Most owners of retail businesses know that the marketplace is very competitive. Even when you find a great product or line of products that are selling like hotcakes, you’ve still got to worry about logistics. This is one of the largest hurdles most retails are faced with as they try to build a profitable business.

The concept of retailing is really very simple. You buy products at a wholesale price that is low enough to allow you to earn a decent profit when you sell it at retail prices. Until recently, the only business people that could enter the retail marketplace were those that had enough capital to buy products in bulk at a low wholesale price, provide a premise, hire staff to receive the products, and have a store to sell the products.

Thanks to the Internet, everything about the way business is done has changed. The Internet has made it possible for individuals to take advantage of various wholesale product sourcing options that make it possible to go into retail without investing large amounts of money to buy products in bulk, rent a store, or hire a large staff. People are now able to get products at good wholesale prices before any actual sales are made.

Retailers that have only limited funds available, like most people that start a business, have the ability to buy products using an option called “light bulk”. Because of the Internet, this option is available.

Retailers that order products in light bulk are able to order small quantities at a decent wholesale price. This option will cost slightly more than if the products were purchased at full bulk, but light bulk pricing is still low enough to allow retailers to compete in the marketplace and make a profit.

At some stage in most retailers’ careers, they will amass an amount of inventory (stock) that simply doesn’t seem to move. It could be that the trend has dried up, the market has moved on, or simply that the economy is badly depressed. Whatever the cause, slow moving stock is a retailer’s nightmare. Not only does it take up valuable storage space, but it is tying up capital and probably losing value too. The worst thing you can do in this sort of case is to dither.

Thanks to the Internet, there is a solution for retailers in this position. They can turn to a company that specializes in purchasing “distressed inventory”. A loss on the original investment is likely, but a retailer can cut his losses and put capital back into the business.

If you’ve simply bought too much of something, you can always approach the wholesaler to see if they will take back some of the product. When you build up good working relationships with your suppliers, it’s often surprising just how helpful they can be.

Finally, to round off our review of the logistics of different wholesale sourcing options and solutions, we must of course mention drop shipping. This is a fantastically useful service whereby you can employ a drop shipper to store and/or deliver product from source directly to your client’s front door. This does away with any necessity for a warehouse or storage facility and also the problem of warehouse staff. It is one of the internet’s greatest solutions that has opened the door to the formation of many online retail businesses trading from home.

Take some time and explore the various wholesale product sourcing options that are available today. They are ready to help you build your own retail business.