Wholesale UK Suppliers—How To Detect And Sidestep Agents
Agents are a nuisance to sellers in the dropship sales business, particularly when they hide their identities and claim to represent wholesale UK or USA traders. Agents are not paid representatives hired by merchants. They solicit business from sellers in exchange for big fees. They also get commissions from the UK merchant every time they bring in a reseller. This means that the agent pockets commissions from both sides, but the merchant recovers the fee by adding it to the real price. Therefore, the seller loses on two counts: agent fees and purchase price of products. This is reason enough for them to avoid agents and similar scams.
To identify agents, check if they are asking for fees to let you join their programs. Most suppliers who ask for fees are actually middlemen claiming to represent suppliers. UK importers should be particularly careful of overseas suppliers who ask for such fees. Typically, a genuine wholesaler never asks for a fee. Some of them may ask for a small processing fee on every product sold, but you have to be sure they are genuine suppliers and not scam artists. Another way to identify fraud is by checking website ownership in a Whois database; almost all genuine suppliers register websites in their own name and not that of a third party.
One way to avoid scams or agents is to purchase a list. This list should feature only verified dropshippers, not agents. You may have to pay a small, one-time fee to access the list—compiling such lists costs money! However, there are many directories that offer a basic free membership that allows members to use some features. After upgrading to a paid membership, you can use the other features.
By avoiding agents and finding genuine wholesale suppliers , the seller can build a safe, profitable business.