The Benefits of Wholesale and Manufacturers to Vape Shop Owners

I’ll start with the fact that I have a dog in this fight. Obviously I work for Eightcig Wholesale and I do work with Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) on a daily basis. This is not going to impede my objectivity on the subject. I firmly believe that our customers and future customers deserve the best advice and that is what we strive for.

This week we are talking about a hybrid approach to better serve your customers.

Direct from Manufacturer Purchases

Working with your favorite brands is never a bad thing. You stay up to date with what is going on at the company, you can learn about promotional deals or the next marketing campaign. If you have a really great relationship, they might send you the newest items not yet on the market to review or give feedback and Swag, loads of swag and displays to fill your shop with. All great for the shop. The issues of price point comes in here. You might be paying more with Direct from Factory.

Wholesale Purchasing Power.

When you go through a Wholesaler, price points are typically lower. The reason for this is Purchasing Power. A company's Purchasing Power allows them to negotiate for Lower Per Unit Rate when making deals. Think of Wal-Mart, They buy in such mass quantities, they can discount the price of goods, thus passing those savings on to customers. The same principle applies here.

Wholesalers can also help streamline Supply Chain Management. There is no Wholesaler that carries every single vape related item there is. It is pretty close to impossible to accomplish that.

If your Wholesaler carries a majority of the brands you purchase and can hit a wide range of Price Points, that’s probably the direction to go.

Wholesale can’t carry it all.

So you’ve got a Wholesale account, but you can’t get Brands X,Y and Z, why not?

Wholesale at that level has contracts in place that prevent it. Some contracts can be renegotiated, some can not.

You’ve got a wholesaler, But what about Brand X Mods?

Here I would encourage you to develop the relationship with Brand X or sway your newly found Wholesale to looking at carrying it. Sometimes it can be done, depending on the contract terms.

In wholesale, you will see different prices between wholesale competitors. This goes back to the contracts that lock in a price and quantity. Some days you win in negotiations, some days you don’t.

Manufacturers can also help troubleshoot product issues. Most Manufacturers have a staff to walk customers through a wide variety of problems. They have the most knowledge on their products.

It is always in your best interest to cultivate positive relationships with Manufacturers and Wholesalers, between the two you’ll have an invisible team working for you.