Everyone come across them these days, it's one of my pet hates lol
The term wholesale is no longer used to define a business structure these days, its become a marketing term that many, especially drop shippers use to attract customers.
Of course what's the first thing that pops into your mind when you hear the word wholesale?, it's usually the word cheap or certainly something close. So now everyone wants to use the word wholesale in their title, whether they really are true wholesalers or not.
The truth is there are a lot of drop ship companies that actually use wholesalers to buy from, then of course call themselves drop ship/wholesalers. There is only ever one true wholesaler in a retail link, everyone else are just linking up further down the chain and soaking up margin as they go.
Sometimes there will be so many links in the retail chain that all the margin is actually gone before you even get it to a retail market, that's how crazy it's getting.
Drop Ship and Wholesale are two completely different animals, it doesn't mean that one supplier can't be both, but the structure will be different between the two. Drop Ship price will be set at 1 unit or very small quantities at least. Wholesale will be set at volume purchasing, the more you buy, the better the price.
Of course Drop Shippers ship for you, where as wholesalers ship to you!
Lots of difference, so never be fooled by the term wholesaler, it can mean very little these days. The easiest way to find out of they are a genuine wholesaler, ask for volume pricing and see what you get!
Another quick way to tell, most wholesalers will require a tax id to establish an account, where as drop shippers won't.