How to Calculate Landed Cost of Imported Goods
Calculate the landed cost of imported goods with a step-by-step formula, a worked example, and a worksheet to avoid missing or double-counting fees.
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Wholesale Buying
Opening a wholesale account, resale certificates, minimum order quantities, how wholesale pricing is built, RFQs and payment terms.
Direct answer
Buying wholesale in the United States generally requires a registered business, a tax identification number, and a resale certificate for the states you buy into. Beyond the paperwork, the terms that decide whether an account is worth having are the minimum order quantity, the price break structure, and the payment terms, and all three are negotiable more often than first-time buyers assume.
Most of what separates a good wholesale account from a bad one is agreed before the first order, in paperwork nobody enjoys reading.
What suppliers are actually managing
Account requirements look like gatekeeping and are mostly liability management. A supplier that sells to you without collecting sales tax needs a resale certificate on file or it carries the exposure itself. A supplier that ships before payment is lending you the value of the goods. Reading the paperwork this way tells you which requirements are fixed and which are a starting position.
The terms that decide whether an account is worth having
Minimums, which come in three forms — an order value, a quantity per line, and the case or pallet the goods are packed in. Knowing which one is blocking you determines whether asking will help.
Price structure, which is rarely a single number. List price, volume break, account tier and any rebate program each move the figure, and the breaks matter more than the headline.
Payment terms, which are credit. New accounts normally start prepaid and earn terms on payment history rather than on negotiation.
Each of the three is negotiable more often than first-time buyers assume, and each is easier to move than the unit price everyone argues about.
What to settle before the first order
The specification and the availability behind it, the freight arrangement, and what happens if the delivery is short or damaged. All three are cheap to agree in advance and expensive to argue about afterwards.
In this section
Guides
How Wholesale Pricing Works
Understand unit prices, quantity breaks, pack sizes, freight and conditional discounts with worked examples for comparing the full purchasing commitment.
Resale Certificates for Wholesale Buying
Separate resale certificates from EINs and permits, identify the relevant transaction, and manage supplier tax documentation without assuming nationwide exemption.
Wholesale Account Requirements
Prepare a wholesale account application by separating business identity, purchasing eligibility, tax documentation, credit review and shipping arrangements.
Wholesale MOQ Explained
What a minimum order quantity is protecting, the difference between an order minimum and a line minimum, and when a supplier will move on it.
Wholesale Payment Terms
Read wholesale due dates, deposits, credit limits and early-payment discounts, then align approvals and payment instructions with the actual order.
Wholesale Price List vs Stock List
Two documents suppliers send that look alike and mean very different things, and why confusing them produces orders that cannot be filled.
Wholesale RFQ Template
What a wholesale request for quotation has to contain to produce answers you can actually compare, with a copyable structure and the fields buyers omit.
Frequently asked questions
What do I need before a supplier will open an account?
A registered business entity, a federal tax identification number, a resale certificate for the states involved, a commercial shipping address, and references if you want credit terms.
Which terms are actually negotiable?
Freight and payment terms move most often, then order minimums, then volume break thresholds. The unit price itself moves least, and usually only as a consequence of the others.
Why does a supplier need my resale certificate?
Because if it does not collect sales tax and cannot produce a valid certificate on audit, it can be assessed for the tax itself. The paperwork is the supplier managing its own liability, not gatekeeping.
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