The Distributor Vault: a list of US wholesale suppliers to research

Looking for a list of wholesale distributors to contact? Start here. Pick a category below to see how many suppliers it holds. Then, before you fill in a single application, spend a few minutes on the company: open its website, see what it really sells, and find out whether it works with online resellers. The rest of this page shows you how to do that quickly.

What the Vault is, and what it isn't

Think of the Vault as a head start, not a shortcut. It saves you the first chore of hunting down company names in a category. If you're still deciding which category to start in, our guide to the best categories for Amazon wholesale compares them, including how many suppliers each one has in the Vault. The work that decides whether a supplier is right for you is still yours, and it goes fast once you know what to look for.

What it is

• A list of companies, each filed under one category, inside your Apex account.
• A map of who competes with whom. When one supplier in a section works out, the names around it are worth a look too.
• The source of the supplier contacts that open inside your Apex account when you subscribe. How that works is explained just below.

What it isn't

• An endorsement. A name on this list is not a recommendation or a rating, and it says nothing about the company's prices, stock or terms.
• A list of approved Amazon suppliers. The Vault does not confirm whether each company sells to Amazon resellers. Check its terms before you apply.
• A list of authorized distributors for any brand. Whether a company can sell you a particular brand, with paperwork that holds up, is something to confirm with the company and sometimes with the brand.
• A shortcut to approval. Amazon decides every application to sell in a restricted category or brand, whoever you buy from.
• One company per line. Some companies appear twice, under two names or in two categories, so the count at the top of the page is listings rather than companies. A few listings are overseas companies or online marketplaces rather than US distributors.

Whatever list you start from, Amazon has a clear view on who you should be buying from:

How the contacts open

A subscription opens the list: each company's name, website and the contact emails on file, shown inside your Apex account. Companies open in batches or all at once, depending on how you're billed. Under each category you'll see how many suppliers it holds, so you know what's there before you pay for anything.

Once a company's contacts open, the rest is the same as with any supplier you found yourself. You apply, and the company decides whether to open an account for you. The exact schedule is just below.

Grocery and food

Grocery is where a lot of wholesale sellers start, because people reorder the same pantry staples week after week. This section mixes large grocery wholesalers that mainly supply supermarkets with kosher, specialty and foodservice suppliers. Some of them sell fresh produce, meat or restaurant supplies that rarely suit an Amazon business, so look at the products before you apply.

Read how to sell grocery on Amazon before you contact anyone in this section. It covers whether your account can sell in the category and what trips new grocery sellers up.

Candy and snacks

Candy wholesalers and distributors, nut and snack companies, and a few confectioners that sell direct. Candy is seasonal, with big buying windows before Halloween, the winter holidays, Valentine's Day and Easter, so ask about lead times early. Chocolate doesn't travel well in summer heat, so ask how a supplier ships it in warm months.

On Amazon, candy and snacks usually list under grocery, so the grocery guide applies here too.

Health and supplements

Supplement and natural health distributors, plus a number of online vitamin stores. Several names in this section are retailers rather than distributors. Buying from a store is retail, not wholesale. Amazon's guide says a product that needs approval calls for a purchase invoice from a manufacturer or distributor, and a store receipt isn't one. Before you apply to anyone here, check each brand you want against your own account, and ask the supplier plainly whether it lets customers resell on Amazon.

Beauty and cosmetics

Beauty supply wholesalers, perfume and fragrance wholesalers, nail and salon suppliers, hair distributors and a few beauty stores. If a supplier sells salon or professional products, ask whether you may resell them online before you order. Check each brand's approval on your account too: our list of gated categories is the place to start.

Pet supplies

Pet product wholesalers, aquarium suppliers, a dropship service and a few online pet stores. If you're thinking about the dropship service, read what Amazon allows with dropshipping first, because it's a different model from wholesale with its own rules. Pet food and treats carry dates, so ask how much shelf life a case usually has when it ships.

Toys and hobby

Toy wholesalers, hobby and collectibles distributors, party and novelty suppliers, and a few toy companies that sell direct, Melissa & Doug among them. Toy buying runs on the holiday calendar, so ask about lead times and order cutoffs well before the fall. Licensed toys can come with their own rules from the license holder, so ask what you're allowed to do with them online.

Home and houseware

Kitchen and housewares wholesalers, plastics and disposables, craft supplies, a home improvement wholesaler and a cash-and-carry. Heavy and bulky items can cost more to store and ship than they earn, so check sizes and weights against Amazon's size tiers and fulfillment fees before you order.

Office and school

Office product wholesalers, school and campus supply distributors, a sewing notions distributor and one office products manufacturer. School supplies have a strong back-to-school season, so plan the first order around it.

Cleaning and janitorial

Janitorial supply companies and a few cleaning product makers. Many cleaning products are chemicals, so before you buy a case, check whether Amazon will accept the product in its warehouses and what it asks for first.

Hardware and tools

Hardware wholesalers and online industrial supply stores. As with the health section, a store's receipt is not a distributor's invoice, so know which kind of company you're buying from.

Electronics

Electronics and accessory wholesalers, including an overseas online store. In electronics, it pays to ask each supplier which brands it is authorized to sell before you look at prices.

Outdoors and sporting

A very small section, with a protective gear supplier among its listings. If outdoor and sporting goods are your focus, the general merchandise section below and our guide to finding wholesale suppliers will give you more places to look.

Apparel and fashion

A small section. Apparel comes in sizes and colors, which multiplies the number of products you have to research and stock. If you're new to wholesale, it's usually easier to start somewhere simpler.

General merchandise

The biggest section by far, and the most mixed. It holds variety and dollar-store wholesalers, health and beauty distributors, closeout and discount sellers, gift and novelty companies, and some large national distributors that carry thousands of brands. Some companies here would fit a narrower category too, so if you're hunting for a specific kind of supplier, use the search box at the top of the page.

With a general merchandise supplier, the brand list is everything. Ask for the full price list and check it against Amazon line by line. Our guide to analyzing a wholesale price list shows how.

The kinds of companies on the list

Most names in the Vault are wholesalers and distributors: companies that buy from brands in volume and sell to stores. Mixed in are a few other kinds of business. It matters which one you're looking at, because it changes what you can buy, what paperwork you get and whether that paperwork helps you sell restricted products.

If you're not sure which kind a company is, its website usually tells you in a minute. A wholesaler talks about accounts, minimums and price lists. A store has a shopping cart and consumer prices.

How to research a name before you apply

Applying to a supplier takes time: forms, documents, follow-up emails. Spend a few minutes on each name first and you'll apply to fewer companies that were never going to work for you.

1. Open the company's own website

   Search the company's name and open its site. Read what it sells and who it sells to. Most wholesalers have a page for new accounts, often called something like "become a customer" or "open an account". If the whole site is a shopping cart with consumer prices, you're probably looking at a store.

2. Check a few of its brands on Amazon

   Pick three or four brands the company carries and look them up on Amazon. Can your account sell them, or do they need approval? Does Amazon itself sell them? How many other sellers share the listing? Apex's Chrome extension shows fees, profit at your cost and sales estimates right on the listing once you've finished Apex University, which makes this step much faster.

3. Look for its rules on online and marketplace sales

   Read the terms, the FAQ and the application itself. Some wholesalers say plainly that they don't sell to Amazon or marketplace sellers. Some require you to follow a brand's minimum advertised price. Some only sell to physical stores. It's far better to learn that now than after a pallet arrives.

4. Make sure it's a real, established business

   Amazon's guide suggests looking up the supplier's office and warehouse locations, checking its business bureau ratings, reading reviews for complaints and asking for references. Our guide to wholesale suppliers goes deeper on vetting a supplier, including the red flags to walk away from.

5. Write it down before you move on

   Keep a simple log of every company you look at: what it sells, what it asks for, when you applied and when to follow up. In Apex, the Vendors list in Apex Blue keeps each supplier's website, contacts, lead time and requirements in one row.

Before you apply to anyone on the list

Distributors open accounts for businesses, not shoppers. Most applications ask for some version of the same things:

• Your business name, address and tax ID (an EIN in the US), matching the business on your Amazon account
• A resale certificate, which lets a supplier sell to you without charging sales tax
• An email address on your own business domain, and often a simple website
• Sometimes a minimum first order, or a few references

Our guide to opening a wholesale account covers each of these, including what to do if you don't have one yet. When you're ready to reach out, the distributor email templates give you a first message, follow-ups and an honest answer to "do you sell on Amazon?"

When one company works, look at its neighbors

Here's where a list sorted by category earns its keep. In the Finding Suppliers lesson of Apex University, Stef's advice once you find a supplier you like is to go looking for its competitors, because no single supplier carries everything at the best price:

"But if one supplier does not have certain SKUs, the other one might. If one supplier gives you price A, the other one might give you price B. So you can buy different SKUs from different suppliers even though they both carry them."

That's from Stef's lesson Finding Suppliers, at 15:57. In the Vault, the competitors of a supplier you like are usually in the same section. Once one account is open and working, go back to that category and research the names around it. Two suppliers that carry the same brands give you a second price to compare, and a backup when one runs out of stock.

When you have more than one supplier for the same products, you also have something to talk about at reorder time. Our guide to negotiating with distributors covers how to use it without burning the relationship.

When a company says no

Rejections are normal, especially while your business is new. A no is rarely the end of the road. In the same lesson, Stef's advice is to turn it into a lead: ask the company who it supplies that you could buy from. He says companies are usually happy to pass you down the line, because the sale still ends up in their supply chain. If the name they give you is in the Vault, you'll find it in your Apex account.

Our distributor email templates include a short reply for exactly this moment, and what to do for each kind of no.

Before you write the next application, check the common reasons for a no: an email address that isn't on your business domain, a missing resale certificate, a business address that doesn't match, or a first order below the minimum. Fix what you can, note the date, and try again later.