Hello to all,

I am Noah and want some tips and advice on verifying wholesale suppliers and distributors.

Hello Noah,

Welcome to Wholesale Forum

Finding a new supplier for your business is a very crucial task. It's all about adding value to your business offer and product line. Before dealing with any supplier, be sure to do your homework and verify that your supplier is reliable, authentic and honest to ensure you are entering a healthy business relationship. Often suppliers found through internet searches are scammers or novices who are not well organised to fulfill your best business needs.

Following are some methods you can use to verify the legitimacy of wholesale suppliers:

1) Check the address and phone number
The easiest way to confirm the legitimacy of a supplier is to check their physical address and contact numbers. All buyers should make personal contact with their suppliers. If this basic initial check fails, scrap the supplier immediately from your list. Reputable suppliers are aware that their physical address and phone number are their #1 business source for dealing with customers, if those details do not check out it means the supplier is trying to conceal.

2) Ask for evidence of incorporation
You should check evidence such as certificate of incorporation and a tax or a business ID number or ABN number. Ask the supplier to send you a high definition document by email. Inspect the document received (zoom it) to check for forgery.

• For checking suppliers based in the UK, you can use Companies House. It provides free basic information on every limited company registered in the UK. This will help you know whether the company exists, is active, still trading or dissolved.
• If the supplier is based in the EU, check the country's national corporations database. You can also use the European Union’s taxation and customs website to check the authenticity of a VAT number.
• If the supplier is based in Australia, then you can use ABN lookup.
• For US based suppliers, see Links to corporate registry websites in the United States of America for a list of US corporate databases by state.

3) Check a supplier’s web domain
Use WHOIS Lookup for Domain & IP Address Research | Whois Source to verify who has registered the supplier’s web domain name. If the contact information provided in the whois website doesn't match with the contact information shared on the supplier's website, ask the supplier for an explanation and evaluate their response.

4) Inspect legitimacy of website information
The supplier’s website should have authentic photos of product inventory. The images should have a path to images from the same domain. If the href path of the images is from a different domain, the real wholesaler is probably from the domain where the images are hosted.

5) Get supplier’s bank account details
Ask the supplier for a bank reference to check whether the company does business with that bank. Always carefully check that the supplier has provided business bank account details rather than personal account details. If the supplier provides you with personal bank account details, you are probably dealing with an individual.

6) Verify supplier's email address
Don't forget to verify the company’s email address. It should be owned by the company. Scammers often use a false email address to impersonate a legitimate company. Contact the company from their official website and ask them to confirm they own the email address from which you are receiving responses.

7) Information about trade shows
Ask the supplier about trade shows they have attended in the past. If they provide trade show references, you can confirm from the trade show organisers or their website that the company has in fact attended those trade shows.

8) Visit major trade shows
Consider visiting the major trade shows in your country. This is a great way to find new contacts and sources, however always beware of middle men, always look for direct sources wherever possible.

9) Check payment terms
Check the payment terms. Until you have established a firm relationship with the supplier, use reliable methods such as credit card payments or escrow. Alternatively, order samples only first, then increase your quantity gradually. Only order for amounts you are prepared to lose.

10) Ask for customer references
Ask the supplier for customer references, for example, satisfied buyers. You can double-check this by contacting those buyers and can ask them for reference company name, contact person, business address and contact number of the respective supplier. This will help you verify whether you are dealing with the company directly.

If you find it difficult to find the best legitimate wholesale distributors and drop shippers, the following websites will help you save lots of time, money and also help you avoid scams.

1) eSources

• Internet's largest database of verified wholesalers and drop shippers.
• Over 110,000 verified wholesalers, drop shippers, branded goods distributors and manufacturers
• Over 3,000 verified drop shippers.
• Over 3,000 new verified sources every month.
• Over 2,000 government auction sources.
• Unlimited research: need even more top sources? Get unlimited research reports based on your requirements.
• Longest established verified directory service in the UK, growing since 2004.
• Free Unlimited eCommerce Websites with free hosting for life included, ready to accept PayPal and Google Checkout payments .
• Free Courses on how to create a successful eBay business (�97 value)
• Free eBay Business Handbook, the ultimate guide to making money on eBay;
• Free eBay Market Research Credits

2. WholesaleDeals

• Over 50,000 verified wholesalers, distributors, importers and manufacturers
• Over 3,000 active low MOQ wholesale deals selling at a profit on eBay and Amazon
• Average markup of deals 300%+

3. WorldWideBrands

• Over 800 verified drop shippers
• Over 8,000 verified wholesalers
• FreeVideo Courses
• Free Weekly Newsletter

To learn more about finding and verifying suppliers see:

• Wholesale Sources - How To Find Verified Wholesalers and Drop Shippers Instantly - Wholesale Forum
• eSources or Wholesale Deals - Which verified directory is best for a starting seller - Wholesale Forum

Hope this helps