Wholesale Pet Supply Resources
This is where you’ll find pet product wholesalers and websites where you can go to buy a wide variety of wholesale pet business products to sell in your online stores, retail stores, websites or even on eBay. Some of the sites we’ll discuss require you to be a genuine retailer (you may have to submit a resale certificate) and some require minimum orders of $75 – $200. But between them, they offer a tremendous variety of every conceivable pet product out there, all with convenient ordering 24/7 and very competitive pricing. Yes, many of the individual manufacturers listed on some of these sites will, in fact, sell to you directly. But the main benefit of doing business with these resources is the fact that you have so many choices all in one (or just a few) places.
RETAILPETS.COM
Pennsylvania-based RetailPets.com offers retailers quick and convenient access to the newest and most popular pet products. Online ordering features include: Product descriptions, recommendations and suggested retail prices for each item. While the site does sell some food and treats, their specialty is really dog and cat products with an emphasis on toys, which makes sense because Retailpets.com is really the wholesale arm of dogtoys.com and cattoys.com. This site offers good quality graphic images of all the products they sell and encourages buyers to take what images they need to sell products on their own sites. This online wholesale store is a Yahoo! Store and uses the same shopping cart conventions as all the other popular Yahoo! Stores in the Yahoo! Shopping Network. Minimum order is now $75.
Visit RetailPets.com
KINGWHOLESALE.COM
California-based Kingwholesale.com offers a wide variety of pet products, exclusively for dogs and cats with a few horse products thrown into the mix. The thing I love about this wholesaler, in addition to the huge selection, is their low MINIMUM purchase requirement of $25.00. And they pay the shipping costs for most of the orders. But merchandise totaling less than $100 will also incur a $5.00 handling fee. They also have an extensive groomer and health care section as well as a well-stocked book and video area, too. One minor downside is the lack of graphic images for all products and they do not provide a suggested retail price for anything they sell. But if you know what to charge and already have grpahics or can get them someplace else (I suggest going to the individual manufacturer sites), this site is a great resource. International orders must exceed $150.00 US. Shipping charges will be quoted, via e-mail for approval prior to shipment. Visit KingWholesale.com
WHOLESALEPET.COM
Virginia-based Wholesalepet.com represents the new breed of wholesaler set up to service the needs of online pet e-tailers. This site, which is less than 4 years old, has assembled an impressive collection of hundreds of manufacturers as of this writing and they add more every month. The site is easily searchable by product, vendor or category, and includes ready to cut and paste product descriptions with graphics. One of the downsides to ordering from multiple vendors, however, is that even though you can order from all of them in one convenient location, you still have to fill out multiple order forms when checking out. And while prices are supposed to be the same whether you buy them here or directly from the manufacturer, while it’s mostly true, I’ve found 2-3 instances where the product costs were more than going direct to the individual manufacturer. But that minor nit-pik is more than overcome by the tremendous customer service provided by owner Bo Nelson. Dealing with Bo is the main reason why buying through this site is better than dealing with each manufacturer directly. Minimum orders vary by manufacturer but range from a low of $50 to as high as $200. The site also offers a neat forum for posting and interacting with other pet business professionals. Visit WholesalePet.com
PETSUPPLYCLOSEOUTS.COM
Massachusetts-based Pet Supply Closeouts is the real bargain basement KING if you’re willing to buy most goods sight unseen. This family-owned business specializes in selling closeouts, liquidations, surplus and salvage. These are all brand new goods, mind you, but the no-frills site presents a dizzying array of merchandise for all types of pets including fish, birds, hamsters and of course, dogs and cats, with basic text listings. While there are a few photos sprinkled infrequently throughout, for the most part, if you’re not familiar first hand with the products on sale you don’t know exactly what you’re getting. But having said that, I have successfully purchased many items at unbelievable BELOW wholesale prices (for example, 64 oz stainless steel no-tip bowls for less than $2 a piece) without a problem. There is a $200 minimum and a state re-sale tax number or federal ID number is required. Visit PetSupplyCloseouts.com
PETWHOLESALER.COM
A more recent addition to the online pet wholesale mix, New Jersey-based PetWholesaler.com is sort of a “me-too” site along the lines of Wholesalepet.com. The main difference and benefit that I found was the categories for reptiles, birds, aquariums, small animals, horses and, of course, dogs and cats. Easy to navigate and search, the site also requires a resale number as part of the registration process to ensure that only members of the pet trade can participate. This site also provides easy to download product images, suggested retail prices and useful product descriptions. Visit PetWholesaler.com
ROYAL PET SUPPLY
Royal Pet Supply is more of an old school, traditional pet supply distributor. As posted on their website, “Royal Pet Supplies, founded over 55 years ago, is the pre-eminent pet product distributor in the eastern United States. Employing over 400 employees in its 2 locations in Brentwood, New York and Pompano Beach, Florida, Royal Pet Supplies supports independent pet stores nationally.” Royal’s website includes thousands of pet products in all categories but the website is dense and a little hard to navigate. More of a resource for brick and mortar stores and retailers, if Royal doesn’t have a particular product then they can order it for you. If they can’t get it then it probably doesn’t exist. Again, because this company primarily services stores, the web-friendly aspects of some of the other sites like Wholesalepet.com are sorely lacking. And because the company is so big, there’s not a lot of hand holding available. Biggest complaint: the product graphics have “ROYAL” watermarks all over them so you can’t copy them. Ahem…if you’re an online retailer that’s the whole POINT! Access to the site is granted after filling out an application form and faxing it back with proof of sales tax certification and then only after a sales rep is assigned to your account. Visit Royal Pet Supply
GREAT EASTERN PET SUPPLY
Great Eastern Pet Supply is another New Jersey-based distributor that’s been around since 1956. Under new ownership for the last three years or so, Great Eastern offers access to thousands of pet products mostly in the dog and cat categories with some aquarium supplies as well as exotic pet foods. Under the stewardship of owner Bob Rayve, the best aspect of Great Eastern is their ability to drop ship products as well as their friendly and personalized customer service. This is a huge benefit to online stores who do not want to carry inventory. While Great Eastern does have a website, it’s password protected and a bit difficult to navigate. After applying for and getting permission to enter the site, the website is one of slowest websites I’ve encountered in this industry and the search function is essentially worthless. Graphics are also sparse or unavailable and product descriptions and suggested retail prices are non-existent. For traditional retail stores this is a non-issue. Prices are only fair to moderate but again, the biggest benefit to online retailers is their willingness to drop ship. And they do it very well. Visit Great Eastern Pet Supply
PetEdge
Formerly the New England Serum Company, PetEdge’s tagline claims that they’re “Dedicated To Building Your Pet Care Business”. And with their wide selection and low prices, they are! If you already own an existing pet grooming business or vet business or doggie day care business, PetEdge is worth knowing about. While they do sell a variety of discount, private label toys, beds and pet accessories, their real expertise is in selling grooming supplies, clippers, smocks, shampoos by the gallon, combs and brushes. Their aim is to enable pet services businesses to add on additional revenue streams by enabling them to offer private label products to their own. If you’re taking your dog to the groomers, why not buy some dog treats or a toy while you’re there already anyway, right? Their glossy print catalog and easy-to-use website along with their 800 phone number make ordering simple and convenient. The website has ready to use product images and good descriptions but no suggested retail prices. While their prices are very competitive on almost all of their inventory, it’s their private label items that have the biggest profit potential. While there is no minimum order, per se, orders under $60 are accessed a $6.99 processing fee. Based in Massachusetts, the company only charges sales tax to businesses from that state unless orders are accompanied by a tax resale certificate. Visit Pet Edge
CENTRAL GARDEN & PET
A nearly-national pet distribution company that services only pet stores in 41 states, Central Garden & Pet has offices in 7 states and claims to ship 40,000 products from 400 pet supply and pet food manufacturers although their website only lists 9 specific pet product companies. They also offer retailers co-op advertising assistance and other marketing help.
While I personally do not have any experience with this company other than speaking to them briefly by phone and reviewing their website, Central Garden & Pet is well represented at all the national pet trade shows and seems to employ an army of field sales reps and a fleet of over 120 delivery trucks.
The company does not service online retailers and new retail accounts must fill out a detailed application, proof of business license, proof of sales tax resale certificate and even a copy of your driver’s license. Can a urinalysis and blood sample be far behind?. Visit CENTRAL GARDEN & PET
These are just some of the wholesale pet business suppliers we know and recommend. You could literally stock your entire pet store using any one of these wholesale pet business suppliers or develop an entire online pet supply store using a combination of 1 or 2 of the resources listed on this page.