What Buyers Expect From A Wholesale Supplier

Every buyer has expectations when they are buying from a manufacturer or a wholesale supplier. While expectations may differ a bit from person to person, most buyers still have the same expectations. The points above are all issues that most suppliers with a bit of common sense should take care of from day 1 or at least as soon as they become aware of the problem. There might be other expectations as well, and as they come to mind, I will try to remember and update this post.

1. Bulk Discounts/Quantity Discounts. Buyers are looking for a trusted supplier for that particular product or product category, who can keep supplying them with that type of product at a competitive price. Quantity discounts are necessary if a buyer is looking to buy in large quantities. You cannot compete with other sellers without quantity discounts. It’s plain and simple.
2. Product quality. Without selling quality products, you may get a sale or even two from the same buyer, but once they realize that your quality always suck, or usually suck, they are gone to the next supplier. Why lose a customer over quality? Nobody likes bad products and dishonest vendors. Work on your quality if needed. Wouldn’t that be nice to know, that your customers are happy and you never have to worry about an angry customer over quality issues? I honestly do not understand why some suppliers would risk this. You cannot succeed in the long run with bad quality products, especially in this new world of online sales and reviews. Bad reviews will ruin your business. Then you start another. That one will go out of business, too. So, learn from it. Manufacture and sell quality products. Are you not the manufacturer? If you are selling products that you don’t make, but the quality is constantly an issue, go to another supplier that can deliver you good quality merchandise, so you won’t have to deal with those ripped off, angry customers. Why would you stay with that supplier?? I have ordered products from suppliers when every 5th item was faulty. It takes time to try to return or get a refund. Many retailers just suck it up, don’t have the time or energy to deal with the frustration of dealing with it. They move on to the next vendor. Great. You made 1 sale…. instead of gaining a returning customer. They spent $1000 with you instead of $50,000. What a deal!
3. On-time Delivery. No buyer likes to place an order thinking they will receive the order in a week, and they end up getting their order in 3 weeks instead. Be honest about your lead time. If, for any reason it takes longer for you to ship the order, let your customer know. They need to fill their stores, and have everything planned out. They may have already got their buyer base excited about their new shipment coming in. Then it doesn’t come… or hired extra people for a certain event. Or, out of inventory because they were counting on the shipment being on time. Being a day or two is ooook (not really, well, sometimes, but not every time), but being weeks late is absolutely not ok. Here, I had this other experience, too… never received the order! Yes. It happened. Happens to retailers way to often, unfortunately… I never received the order. I had to contact the company to ask where half of my order was. They told me matter-of-factly, that, oh, some of the ordered items cannot be made anymore, and the others will take another 3 weeks to manufacture. Are you freaken serious!!!??? How could this happen? Where is my money? Why didn’t you tell me? Why are those products listed on your website? Why didn’t you indicate it on your product listing on your website? Why didn’t you contact me after getting my order? Like they didn’t know this when they shipped me half my order? For crying out loud, people, this is what you do, every day. Don’t do this to your buyers! It will ruin your business! Needless to say, I never ordered from them again, no matter how much I was in love with their product. Nobody and no product is irreplaceable.
4. Customer Service. Did you send out a bad batch of products? Own it. Don’t try to justify it or find fault in somebody else and point fingers. Own it!! Faulty products should never, ever leave the factory floor. Or, if they do, they should be sold as ‘faulty products’. There are buyers who look for these type of products, so they can sell them for cheap. Did you take longer to ship our or manufacture the product for your customer? Apologize. Ideally, apologize and throw in a perk or something. Include an extra item free of charge (won’t break your bank) or send something from your new line as a sample, that they can check out, and possibly order next time they place an order. Don’t be stingy, and your customers will remember. Offer exceptional customer service and your buyers will keep coming back even if you make a mistake.