I’ve always liked sports, but I wasn’t really into football or baseball like a lot of other kids. I was more of a skateboarding and BMX bike kind of guy, and my heroes were legendary athletes like Tony Hawk, Steve Caballero, and Matt Hoffman. I remember how excited I would get when I climbed into the car, and my mom would drive me to the local skate shop… or when I got older and started making the voyage out to places like skateparks, emptied swimming pools, my friend’s backyard ramps, and shops that catered to my needs by supplying me with parts and gear. Then a strange thing happened. After a while, I found myself doing the mail-order thing with regularity, as it started becoming really convenient to just tear ads out of skateboard magazines and call the 1-800 numbers to place an order for everything from T-shirts, to sets of bearings for my wheels. Little did I know I was participating in an early form of dropshipping, and the people at the other end of the phone were just playing the part of the wholesaler who was able to offer me the best prices, simply because they had the buying power to locate and move lots of goods for a better rate than the shops in my city. These guys gave me options. They gave me the choice of COD, cash or credit, and there were return policies in place that were really hard to beat. They sent me monthly – sometimes weekly – catalogs, and I always knew what was new or fresh in the skateboarding world, thanks to the timely and informative pieces I would find in the mailbox every few days.

Me, doing what I did best in 1987. Ollie-kickflip off a loading dock.

This was before the advent of the Internet as a consumer forum, ladies and gentlemen. This was before twitter, facebook, and the countless other streams of consciousness that we find ourselves plugged into on a daily basis. The companies that were getting my business – and the business of thousands of other young skateboard punks like me – were doing it the right way; by keeping me informed, connected, and interested in what they had to say. They gave me relevant information, in a language I could easily understand. I wasn’t inundated with random snippets of data that simply meant to lure me to haphazardly buy, and they presented themselves as believable and tangible outlets that I could even go visit someday, if I were so inclined. Pretty powerful stuff, in terms of making your customer feel like a part of your world… and it worked for years, as I continued to skate or ride BMX well past my college days. If I had not felt like there was a large and connected community of people supporting guys like me, I probably would’ve quit after high school. These sellers got an additional five years out of me simply by giving me a forum, and being there when I needed them. They alerted me to changes in the market, and they often kept me entertained as well.

Is business any different today? Sure, we’ve got a faster pace to deal with, and an endless torrent of information that clogs up our email inbox every morning when we hear the dreaded startup of our PCs over that first cup of coffee… but in the end, it’s the same old thing as those heady days of finding some new spot to practice tricks and hang out with friends… it’s all about giving the customer what they need, in terms of bringing them together into a familiar and cohesive environment that gives them a voice. Are you doing the same thing for your customers? Do you make the most of your channels of communication, to present the most relevant and interesting news to your customers? In the world of wholesale, you can cast a wide net and hope for the best… or you can increase your economy of movement, so to speak, and improve efficiency by addressing your customers directly with the things they want to hear. Vertical search engines like Toptenwholesale.com and Manufacturer.com can lead you to the best starting points when you’re trying to locate general merchandise, apparel, accessories, gifts, electronics, handbags, jewelry, toys, and more. There are literally thousands of domestic and international buyers who are waiting for you to make the call, and connect with them to form partnerships that lead to great successes as you Find it. Source it. Profit!