If you want to run a successful retail store, you must offer the best price in your locality. Everything else like great customer service, huge space for shopping convenience is only add-on services. If your prices are high, especially if you are selling FMCG (fast moving consumer goods), there are high chances that you would soon loose loyal customers.



A lot of retailers think that if someone needs to offer the best price, he or she must cut down on the profit margin. This is not necessarily true. For example, if you can buy the product for less than regular and can keep other costs intact, you can easily offer the product at a better price than your competitors.

Especially in the non branded items, you can easily negotiate on the price or find a better wholesale supplier who can offer you the same product for less. You can also cut down the price by reducing the handling cost or store front costs.

The situation is simple - you must offer the product at the most competitive price and at the same time emphasize on quality. Don't the retail store owners know these things? Yes they know, but very few of them try to explore newer opportunities to buy the products. They often try to stick to some traditional spots to buy merchandise for their store. So, if you can find newer avenues to buy the product for less, you would definitely have an edge over the competitors.

Here are some of the avenues you can explore to get your merchandise at less than regular price:

Internet: There are different forums and wholesale supplier's directory in the web where you can easily get information on where you can get the product at the cheapest price. You can directly contact with the suppliers or distributors to place your order. And that is not all, you cal also find a lot of new arrivals on your product category. Thus, your existing customers would also love to visit your store over and over again. This will definitely set your business apart from your competitors. By the way, as things are open, you can really expect the suppliers to offer you the most competitive price.

Merchandise Trade Shows: Almost every big city arranges some sort of annual merchandise trade shows where wholesalers from different part of the country participate to sell or promote their newly launched products. Some of them directly sell to the distributors or retailers in bulk. This can be a good spot to find out new launches and you can also communicate directly with them to buy the product for less. However, in this situation, you must be prepared to buy huge quantity of products. This option is particularly good for those retailers who specialize on a single product. It is very easy and profitable for them to buy a single product in bulk.

Newspapers and Telephone Directory: Sometimes, a lot of manufacturer place their product advertisement directly in newspapers. You can contact them directly. And telephone directories can help you to identify new companies under your product range.

However, before buying something directly from the producer, you must consider other expanses like transportation costs, tax etc. If the overall cost per unit is less than what you are paying today, this can be a better option for you.