: how do I get started exporting to Mexico?

To export to Mexico you can be passive or active. You can go after the business or wait until they come looking for you, and believe me, if you have a good product, eventually they will.

---Passive Approach---

The passive approach to getting business is to make sure Mexican businesspeople can find you. Here are a few tactics on how to reach exporters:

-You have to make sure your products are in US trade shows. You don’t have to go yourself, maybe a customer sells at trade shows or you hire a broker that goes to trade shows.
-Make sure all your products and sales materials have an international phone number (not just a USA toll free number) as well as an email address. This includes your website, product labels, business cards and brochures.

-Have the right information ready. Make sure you already know what your international price will be. It’s usually much lower than your US price, especially if they will pay the export fees and transportation. You also need all the product specifications like weight, dimensions, case count or pallet count.

---Active Approach---

If you are serious about selling to Mexico and would like to do it NOW you have to be more active. You can’t just wait for people to find you because it can take months or even years if you don’t have any promotions in the marketplace.

The first thing you have to do is learn more about your target market. How much are people paying in Mexico for your product or a similar product? How much are they paying to import and transport those products? What are the profit margins for the distributors and retailers? Where could you sell your products? How many stores are there in Mexico?

Once you learn more about your target market and you develop your price strategy it’s time to find customers. Visit Mexican trade shows, look for US distributors already selling in Mexico and find brokers.

After you educate yourself a bit more on the Mexican marketplace you also need to determine what kind of support your new found customers will need in Mexico. Do you have a product that sells itself or do you need store promotion, POS (Point of Sale) material, sales commissions, or some other support.

Many times my customers tell me “I just want to sell my product in the USA and someone can export it, sell it, merchandise it and distribute it”. Well, this is possible. I’ve helped companies sell products like mayonnaise, water, margarine and other products that sell themselves in this fashion. But if your product is not a “first necessity” product or name brand, chances are you’ll either have to do some promotion or give a very good price to distributors and importers.

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Jorge Olson is a Wholesale Distribution Consultant and can help you sell your products in the USA to Distributors and Retail Stores and export them to Mexico by the truckload. His latest eBook teaches you step by step how to get started and make money in Wholesale Distribution. You can find it at http://www.DistributionBusiness.com You can learn more and contact him at http://www.DistributionBiz.com.

Jorge's Specialty is Beverages, check out his Beverage Sales and Consulting page at www.LiquidBrandsManagement.com

Wholesale Distribution: How to Start a Sunglass Distribution Business

Copyright © Jorge Olson 2006

-----Business Overview: Distribute Sunglasses to Convenience Stores, Supermarkets and Clothing Shops full time or part time.-----

---What do you need to get started?
#1 You need sunglasses. You can’t do it without sunglasses!
#2 You could use displays but you don’t really need them to start. These are sunglass displays that hold from 12 to 50 sunglasses. They can be quite expensive so you might as well start without them, at least for now.

---How much are the sunglasses?
Your cost for these sunglasses is about $1 and you can sell them from $2 to $6 depending on where you are in the country. You also have to consider if it’s sunny all the time in your town. For example, I live in San Diego where it is sunny even in winter so you can sell sunglasses year round and sell a lot more in summer. On the other hand, it’s a large city and a lot of people sell sunglasses here. I sold them anywhere from $2.50 to $6.00, depending on the style and the type of store.

---How much money can you make?
This depends on how much time you have and how much money you want to make. If you are only working weekends you can only manage a few customers per week. With sunglass accounts you have to visit them once a week to every three weeks, depending on the population of your town, how sunny it is in your part of the world and the size of your customer’s stores.

This is a good rule of thumb. If you only sell sunglasses you will be able to visit at least 20 stores per day if they all buy merchandise with a maximum of 35 stores per day. This is normal for a route type of business like this one. Believe me, 35 is not a lot of stores. Once you get to your route all the stores are in the same street or a few blocks away from each other.

So let’s say that you only work on Saturday and you visit stores once per week during summer. If you sell an average of just 8 sunglasses per store in just 20 stores you will sell 160 sunglasses. If you sell them at $3 a pair, buy them for $1 you will make $2 a pair or a total of $320 for one day of work.

Want to make more? Then work more days! Sell other products, you can easily sell $1,000, $2,000 or more per day and you could make 30% to 50% profit.

---Benefits of selling sunglasses

-You don’t really need to buy displays from the start. Many stores already have their own displays.
-Sunglasses are very inexpensive and they have a huge mark-up.
-If you give good service you will keep customers for a long time.
-Sunglasses are small so you don’t need a van or truck. You can use your car.
-You don’t need any storage or office either. You can keep a few hundred sunglasses in a small corner of your house or even in the closet.
-Shipping is not expensive because sunglasses are very light.

---Learn more about the business of Wholesale Distribution

If you want to start a Sunglass Distribution Business or any Wholesale Distribution business you have to learn more about the whole business of wholesale distribution. How to sell to convenience stores, to supermarkets, how to export, import, merchandise and price your products.

On each article I will give you a great new resource to learn more about Wholesale Distribution. On this article I recommend that you learn more about DSD. DSD is the concept of delivering directly to the stores and giving them full service. The following website is a free resource that explains in detail the world of DSD.

http://www.DirectStoreDelivery.com
Direct Store Delivery or DSD is the concept of delivering your wholesale products directly to stores instead of drop shipping or sending truckloads. DSD means you provide service and merchandising. This page explains in detail what DSD is as well as the 2 main types of DSD.

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Jorge Olson is a consultant, speaker and entrepreneur and owns several Wholesale Distribution companies. His latest eBook teaches you step by step how to get started and make money in Wholesale Distribution. You can find it at http://www.DistributionBusiness.com

News from the Beverage Industry, new sodas

Copyright © 2006 Jorge Olson

Jolly Rancher Soda is a new beverage derived form the very popular Jolly Rancher Candy. Jolly Rancher Soda is currently available in 5 flavors: -Green Apple -Raspberry -Watermelon -Grape
-Orange It comes in 20 oz plastic bottles, 24 to a case.

You can find photos and specifications at http://www.NewSodas.com

The soda truly smells and tastes like Jolly Rancher Candy. All you have to do is taste it and you’ll be hooked. From the moment you open it you get the smell of the candy. It brings back memories! Jolly Rancher has been around since 1949. Almost everyone remembers the candy from their childhood. Some of us still buy it today.

You can find the new beverage in convenience stores across the USA although not every city has them right now. If you have questions or would like to comment about the soda there is a blog available at http://www.newsodas.com/JollyRancherSodaBlog.html

-About the Beverage Industry and Sodas---

The soda industry has become stagnant while the new age beverage category (energy drinks, flavored waters) is exploding and still growing at double digit numbers. This new trend to launch not only new sodas under an existing name brand is working, especially in this case where the name brand is one of the oldest and most recognized in the candy industry like Jolly Rancher.

In our taste tests kids were attracted to the vivid colors and sweet taste. Adults immediately recognized the name brand and most of them expressed their delight when they saw the product. They could not believe their eyes, a new product from their favorite candy. Jolly Rancher soda is already available for national distribution and you can contact the phone number below for more information.

For distributors and retailers the largest advantage is the name brand recognition. “It’s an instant name brand” said Carlos Lopez of NewSodas.com, who currently markets the brand for the manufacturer. Distributors automatically know what it is and recognize the brand. Even if they have not seen the product they immediately want to carry it. They see the power of the name.

NewSodas.com is currently marketing and selling Jolly Rancher Soda to Retailers and Beverage Distributors. NewSodas.com is part of Liquid Brands Management, Inc., a Marketing and Consulting firm helping beverage companies sell more beverages through distributors and retail accounts in the USA and in Mexico. Please visit http://www.LiquidBrandsManagement.com Jolly Rancher Soda Contact Carlos Lopez Phone: (619) 921-3124 Email: Carlos@NewSodas.com http://www.NewSodas.com


Jorge Olson is a consultant and entrepreneur. He’s worked with small businesses and Fortune 500 companies all over the world helping them with Marketing, Sales and Strategy. Visit his company at http://www.DistributionBiz.com

Wholesale Distribution Warehouse Programs to Retail Chains

Warehouse Program Advantages

I was asked by one of my customers about the advantages of Warehouse Programs.

In Wholesale Distribution, a Warehouse Program is when you sell directly to a large retail chain by the truckload without using distributors or delivering products to each store.

Warehouse Program Advantages
The single largest advantage of this program is that you don’t need distributors or your own distribution infrastructure. You use the customer’s infrastructure, trucks, and employees.


Thanks,


Jorge

Wholesale Sales to the final user

Profit from selling your wholesale products to offices, warehouses and other businesses.


Not all products are sold in order to resell them. Your company might sell and distribute products to businesses so they can use them in their operations. You might sell products like paper, ink, tape, janitorial equipment and many more products. Even if you sell to retail stores you could still take advantage of selling some of the same items directly to businesses for their use. Probably the only difference is that you will have to collect taxes from the sales. Otherwise it will be just another delivery or another stop in the route.

Take advantage of this type of distribution even if it’s not your main business. You can have some extra stops on your route or sell full pallet loads of product to other businesses for their use.

What is a Wagon Jobber?

What is a Wagon Jobber?


Hi,

One of our blog readers asked me yesterday:

What is a Wagon Jobber?

A Wagon Jobber is a wholesale distributor that sales to convenience stores like a 7-11, a gas station or liquor store. Some sell to larger stores like supermarkets. They are called wagon jobbers or rack jobbers. They are distributors going from one account to the next selling their products to these stores.I hope this answers your question.

Thanks,


Jorge Olson

Wholesale Distribution profit per store that you visit...

Wholesale Distribution Business: How many stores can I visit every day and how much can I make per visit?


Today I was asked how many convenience stores can be visited as a wagon jobber or a wholesale distributor. This is an important question because it can determine how much money you end up making at the end of the day. If you can profit $30 per store with a $100 sales and you visit 10 stores you make $300 that day.

The answer depends mostly on how much time you spend per store. I should not depend on how many stores you have or how far apart they are. If you have a route stores should be close together. If they are not the problem is not the route, it’s you. You have to open more stores next to the ones you already have.

A typical route should have at least 15 stores and could have up to 30 or 40 stores. Seem like many? Well, think about it. If you have 8 full hours in a day and you spend 20 minutes per store you can visit 20 stores in 6.6 hours and have the rest of the time to drive back and forward from the rout and between stores (stores should be very close to each other). This is assuming you sold in every single store. If you had some quick sales or you could not sell anything in a store you could visit even more stores.

OK, so let’s say you visit 20 stores per day, sell only $100 of your products per stores and profit just $30 per store. You end up with $600 profit for that day. That’s not bad! Do this just 5 times per week and you’re making a cool $2,500 per week and $10,000 per month. All with just $30 profit per store!!!


Thanks,


Jorge

What is a Cash and Carry?

What is a Cash and Carry?

Cash and Carry businesses are stores that buy at wholesale prices and sell mostly to very small wholesale distributors or wagon jobbers and to small retail stores like liquor stores or gas stations. They have a warehouse or store front where customers drive up and buy their products. They usually don’t deliver any products.

Cash and Carry’s sell most of the items you find in convenience stores. If it’s a large cash and carry they will have good pricing on imported items and even name brand items from companies like Proctor & Gamble or Bic. They usually don’t have the best prices for food and beverages.

Thanks,


Jorge Olson

Sell $20,000 per month on eBay

Article...


How To Sell $20,000 Per Month on eBay selling at Wholesale Prices

Copyright © 2006 Jorge Olson

First of all let me tell you selling on eBay is easy, but it takes time or money. eBay has fees that you have to pay and if you want to grow quickly you will spend a lot on fees while you are learning.

My wife had an eBay business and she was a Gold Power Seller selling more than $20,000 per month. She sold mostly watches, lots and lots of watches. She sold them wholesale, by the dozen or by the case, 30 to 60 at a time. They were inexpensive watches; we paid from $2.50 to $4.00 for each one and sold them from $3.50 to $12.00 depending on the quantity purchased.

All of the techniques and suppliers we used are included in my eBook or in my exclusive newsletters you get as a free bonus when you buy my eBook.
When selling on eBay there are several tricks. Let me tell you the 3 tricks I think are the most important.

Trick #1: Build your reviews. Your reviews are your lifeline on eBay. You need to build your reviews so people trust you and want to do business with you. If they don’t trust you, you won’t sell anything on eBay. When you start you will have to offer good deals, free shipping or great communication. I always encouraged people to call me on the phone and ask questions by posting my phone in every listing. I didn’t get a lot of calls but I did get a lot of reviews.

Trick #2: Make big margins. You need those margins. You can’t buy something for $10 and sell it at $12, not even at $15. The listing fees alone will eat you. Remember, you have to pay a listing fee, you have to pay a fee if you sell the product and on top of that you pay PayPal when you collect the money. You could easily pay up to 10% or more of your selling price. This could be your entire profit. If you use any special listings to showcase your product you could be looking at $20 extra per listing category. So again, don’t try to make it on volume, try to make it on big margins. The best things to sell are either unique items or collectibles, name brand items that people are looking for like iPods, or hard to find items or imports.

Trick #3: Make more money on shipping. When my wife sold on eBay about 80% of our profit was made from shipping charges. We kept our product prices low so they attract the buyer and charged a bit more on shipping. People understood and they always got a great deal. For us it was a no brainer. eBay does not charge you any fees on your shipping charges, just on the selling prices.

The funny thing is we only sold wholesale on eBay. And it seemed we were the only ones really selling wholesale. Most people selling at “wholesale prices” were selling at about 3 times what we could get any of their items.

Many of our customers had eBay stores, others had convenience stores or gift stores, many of them had other businesses and wanted giveaways for their customers.
This is only a small example of what you can do with Wholesale Distribution. And believe me, it’s not the most profitable one or the easiest to start. In my eBook you will find cheaper, faster ways of getting started in wholesale distribution and make even more money than what I made on eBay. I made much more from my other wholesale distribution businesses than what I made on eBay and I worked less too.


Jorge Olson is a consultant, speaker and entrepreneur and owns several Wholesale Distribution companies. Visit his consulting website at http://www.DistributionBiz.com His latest Website teaches you step by step how to get started and make money in Wholesale Distribution. You can find it at http://www.LearnWholesale.com