Worldwide Brands
Encyclopedia
Worldwide Brands is a company that was founded by Chris Malta in 1999. It is a product sourcing research company whose primary function is to locate and qualify factory-authorized wholesale
suppliers and wholesale
manufacturers that are willing to sell to home business
es and Internet retailers. Worldwide Brands publishes the results of its findings in an online wholesale directory. They also publish educational materials that teach sourcing wholesale products to sell online. Its headquarters are in Maitland, Florida
.
Certified Systems Engineer, designing and building corporate and ecommerce server platforms and managing major installations for Fortune 100 businesses. In 2003, he was a founding partner of a wholesale company in New York that distributed darts and dartboard products. To date, he has been engaged in wholesale
, retail, and entrepreneurial endeavors for more than thirty years, and currently serves as the CEO of Worldwide Brands, Inc. Malta is the author of numerous books on online retail and product sourcing, and the co-author of What to Sell On eBay
and Where to Get It with Lisa Suttora, founder of Blue Island Marketing Group. From January 2005 to June 2007, he co-hosted The Entrepreneur Magazine
eBiz Show and The Entrepreneur Magazine
Product Sourcing show with his business partner Robin Cowie. Additionally, he has served as the product sourcing editor for eBay Radio since 2006.
In 1998, Malta started an ecommerce website but struggled to find product suppliers. After being scammed by numerous Internet middlemen, his frustration led him to develop, through trial-and-error, a thorough research process for finding and verifying genuine wholesale
suppliers who would allow their products to be sold on the Internet. Upon publishing a short article series in Web Pro News about his product sourcing experiences and challenges, he received a tremendous amount of feedback from other frustrated online retailers. To meet this market demand, Malta established The Drop Ship Source Directory, which he renamed Worldwide Brands and incorporated in January 2001.
to increase their profits, the vast majority of wholesale suppliers required cost-prohibitive minimum orders. Malta began approaching many suppliers to request that they not only allow retailers to offer their products online, but that they also allow those online retailers to buy in small, affordable volumes of $500 or under. This type of small minimum order would allow online retailers an easy transition from using only drop shipping to buying volume wholesale
. Malta coined the term 'light bulk wholesale' to describe this kind of low-minimum wholesale buying. Wholesalers who agreed to his request, he referred to as 'light bulk wholesalers'.
s to research and then buys specialized raw contact lists of manufacturers and wholesalers from large lead generation companies like Dunn & Bradstreet and InfoUSA
. They also attend wholesale trade shows across the United States
and internationally. Company representatives gather thousands of supplier leads at trade shows in New York
, Atlanta, Las Vegas
, Hong Kong
, and Shanghai
.
After gathering raw data
, the researchers contact every supplier lead and ask a series of questions to determine whether a supplier will be a good fit for the directory. If initial approval is given, the supplier will fill out an extensive questionnaire and answer a secondary set of questions. The researchers will verify the company's background and answers. If final approval is given, the supplier must sign an agreement guaranteeing compliance with all of Worldwide Brands' qualification standards. At this point in the process, the supplier will be added to the online directory.
On January 1, 2007, the company combined 'The Drop Ship Source Directory', 'The Light Bulk Directory', and 'The Market Research Wizard' into one inclusive product, which it temporarily marketed as 'OneSource'. The product content was expanded to include volume wholesalers, as well as liquidation and import lots. Market confusion surrounding the company OneSource, a division of infoGROUP, and the name of the new product led Worldwide Brands to remove the label 'OneSource' from all branding associated with its product in 2008 and to reposition the product as a 'Worldwide Brands Membership'.
In 2008, Worldwide Brands launched a supplementary product, which it labeled 'Worldwide Brands' The Whole Sale'. This product is Internet-based and consists primarily of extensive educational content on the subject of ecommerce product sourcing for home business and includes permanent admittance to an online community of home business and ecommerce sellers.
The company's target market consists of small to medium sized retailers, home business
es, and online merchants who sell on popular ecommerce platforms like Yahoo!
, eBay
, and Amazon
, as well as on independent ecommerce websites.
Wholesale
Wholesaling, jobbing, or distributing is defined as the sale of goods or merchandise to retailers, to industrial, commercial, institutional, or other professional business users, or to other wholesalers and related subordinated services...
suppliers and wholesale
Wholesale
Wholesaling, jobbing, or distributing is defined as the sale of goods or merchandise to retailers, to industrial, commercial, institutional, or other professional business users, or to other wholesalers and related subordinated services...
manufacturers that are willing to sell to home business
Home business
A home business is a small business that operates from the business owner's home office. In addition to location, home businesses are usually defined by having a very small number of employees, usually all immediate family of the business owner, in which case it is also a family business...
es and Internet retailers. Worldwide Brands publishes the results of its findings in an online wholesale directory. They also publish educational materials that teach sourcing wholesale products to sell online. Its headquarters are in Maitland, Florida
Maitland, Florida
Maitland is a suburban city in Orange County, Florida, United States, part of the Greater Metro Orlando area. The population was 12,019 at the 2000 census. As of 2006, the population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau is 14,172...
.
History and origin
Before establishing Worldwide Brands, Chris Malta spent many years as a MicrosoftMicrosoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
Certified Systems Engineer, designing and building corporate and ecommerce server platforms and managing major installations for Fortune 100 businesses. In 2003, he was a founding partner of a wholesale company in New York that distributed darts and dartboard products. To date, he has been engaged in wholesale
Wholesale
Wholesaling, jobbing, or distributing is defined as the sale of goods or merchandise to retailers, to industrial, commercial, institutional, or other professional business users, or to other wholesalers and related subordinated services...
, retail, and entrepreneurial endeavors for more than thirty years, and currently serves as the CEO of Worldwide Brands, Inc. Malta is the author of numerous books on online retail and product sourcing, and the co-author of What to Sell On eBay
EBay
eBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...
and Where to Get It with Lisa Suttora, founder of Blue Island Marketing Group. From January 2005 to June 2007, he co-hosted The Entrepreneur Magazine
Entrepreneur Magazine
Entrepreneur is a publication that carries news stories about entrepreneurialism, small business management, and business opportunities. It is published by Entrepreneur Media Inc., headquartered in Irvine, California....
eBiz Show and The Entrepreneur Magazine
Entrepreneur Magazine
Entrepreneur is a publication that carries news stories about entrepreneurialism, small business management, and business opportunities. It is published by Entrepreneur Media Inc., headquartered in Irvine, California....
Product Sourcing show with his business partner Robin Cowie. Additionally, he has served as the product sourcing editor for eBay Radio since 2006.
In 1998, Malta started an ecommerce website but struggled to find product suppliers. After being scammed by numerous Internet middlemen, his frustration led him to develop, through trial-and-error, a thorough research process for finding and verifying genuine wholesale
Wholesale
Wholesaling, jobbing, or distributing is defined as the sale of goods or merchandise to retailers, to industrial, commercial, institutional, or other professional business users, or to other wholesalers and related subordinated services...
suppliers who would allow their products to be sold on the Internet. Upon publishing a short article series in Web Pro News about his product sourcing experiences and challenges, he received a tremendous amount of feedback from other frustrated online retailers. To meet this market demand, Malta established The Drop Ship Source Directory, which he renamed Worldwide Brands and incorporated in January 2001.
Light Bulk Wholesale
Malta discovered that using dropshippers allowed many new online retailers to start their ecommerce businesses with very little investment costs. But when they wanted to move into buying volume wholesaleWholesale
Wholesaling, jobbing, or distributing is defined as the sale of goods or merchandise to retailers, to industrial, commercial, institutional, or other professional business users, or to other wholesalers and related subordinated services...
to increase their profits, the vast majority of wholesale suppliers required cost-prohibitive minimum orders. Malta began approaching many suppliers to request that they not only allow retailers to offer their products online, but that they also allow those online retailers to buy in small, affordable volumes of $500 or under. This type of small minimum order would allow online retailers an easy transition from using only drop shipping to buying volume wholesale
Wholesale
Wholesaling, jobbing, or distributing is defined as the sale of goods or merchandise to retailers, to industrial, commercial, institutional, or other professional business users, or to other wholesalers and related subordinated services...
. Malta coined the term 'light bulk wholesale' to describe this kind of low-minimum wholesale buying. Wholesalers who agreed to his request, he referred to as 'light bulk wholesalers'.
Research Process
To conduct its supplier research, Worldwide Brands chooses new product marketProduct market
Product market is a mechanism that allows people to easily buy and sell products. Services are often included in the scope of the term. Product market regulation is an economic term that describes restrictions in the market....
s to research and then buys specialized raw contact lists of manufacturers and wholesalers from large lead generation companies like Dunn & Bradstreet and InfoUSA
InfoUSA
Infogroup, Inc., is a data, research and marketing company which offers email marketing and other marketing services. The company's corporate headquarters are located in Papillion, Nebraska. Infogroup employs approximately 3,200 people and operates in 9 countries.- History :Infogroup was formed in...
. They also attend wholesale trade shows across the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and internationally. Company representatives gather thousands of supplier leads at trade shows in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, Atlanta, Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
, Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
, and Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
.
After gathering raw data
Raw data
'\putang inaIn computing, it may have the following attributes: possibly containing errors, not validated; in sfferent formats; uncoded or unformatted; and suspect, requiring confirmation or citation. For example, a data input sheet might contain dates as raw data in many forms: "31st January...
, the researchers contact every supplier lead and ask a series of questions to determine whether a supplier will be a good fit for the directory. If initial approval is given, the supplier will fill out an extensive questionnaire and answer a secondary set of questions. The researchers will verify the company's background and answers. If final approval is given, the supplier must sign an agreement guaranteeing compliance with all of Worldwide Brands' qualification standards. At this point in the process, the supplier will be added to the online directory.
Products
Founded as a supplier research company, Worldwide Brands' first product was 'The Drop Ship Source Directory', which listed wholesale suppliers willing to drop ship for home business and Internet merchants. In early 2004, it released a second product: 'The Light Bulk Directory' which listed wholesale suppliers willing to sell to Internet retailers in light bulk quantities. It worked with the eBay developers program to build its third product, 'The Market Research Wizard', in late 2004. This software application employed a proprietary algorithm to analyze Internet product market data in real time.On January 1, 2007, the company combined 'The Drop Ship Source Directory', 'The Light Bulk Directory', and 'The Market Research Wizard' into one inclusive product, which it temporarily marketed as 'OneSource'. The product content was expanded to include volume wholesalers, as well as liquidation and import lots. Market confusion surrounding the company OneSource, a division of infoGROUP, and the name of the new product led Worldwide Brands to remove the label 'OneSource' from all branding associated with its product in 2008 and to reposition the product as a 'Worldwide Brands Membership'.
In 2008, Worldwide Brands launched a supplementary product, which it labeled 'Worldwide Brands' The Whole Sale'. This product is Internet-based and consists primarily of extensive educational content on the subject of ecommerce product sourcing for home business and includes permanent admittance to an online community of home business and ecommerce sellers.
The company's target market consists of small to medium sized retailers, home business
Home business
A home business is a small business that operates from the business owner's home office. In addition to location, home businesses are usually defined by having a very small number of employees, usually all immediate family of the business owner, in which case it is also a family business...
es, and online merchants who sell on popular ecommerce platforms like Yahoo!
Yahoo!
Yahoo! Inc. is an American multinational internet corporation headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, United States. The company is perhaps best known for its web portal, search engine , Yahoo! Directory, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Answers, advertising, online mapping ,...
, eBay
EBay
eBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...
, and Amazon
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
, as well as on independent ecommerce websites.