How to Become a Promotional Products Distributor in Canada or the USA

Somewhere in your town a real-estate agent is handing over a closing gift, a hospital is welcoming new nurses with a branded tumbler, and a school is selling logo totes to raise money for the band. Each of those items passed through a promotional products distributor. The distributor never owned a printing press or a warehouse. They understood a client, picked the right thing, and worked with a supplier who did the rest. If you are thinking about becoming that person, in Canada or the United States, this guide walks through the steps, and then explains what a supplier like Delite brings to the table.

The job in one paragraph

A distributor sells branded merchandise to businesses and organizations. You find the buyer, quote the job, collect the logo and the purchase order, and hand the production to a supplier. Your income is the margin between the supplier's net price and your selling price. Day to day it is a relationship business: proofs, deadlines, in-hand dates, reorders. Product knowledge builds with every order, and your supplier should be teaching you as you go.

Step 1: make it official

In Canada, register a sole proprietorship with your province or incorporate provincially or federally, then get a Business Number from the Canada Revenue Agency. You must register for GST/HST once revenue passes the $30,000 small-supplier threshold, and most distributors register right away so they can claim back the tax on what they buy. British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Manitoba have PST, Quebec has QST, and each has its own registration. Suppliers will ask for your business number when you open a trade account.

In the United States, the usual route is an LLC in your home state plus a free Employer Identification Number from the IRS. Apply for a sales tax permit in your state; it comes with a resale certificate, which lets you buy from suppliers tax-free because your client pays the tax on your invoice. Every supplier account form asks for it.

Step 2: get your industry credentials

Promotional products is a membership industry. In Canada, PPPC (Promotional Product Professionals of Canada) is the national association. In the United States, PPAI and ASI are the two networks, and many Canadian distributors also hold an ASI number because suppliers on both sides of the border treat it as proof of trade. SAGE and ESP are the databases distributors use to search products and net pricing. You can technically start without any of these, but supplier pricing and trade accounts open much faster once you have a number. Pick one association in year one.

Step 3: learn how supplier pricing works

Suppliers publish prices in quantity breaks: 25, 50, 100, 250 pieces and up, each cheaper per unit. Distributors mark up to the end price; the traditional rule of thumb is a 40 percent margin. The trap for beginners is landed cost. Freight, brokerage and duties can quietly erase a margin, especially on cross-border orders. Before you quote, know whether the supplier's price is landed and where the goods are actually sitting. Stock in a Canadian warehouse and stock in an overseas factory are two very different in-hand dates.

Step 4: the toolkit

• Something clients can browse. A supplier catalog you can share, or your own site.
• Virtual mock-ups. Showing the logo on the product is the single best closing tool in this industry.
• A clean quote listing quantity, decoration, setup, freight and the in-hand date.
• Samples. A tumbler in the buyer's hand beats any photo.

Step 5: choose a lane and land the first orders

New distributors who try to sell everything to everyone get compared on price alone. New distributors with a lane get referrals. Eco and sustainable programs, Canadian-made gifting, employee onboarding kits, schools and minor sports, clinics and dental offices, the trades. Start with people who already know you and ask what they bought last year. Quote it better, deliver it on time, and ask for the next one.

Why distributors choose Delite

Delite has been sourcing, decorating and shipping promotional products from Markham, Ontario since 1997. We work with distributors across Canada and the United States, and the business is built to make a new distributor look like a seasoned one:

• More than 300 products stocked in Canada, counted live in our warehouse system and shown as real on-hand numbers on every product page. No waiting on a container when your client's event is in two weeks.
• Everything decorated in-house. Screen printing, pad printing, UV digital, DTF heat transfer, laser engraving and embroidery all happen in the same building as the inventory, so quality is checked by the people who pack the order. See our printing methods.
• Landed pricing for both countries. Our USD pricing includes all applicable duties for delivery to the USA, and our coded pricing includes freight and duties to the USA and Canada. Live UPS rates from Markham to your client's postal code sit right on the product page for stocked items.
• A catalog of 2,600+ products with a real point of view: eco and reusable items we championed long before it was a category, kitchen and drinkware, and genuinely Canadian-made goods such as maple syrup, Ontario beeswax and locally crafted boards.
• Kitting, fulfillment and drop shipping under one roof. Build a set with our online kit builder, approve a photographed prototype, and we hand-assemble, store and release kits to one address or hundreds of doorsteps. Read more on our services page.
• Distributor tools included. A virtual mock-up studio, a flyer builder, sample requests and quote requests, all from the product page. See tools.
• Listed where you search. Our products are on SAGE and ESP, and our product data is available through a feed for distributors running their own stores.
• Real people, real hours. Customer service is available Monday to Friday, 9 AM to 7 PM Eastern, and we bring samples to trade shows across the country.

Open an account, request a sample of something stocked, and put Delite on your first quote. Our story is 28 years long, and we would like your first year to be part of it.