Once you?ve placed an order with your chosen wholesale supplier, you?ll have a bit of time before the shipment arrives to determine where you are going to store your newly acquired bulk reseller items. Depending on whether or not you?ve purchased something small (like Italian charm bracelets) or something larger (like computers) will determine on how much space you?ll need for your bulk reseller items. Also, some purchases (like clothing) may come in different sizes or colors which will need an organized space to store everything. Of course, if you?ve used a reputable dropshipper, I?d advise skipping this part of the series and moving on to Bulk Reselling, Part Four: Packing and Shipping Your Wholesale Items. How and where you will receive your wholesale items? They may be loaded on a very large, heavy pallet that needs to be lowered from the back of the shipping truck, or they may be sent in smaller, more manageable boxes. Either way, you?ll need to know beforehand how the bulk wholesale items will be shipped, or else you may have a headache on your hands when the bulk reseller stuff arrives. Once you?ve determined how you?ll receive and store the bulk reseller pieces, the next step is to create a warehousing system to keep all of the ?same? items in one place. This will ease your packing, shipping and inventory management later, so don?t omit this very important step. Make sure to have a home for every different type of item you?ve ordered, and then create a diagram of the grand scheme of things so that you (and your helpers) can easily find everything in seconds. Next, it?s time to create your inventory management system. You could just have a piece of paper and a pen next to your inventory items, with a list as to where items have been sent, but I?d recommend something a bit more technical for your business? sake. Many bulk resellers create their own Excel spreadsheet for this purpose, and others use inventory tracking or auction management software (such as ChannelAdvisor or Andale) to simply the process. Once you?ve completed these time-consuming but crucial steps in the bulk reselling continuum, you are ready to move on to Part Four of this series. |
