Moving to B2B sales
Discussion
For a number of years we have been a B2C ecommerce retailer, working with suppliers throughout the UK and EU.
We recently were introduced to a large supplier based in Europe who specialise in the resale of OEM and overstock products within our sector, we have been importing from them for a few months now and finding that the trade pricing, supply of products and demand is excellent. This has peaked the interest of some other shops in the UK who are buying parts from us.
After some research and reaching out to companies we have enough demand where we could move to B2B and generally make things easier for us (B2C can be a pain sometimes!) while also giving us a new aspect to the company.
We have no issues when it comes to payment processing, web development etc so I am comfortable with that side of things, my issue lies with UK distributors and us.
The company we are importing from offer products from any brand as they buy it in huge bulk orders, so we dont have a consistent supply of a certain product, more of a first come first served basis and these products are usually previous years model, so mostly 2022-2024 stock, the current range which UK distributors are pushing is the 2025 range.
Our stock might come without original packaging or manuals, where as the UK disty will supply your product in the correct boxes, manuals, extras etc.
I dont think we are stepping on their toes 'too' much as we will generally be supplying stock they have previously sold or phasing out BUT I have a strong suspicion they probably wont be too happy. I dont want to start a battle with them, I would rather us work together than them come at us claiming legal issues.
Has anyone been in this predicament before? Would we legally be doing anything wrong?
If we make it clear we sell older stock then hopefully that will help?
Any tips appreciated, I am trying to plan ahead as I have a feeling I know whats going to come if we take this step.
We recently were introduced to a large supplier based in Europe who specialise in the resale of OEM and overstock products within our sector, we have been importing from them for a few months now and finding that the trade pricing, supply of products and demand is excellent. This has peaked the interest of some other shops in the UK who are buying parts from us.
After some research and reaching out to companies we have enough demand where we could move to B2B and generally make things easier for us (B2C can be a pain sometimes!) while also giving us a new aspect to the company.
We have no issues when it comes to payment processing, web development etc so I am comfortable with that side of things, my issue lies with UK distributors and us.
The company we are importing from offer products from any brand as they buy it in huge bulk orders, so we dont have a consistent supply of a certain product, more of a first come first served basis and these products are usually previous years model, so mostly 2022-2024 stock, the current range which UK distributors are pushing is the 2025 range.
Our stock might come without original packaging or manuals, where as the UK disty will supply your product in the correct boxes, manuals, extras etc.
I dont think we are stepping on their toes 'too' much as we will generally be supplying stock they have previously sold or phasing out BUT I have a strong suspicion they probably wont be too happy. I dont want to start a battle with them, I would rather us work together than them come at us claiming legal issues.
Has anyone been in this predicament before? Would we legally be doing anything wrong?
If we make it clear we sell older stock then hopefully that will help?
Any tips appreciated, I am trying to plan ahead as I have a feeling I know whats going to come if we take this step.
sidekickdmr said:
I guess it comes down to the UK Distributers having any kind of exclusivity on that product or not.
If not, you are in the clear?
I would imagine they do have some exclusivity to that brand, however if we are selling older stock or stock which differs from theirs then I cant see an issue BUT I wouldn't be surprised if they did.If not, you are in the clear?
The argument really is that our EU supplier who is buying products in the thousands monthly is buying direct from these brands at the source or EU HQ so there happy selling to an EU distributor who sells internationally. If the UK disty goes to HQ they cant really argue when there selling the goods themselves to my supplier knowing there going sold all over.
It sounds like you are a "grey" importer. I don't think there is anything illegal about it, but the UK distributors are likely to take an extremely dim view of it and speak to the manufacturer/EU distributor to stop your source of supply. How successful this will be depends on how important they are to the company.
boyse7en said:
It sounds like you are a "grey" importer. I don't think there is anything illegal about it, but the UK distributors are likely to take an extremely dim view of it and speak to the manufacturer/EU distributor to stop your source of supply. How successful this will be depends on how important they are to the company.
Yeah in a sense we would be a grey importer, we would not claim to be a dealer and wont have consistent stock of a particular brand, we would be marketing more of an OEM/Overstock re-seller.We will do a bit more research and see how we get on.
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