Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hello everyone, I am interested in opening an online shoe and apparel store. I am having trouble finding information on how to go about contacting the manufacturers or wholesalers of these brands. I was told that they usually only sell to brick and mortar stores or only to a limited number of retailers and if they do their minimum orders are pretty high. Does anyone have any insight on this? Any help at all would be great, Thanks!!

IF you are on a shoestring, consider 1 of the following:

1) Wholesale / Dropship "Not direct:

2) Going to liquidation events, buying overstock etc

Would recommend to try and buy direct.

Min orders is expected to be high if bought directly. Most likely over $20k per brand.

Often times, yes you do need a physical location however depending on the zoning you will have to have one either way as commercial shipping and recieving is not permitted in most neighborhoods which is why this requirement is here in the first place.

Most of the time you can easily get a small office or virtual office from like regis for less than $500 a month. You can use this simply for shipments and reciving and work from home.

I recall reading some stuff on shoenet though have not personally investigated this company.

Good luck with your plan.