Kole Imports Blog

We’ve made some huge closeout craft merchandise purchases recently, making our selection of craft items better than ever.  Craft items have always been great sellers, and we’ve seen many of our customers boost their sales by creating craft sections in their stores.

Our recent closeout buys include a hugge variety of beads, scrapbooking items, craft materials, craft tools, and craft kits.  These are great-quality items from 2 of America’s biggest craft wholesalers, and your customers will love them. 

One of our closeout buys included a wide assortment of high-quality jewelry-making supplies, including clasps, glass beads, plastic beads, charms, and necklace kits.  Another lot was composed of different craft kits for kids, whch are perfect for schools and day-care centers.  We have a wide variety of scrapbooking items as well, including paper and many different themed stickers and labels. 

If you’re thinking of adding a craft section to your store, now is a great time to do it.  We’ve never had this many high-quality craft items before.  Order now before the best closeout craft items are gone.  Click here to see all of our wholesale craft items.

Houston Wholesale Merchandise Show

Come see us in Houston Texas April 6-8.  We’ll be there showing off all of our newest wholesale merchandise and closeouts.  We hope to see you there.

Wholesale Gardening Items

The weather is getting warm, and it’s time to get ready for summer with wholesale gardening items. We have large quantities on hand of all of the classic items we’ve sold for years, as well as a lot of great new gardening closeouts. 

Gardening items are great sellers in warm weather. If you don’t have a garden section in your store, it’s a worthwhile addition. Your customers are getting ready for summer by getting their yards cleaned up and looking pretty.

Important items to carry are hand tools (shovel, claw, mini hoe), gloves, hose nozzles, large and small pots, kneeling pads, garden fence, clippers, plant hangers  and decorations.  Click here to see our wholesale gardening items. This is seasonal merchandise. Once we’re sold out, we won’t be ordering more until next season. Order now to get the best items before they’re gone.

Wholesale Closeout Merchandise

Closeout merchandise can be good or bad, depending on the desirability of the item and the wholesale price.  You don’t want to get a bad deal on a great item or a great deal on a bad item.  Neither situation is profitable to you, and profit is the bottom line.  Here are some wholesale closeout merchandise buying tips you can follow to boost your profits:

• Know your target market.  A closeout is only a great deal if you will be able to easily sell the items to your customers.  A little common sense and research go a long way here.  Consider the income level, climate, and popular trends in your area and focus on buying items that fit.  Boston Celtics merchandise would sell well in Massachusetts, but not so well in New York.  Hats and sunglasses will sell well if your store is on the beach.  Gloves do well in colder climates.  If you know what your customers want and need, it is possible to get a great deal on closeout items your customers want and need.

• Unique items sell well, if they’re unique in a good way.  People love gadgets and gimmicks and things they’ve never seen before.  Make sure you include some of these items in your product mix.  If your customer knows you have a history of selling unique and fun items, they’ll be more likely to buy from you again, as they’ll be curious about what new items you have to offer.

• Keep your closeouts relevant and interesting by including some seasonal items, related to the time of year, weather, upcoming holidays, and even local sports team seasons.  These factors will help the items to sell themselves.  Some examples are Christmas decorations, NFL car air fresheners, and warm gloves in the winter.  If it’s cheap, useful, and related to what’s going on in the customer’s life, they’ll buy it.  The tricky part for you, as a wholesale closeout buyer, is to find the best deal on seasonal items.  In many cases, seasonal merchandise can be bought much cheaper off-season than it can during the season.  For example, Christmas merchandise can be purchased at a much lower price in January than in November.  If you have room in your warehouse to store items for 10 months, you can boost your profits by buying seasonal items off-season.

• Brand-name closeouts are good sellers.  Companies spend billions of dollars advertising their products, but more than any individual product, they advertise to build brand recognition.  When the consumer sees an item with a brand they recognize, they are more likely to want to buy it because they trust the company, and they believe the company makes good products.  If you offer the customer a brand they trust at a lower price than they expect to pay, you will have success.

• Finding the right closeout supplier is vital to your success.  Kole Imports receives hundreds of closeouts every week, and we always have something new and different at a great price.  Many of Kole’s closeouts are priced low enough to be retailed in a dollar store, though many would sell well at $1.99 or more.  With closeout items in 44 different categories, Kole Imports is sure to have the right items to boost your profits.  Click here to see Kole Imports’ Wholesale Closeout Merchandise.

Promo Pallet Display Pallets On The Sales Floor In A Retail Store

One of our customers sent this picture of some of our Promo Pallets displayed in their store.  As you can see, display pallets of merchandise from our Promo Pallets collection look great on the sales floor, and they allow you to add more items for sale without having to add shelving or wall hooks.  We have a wide selection of Promo Pallet displays, from counter-top single-item displays to large multi-item pallet displays that you see in the picture.  All of the items in a display have the same UPC code, so it is quick and easy to add to your POS system.

To see all of our Promo Pallet items, go to http://www.promopallets.com/, a special website we’ve built to display and sell our Promo Pallets line.  Take a look around, and you’ll find something perfect for your store and get a great wholesale deal.

Michigan Wholesale Mart Show

Come visit us in Michigan at the Michigan Wholesale Mart Show and see our newest wholesale closeouts and specials.

Make your reservations now for the Las Vegas ASD Wholesale Merchandise Show.  The show runs from February 27 to March 2, 2011.  We’ll be there, at the Las Vegas Convention Center, South Hall, Upper Level, Booths V1000-1020 and V1100-1120.  This is the same location we’ve been in for the last few years. 

This year we’ll have more show specials and closeouts than ever before, and we’ll be unveiling our newest Promo Pallets as well. We are in the process of receiving a huge lot of closeouts. You will see them all in Las Vegas.

The Las Vegas ASD Merchandise Show is the biggest wholesale merchandise show in the United States, and it’s the only place you’ll be able to shop so many different wholesalers and see their wholesale merchandise in person. As a bonus, there are lots of fun things to do in Las Vegas at night after the ASD show closes. Buy a plane ticket and fly out to see what’s new and have some fun in Las Vegas. You’ll be glad you did. We hope to see you there.

Here are some helpful links from ASD.  We’ll see you there.

Show registration is here:
http://www.asdonline.com/info/registration

Hotel reservations can be made here:
http://www.asdonline.com/march/hotel-travel

It’s time to make your New Year’s Resolutions.  What are you going to do differently this year?  It’s time to make some changes which will improve your personal and business life.  In order to be effective, these resolutions need to be Specific, Measurable and Stated In The Positive.  What does that mean?

Specific:  State exactly what you intend to do. 

Measurable:  Build measurability into the resolution, giving specific numbers of pounds you want to lose or money you want to make. 

Stated In The Positive:  The resolution should say what you will do, not what you are going to stop doing. 

Don’t say “I’ll try to get more exercise.”  Do say “I will exercise an hour a day 5 days each week.”  Don’t say “I’ll make more sales in my store.”  Do say, “I will increase sales in my store by 10% in 2011.”   Don’t say “I will stop eating junk food.”  Do say “Every day I will eat healthy nutritious foods which are good for my body.”

If you are clear in stating to yourself what you intend to do, your mind will go to work making your resolutions come true.  If you resolved to increase sales by 10% and you find your sales flat at the end of February, you’ll know that action is necessary to reach your 10% goal by the end of the year.  If you keep doing what you did last year, you’ll get the same results.  If you are committed to keeping the promise you made to yourself, you’ll find a way to increase your sales.  More impulse items?  More advertising?  Bigger signs in front of your store?  Seasonal items?  Regional sports team merchandise?  Big sales?  Funny gadget items?  If you’re focused on keeping your resolution every day, you will find yourself experimenting with new things every month until you find what sells, and you’ll hit your 10% target. 

The purpose of a New Year’s Resolution is to make your life better by prompting you to keep promises to yourself.  When you make resolutions this year, be serious about them, write them down, and put them somewhere you will see them every day.  Then spend the year having fun trying different approaches to keep your resolutions.  And don’t make weak resolutions.  Really challenge yourself, and you will find that you have a very happy new year in 2011.