Wholesale Central Logo The Basics Optimizing Your Account EZFeed: Import Your Products Setting Up a Storefront Marketing Tools

How to Get the Most out of Your Account

The Basics

What is Wholesale Central?

Wholesale Central is the leading online B2B directory of active wholesalers and wholesale products. Buyers can visit the site and browse through over 50 categories to find suppliers that meet their needs. As a member, you are listed in any category that fits your product line. You can link your listing directly to your Wholesale Central profile page, your own wholesale website, or open a free Wholesale Central store.

How will buyers find my company?

There are two main ways a buyer can find your company on WholesaleCentral.com.

  • Category Search: This is the most popular search buyers use to find suppliers. Buyers can click on any of the 50+ categories on the home page.
  • Product Search: There is a product search box at the top of every page on Wholesale Central. Open a Wholesale Central store or use our EZFeed service to add your items to the search.
How to find your company on Wholesale Central

Buyers find your company using a category search, or product search

How is my position determined within my categories?

Category search results are randomized daily. Many categories have companies listed at the top of the page in the Sponsored section. Those are paid advertising spots and are limited to five companies per category. Contact your account representative or call 800-999-8281 for more information.

How do I make my products searchable?

There are two ways to get your products into the Product Search:

  • Open a Wholesale Central Storefront: If you choose to open a free Wholesale Central Storefront, then each item you add to your store becomes searchable within 24 hours of adding that item.
  • Upload a product feed: If you have your own wholesale ecommerce website, you can create a product feed and upload it to Wholesale Central using our free EZFeed service. Information about EZFeed can be found here.
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Optimizing Your Account

Login to your Account Manager

  1. Go to https://www.wholesalecentral.com.
  2. To login click the login button, and choose Supplier Login.
  3. Enter your Username and Password. Click the Auto Login checkbox if you would like to automatically login when you visit Wholesale Central.
  4. Click the Continue button. You will be taken to the Manage Your Account screen.
How to log in to your Wholesale Central account
How to log in to your Account Manager

Update your Listing and/or Link URL

Your Listing Description is the short description that appears below your company name in our directory. Buyers form their first impression based on your listing description. Your description should include information about your company and products, as well as your strongest selling points - things that set you apart from your competitors.

  1. From the Manage Your Account screen, click Your Listing & Link (1).
  2. Edit your listing then click the green Save and Exit button at the top or bottom of the page.

TIP: Write a compelling description

  • Use language that is attractive to wholesale buyers – not retail consumers
  • Establish trust – number of years in business, good customer service, etc.
  • Give the buyer a reason to choose you over your competition
  • Check your listing for correct grammar and spelling

Update your Categories

Being in the correct categories is another important step towards your success with Wholesale Central. All requests for categories must be emailed to us for review and approval. To qualify for a category, there must be a significant presence or description of relevant products on your website or in your storefront.

  1. From the Manage Your Account screen, click Your Listing & Link (1).
  2. Scroll toward the bottom of this page. You will see your current Search Categories displayed.
  3. If you wish to be added to or removed from any categories, click the email link to categories@sumnercom.com and request your changes. We will review your request and add you to any categories for which you qualify.

Category Qualification

In order to qualify for a category, there must be a significant presence or description of relevant products on your website or in your storefront. Delivering quality search results is one of the reasons Wholesale Central is number one in our industry. This is why we carefully review category requests.

Update your Billing Information

It's important to keep your billing and contact information up to date. If you change phone numbers, relocate the business, or have someone new handling your Wholesale Central account, please be sure to visit this section of your account and update all of the necessary information.

  1. From the Manage Your Account screen, click Billing & Contact Information (2).
  2. Make any changes then click the Save Changes button.

Update Your Company Profile Page

Your Company Profile Page is a powerful marketing tool. It is important to fill out your Profile Page completely and add several images, a logo, and other company information. A complete Profile Page will make your business look more professional.

  1. From the Manage Your Account screen, click Your Company Profile Page (3).
  2. Make any changes, then scroll down to the bottom of the page and click Preview. This will display your Company Profile. Verify that all information is correct.
  3. Click the Save Changes button at the bottom of the page.

Click here to learn about our mobile-friendly Profile/Landing Page Upgrade option.

Change your User Name or Password

  1. From the Manage Your Account screen click Username & Password (8).
  2. Follow the instructions on the screen to change your username or password.

View Your Activity Reports

This is an excellent resource for tracking clicks from your Wholesale Central listing and from Product Searches. You can search by date range to spot trends, or search by categories to see where you are getting the most traffic. You can also view clicks from some advertising spots you may be running.

  1. From the Manage your Account screen, click Activity Reports (9).
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EZFeed: Importing Products

EZFeed Product Feed

EZFeed allows you to load your products into the Wholesale Product Search, putting your merchandise in front of the largest audience of wholesale buyers in one single location on the Internet. This free tool is available to members who have a wholesale e-commerce site.

Storefront or EZFeed

If you're using a Wholesale Central storefront, you DO NOT need to import your products. They are automatically included in the Product Search.

Importing your products

  1. Register your store.
  2. Create your product export file.
  3. Upload your file to Wholesale Central.

Your data feed must be a tab-delimited text file. You can manually create a tab-delimited text file using spreadsheet software like Microsoft Excel or export your products from your shopping cart software and edit the file. Each row of the spreadsheet represents one item. Your spreadsheet should have six columns appearing in the following order: Product URL, Name, Description, Image URL, Category, Price.


Sample EZFeed file used for importing products into the Product Search

Product Copy

TIP: Descriptive product names and descriptions improve your chances of being found in the Product Search.

Click here for detailed EZFeed instructions.

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Wholesale Central Storefront

Storefront

If you do not have a wholesale ecommerce website, you can set up a FREE storefront – included with your Wholesale Central membership. The instructions below will take you through the general store settings, as well as adding items and images to your store.

Store Manager

This is the main menu for managing your store. You can return to the main storefront manager page at any time by clicking the STORE MANAGER heading at the top of the screen.

To begin working on your storefront, log into your account. On the Account Manager page, click Your Storefront (4). From the Store Manager, you create your overall store settings and add inventory.

Wholesale Central Storefront

Manage your storefront from the The Store Manager screen

1. Store Setup

This is where you will personalize your store settings - including contact information, payment/shipping methods, some design settings, etc.

  • Payment Methods. Select the payment methods you accept. The Wholesale Central storefront does not process payments. You must provide your own payment gateway service if you wish to accept credit cards.
  • Shipping Settings.
    • Shipping Destination – Select the list of countries that you ship to.
    • Shipping Methods – Select the shipping methods (UPS, Fedex, etc.) you use.
    • Shipping Calculations (optional) – Used only if your store will automatically calculate shipping charges.

TIP: Real Time Shipping Note

The Real Time Shipping option requires you to enter the weight and dimension of each of your products. This calculated, weight-based shipping cost is often very different than the actual shipping cost when shipping multiple items in one box. For this reason, most members prefer to weigh and measure the final package themselves in order to get more accurate shipping charges for their customers.

  • Store Design Settings.
    • Store Directory – Add an About Us page to your store directory to build trust with buyers.
    • Store Header – Add/edit your company information and add your logo or an image. Since HTML is supported in this section you can create a compelling and unique store header.
    • Store Footer – This is a line of text (special instructions, a link, etc.) that appears at the bottom of your store.
    • Home Page Headlines – Add slogans or selling points that will appear on the store's home page.
    • Item Display Layout – Choose how you would like your items to be displayed in your store.
  • Miscellaneous Settings.
    • Minimum Order – Any orders below this set amount will not be accepted by the cart. The minimum order is displayed on the home page.
    • Sort Order for Your Items – You may select if you'd like your items displayed by Name or by Item Code.
    • Items Displayed per Page of Catalog – Set the number of items you'd like displayed on each page of your store.

2. Store Inventory

This is where you will add departments to your store and add and manage all of your items.

  • Department Manager – Organize your items by creating departments.
  • Global Option Manager – Use this to create a particular set of item options (such as size or color) that you can apply to multiple items in your store.
  • Item Manager – See the Item Manager section below for detailed instructions on adding items to your store.

3. Order Forms

This is where you will customize and preview your store's order form. Under Advanced Users you will find the following options.

  • Edit Order Form Properties – You can customize colors and fonts in your order form.
  • Edit Order Form Notifications – Specify the email addresses of people you want to be notified when an order is received.
  • Edit Order Form Header & Footer – Enter any text you want to add to the header or footer of your order form.

TIP: Search

Item Name and Brief Description are used by our product search engine, so be sure to use keywords that buyers are likely to search.

Item Manager

  1. Item Code: This is a number that you choose to identify the item. It could be your existing stock number for that item, or anything else you may choose.
  2. Item Name: The name of the item.
  3. Brief Item Description: The Brief Description displays on the item listing page.
  4. Full Item Description: The Full Description can hold more information than the brief desription. The Full Description displays on the Item Detail page in your store. If you leave this field blank, the Brief Description will appear on the Item Detail page. HTML is allowed in this field.
  5. Item Price:
    • Select Flat Price if the item has one flat price, regardless of quantity ordered.
    • Select Table Pricing if you offer quantity discounts. (ex: 1-5 items, $2 each; 6-10 items, $1.80 each; etc.)
    • Select Fixed Pricing if you sell the item in preset quantities only. (ex: 5 items for $10; 10 items for $18; etc.)
    • Select Call For Price if you prefer not to display your wholesale prices.
  6. Weight: (optional) – If you weight-based shipping calculations, then you must enter a weight for each item. If you use manual shipping, weights are not required.
  7. Dimensions: (optional) – You may choose to enter the dimensions of each item. The dimensions will help make shipping calculations more accurate if you are using Real Time shipping calculations.

    8. Product Search

    Products added to your store will be visible immediately but can take up to 24 hours to be included in the Product Search on the home page of Wholesale Central.

  8. Item Options: You can add options to an item such as color, size, and style. You can create as many options per item as you wish.
  9. Select Departments: Select one or more departments for each item. In order for a department or a subdepartment to appear in your store directory, there must be at least one item in that department. Each item must be assigned a department in order to appear in your store.
  10. Item Images: Click the Choose File button, then locate the file you wish to upload on your local computer. Then click the Upload button. This will upload your image and automatically make a thumbnail image (recommended).
    You may choose to upload your thumbnail and full size images separately if you do not wish to use the automatic thumbnail described above.
    Uploaded product photos must be under 60KB file size. Click here to use our easy image resizing tool.
  11. Feature Item on Homepage: Check this box for any items that you would like to feature on the home page of your store. We recommend that you always have something featured, and that you don’t feature more than 20 items at a time.
  12. Once you have completed the above steps, click the Save Item button.
How to open your Wholesale Central store

When you are ready, make sure you open your store.

Open your store

When your store is set up and you have entered your merchandise, you are ready to open your store. Opening your store makes it available to buyers.

  1. Click the Open Store link at the bottom of the Store Manager page.
  2. Click Yes to confirm opening your store.
  3. If your web site is hosted outside of Wholesale Central, BE SURE to put a link on your website to your store!

TIP: Link Directly to your Storefront

If you use our simple Profile Page for company info and decide to open a Wholesale Central storefront, you can change your link to bypass the Profile Page and bring buyers directly to your store. Once your store is open, here is how to change your link:

  1. From your Manage Your Account page, click on Change your account type: Change from a Local Company Profile Page to an external Link (10)
  2. Paste in the URL for your storefront
  3. Click Change Link Now.

Enter a test order.

  1. Visit your store as a buyer would. Place a small test order.
  2. Every order placed through your store generates an email notification. If you do not receive your test order email, contact us immediately.

Process the order.

In the Store Manager, click Process Orders. Enter a date range and click Show Orders. You will see a list of all new orders. Click each order to see order details.

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Marketing Tools

Deals & Steals

If you have deals, closeouts or special promotions, you can post them on our popular Deals & Steals page for FREE! Deals are reviewed by our staff and posted regularly - usually within 24-48 hours. Deals stay posted for fifteen days at a time. Please keep in mind that in order to qualify for this page, you must post a legitimate special offer, discount or deal, above and beyond your usual wholesale pricing.

  1. From your Account Manager screen, click Post Your Deals (6), fill out the form and submit the deal. If it is a specific product you have on sale – please link directly to that particular product.

Examples of deals:

  • Qualifying: 10% off all orders this week! Use discount code 'DEALS' when placing order!
  • Non-Qualifying: Great prices on hot new items - check us out!

Subscribe to Receive Free Leads

We offer a free Product Locator Service to buyers, in which buyers can email their product requests to sellers in our network. You can subscribe to Product Locator categories and receive product requests from buyers.

  1. From the Manage your Account screen, click Subscribe to Free Leads (7).
  2. Enter the email address where you would like your sales leads to go.
  3. Check the merchandise categories that you sell. Click the Save Changes button at the bottom.
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Still Have Questions About Your Account?

Call our customer support department at 1-800-999-8281 ext. 297