5 Cheap Items to Resell (With Categories & Platforms To Purchase)

Acquiring your piece of the reselling business pie can be challenging since choosing from a pool of low-ticket and high-ticket resale products isn’t easy.

Many ecommerce aspirants and side income enthusiasts struggle to decide which wholesale products they want to sell. While some prefer pet supplies, others may choose fashion accessories or consumer electronics.

Besides finding reputed suppliers and niches with high-volume consumer demand, buying wholesale requires more research than you think.

Here’s a guide on the best cheap items to resell and some well-known platforms that offer competitive wholesale prices.

What Are Cheap Resalable Items?

Cheap resalable items are low-cost, profitable products that an ecommerce entrepreneur may buy in bulk and sell individually for a profit.

These wholesale items can include products with lower prices, such as bathroom essentials, board games, or stationary, or products with a higher price, like kitchen electronics, jewelry and accessories, or luxury clothing.

You can find cheap wholesale products on business-to-business (B2B) marketplaces specializing in your industry. They offer affordable prices and high-profit margins through their business selling bulk items.

Since the market is enormous and your prospects are distributed worldwide, side income earners stand a great chance to multiply their monthly income.

Why Should You Buy Cheap Wholesale Products?

Here are a few reasons to invest in products with low wholesale prices and start your online store:

• Expansion Potential: Online and on-site entrepreneurs can reinvest part of their profits to purchase more products in bulk and meet consumer demands. Since reselling businesses can be run online, the costs of staff management, customer representatives, and delivery charges won’t be too expensive over time.
• Online Business Model: Besides costs for inventory storage, such online business models won’t require investments in physical stores and personnel. You can create a personalized online marketplace or partner with established ecommerce stores like Amazon and Etsy to automate reselling pipelines.
• High-Profit Margins: Side income earners with excellent knowledge of market research can quickly capitalize on bulk listings for larger profits. Choose a mix of low-ticket and high-ticket items in your niche to neutralize the potential risks of selling expensive products. Some of these risks include unsold or malfunctioning products.
• White Label Products: Try searching for suppliers who sell unbranded products and prefer to carry out manufacturing and bulk-selling projects. You can rebrand such products and establish your brand without spending a fortune on branding expenses. It’s best to pick a niche and create a product line of self-branded items for long-term customers.

1. Pharmaceuticals

The on-demand pharmaceutical delivery industry stands strong among online businesses with a constant stream of consumers.

You can sell products like medicines or vitamins at a reasonable price and offer discounts for bulk packages. Look for a wholesale supplier assisting online retailers indulging in health-related products, be it first aid kits or essential oils.

Since medicines often hold a high demand, do thorough market research to understand what items are selling in your area of operation. Some product ideas include hygiene kits, supplements, syrups, sprays, etc.

2. Fast Fashion

The way buyers approach fast fashion has seen an uptrend in their online shopping preferences in the past few years. Since this product category often achieves more sales through trending products, expect large sales volumes on seasonal occasions.

Though some products like high-end suites and dresses may cost more, plenty of cheap goods like caps, t-shirts, jeans, or daily wear are available.

Choose from a broad range spanning gems, low-cost jewelry, watches, and other fast fashion wholesale goods. Remember to predict trends in advance and accordingly request quotations from wholesale suppliers.

3. Clothing Apparel

More extensive than fast fashion products, the clothing apparel category presents an exhaustive list of resalable items.

Consider buying apparel from wholesale websites and creating product packages for your customers. For example, encourage customers to add a combination of a matching shirt, pants, and cap to their cart.

Side income earners with an eye for clothing aesthetics can profit significantly.

Ideally, choose timeless products that aren’t limited to the fluctuating sales volume of fast fashion like headgear, footwear, undergarments, and other popular apparel. As their buying cost is low, you can expect favorable profit margins.

4. Home & Kitchen

Such niches gift online retail participants with several profitable entry points. When accounting for the expansion potential and lower price of products, there’s a lower barrier to entry and more room for consistent profits.

Although this niche has high competition in ecommerce stores, you can still benefit from high-quality products.

You can expand and offer sustainable items such as bamboo brushes, pillows, and kitchenware. Additional home and kitchen gear options can revolve around objects that help buyers beautify their personal space.

If you’re looking for sub-niche products, consider selling garden tools, BBQ equipment, and waffle-making sets.

5. Stationery

Stationery items such as pens, geometry boxes, and books can earn considerable income for gig workers seeking to cater to youth markets.

You can sell writing tools like highlighters and markers, notepads like sticky notes or journals, or scheduling tools like calendars or planners.

Your target market can also include corporates, solopreneurs, and schools. Considering the B2B reselling potential, you can quote higher retail prices on your reselling marketplace.

6. Electronic Accessories

Though not all electronic accessories are cheap, you can still buy lower-priced items wholesale, like earphones, phone cases, laptop covers, chargers, and more.

Online stores focusing on reselling electronic gear enjoy better profits once they establish a recurring clientele.

If you have a higher investment budget, look for technologically advanced products. These options vary from security cameras to smartphones or smart television sets.

1. Alibaba

Famous as the globe’s largest marketplace for wholesalers, the Chinese company stands out with its accurate search engine results.

Alibaba‘s wholesale platform brings a potent range of filtering capabilities to help ecommerce enthusiasts narrow down their exact product search through multiple criteria.

With a large volume of sellers on Alibaba, you’re guaranteed to find any resealable item at a competitive price. Their B2B interface also offers a unique feature, enabling buyers to request quotations from interested resellers.

Their utility arsenal is superior because of their easy-to-access workbench, comprehensive order management tools, and API integrations.

2. Amazon Business

Amazon continues to beat competitors in the race to become a record-breaking ecommerce giant. They’ve chased this endeavor with their wholesale marketplace called Amazon Business.

Besides providing an unending supply of wholesale products across categories, they also offer grants to small business owners.

Despite their focus on B2B sales, resellers with a distinctive business idea can procure items like office supplies, repair gear, beauty products, etc.

They’ve simplified investment optimization for reselling enthusiasts by placing large discounts on high-quantity orders.

Added features such as fast and free shopping and recurring delivery programs make Amazon Business a top end-to-end wholesale product supplier.

3. Handshake

Handshake has found a solid position in the reselling market through its partnerships with one-of-a-kind brands. This platform is ideal for resellers looking to sell unconventional products from various highly specific niches.

A by-product of Shopify, Handshake guarantees scam-free listings by vetting independent businesses and prioritizing them over resellers. Expect other collectibles that many businesses don’t sell.

Feel free to experiment with newer brands, as Handshake accepts low-quantity orders with no minimum requirement. This relieves resellers of the risk of low-quality products.

Even better, their wholesale products come with no fees, irrespective of buyers or sellers. Handshake’s caretaker, Shopify, strives to promote buyer-seller relationships that grow into scalable reselling businesses.

4. Tundra

Tundra is a must-try if you’re in the US and are seeking local wholesalers for anything from beauty products to home supplies.

They use a delivery model that doesn’t charge shipping costs, making it easy to sell individually without relying on high capital investments.

Tundra’s wholesale setup drastically reduces the administration process, helping buyers source their products comfortably.

The platform operates its wholesale businesses through stores across the US and Canada, delivering to 130+ countries.

Buy wholesale products and consider retail arbitrage to compete with local competitors directly. Access competitive wholesale prices from independent brands and find products through their hashtag feature.

5. eWorldTrade

eWorldTrade excels at simplifying business collaborations between retailers, manufacturers, and wholesalers. Their means of facilitating trade come with the perks of free quotes from sellers and a network of verified buyers.

Resellers can also register for exclusive, platinum, or gold memberships for better exposure to wholesale products, among premium benefits.

Leverage the platform’s innovative features and find trustworthy suppliers to advance your reselling business globally.

How To Choose The Best Cheap Wholesale Products

Here are a few factors to analyze when researching which resale products to buy for a successful business plan:

1. Profit Margin

Online retailers who sell individually must aim for a profit margin of at least 33% on each product. Look for cheap products like phone accessories or attend flea markets to identify low-supply, high-demand products offering a high-profit margin.

2. Create Demand

Start by checking whether there’s an existing demand for your products. If not, you can use digital marketing to your benefit and position products in a communication style that creates demand.

For example, use Google Trends to study trending content and do one step better in your marketing campaigns to attract buyers.

3. Product Design

An essential part to double-check is the dimensions and design of your product. If your package size is large, the transportation charges may pile up and eat into your profits.

For businesses managing their inventory, larges-sized or heavy products can demand additional costs.

4. Study Supplier Catalog

Assess the product’s listing page and compare specifications, features, pricing, etc. Some suppliers may charge extra for specific shipping conditions.

Compare multiple resellers and check which product has better utility, sustainability, and quality.

5. Use Research Tools

Product research tools help you study real-time buyer behavior, including trending product categories in small to large locations.

You must review historical sales data and recognize trends leading to profitable periods. Such tools recommend products based on sales data and several search filters.

Frequently Asked Questions

The Verdict

The trick with reselling cheap items lies in recognizing low-competition product lines and maximizing your profits through the demand it generates.

As wellness products and fashion accessories are known to present a constant demand over the years, resellers stand to take home regular profits from their ecommerce stores.

Either way, if you’re searching for high-ticket product lines, consider electronic gadgets or luxury clothing items.

For side income earners with reselling experience, we’d love to hear your comments below. Do share this piece with fellow side income enthusiasts.