Part of your job as an event planner is to make a boring event venue look and feel like the atmosphere your customer wants. Learn more about what it means to constantly shop party supplies for event planners and how to simplify your job.

Save some time and money by purchasing wholesale party supplies. This will simplify your job in a variety of ways while also helping you get lower per-unit prices on supplies. Learn what you need to know about transitioning your party supply shopping entirely to wholesale products.

Reasons Event Planners Should Buy Wholesale Party Supplies

You’ll find there are many advantages to buying party supplies wholesale. Here’s a look at some advantages to this strategy to supplies.

1. Lower Per-unit Price

On average, wholesale pricing can save you 10-50 percent depending on the item you’re shopping for. Consumers save and average of 27 percent when buying items in bulk. So long as you don’t overbuy or constantly need to get just a few more units of something and pay shipping costs on a small order, you’ll find incredible savings from this strategy.

2. Time Savings

Going shopping for every event is time-consuming. That can lower the per-hour price you end up earning from event planning when you. Free up time in your busy schedule by instead ordering products in bulk at wholesale prices.

3. More Freedom to Be Creative

With more time to devote to each event, you have more of a chance to be creative. You can spend more time dreaming up perfect menus, photobooth arrangements, centerpieces and more when you know the essentials are covered. 

4. Greater Value to Clients

Any time you can tell your client “don’t worry, I can handle that,” they’ll be impressed and view you as a true asset to any party. By saying you have the party essentials covered, you can showcase the immense value you provide your customers. 

5. More Time Doing What You Love

You didn’t become an event planner to spend your days at a party supply store.  More than likely, you did it because you love the fun of putting together stunning rooms with meaningful décor and watching your customers be truly delighted with the party you’ve arranged. Spend more time doing what you love and less time on administrative tasks for your party planning business.

What You Need to Know About Buying Wholesale

Although there are many reasons to buy wholesale party supplies for an event planning business, there are also plenty of reasons to make the change carefully. Here’s a look at considerations before placing a purchase.

1. Know Where You’re Buying From

See if the company has a US location. This often means they ship from a local warehouse within the country, which can speed up delivery times and reduce the chances that your goods might get lost in transit. 

While there is nothing wrong with ordering supplies from overseas, it enters some complications into the equation because you’ll be dealing with customs, changing timelines and more. Consider whether you can withstand those complications before ordering.

2. Order a Few Test Products Before Stocking Up

It’s hard to tell from pictures what an item really looks like in-person. The best way to ensure you don’t end up with duds is to test out a product with a small order before stocking up. Once you know you like the item, you can purchase it in large quantities so you don’t have to worry about stocking it.

3. Review Cash Flow

A very important element of moving to wholesale purchasing is deciding whether you can take the cash flow hit to start buying items in bulk. You’ll be paying in advance for products you’ll be getting reimbursed for through your client fees. That means being able to front that money and not worry about when you’ll book an event that needs the goods.

4. Establish Where You’ll Store the Items

As a party planner, you might not have some storage space or warehouse where you keep business items. That’s understandable given that you are in the service industry and not selling physical goods. Before deciding that wholesale ordering is right for you, evaluate storage space and where you’ll keep things to ensure you’re ready to place such large orders.

5. Buy Wisely

You wouldn’t want to purchase large quantities of party supplies in lime green because parties with that as the color are rare. But black and white supplies or gold and silver are smart investments. You want to be fairly confident that you’ll use the supplies. And the sooner you’ll use them the better for cash flow purposes. 

Practical Wholesale Party Supplies for Party Planners

It’s hard to know where to start with stocking up on party supplies. To make it easy, we’ve put together a list of leading products that event planners find helpful.

1. Table Covering

All venues do not offer tablecloths. An affordable way to work with that is to purchase 100-foot table cover rolls.

These rolls are often good for many parties and are extremely affordable. Your clients will be impressed with how clean and attractive the party space looks and at the end of the party, you can just toss the table covering for fast clean up. This is especially nice when you work with venues that have short windows for rentals, such as children’s birthday party venues.

2. Cutlery

There’s nothing worse than having a room full of 8-year-olds at a bowling alley breaking their forks constantly while just wanting to get back to the fun. High-quality toss-away cutlery is essential whether you’re working on a child’s birthday party or an outdoor wedding. SoNice Party offers cutlery in many colors to make it easy to pair with your party. But the color you can’t go wrong with is silver. Shop forks, spoons and knives.

3. Plates

Similar to cutlery, you need good plates for an event. You don’t want to use paper plates that will suddenly give way when your guests carry them to their place at the table. The plastic premium plates from SoNice Party offer class and beauty to any celebration while being practical because they won’t spill your food.

4. Balloons

Your customers will be impressed when you share that you can bring the balloons to the party. That makes one less errand that they have to complete and helps take one more item off their busy to-do list to help free up their time to focus on other things. Purchase latex balloons in standard colors and consider getting some foil balloons to help mark certain occasions.

Getting Started with Wholesale Ordering

Updating your business strategy to order wholesale party items is somewhat complex. But once you make the switch, it is well worth it. Start shopping, learning prices and evaluating the best items to stock based on your most frequent clientele by signing up for a wholesale account now with SoNice Party. Experience the difference high-quality party supplies can provide.

Further reading:

• Wholesale Party Supplies for Business Owners: A Smart Investment
• Business Celebrations: Party Supplies for Enterprises
• The Ultimate Guide to Balloon Garlands: Trends and Techniques
• Wholesale Party Supplies Rating: Choosing the Right Seller