There is a common misconception about what we (here at WorldwideBrands.com) mean when we say “middleman”.

Websters Dictionary (full definition) states that a middleman is; parties; especially :  a dealer, agent, or company intermediate between the producer of goods and the retailer or consumer

Synonyms: Broker, go-between, intermediary etc.

This full definition is what we mean when we talk about middlemen and what retailers should avoid. You see, the important thing here with the definition is that it says the middleman is what is in between the producer of goods and the retailer or the consumer. A middleman doesn’t have a warehouse and doesn’t deliver the products they are representing. They are only passing the orders along to the real company that will deliver the products to the retailer or to the consumer directly, so they are an intermediary.

Another definition of a middleman is that they are purchasing products from the manufacturer and then wholesaling them again. But we disagree with this definition. A company that purchases from the manufacturer and wholesales them to retailers is simply a wholesaler or could possibly be the factory authorized distributor if the manufacturer won’t wholesale to retailers directly.

The important thing here is that we do not consider any company that actually holds inventory as a middleman.

However, we only list manufacturers and factory authorized distributors in our Wholesaler and Dropshipper Directory. If the manufacturer won’t work with retailers, we contact their factory authorized distributors. We do not list plain ol’ wholesalers or sub-wholesalers (which are wholesalers that purchase from other wholesalers).

When you work with a middleman or a sub-wholesaler, you aren’t getting the best wholesale prices, because these “wholesalers” raise the wholesale cost, when you could be buying it cheaper by going to the source of the products directly. This is why so many online retailers love our Directory at WorldwideBrands.com. We only provide those top-level wholesalers to our members for the best prices & superior service, because we cut out the middleman that run rampant on the internet. It’s all part of our wholesale scam protection.

We take our time verifying the information that we gather from these wholesale companies and we turn down listings in our Directory often because a company doesn’t meet our criteria. We only want to protect our members and their consumers by providing them with the best sources of products we can. Which of course means, No Middlemen Allowed!