Considering how to expand your business? Wholesale party supplies for business owners are a smart investment. Whether you own a convenience store, local grocery market or custom card shop, party supplies will help you expand your business offering with items that many customers seek and offer solid returns on your investment.

Learn the various reasons why party supplies are a wise addition to a variety of store types and good ways of incorporating these materials into your offering.

Why Wholesale Party Supplies Are Smart Investments

From baby showers to birthday celebrations, people love throwing parties. Whether it’s a small gathering of a few friends or a child invites their whole class to their birthday party, purchasing some staple party supplies can help make the celebration feel festive and fun.

Here’s a look at why wholesale party supplies can help expand any type of business to offer a new income stream and more foot traffic in your store.

1. Wholesale Party Supplies are Inexpensive

If you’re worried about having the cash flow to add a new product category, know that party supplies are not expensive, especially when purchased in bulk through wholesale suppliers.

Per unit, these materials cost a few dollars but you can resell them at margins of 30-50%. You can start your party supplies offering with a limited number of items and expand as you start seeing that ROI to offer the cash flow to purchase additional items.

Consider starting with more generic supplies, such as:

• Table covering rolls
• Cutlery
• Cups
• Plates
• Napkins
• Balloons
• Generic decorations and centerpieces that customers can use for various celebration types

Then you can expand to stocking products that are celebration-specific, such as materials for birthdays, graduations, holidays and more.

2. People Enjoy One-stop Shopping

The more you can offer your customers to help them find everything they need in one place, the more you’ll become a part of their habits. Whether that means adding party supplies to the place where they purchase cards to celebrate special occasions or allowing them to do their party shopping where they purchase food essentials, the more you can simplify their lives, the more they will patronize your business. And when you add a level of convenience to their shopping habits, you might also be able to charge a little more than the competitors who only offer party supplies.

Consider consumer behavior when selecting the items you stock in your store. Perhaps you only stock seasonal items to offer something unique in your community. Or you might only stock items that go hand-in-hand with what you sell in store. It’s all about looking at your strongest areas of business currently and augmenting it with party supplies.

3. You Already Have the Foot Traffic to Sell to

Adding a new line of products to your current offering is a smart investment because you can increase how much a customer purchases from you during each visit without increasing your expenses or advertising costs.

That’s because you already have the foot traffic to sell to. But offering convenience items can help increase the value of each sale. So if a customer is currently spending $50 on last-minute food items from your store for their social gathering, now you might also get them to spend $20 on last-minute party supplies, such as table coverings that they hadn’t even considered for making their celebration festive.

4. Online Businesses Can Suggest Staple Items Alongside Other Sales

If you own an online business that is related to parties or celebrations, you can increase the value of each sale by suggesting staple party supplies as part of the transaction. So whether you have a physical storefront or an online business, you have a chance to upsell your customers.

Business owners offering custom-designed cards, art or other paper goods might find that customers purchase these items as gifts for celebrations. That makes for an ideal chance to upsell party supplies right alongside those items.

Or maybe you have a business that sells licensed children’s items and want to expand your business with some standard party supplies that allow parents to buy staples along with specialty party items. Get creative in how you market your business and complementary items. 

What to Stock When Adding Party Supplies to Your Business

When you look to stock your store with staple party supplies that you can sell to the most people, consider these items that help you increase sales without having to manage too much additional inventory.

1. Balloons

Whether parents are celebrating a gender reveal party for their new baby or a child’s birthday party, balloons help make the atmosphere feel festive. Balloons are a smart staple item. And you can sell multi-colored packs to offer the colors customers want without having to manage multiple different color options in your store.

SoNice Party offers latex balloons in 9-inch, 12-inch, 18-inch and 24-inch. If you only want to stock the most standard size, consider getting 12-inch balloon varieties as these are the most popular size or a traditional balloon size.

2. Balloon Weights

If you’ll be offering balloons with helium, providing balloon weights will help customers prepare for their party. You can ask whether they’ll use the balloons as a table centerpiece or a floor decoration to help them attach the balloons to the weight accordingly. That way, there’s less risk that they’ll lose their floating balloons in the transportation process. While helium requires some added management to stock and work with local suppliers to get tank refills, it is a highly sought-after party decoration.

2. Table Cover Roll

Table cover rolls are useful for any celebration type. You can stock standard colors of just black and white or offer a variety of colors to give customers more options. This is an item where it’s likely best to have limited options to start and then expand from there. You could have special colors, such as emerald during Saint Patrick’s Day or red for the holiday season.

3. Cups, Plates and Cutlery

Most parties involve serving food to guests. As such, party planners or hosts need cups, plates and cutlery. Go with standard colors, patterns and appearances so that they are useful for any celebration. You might eventually expand to have themed plates or cups, especially for children’s birthdays where they want them to be themed. But these are easy items to offer in standardized colors and patterns that customers can use for any celebration.

4. Candles

Birthdays are a major reason to celebrate. And no birthday is complete without candles to go on top of the cake. If you own a cake decorating business or bakery, stocking candles is a wise move. That way, customers have a visual reminder to pick up candles or you can offer it as an add-on service when delivering birthday cakes for parties.

The same is true for convenience stores and grocery stores. Candles are a simple product and don’t take up much display space but provide a great addition to your shelves.

Setting Up Your Wholesale Account

SoNice Party makes it easy to get started with your wholesale account. Start stocking your business with outstanding products at great prices to increase your ROI on the product category and help you manage your cash flow. Setup your wholesale account now.

Further reading:

• Business Celebrations: Party Supplies for Enterprises
• The Ultimate Guide to Balloon Garlands: Trends and Techniques
• Wholesale Party Supplies Rating: Choosing the Right Seller
• Chrome Latex Balloons Wholesale – Prices, Colors and Sizes Available