I frequently hear from people looking for advice on how to get started in the retail business with a minimum of expense and difficulty. However, the problem is expense and difficulty are precisely the reasons that everyone doesn’t already have a business and so leaving room for those willing to put up the cash and put up with the trouble of launching and maintaining a retail business.

That being said there are ways to get around some of the problems and at least reduce the costs of getting started. There are growing numbers of wholesalers that are doing their best to encourage and support small retail businesses in the belief that by helping others succeed they will be helping themselves as well.

One such wholesaler is Wholesale2U of Yorba Linda, California. On the surface Wholesale2U appears much like other good wholesale supply companies. They offer a wide variety of gift, home and garden products, fashion accessories, and many other items. They offer tremendous discounts on wholesale sized orders as well as, unlike most wholesalers, good prices on single items sold to individuals.

The things that makes Wholesale2u really stand out from other wholesale companies are the many programs they have in place to help fledgling retailers get their businesses off the ground. These include drop shipping, a home party program, mail order catalogs, and a unique, as far as I know, online store rental program. Before we get into the details of these programs let’s take a look at some of Wholesale2u’s many product categories and consider the pricing.

The biggest categories are those containing gift items, Home Décor, Divine Inspiration, and Collectibles. The Home Décor category contains such items as clocks, lamps, and bedroom accessories. Taking a look through the clocks section I was impressed by the fact that their merchandise covered the gamut of pricing from a $9.75 antique styled travel clock all the way up $330 Edward Meyer grandfather clock.

The Inspiration section contains, among many other items, a large collection of appealing angel figurines. I’ve spoken to a number of retailers in the past who have told me that they have done exceptionally well selling just these kinds of things. Angels are very popular icons both among many Christians and New Age practitioners as well. Most of the figures range from around $4 to $10 each wholesale but a few are significantly more.

The collectibles section is filled with merchandise many retailers would love to get their hands on. Some of the highlights include NFL and Nascar merchandise, fairy and dragon statuettes, and Chinese statuettes and vases. All at very attractive prices and in stock.

Now let’s get back to Wholesale2U’s distributor assistance programs. The most unusual of their programs is the rent an online gift shop program. Gift shops are pre-loaded with thousands of products that are displayed on wholesale2u.com. They will set you up with a pre-loaded gift shop and will manage it for you, keeping it up to date with products.

Your company name and what ever contact information on it you want are included on the site, you set your own prices and you’re ready to start selling using Wholesale2U’s shopping cart. They will pay you a commission via a PayPal account. You can keep track all your sales in real time. They will drop ship your orders to your customers. They even offer a special version of this program to assist in school and other organizational fund raising, a very decent thing to do in my opinion.

Most of the other programs, while quite helpful in getting a business going are not unlike those found at many other wholesalers and I advise visiting Wholesale2U’s website for complete details. One piece that particularly caught my eye was an offer for a manual to assist retailers interested in operating a flea market stall. I haven’t seen the manual but I know people looking for just that kind of guidance.

I like any wholesale company that shows a creative approach to helping their customers expand and develop new ways of marketing. I firmly believe that this team approach taken by wholesalers like Wholesale2U makes for a better business environment for everyone involved in the industry.

A final critique though, Wholesale2U’s website has two characteristics that many browsers will find grating but should be overlooked given their many upsides; the first is that many of their pages play tinny and, to my mind, irritating music. There is a control to turn it off but every time you change pages it starts again. The other is an odd bit of animation of a little girl blowing kisses; personally I find it a little creepy. But, as I said, these can and should be overlooked in the quest for good merchandise, excellent prices, and an attitude helpful to your businesses.
Art Micklewraith is a freelance writer and regular contributor to Wholezilla. He can be reached at Content and Solutions or by email at artmicklewraith@gmail.com.