How to email a wholesale distributor or brand (copy-paste templates)

Every template on this page is written to be copied. Swap anything in square brackets for your own details, read it once out loud, and send it from your business address. Where a template says [Signature], use the full signature line from the first one. Short and specific beats long and polished.

Before you send anything

A distributor's new accounts team reads your first email the way you would read a stranger's invoice: quickly, and looking for a reason to trust it or toss it. Have these in place before the first message goes out. Our guide to opening a wholesale account covers each one in detail, including what applications ask for.

Amazon's own guide for wholesale sellers points the same way. It is worth reading before you start, because it also says who you should be buying from.

Not sure who to email yet? Our guide to Amazon wholesale suppliers covers where distributors are and how to vet them, and the Distributor Vault lists US wholesale distributors by category. Every subscription, trial included, opens 3 US wholesale distributors from the Distributor Vault when it starts and 3 more each month. Yearly billing, on Starter and Pro, opens the whole Vault at once.

First email to a distributor

This is the email you will send most often, so keep it short enough to read on a phone. A distributor wants to know four things: are you a real business, what do you sell, what do you want from them, and how do they reach you.

In Apex University, Stef calls this your pitch, and says you will repeat it to every supplier:

"Having a pitch also ready helps a lot. This is something you're gonna do on a repeat basis. You're gonna reach out to suppliers, and you're gonna tell them the same story on and on. 'Hi, my name is so and so. I work for this company. I'm trying to open up a wholesale account to buy your products in bulk.'"

From Stef's lesson (The Checklist, at 5:59)

Here is that pitch as an email.

Why it is built this way:

• The subject line says what you want. "New wholesale account" gets routed to the right person. "Partnership opportunity" gets skipped.
• Naming their brands shows you did your homework. Pick brands that are actually on their line card or website, and that you have checked on Amazon.
• One ask, not five. The application is the door. Minimums and terms tell you whether the door is worth walking through. Everything else (pricing, MAP, shipping) comes once you have an account.
• Amazon is mentioned once, directly. The next section explains why.

If a distributor only takes applications through a web form, fill in the form, then send this email to the sales address anyway with "Application submitted" at the start of the subject. A form submission with no human behind it is easy to lose.

First email to a brand

Brands come in two sizes for this purpose, and they need different emails.

Large manufacturers sell to big distributors by the truckload. You are not going to open an account with them, and you don't need to. What you want is the name of a distributor you can buy from. This is the approach Stef teaches in the Finding Suppliers lesson:

"Our objective is not for us to have an account with Unilever or Johnson & Johnson. ... But the objective is for the manufacturers to give us a list of their distributors."

From Stef's lesson (Finding Suppliers, at 3:45)

Smaller and mid-sized brands often sell direct to retailers, or have a short list of partners. Here the ask is an account, or the name of the partner who handles accounts like yours. A brand that already has several sellers on its Amazon listings has at least tolerated marketplace resellers so far. A brand that sells only on its own website may not want you there at all, and it is better to find that out in the first email.

The lesson that goes with this section walks through how brands, distributors and wholesalers connect, and where to find each of them.

The lesson is part of Apex University, which comes with a free Apex account: nine lessons, no card.

Answering "do you sell on Amazon?" honestly

Sooner or later a distributor or brand asks this, often on the application itself. There are two ways to get it wrong. Leading with "I'm an Amazon seller" before you have shown you are a real business can make you sound like a hobby rather than a business. Hiding it, then listing their products anyway, is worse: if their terms don't allow marketplace sales, you find out after you have paid for the stock, and you can lose the account.

So say it once, early, and pair it with the things a supplier actually worries about: prices that undercut their other retailers, messy or duplicate listings, and damaged or doubtful goods sold under their brand name.

Only promise what you will actually do. If you can't commit to a pricing policy you haven't seen yet, say "we'll follow your pricing policy once we've read it" instead. A supplier remembers the promise, not the template.

If the answer comes back "we don't sell to Amazon sellers", ask one follow-up question: is that the distributor's policy, or the brand's? If it is the distributor's, another authorized distributor may be fine with it. If it is the brand's, that brand is probably not one to build on, whoever you buy it from.

Follow-up emails

Plenty of first emails get no reply. That is normal, and it is not a no. New accounts inboxes are busy, the person you wrote to may have moved on, and some addresses only send an automated reply. Stef is direct about this part of the job:

"Yes, you do have to reach out to lots of companies, and you're going to get denied, and you're gonna keep being persistent and start building out relationship with suppliers and sales reps."

From Stef's lesson (The Game, at 5:12)

Here is the rhythm we suggest. It is a sensible default, not a measured response rate.

A closing note sometimes gets the reply the first two didn't, because it asks for nothing. Either way, it leaves the door open for a second try in a few months, when you have order history to point to.

If all you get is an automated reply, don't send the same email again. Call the main number and ask who handles new retail accounts, or look up the company's sales or account managers by name on LinkedIn and write to one of them directly. A person can forward your email. An autoresponder can't.

Keep a log. Once you are writing to twenty or thirty suppliers, you will forget who you followed up with. A spreadsheet works: company, contact, date sent, next follow-up, status. If you use Apex, each supplier gets a record in Apex Blue with its rep, minimums and lead times.

Asking for a letter of authorization

Ask the brand for a letter of authorization, not the distributor. Our guide to the letter of authorization for Amazon explains why, with Amazon's own pages, and covers what the letter should say and what it does not do for you. This section is the email that asks for it.

Timing matters more than wording. A brand is more likely to say yes when you already buy its products through one of its authorized distributors, because you are already part of its sales. Asking a brand you have never bought from for a letter is asking a stranger to vouch for you.

The points in the "Ideally the letter" paragraph are the ones our letter of authorization guide walks through, with a link to Amazon's own page, so check them there before you send. The same guide explains the Reseller role in Brand Registry and what it lets you do. The Brand Registry line is optional, so leave it out if the brand isn't enrolled.

When they say no

You will hear no more often than yes, and that is fine. The trick is to treat a no as a lead. A distributor that won't sell to you often supplies smaller wholesalers who will, and in Stef's experience they are usually glad to tell you who. This is the move he teaches for a rejection:

"See, this company is going to deny you, and you're going to ask them, 'Okay, if I can't buy from you, who can I buy from? Who do you supply?' And they're going to give you a list of their distributors. And that's how we turn negatives into positives in this business."

From Stef's lesson (Finding Suppliers, at 8:59)

Match your reply to the reason you were given:

Keep every no in your log with the date and the reason. A distributor that said no to a brand-new business may say yes to the same business once it has some order history.

A short phone script

Email is where the paperwork happens, but a two-minute call often gets you to the right person faster than three emails. Call during business hours in the distributor's time zone, have your log open, and keep it brief.

1. Get to the right person

   "Hi, this is [Your name] with [Business name]. I'm calling to open a wholesale account. Who handles new retail accounts?"

   If you reach a receptionist, that is all you need to say. Ask for the person's name and direct email before you are transferred, in case the call drops.

2. Say who you are in one breath

   "We're an online retailer in [City, State], selling [category] products, mainly through the Amazon store. We'd like to carry [Brand 1] and [Brand 2], and I sent an email about it on [date]."

3. Ask three questions

   "What's the best way to apply? What's your minimum opening order? And what payment terms do you offer new accounts?"

   Write the answers in your log while you are on the call.

4. Leave a voicemail if no one picks up

   "Hi, this is [Your name] from [Business name], an online retailer in [State]. I'd like to open a wholesale account for [Brand]. You can reach me at [Phone], and I've sent the details to [their email address]. Thank you."

   Say your number slowly, twice.

5. Send the email the same day

   Reply to your original thread: "Thanks for your time on the phone today. As discussed, here is our information..." Attach anything they asked for. The call opens the door; the email is what they file.

After they say yes

Your first emails as a customer matter as much as your first email as a stranger. Two requests are worth making before your first order, and a third once you have a few orders behind you.

Ask for the price list in a format you can work with. A spreadsheet with UPCs, case pack and unit cost lets you check every line against Amazon at once instead of product by product. Our guide to analyzing a wholesale price list covers what to do with it once it arrives.

Ask what the paperwork will look like before you pay. Your invoices are your record of where the stock came from, and their details are easiest to get right before the first one is printed. Our guide to Amazon's ungating invoice requirements covers what Amazon looks for on an invoice. This email asks your supplier the same questions while the answers are still easy to change.

Ask about the products they don't list. A distributor's catalog isn't the edge of what it can get. Stef's lesson makes the point:

"Some suppliers may carry a brand and have only two SKUs from that brand. But you're looking for the other four that they don't have in their catalog. You ask them about it."

From Stef's lesson (Finding Suppliers, at 21:40)

Once you have a few orders behind you, the conversation turns to price and terms. That is a different set of emails, and our guide on how to negotiate with distributors covers it.

What a distributor sees in your first email

It helps to read your email from the other side of the desk. The person opening it handles new accounts all day, and has no way to know yet which emails will turn into orders. Stef describes what that means for a beginner:

"Setting up a professional email is also a mandatory thing to actually succeed opening wholesale accounts. These distributors are receiving hundreds of applications per month, and they're filtering out anybody with a Yahoo or Gmail address."

From Stef's lesson (The Checklist, at 4:11)

That is his experience, not a rule every distributor follows. But every line of your email is answering a question the reader has, whether you meant it to or not.

None of this takes much money. A domain email and a signature take an afternoon to set up, and naming the right brands takes a few minutes per email. It's a small effort, and it's the part that's easiest to skip.