Research Methodology
Where our information about wholesalers comes from, what we verify, what we deliberately leave blank, and what commercial relationships we hold.
This page explains how the research on this site is produced, because a reader evaluating a supplier needs to know how much weight our pages can carry.
Where information comes from
In order of preference: a company’s own published material, government and regulatory records, standards bodies and trade associations, and reputable trade reporting. Public filings, carrier registrations and trademark records are used where they answer a specific question.
Industry practice described in our buying and logistics guides reflects widely documented commercial convention. Where practice varies by supplier — and it usually does — the guide says so rather than presenting one arrangement as the norm.
What we verify
Company names, locations and stated product categories are checked against the company’s own material and, where one exists, a public registration record. Dates, regulatory references and quoted requirements are checked against the primary source.
What we do not do
We do not contact suppliers to obtain pricing on a reader’s behalf, we do not accept payment to include or improve a listing, and we do not estimate figures a company has not published. A minimum order quantity that is not public is recorded as Not publicly disclosed, and it stays that way until the company publishes one.
We publish no ratings, scores or verification badges. Scoring implies a testing programme we do not run.
What a company profile is and is not
A profile is a structured summary of what a company has made public, with the date we last checked it. It is not an endorsement, not a due-diligence report, and not a substitute for your own checks before placing an order. Every profile names its sources so you can go and read them.
Commercial relationships
Any commercial relationship affecting what appears on this site is disclosed on the disclosure page. Where none is disclosed, none exists.
How industry practice is described
Much of what these guides cover is commercial convention rather than regulation: how minimums are structured, how quotes are built, how freight is arranged. Convention is documented unevenly and varies between suppliers, so our guides describe the range and say where it varies rather than presenting one arrangement as the standard.
Where a statement is regulatory rather than conventional — a tax obligation, a customs duty, a carrier requirement — it is attributed to the authority that sets it, and the reader is pointed at that authority rather than at us.
What we do not measure
We run no supplier testing programme, place no test orders, and operate no mystery-shopping process. Nothing on this site should be read as a claim to have dealt with a company we describe. Where a guide says a practice is common, that is a description of the market, not a report of our own transactions.
Limits worth stating plainly
Public information about wholesale suppliers is thin by design. Most distributors do not publish minimums, pricing or terms, because those depend on the account. A research site that filled those gaps with estimates would be more useful to read and less safe to act on, so we leave them empty and say why.
Corrections
If a fact here is wrong, we want to fix it. The corrections page explains how, and a correction report costs you nothing and is the fastest route to changing what this site says.
Frequently asked questions
Do you contact the companies you write about?
Not as a rule. Company profiles are built from public sources. Where we have contacted a company, the profile says so and names what was confirmed.
Why do so many fields say "Not publicly disclosed"?
Because most wholesalers do not publish minimums or pricing. Writing an estimate would make the page look more useful while making it less true, so we write what is actually public.