• The Wall Street Journal , Thursday, September 18, 2008 11 AM

An increasing number of wholesale companies are turning to the Web to hawk their products -- at wholesale prices -- directly to consumers. The hope is that consumers who are hesitating to, say, buy that new tile in the home-improvement store will be enticed to do so when they see it for substantially less online.

The biggest obstacle for wholesalers is dealing with nettlesome customers. Before, interacting with customers mainly meant receiving orders from repeat retail clients and setting up delivery, says Eli Mechlovitz, co-owner of GlassTileStore.com. Now, workers must interact daily with individual consumers, helping them with tile selection and answering design questions -- tasks that used to fall to the retail clients who dealt with the customers.

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