# Wholesale Central Supplier Directory Scraper (`crawlerbros/wholesale-central-supplier-directory-scraper`) Actor Scrape wholesale supplier and dropshipper listings from WholesaleCentral.com. Browse by product category or keyword search. Get company name, category, location, minimum order, contact info, website, and product samples. - **URL**: https://apify.com/crawlerbros/wholesale-central-supplier-directory-scraper.md - **Developed by:** [Crawler Bros](https://apify.com/crawlerbros) (community) - **Categories:** E-commerce, Automation, Lead generation - **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks - **User rating**: No ratings yet ## Pricing from $3.00 / 1,000 results This Actor is paid per event and usage. You are charged both the fixed price for specific events and for Apify platform usage. Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have. Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event ## What's an Apify Actor? Actors are a software tools running on the Apify platform, for all kinds of web data extraction and automation use cases. In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours, and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store. In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server. Actors are written with capital "A". ## How to integrate an Actor? If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects. You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready. The best way to integrate Actors is as follows. In JavaScript/TypeScript projects, use official [JavaScript/TypeScript client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js.md): ```bash npm install apify-client ``` In Python projects, use official [Python client library](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python.md): ```bash pip install apify-client ``` In shell scripts, use [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): ````bash # MacOS / Linux curl -fsSL https://apify.com/install-cli.sh | bash # Windows irm https://apify.com/install-cli.ps1 | iex ```bash In AI frameworks, you might use the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/mcp.md). If your project is in a different language, use the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md). For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below. For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt). # README ## Wholesale Central Supplier Directory Scraper Scrape wholesale supplier and dropshipper listings from [WholesaleCentral.com](https://www.wholesalecentral.com) — one of the largest B2B wholesale directories in the US, connecting retailers with wholesalers, importers, manufacturers, dropshippers, and liquidators since 1997. Browse by product category or run a keyword search across the whole catalog. Get company name, category, location, minimum order, and contact info (phone, address, website, social media) — no registration, no login required. ### What this actor does - **Browse by category** — 54+ curated top-level departments (Apparel, Electronics, Health & Beauty, Toys & Games, Jewelry, and more), plus an advanced free-text override for any of WholesaleCentral's 290+ sub-categories - **Keyword search** — search the full catalog by product or company keyword - **Full pagination** — automatically walks every result page of a category or search (not just the first) until `maxItems` is reached or the source is exhausted - **Supplier type** — narrow to WholesaleCentral's own Dropshippers or Closeout/Liquidator departments - **Filters** — location (state/region text match), maximum minimum-order amount, keyword, featured listings only - **Rich per-supplier data** — optionally enriches every result with phone number, full mailing address, website URL, company description, and social media links from the supplier's detail page - **Empty fields are omitted** — no null/blank noise in the output ### Output per supplier - `name`, `slug` - `category`, `supplierType` - `location`, `city`, `state` - `memberSince`, `minimumOrderUSD` - `isFeaturedListing` - `phone`, `websiteUrl`, `address` - `companyDescription`, `socialMediaLinks[]` - `detailUrl`, `sourceUrl` - `recordType: "supplier"`, `scrapedAt` ### Input | Field | Type | Default | Description | |---|---|---|---| | `mode` | string | `byCategory` | `byCategory` (browse) or `search` (keyword) | | `category` | string | `Apparel` | Category to browse (mode=byCategory) | | `customCategorySlug` | string | – | Advanced: override with any wholesalecentral.com category slug | | `searchQuery` | string | `bluetooth speakers` | Keyword search (mode=search) | | `supplierType` | string | `all` | `all` / `wholesaler` / `manufacturer` / `importer` / `dropshipper` / `liquidator` | | `state` | string | – | Only suppliers whose location contains this text | | `maxMinimumOrderUSD` | int | – | Only suppliers with minimum order ≤ this amount | | `keyword` | string | – | Only suppliers whose name/description contains this text | | `featuredOnly` | bool | `false` | Only suppliers WholesaleCentral.com badges as a "Featured" (premium/paid) listing | | `fetchSupplierDetails` | bool | `true` | Visit each supplier's detail page for phone/address/website | | `proxyConfiguration` | object | AUTO | Apify proxy (optional, helps against IP-based rate limiting) | | `maxItems` | int | `20` | Hard cap on emitted records (1–500) | #### Example: apparel wholesalers in California ```json { "mode": "byCategory", "category": "Apparel", "state": "California", "maxItems": 30 } ```` #### Example: dropshippers for pet supplies ```json { "mode": "byCategory", "category": "Pet-Supplies", "supplierType": "dropshipper", "maxItems": 20 } ``` #### Example: keyword search ```json { "mode": "search", "searchQuery": "bluetooth speakers", "maxMinimumOrderUSD": 200, "maxItems": 25 } ``` ### Use cases - **Retail/e-commerce sourcing** — find wholesale suppliers for a specific product category - **Dropshipping** — build a shortlist of dropshipping-ready suppliers by niche - **Liquidation buying** — find closeout/liquidation suppliers for discount resale - **Market research** — analyze supplier density, minimum order thresholds, and geographic distribution by category - **Lead generation** — build a contact list of wholesale suppliers for B2B outreach ### FAQ **What's WholesaleCentral.com?** A B2B directory (part of Sumner Communications, which also runs IndustryNet and Closeout Central) connecting retail buyers directly with wholesale suppliers, importers, manufacturers, and dropshippers across hundreds of product categories. **Does WholesaleCentral separately label suppliers as "wholesaler", "manufacturer", or "importer"?** No — the site doesn't expose that distinction as a filter. Only "Dropshippers" and "Closeout Suppliers" are structurally separate departments on the site, so those two `supplierType` values narrow results to a genuinely different listing set; `wholesaler`/`manufacturer`/`importer` browse the selected category unrestricted. **Why do some suppliers have no `phone` or `websiteUrl`?** Not every supplier discloses a phone number or website publicly, and some detail pages only show a website link (no phone) or vice versa. The field is simply omitted rather than shown as empty. **Why is `minimumOrderUSD` sometimes `0`?** `0` means the supplier explicitly advertises "No minimum order" — a real, meaningful value, not a placeholder. If minimum order isn't disclosed at all, the field is omitted instead. **Does this need a login or proxy?** No login. WholesaleCentral.com is B2B/public browsing (no account required to view listings). It runs behind a bot-detection challenge that a real headless browser passes automatically on a direct connection — no paid/residential proxy is required, and Apify's own free shared AUTO proxy group is actually *slower and less reliable* against this particular site's WAF than a direct connection, so `proxyConfiguration` defaults to off. Only enable it if you're running very high volumes and want to spread requests across IPs. **What if a category has very few suppliers?** Some niche categories or geography combinations genuinely have few listings on WholesaleCentral. The actor returns everything it finds; an empty result means the source itself has no matching suppliers. **Why does a run occasionally return suppliers without `phone`/`address`/`companyDescription`/`socialMediaLinks` even with `fetchSupplierDetails` on?** WholesaleCentral.com's ad stack occasionally fires a same-tab redirect attempt while loading a supplier's "About supplier" contact panel. The actor blocks the redirect and retries automatically, but if this happens on several suppliers in a row during a run (an ad-serving condition on the source's side, outside the actor's control), it automatically stops attempting further detail-page enrichment for the rest of that run so your requested `maxItems` records are still delivered promptly with their listing-level fields (name, category, location, minimum order). Re-running later, when the source's ad-serving condition has cleared, typically restores full enrichment. # Actor input Schema ## `mode` (type: `string`): What to fetch. ## `category` (type: `string`): Product category to browse (mode=byCategory). Use `customCategorySlug` to target a narrower sub-category not listed here. ## `customCategorySlug` (type: `string`): Override `category` with any WholesaleCentral.com category slug, e.g. `Mens-Apparel` or `CBD-gummies-edibles`. Find slugs by browsing wholesalecentral.com/category/\*. ## `searchQuery` (type: `string`): Free-text keyword search (mode=search), e.g. `bluetooth speakers`. ## `supplierType` (type: `string`): Restrict results to a supplier taxonomy WholesaleCentral.com distinguishes structurally. `wholesaler`/`manufacturer`/`importer` are not separately tagged by the source, so they browse the category unrestricted (same as `all`). ## `state` (type: `string`): Only include suppliers whose listed location contains this text, e.g. `California` or `Texas`. ## `maxMinimumOrderUSD` (type: `integer`): Only include suppliers whose minimum order is at most this amount. Suppliers with no disclosed minimum are always included. ## `keyword` (type: `string`): Only include suppliers whose name or description contains this text (case-insensitive). Applies on top of `category` (mode=byCategory). ## `featuredOnly` (type: `boolean`): Only include suppliers WholesaleCentral.com badges as a "Featured" (premium/paid) listing. ## `fetchSupplierDetails` (type: `boolean`): Visit each supplier's detail page to enrich records with phone, full address, website URL, and social media links. Slower but more complete. ## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`): WholesaleCentral.com's bot-detection challenge is passed automatically by a real headless browser on a direct connection. Apify's shared/AUTO datacenter proxy is observed to be significantly slower and less reliable against this specific site's WAF, so proxy defaults to off; only enable it if you need to spread a very high-volume run across multiple IPs. ## `maxItems` (type: `integer`): Hard cap on emitted records. ## Actor input object example ```json { "mode": "byCategory", "category": "Apparel", "searchQuery": "bluetooth speakers", "supplierType": "all", "featuredOnly": false, "fetchSupplierDetails": true, "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": false }, "maxItems": 20 } ``` # Actor output Schema ## `suppliers` (type: `string`): Dataset containing all scraped supplier records. # API You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup. ## JavaScript example ```javascript import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client'; // Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token // Replace the '' with your token const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '', }); // Prepare Actor input const input = { "mode": "byCategory", "category": "Apparel", "searchQuery": "bluetooth speakers", "supplierType": "all", "featuredOnly": false, "fetchSupplierDetails": false, "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": false }, "maxItems": 20 }; // Run the Actor and wait for it to finish const run = await client.actor("crawlerbros/wholesale-central-supplier-directory-scraper").call(input); // Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any) console.log('Results from dataset'); console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`); const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems(); items.forEach((item) => { console.dir(item); }); // 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs ``` ## Python example ```python from apify_client import ApifyClient # Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token # Replace '' with your token. client = ApifyClient("") # Prepare the Actor input run_input = { "mode": "byCategory", "category": "Apparel", "searchQuery": "bluetooth speakers", "supplierType": "all", "featuredOnly": False, "fetchSupplierDetails": False, "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": False }, "maxItems": 20, } # Run the Actor and wait for it to finish run = client.actor("crawlerbros/wholesale-central-supplier-directory-scraper").call(run_input=run_input) # Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any) print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"]) for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items(): print(item) # 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start ``` ## CLI example ```bash echo '{ "mode": "byCategory", "category": "Apparel", "searchQuery": "bluetooth speakers", "supplierType": "all", "featuredOnly": false, "fetchSupplierDetails": false, "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": false }, "maxItems": 20 }' | apify call crawlerbros/wholesale-central-supplier-directory-scraper --silent --output-dataset ``` ## MCP server setup ```json { "mcpServers": { "apify": { "command": "npx", "args": [ "mcp-remote", "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=crawlerbros/wholesale-central-supplier-directory-scraper", "--header", "Authorization: Bearer " ] } } } ``` ## OpenAPI specification ```json { "openapi": "3.0.1", "info": { "title": "Wholesale Central Supplier Directory Scraper", "description": "Scrape wholesale supplier and dropshipper listings from WholesaleCentral.com. Browse by product category or keyword search. Get company name, category, location, minimum order, contact info, website, and product samples.", "version": "1.0", "x-build-id": "sndvxmwbZSrIKIHTD" }, "servers": [ { "url": "https://api.apify.com/v2" } ], "paths": { "/acts/crawlerbros~wholesale-central-supplier-directory-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-get-dataset-items-crawlerbros-wholesale-central-supplier-directory-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for its completion, and returns Actor's dataset items in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } }, "/acts/crawlerbros~wholesale-central-supplier-directory-scraper/runs": { "post": { "operationId": "runs-sync-crawlerbros-wholesale-central-supplier-directory-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor and returns information about the initiated run in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK", "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/runsResponseSchema" } } } } } } }, "/acts/crawlerbros~wholesale-central-supplier-directory-scraper/run-sync": { "post": { "operationId": "run-sync-crawlerbros-wholesale-central-supplier-directory-scraper", "x-openai-isConsequential": false, "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for completion, and returns the OUTPUT from Key-value store in response.", "tags": [ "Run Actor" ], "requestBody": { "required": true, "content": { "application/json": { "schema": { "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema" } } } }, "parameters": [ { "name": "token", "in": "query", "required": true, "schema": { "type": "string" }, "description": "Enter your Apify token here" } ], "responses": { "200": { "description": "OK" } } } } }, "components": { "schemas": { "inputSchema": { "type": "object", "required": [ "mode" ], "properties": { "mode": { "title": "Mode", "enum": [ "byCategory", "search" ], "type": "string", "description": "What to fetch.", "default": "byCategory" }, "category": { "title": "Category", "enum": [ "Amazon-FBA", "As-Seen-On-TV", "Baby-Products", "C-Store-Items", "Telephone-Cellular", "Closeout-Suppliers", "Computer-Products", "Dollar-Store", "DVDs-Videos", "Food-Grocery", "Knives", "Lawn-Garden", "Military-Goods", "Office-Supplies", "Perfume", "Pet-Supplies", "Religious-Items", "Self-Defense-Security", "Souvenirs", "Survival-emergency-kits", "Tools-Hardware", "Vape-Products-Eliquids-Smoking-Products", "Watches", "Apparel", "Art-Supplies", "Automotive", "Business-Opportunities", "Business-Services", "Candles-Incense-Potpourri", "CBD-products", "Collectibles", "Crafts-Supplies", "Dropshippers", "Electronics", "Fashion-Accessories", "General-Merchandise", "Gifts", "Handbags-Luggage", "Health-Beauty", "Holiday-Seasonal", "Home-Furnishing-Housewares", "Jewelry", "Leather", "Made-In-USA", "Novelties", "Party-Items-Greeting-Cards", "Professional-Supplies", "Promotional", "Regional-Ethnic", "Shoes-Footwear", "Smoking-Products", "Sporting-Goods", "Store-Dealer-Supplies", "Sunglasses-Eyewear", "Toys-Hobbies", "Home-Goods-Asian-Sources" ], "type": "string", "description": "Product category to browse (mode=byCategory). Use `customCategorySlug` to target a narrower sub-category not listed here.", "default": "Apparel" }, "customCategorySlug": { "title": "Custom category slug (advanced)", "type": "string", "description": "Override `category` with any WholesaleCentral.com category slug, e.g. `Mens-Apparel` or `CBD-gummies-edibles`. Find slugs by browsing wholesalecentral.com/category/*." }, "searchQuery": { "title": "Search query", "type": "string", "description": "Free-text keyword search (mode=search), e.g. `bluetooth speakers`.", "default": "bluetooth speakers" }, "supplierType": { "title": "Supplier type", "enum": [ "all", "wholesaler", "manufacturer", "importer", "dropshipper", "liquidator" ], "type": "string", "description": "Restrict results to a supplier taxonomy WholesaleCentral.com distinguishes structurally. `wholesaler`/`manufacturer`/`importer` are not separately tagged by the source, so they browse the category unrestricted (same as `all`).", "default": "all" }, "state": { "title": "Location filter", "type": "string", "description": "Only include suppliers whose listed location contains this text, e.g. `California` or `Texas`." }, "maxMinimumOrderUSD": { "title": "Max minimum order (USD)", "minimum": 0, "maximum": 100000, "type": "integer", "description": "Only include suppliers whose minimum order is at most this amount. Suppliers with no disclosed minimum are always included." }, "keyword": { "title": "Keyword filter", "type": "string", "description": "Only include suppliers whose name or description contains this text (case-insensitive). Applies on top of `category` (mode=byCategory)." }, "featuredOnly": { "title": "Featured listings only", "type": "boolean", "description": "Only include suppliers WholesaleCentral.com badges as a \"Featured\" (premium/paid) listing.", "default": false }, "fetchSupplierDetails": { "title": "Fetch phone/address/website per supplier", "type": "boolean", "description": "Visit each supplier's detail page to enrich records with phone, full address, website URL, and social media links. Slower but more complete.", "default": true }, "proxyConfiguration": { "title": "Proxy configuration", "type": "object", "description": "WholesaleCentral.com's bot-detection challenge is passed automatically by a real headless browser on a direct connection. Apify's shared/AUTO datacenter proxy is observed to be significantly slower and less reliable against this specific site's WAF, so proxy defaults to off; only enable it if you need to spread a very high-volume run across multiple IPs.", "default": { "useApifyProxy": false } }, "maxItems": { "title": "Max items", "minimum": 1, "maximum": 500, "type": "integer", "description": "Hard cap on emitted records.", "default": 20 } } }, "runsResponseSchema": { "type": "object", "properties": { "data": { "type": "object", "properties": { "id": { "type": "string" }, "actId": { "type": "string" }, "userId": { "type": "string" }, "startedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" }, "finishedAt": { "type": "string", "format": "date-time", "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z" }, "status": { "type": "string", "example": "READY" }, "meta": { "type": "object", "properties": { "origin": { "type": "string", "example": "API" }, "userAgent": { "type": "string" } } }, "stats": { "type": "object", "properties": { "inputBodyLen": { "type": "integer", "example": 2000 }, "rebootCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "restartCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "resurrectCount": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "computeUnits": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } }, "options": { "type": "object", "properties": { "build": { "type": "string", "example": "latest" }, "timeoutSecs": { "type": "integer", "example": 300 }, "memoryMbytes": { "type": "integer", "example": 1024 }, "diskMbytes": { "type": "integer", "example": 2048 } } }, "buildId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultKeyValueStoreId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultDatasetId": { "type": "string" }, "defaultRequestQueueId": { "type": "string" }, "buildNumber": { "type": "string", "example": "1.0.0" }, "containerUrl": { "type": "string" }, "usage": { "type": "object", "properties": { "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 1 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_SERPS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } }, "usageTotalUsd": { "type": "number", "example": 0.00005 }, "usageUsd": { "type": "object", "properties": { "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATASET_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": { "type": "number", "example": 0.00005 }, "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 }, "PROXY_SERPS": { "type": "integer", "example": 0 } } } } } } } } } } ```