Wholesale News & Articles

When it comes to searching for products on the web, no one wants to waste time. Realizing this, the creators of WholesaleCentral.com built, "Wholesale Power Search", a one of a kind service that allows wholesale buyers to search directly within the online stores of more than 1,500 suppliers.

Searching for items using Wholesale Power Search is free, and no membership is required to use the service. Wholesale Power Search is in the light blue box toward the top of the home page of WholesaleCentral.com. All a user has to do is type the name of the item they are seeking into the search box and click the "Find Product," button. The Power Search then searches all registered storefronts for that item and displays all matching products, complete with descriptions, prices, and pictures.

For example, let us say a retailer is looking for flags to sell at an upcoming 4th of July parade. He enters the words, "American flags," in the search box and clicks, "Find Product." On the next page, he will see there are 451 matches for the words, American flags, and he sees listings spanning several pages of all American flag related items, in live wholesale storefronts.

Who is Included?
All of the products loaded into the Wholesale Power Search are offered by suppliers listed in the WholesaleCentral.com directory. These suppliers are pre-qualified and pre-screened by the staff of WholesaleCentral.com, so retailers can search with the knowledge that these companies are legitimate.

WholesaleCentral.com offers a free storefront to all suppliers listed in its directory. Currently about half of the suppliers listed in WholesaleCentral.com are taking advantage of the perk. All items that these vendors add to their storefronts are automatically loaded into the Power Search, which is updated daily. Suppliers who already have their own store outside of WholesaleCentral.com can choose to register their stores and upload their products into the Power Search. These suppliers must upload their items at least once every 60 days, to ensure that the data stays current. Most upload much more frequently, however. The Wholesale Central staff reviews all external storefronts to ensure that they are wholesale sites and that they are listed in English, among other criteria.

Anatomy of Search Results
The Power Search listings contain rich information about each product that helps the buyer to make a choice. Each product listing starts with the name of the item, followed by a brief description, the price, product category, and the name of the company selling the product. When available, the product image is displayed. The item name and the image are both linked directly to that item in the seller's store.

A useful feature is a little link to the right of the seller's name that reads, "show all matches". If a buyer finds an item that they like, they can click that link to see all matching products for that seller. This gives the buyer a better idea of how well stocked a particular supplier is for the type of product they are seeking. Also, if a buyer likes a particular supplier, they can easily see all matches for that supplier.

Paid Advertising
In the column on the right side of the search results page is a list of, "Featured Sellers," of that item. These are wholesalers that paid a premium to advertise in that section.

Maylee Lieu, president of Point Act, which wholesales airsoft guns, said she likes the exposure the Wholesale Power Search feature affords her online store. Wholesale Power Search automatically lists her store every time a buyer searches for anything gun related. She believes the company's sales leads, generated from WholesaleCentral.com are better than the average sales lead because these buyers are looking for specific items and not just randomly clicking around the web after doing a Google search.

Similar to the search for flags, when a buyer types in any of these words, "guns," "airsoft guns," "pellets" or "pistols," one of the featured sellers listed in the Featured Sellers box on the right will be Point Act.

"It has worked out great for us," Lieu said of the company's storefront on WholesaleCentral.com. "We wanted a good presence on the Internet, because it is hard for buyers to find you. If you are featured on this site, it puts you out there, visible, where buyers can see you." Point Act has been on WholesaleCentral.com for more than two years, Lieu said, and the company is expanding its presence on the site.

Craig Weil, president of Accessories Palace, agrees. Weil's company has been with Sumner Communications, the parent company of WholesaleCentral.com, for more than 15 years, and advertises extensively in its publications and website. He likes the fact that there are a lot of vendors listed within a power search that offer the same products, because he likens it to a long hallway with a lot of doors.

"They are buyers who are going to stumble into me down that hallway eventually," Weil said, adding that his site lists hundreds of new and different items per week.

Accessories Palace sells items primarily to dollar stores, and Weil said WholesaleCentral.com helps him add, "about a half dozen new customers per month." The site offers web traffic analysis for the storefronts, which can help vendors track buyers' habits.

The bottom line is that Wholesale Power Search provides a very controlled and monitored environment, which results in a trustworthy and reputable source for wholesale merchandise. Whether you are a wholesale buyer or seller, you should be using this tool to your advantage.

In addition to the Wholesale Power Search, WholesaleCentral.com also offers a search for suppliers by category. Below the Power Search on the home page is a list of over 50 major product categories, from Apparel to Electronics to Watches, and everything in between. Clicking a category lists all suppliers in that category, complete with company descriptions and direct links to their web sites. Finding wholesale products and suppliers is always quick and easy on WholesaleCentral.com.

Contact Information:

Accessories Palace Inc.
1953 10th Avenue North
Lake Worth, FL 33461
Tel.: 561-582-1812
Fax: 561-582-1435
Website: www.accessoriespalace.com

Point Act
122 North 1800 West #5
Lindon, UT 84042
Tel.: 801-796-1088
Fax: 801-796-1089
Website: www.wholesalecentral.com/pointact

WholesaleCentral.com
Sumner Communications
24 Stony Hill Rd.
Bethel CT 06801
Tel.: 800-999-8281 or 203-748-2050
Website: www.WholesaleCentral.com

Article ID: 161