If you wish to market niche merchandise from your physical store or from your own website, you have to be able to contend with your local vendors. This means locating a provider willing to do business with you at prices that give you enough margin to earn a profit.

The first site to look is locally, you don't have to pay shipping fees for products sent from a provider across country; you could just take a drive by your own car to a local provider for small products or rent a van for larger stuff. Some local providers might even give a cheap or free shipping service.

Wholesale suppliers as a policy do not promote in the mass media such as newspaper or TV and so they are frequently hard to locate. So here are some ideas for finding wholesale sources of niche merchandise for you to sell:

• You can look into your local trade directory, some wholesalers put ads in local trade directories for the items they carry.

• Another site to do your research is on the internet. There are search engines that are wholesale specific and these specific search engines permit you to search for wholesale sources by entering keywords or by browsing categories (related to the items you want to market), into a search bar.

• Almost all providers will belong to a trade union and these trade unions will regularly host trade shows anywhere in the world. So the best site to find out new sources is to visit these trade shows.

• Search for the products you want to market in a local store. Once you locate the product look cautiously at the packaging since many providers give their contact information and usually include their website URL. You can either visit their website or contact them directly to find out how to either buy from them directly, or if that's not possible request them to give you your local wholesaler and ask for the wholesaler's contact information.

As soon as you have a list of probable wholesale sources, you need to discover if they are bona fide companies and are approved by the producers. From a merely business point of view you have to find out their methods, shipping charges, return policies and payment terms.

Once you have found your wholesale source, there is one thing you have to be conscious of; when you buy from a wholesaler you need to purchase in bulk, you cannot purchase individual products. You will concur to buy a set number of products every month and that don't contend with them directly.