How do manufacturers send me my orders?

Also new here!

Excuse my ignorance, but when I order from wholesaler do the products just arrive in a bag for me to package or will they send matching packaging (jewellery). Also where's a good place to have packaging done with your brand or logo.

Hi Donna and welcome to the forum

That's actually a very good question. I've never seen one that will just dump lose items into a bag for you to package yourself, although it wouldn't surprise me if someone had lol. Typically, products are what they call retail ready, so you can unpack and put them straight on the store shelf with a minimum of fuss.

In regards to branding, that's something you can discuss with the wholesaler. It really depends how the manufacturer themselves send their products to the market. If they come non-branded, then some wholesalers can often do your own branding, but it's something you would really need to speak with the actual wholesaler about. If you can discuss with the actual manufacturer of the products, even better because there would be far more flexibility at this early point.

Cheers

Thanks Marc
All these questions are coming to me now. Originally my husband and I wanted to commission artists to supply specific items which we would brand. Now I have hit the suspicion wall! Interestingly, some wholesalers don't want to deal with you if you are working out of a residence even if you have an ABN etc. They want you to be a company. And the "snooty" factor...."You want our product on an ebay site!?!" I suppose I have to think of myself more as a department store where our brand relates to the store (like David Jones / Harrods or something) and you become known for stocking high quality/interesting or niche items and pay the artist wholesale up front. At the moment, I'm just trying to get some stock together to set up the online store and have something to photograph....Geez! Six week jewellery making course coming up! Let's keep moving forward.....

Hi Donna,

Very true about some suppliers not wanting to deal with you without a bricks and mortar store, that's about protecting the value of their brand. Brand name suppliers do not want their products turning on on an eBay being sold at a discounted rate over a bricks and mortar store because that devalues the products and then makes them hard to sell through the bricks and mortar marketplace.

It creates an environment where the offline sales seem far more expensive to the online, then you have a slowing of offline sales and that can threaten the entire value and distribution of the brand, and that's the last thing a brand name supplier wants.

I like your idea of having items commissioned for your own branding, that shouldn't be an issue at all as to where you sell them as they are your works to sell legally. That said, if you did do that then I would suggest developing your own site, branding it to the image you want your business to present and then using sites such as eBay to drip feed loss leaders through to drive traffic to your site. So using your site as a the money making tool and using sites such as eBay as nothing more than a marketing tool.

Nothing wrong with a 6 week jewellery course lol, Necessity is the mother of invention, but invention is the long lost cousin to success. Link up the family tree, give it a shake and who knows what opportunities will fall from it

: )