Three ways to resell
| Model | What you do | What you are responsible for |
|---|---|---|
| Reseller of a supplier's product | Buy finished, labelled vials and resell them as they are | Checking that the supplier's lab reports match the batches, and your own wording and records |
| Private label | The supplier fills and labels vials with your brand | Everything on the label, the lab report for every batch, and the claim that the product is yours |
| Wholesale under your own brand | Sell your branded stock in volume to other sellers | All of the above, plus verifying your buyers and keeping wholesale pricing away from retail |
Private label changes more than it looks like it should. Once your name is on the vial, buyers hold you, not the supplier, to what is in it. White label vs private label peptides covers what you actually own in each arrangement.
What suppliers will ask for
Serious suppliers see wholesale accounts as business relationships and ask for proof that you are a business. Have these ready before you approach anyone:
- Company formation documents and your EIN.
- Your sales tax permit, and a resale certificate if your state uses one, so your purchases for resale are not taxed.
- A business address and a named contact.
- Your expected monthly volume, roughly, by product.
If a supplier asks for none of this and will sell any quantity to anyone, ask yourself who else they are selling to and what that says about their quality control.
What to ask suppliers
Use the same questions for every candidate and write the answers down, so you compare like with like.
- Is the price and the label based on net peptide content or on gross fill weight?
- Can you send the lab report for the exact batch I would receive, from a named lab?
- What are the minimum order, the lead time and the shipping method?
- How do you pack for transit, and what happens if vials arrive broken?
- If my independent test of a batch fails, do you refund, replace or neither?
- Can you private label, and what are the minimums for that?
Then test a vial from the first order yourself, at a lab of your choosing, before you commit to volume. A supplier's own report gets them onto your shortlist. Your independent test decides whether they stay there.
Price wholesale from landed cost per milligram
Two suppliers quoting the same price per vial can be very different prices per milligram of actual compound. Work out landed cost per milligram for every product: what you paid, plus shipping, duties, testing and packaging, divided by the net milligrams you actually received. Price wholesale tiers up from that number, not from a competitor's retail price.
- Add up the full cost of a batch: product, freight, duties and fees, testing, labels and packaging.
- Divide by the net milligrams in the batch, from your own lab report.
- Set a minimum margin per milligram you will not go below, then set tiers above it by order size.
- Recalculate when a new batch arrives. Costs move with every order.
The cost per mg calculator and the guide to cost per milligram walk through the arithmetic.
Verify the buyers you sell to
Wholesale buyers are the other half of your risk. Before a buyer sees wholesale pricing, confirm they are a real business and have them sign your research-use agreement.
- Collect the business name, EIN or registration, address and a named contact.
- Look the business up in its state's business registry.
- Have them sign your wholesale terms and research-use agreement, and keep the signed copy.
- Keep retail and wholesale price lists separate, so wholesale pricing never appears on a public page.
- Watch for splits: a buyer placing several partial orders instead of one can be building up to a quantity they did not want to ask for outright.
The guide to running a wholesale program covers tiers, quotes and terms in more detail.
Starting from home
Many distributors start from a home office. That can work, with three cautions. Storage has to meet the supplier's specification for every product, which usually means cool, dry and dark, with a written record of conditions. Your business address appears on labels, invoices and processor files, so use one you are willing to publish. And check local zoning and your lease or HOA rules before inventory arrives.
Doing it in Purity
Purity runs a distributor's whole back office. Suppliers and their price sheets live side by side so you can compare supplier prices per milligram. Purchase orders are received against what actually arrived, batches stay off sale until their lab report passes your release rule, and the wholesale program handles buyer applications, verification, price tiers and quotes, with retail and wholesale pricing kept apart. Create an account or try the demo.
Common questions
- How do I become a peptide distributor in Texas?
- Form the company, get an EIN and a Texas sales and use tax permit from the Comptroller, then approach suppliers with those documents ready. Texas sellers buying for resale can give suppliers a resale certificate. Have an attorney review what you plan to sell and how before you start.
- Do I need my own brand to be a distributor?
- No. You can resell a supplier's labelled product. Your own brand, through private label, builds more value over time but makes you responsible for everything on the label.
- How much should I mark up wholesale?
- Start from your landed cost per milligram, set a floor you will not go under, and tier up by order size. There is no standard markup that holds across products, because costs per milligram vary so much between suppliers and batches.