How do I contact children clothing vendors in order to resell their merchandise?

Henry M: How do I contact children clothing vendors in order to resell their merchandise?
Becoming a Children’s Clothing E-Tailer

I am interested in opening up a online boutique selling quality children’s clothing. How do I contact vendors in order to resell their merchandise? Do I need to apply for a resale license in order to sell their products on the Web? I have heard some garment manufacturers may drop-ship for me. How to handle returned items?

Answers and Views:

Answer by webanswerguy456
Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer nor accountant, but I do have some experience in retail, and selling online, and drop-ship selling. ( I’m part of Web Retail Group – https://www.webretailgroup.com/ – lots of info there about ways to sell online)

1. You need a sales tax license for your state.

2. You may need a business license in your city/town/municipality.

3. To get in touch with Vendors:
a) I recommend finding the official corporate website of each brand you wish to sell, then find their ‘contact us’, ‘about us’, etc pages until you find a way of contacting them…then do it and tell them you wish to become a dealer.
b) You can go to retail conventions / trade shows — vendors line up to sell you their newest merchandise. Lots of these types of conventions are held in cities across the US like Las Vegas, Chicago, NYC, LA, etc.

4. You may want to try to locate Distributors that carry multiple brands. Some distributors will drop-ship also. I recommend a Yahoo search on ‘distributors childrens clothing brands’:

5. Getting your ‘Ecommerce Website’ setup is another task altogether. You’ll need to get an ecommerce company that has a lot of experience with retailers and drop shippers, and who employs a great web designer or 2! You’ll also want to make sure you can get catalog information and product photos that you can use on your site — get it ready for loading onto your site when the design is ready to launch.

6. Then there’s Internet Marketing (SEO/PPC/Mailers/Search Engines/Social Media/etc) … I’d get the basics down pat before worrying about this too much, but just make sure you get an expert involved!

I hope this helps!