Tundra wholesale review: Who is Tundra best for?

Digital wholesalers supply retailers with bulk at discounted prices.

Tundra wholesale is one such digital wholesaler, which sources supplies for retailers.

Read on to discover if Tundra is the best choice for you.

📝 This article will cover:
Tundra Wholesale key features Tundra wholesale pros and cons What is Tundra marketplace? How does Tundra work? Tundra alternatives Pay wholesale suppliers for less with Wise

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Tundra Wholesale key features

Tundra has a variety of features to make the wholesale experience more convenient and affordable on both the buyer’s and suppliers’ ends.

These features range from the lack of commissions or transaction fees, to real-time delivery tracking and brand promotion tools.

Here are some of the key features for both buyers and suppliers:

Buyers:

• No transaction fees²
• 180+ countries served
• 4000+ suppliers on the platform
• Delivery with real-time tracking
• Search products by #tags
• Simple checkout with automatic freight and expedited shipping calculations

Suppliers:

• 0% commission rate³
• Receive orders 24/7
• Upload, manage, and fulfill orders
• Brand promotion features
• Free shipping promotions for customers
• Analytics dashboard
• Email marketing

Tundra also ships to any commercial address in 106 countries and territories.⁴

Tundra wholesale pros and cons

Tundra wholesale reviews often point to the lack of fees as one of the main standout features of the brand. The company can remove stress from the ordering process on both ends. There are also some cons to bear in mind.

Pros	Cons
Suppliers can easily upload and tag products There are promotion tools to allow suppliers to build brand awareness There are no commissions, markups, or transaction fees Tundra handles shipping costs and the logistics There are optional extras at checkout to enhance the order process	Buyers are screened to avoid Amazon resellers using the site, which can provide a barrier to entry Since you don’t deal directly with the supplier you won’t be able to strike up any long-term working relationships

Who can Tundra Wholesale be best for?

Tundra Wholesale is great for suppliers looking to reach a wider audience online.

Wholesale suppliers can use promotional tools on Tundra to boost brand awareness. As a result, small suppliers can compete with large ones, and save money in the process too.

Tundra is useful for:

Business buyers looking for discounted prices for bulk orders, and fee-free delivery. It’s also great for suppliers looking to simplify the order process and compete with larger companies without spending a lot of money.

Wholesalers can cut down on the amount of administration you need to do to source your products.

You may want to look for a different solution if:

You prefer in-person wholesale markets, where you deal directly with the wholesaler and can strike up a good working relationship.

What is Tundra marketplace?

Tundra marketplace is an online wholesale store where business owners can pick up large volumes of products.

It’s also a platform for wholesale suppliers to display goods and build brand awareness.

Co-founders Katie and Arnold launched Tundra to streamline the complex wholesale process.¹ The brand accomplishes this by selling and delivering to more than 100 countries from its US and Canadian stores, without transaction fees or markups.

Tundra is a wholesaler that wants to empower small business owners. By bringing down costs and doing away with membership and transaction fees, small companies can also access wholesale goods.

How does Tundra work?

Tundra is committed to providing a seamless experience for both buyers and suppliers. As such, it’s a relatively straightforward platform to get to grips with.

Take a look at the guides below to learn more about how Tundra works on both the buyer and supplier ends.

How Tundra works if you’re a supplier

As a supplier, there are several simple steps you’ll need to take to sign up and start using the wholesale platform.

1. First, you’ll set up your storefront on the website, which is where you’ll be able to upload your products. You can do so either by uploading them directly from your Shopify store or by sending Tundra a CSV download for the individual products.

2. Then you can categorize the products with #tags, so buyers can find them.

3. The next step is to sit back and wait for orders to come in from prospective buyers. Once an order has been placed, you will receive the payment in full within one or two business days after shipping.

4. Finally, print off and attach the pre-paid shipping labels to your shipments to fulfill your orders. From there, Tundra will take care of the rest.

How Tundra works for buyers

For buyers, the process is even more straightforward:

1. Find the products you’re looking for by searching with hash tags (#) and find the lowest prices from independent brands.

2. When you go to place an order, Tundra’s online checkout will calculate the freight for you, as well as what your expedited shipping options are. At this point, you can pay for insurance or prepaid duties and taxes for international orders.

3. Once you’ve placed the order, the shipment will be sent straight from the supplier. You can monitor it in real-time with tracking and notifications.

How does Tundra make money?

Tundra makes money by offering optional services and features. Some additional services for buyers include expedited shipping, insurance, and prepaid duties, and taxes on international orders.

As for suppliers, Tundra offers paid promotion and brand exposure as optional extras.

The brand is committed to this business model, and as such, plans to bring out more value-added services to both buyers and suppliers going forward.

Who pays shipping on Tundra?

Unlike most wholesalers, Tundra doesn’t charge fees, commissions, or markups. This means that suppliers don’t have to pay to ship their products, as Tundra takes care of the logistics.

Alternative sites like Tundra wholesale

Tundra Wholesale isn’t the only company that offers digital wholesale to buyers and suppliers.

There are other sites like Tundra Wholesale which bring online wholesale to an international audience, albeit with different features.

One of Tundra’s main competitors is a brand called Faire Wholesale.

Faire Wholesale

Faire is the largest digital wholesale marketplace. Faire aims to go above and beyond for suppliers, going as far as to create a shop page using suppliers’ photos.

Suppliers can also offer buyers flexible 60-day payment terms through the website, and get paid punctually with Faire’s payment processing.

Key features:

• 60-day payment plan⁵
• Shop page setup for suppliers
• Curated recommendations for buyers
• Free returns on opening orders
• Free shipping and duties

For retailers to place an order on Faire, they must own a commercial brick-and-mortar store, an online store with a unique URL, or a consistent pop-up shop.

Tundra vs Faire

Faire ships to the US and the UK, Canada, and select European countries.⁶ This coverage is limited compared to Tundra, which offers worldwide shipping.

Suppliers on Faire can enjoy 0% commissions on orders received from existing customers. However, there is a standard commission rate of 15% for reorders. For opening orders, there is a 25% commission rate.⁷ There’s also a 10% one-time referral fee if the customer discovers you through the website.

Compared to Tundra, these fees can seem steep. Tundra charges 0% commission, but you may need to pay for advertising to get noticed by customers. It's worth weighing up whether your ad spend on Tundra would total to less than if you paid the Faire commissions.

Pay wholesale suppliers for less with Wise

Tundra Wholesale, and other wholesale suppliers, can often be based overseas. Paying for your goods via your bank, however, can incur hefty foreign transaction fees.

That means the goods you buy, even if they’re close to the WPI value for the country, will end up being more expensive.

To avoid these fees, you want to be able to trade with the real mid-market rate.

One of the best ways to do this is to create a local account. Unless you’re a citizen of the country, however, this can be complicated - if not impossible.

So what can you do?

Save time & effort by using Wise

With Wise Business, you can create local account details for up to 10 different countries from a single account.

This means you can have a UK account number and sort code, for example - even as a US citizen. As a result, you can pay suppliers in their local currency without the hefty fees that banks charge.

🔍 Tundra not the perfect fit for you? You can also read the guide to Chinese wholesale websites.

Sources:

1. Tundra: Democratizing the Wholesale Marketplace | by Arnold Engel
2. Tundra - Buyers
3. Tundra - Sellers
4. Wholesale Marketplace - Territories
5. Faire Online Wholesale Marketplace & Store
6. Faire - Territories
7. Faire pricing

All sources checked 10 October, 2021.