Chery Industrial vs TMG Industrial 2026: Which Supplier Can a Solo Operator Actually Get Approved With?

Two suppliers keep showing up when people research fabric storage shelters, container canopies, carports, and skid steer attachments for a high-ticket store. One is Chery Industrial, a New York based importer selling shelters, container houses, gates, and attachments direct from factory relationships in China. The other is TMG Industrial, a Canadian brand founded in Richmond, British Columbia in 2007 that has pushed hard into the United States over the last few years.

I get asked which one a solo operator should build a store around, and the honest answer changed in 2026 because TMG published its dealer terms. Those terms are specific enough to disqualify most of the people reading this, which is genuinely useful information. If you want the broader framework behind supplier selection first, start on the Ecommerce Paradise homepage and work forward from there.

This comparison is written for people who plan to sell these products, not for people buying one shelter for a farm. I pulled live catalog data from both storefronts, read both published policy sets, and compared the two dealer programs line by line. Where a number is not published, I say so instead of guessing.

The Short Version for Busy Operators

If you are a solo operator with no physical location and no five figure inventory budget, Chery Industrial is the only one of these two you can realistically start with. Its dealer application is an open web form with no published minimum opening order. TMG publishes a Bronze tier that requires a $15,000 minimum opening order and a Silver tier at $25,000.

If you already run a yard, an equipment dealership, a rental business, or a service location, TMG Industrial is the stronger long term partner. Its terms are written down, its dealer portal shows real time pricing and inventory, and its catalog runs deeper into agriculture, forestry, and automotive shop equipment.

Both companies sell overlapping products at overlapping prices, so the decision is almost never about the catalog. It is about whether you can clear the approval bar, and whether you can survive the freight and damage exposure that comes with shipping a 3,000 pound steel structure to a residential address.

What Each Company Actually Sells

Chery Industrial runs roughly 760 live products on its storefront at the time of writing. The catalog is organized into container shelters, storage shelters, livestock shelters, portable restrooms, shipping containers, skid steer attachments, expandable prefab houses, container houses, gates and fencing, and outdoor kitchens.

About 322 of those products carry the Chery Industrial vendor name. The rest are resold brands including Greatbear at 122 products, Gold Mountain at 99, KATOOL at 44, Bastone at 41, and ALEKO at 28. That mix matters because the resold lines are widely available elsewhere and are harder to defend on price.

TMG Industrial runs roughly 861 live products. Of those, 628 carry the TMG Industrial vendor name, 72 are TMG Parts, and 151 are sourced through Doba, the dropship aggregator. That last number is worth sitting with, because a supplier that fills 18 percent of its own catalog from an aggregator is telling you something about which product lines it actually controls.

You will also find VEVOR branded items inside TMG’s own storefront, which is a reminder that neither company is a pure manufacturer. Both are importers and assemblers with a house brand wrapped around a broader sourcing operation.

Where the Catalogs Overlap

The genuine head to head overlap is fabric shelters. Both sell single truss and double truss storage shelters, container mounted canopies, and enclosed end wall kits. Both sell metal carports and metal garage sheds in the $1,500 to $4,200 range.

Chery goes deeper on habitable structures. It lists expandable prefab homes, tiny homes, and container houses running from $12,990 up to $52,999 for a 40 foot container house with one bathroom. TMG does not compete there in any serious way.

TMG goes deeper on machinery. Its catalog includes wood chippers, bandsaw mills, stump grinders, forestry mulchers, cattle chutes, vibratory rollers, wheel balancers, and two post auto lifts. Its skid steer attachment line runs 79 products against Chery’s much thinner attachment shelf.

Real Listed Prices, Not Estimates

Price ranges get quoted loosely in supplier roundups, so here are the actual listed numbers pulled from both storefronts. On Chery’s storage shelter collection, a W20 by L20 by H12 single truss shelter lists at $2,799 regular and $2,298 on sale. The same collection tops out at $78,990 for a W70 by L200 by H32 double truss reinforced series shelter with four side doors.

In between, a W30 by L40 by H20 double truss lists at $8,900 regular and $6,900 on sale, and a W40 by L80 by H23 double truss lists at $25,999 regular and $17,900 on sale. Those discount gaps are large, which tells you the regular price is closer to a MAP anchor than a real transaction price.

TMG’s storage shelter line starts around $2,699 for a 20 by 30 arch wall peak ceiling shelter with an 11 ounce PE cover. The top of that line is a Heavy Series 70 by 150 dual truss shelter with a 32 ounce PVC cover at $119,999. TMG’s container shelter line runs from accessory kits around $999 up to $27,499 for a fully enclosed 50 by 40 dual truss with 32 ounce PVC.

Across the whole catalog, TMG’s median listed price is $2,399 with 465 items at $2,000 or more and 169 items at $5,000 or more. Chery’s median is $2,699 with 463 items at $2,000 or more and 180 items at $5,000 or more. On raw ticket size these two are close enough that price alone will not decide anything for you.

What That Means for a Store’s Average Order Value

Both catalogs will support a store with a genuine $3,000 to $8,000 average order value, which is the zone where high-ticket dropshipping actually works as a business model rather than a hobby. The math on customer acquisition only clears when a single sale can absorb a few hundred dollars of ad spend and still leave you paid.

The trap is assuming the sale price equals your revenue. On heavy freight, the delivered cost is the number that matters, and both suppliers push meaningful freight and accessorial costs onto the seller.

Dealer Programs Compared Head to Head

This is where the two companies diverge sharply, and it is the single most important section for anyone deciding between them. One publishes its terms in full and one publishes almost nothing. Both approaches have consequences you will live with for years.

TMG Industrial’s Published Terms

TMG’s US dealer page publishes two tiers. Bronze requires a $15,000 minimum opening order and gives entry level access to dealer pricing. Silver requires a $25,000 minimum opening order, adds higher volume pricing, and makes you eligible for the marketing co-op program.

Eligibility is described as businesses that operate a physical storefront, yard, or service location serving construction, agriculture, or industrial markets. Prior dealer experience is described as beneficial but not required. That storefront language is the part most online-only operators will fail on, and it is stated plainly on TMG’s dealer application page.

Pricing works through a dealer portal with real time pricing and inventory. Dealers may advertise up to 10 percent below TMG’s listed price, with additional discounts allowed directly to customers. That is a soft MAP structure, and it caps how aggressively you can undercut TMG’s own storefront in public.

Fulfillment happens from the nearest available warehouse with both LTL and FTL options. Dealers are responsible for shipping and handling costs. Premium Shipping Protection is applied to LTL shipments arranged by TMG, which is the mechanism that backs claim support on damaged freight.

Chery Industrial’s Published Terms

Chery’s dealer page is an open application accepting dealers across North America. It advertises factory-direct products, competitive wholesale pricing, a broad product selection, marketing and technical support including product images and videos, and US based warehouses. Nothing about minimum order value, tier structure, discount percentage, or MAP policy is published on Chery’s dealer page.

That is a genuine tradeoff rather than a straightforward win. An unpublished term is an easier door to walk through and a harder thing to plan around, because your actual margin is whatever a sales rep quotes you rather than a documented tier you can model in a spreadsheet before you apply.

One published detail does matter for margin. Chery’s shipping policy states plainly that B2B orders are not eligible for free shipping and directs you to a dedicated sales agent for a shipping quote. So the free freight you see advertised on the consumer storefront does not follow you into a dealer relationship.

I covered the retail side of this in more depth in the Chery Industrial pricing breakdown for stocking and dropshipping, which walks through what the consumer facing numbers imply about landed cost. The short version is that the sale prices on the storefront already sit close to what a small dealer gets quoted. That is normal for factory-direct importers and it is worth knowing before you build a margin model.

Approval Difficulty in Practice

Ranked purely on how hard it is to get approved as a new online seller, Chery is meaningfully easier. There is no capital gate stated anywhere and no requirement to prove you operate a yard. What that application does check is covered in my walkthrough on how to get approved with industrial dropshipping suppliers, which is worth reading before you submit either form.

TMG is the harder approval and the more legitimate one. A supplier that asks for $15,000 up front and a physical location is filtering for partners who will not abandon the line after three months. If you clear that bar, you are competing against fewer approved sellers.

Freight, Damage, and Who Eats the Loss

Everything on both catalogs ships by LTL or FTL freight. That means a driver, a truck, a bill of lading, and a delivery receipt that your customer signs. Every dollar of margin you think you have can disappear on one damaged 30 foot truss shipment, so read this section twice.

Chery’s Freight Terms

Chery quotes standard freight at approximately 6 to 10 business days within the contiguous United States. Replacement parts and accessories ship from an overseas warehouse at roughly 14 business days. Custom-made items ship from overseas with a stated lead time of approximately 5 to 7 weeks in one place and 3 to 4 months in another, which is a real inconsistency you should confirm before quoting a customer.

The unloading requirement is the operational landmine. Chery states that whether the order is delivered or picked up, you must have a forklift or equivalent equipment available to unload it safely. Curbside residential delivery with a liftgate is not offered as a standard option on the heavy items.

Damage handling requires immediate inspection on receipt and immediate contact if anything is wrong. There is no numeric claim window published in Chery’s shipping policy, which means the practical window is whatever your sales rep and the carrier agree to after the fact.

TMG’s Freight Terms

TMG offers free shipping on consumer orders over $1,000 to most contiguous US locations, with an additional $50 accessorial fee for residential addresses, schools, farms, and construction sites. Remote locations and overlength items can carry additional freight charges, and TMG states it will contact the customer to arrange partial payment in those cases.

For dealers, that consumer free shipping does not apply. The dealer page states dealers are responsible for shipping and handling costs, with Premium Shipping Protection applied to LTL shipments TMG arranges.

That PSP layer is a real structural advantage. It gives you a named claim mechanism instead of a generic conversation with a freight carrier who has every incentive to deny you. TMG’s warranty policy also confirms it covers standard LTL and ground freight for warranty parts shipped from warehouse to dealer or customer.

The Damage Math Nobody Runs Before Launching

Assume you sell a $6,900 double truss shelter at a 22 percent gross margin, which is $1,518 of gross profit. A single freight claim denial on a torn PVC cover and a bent truss can cost more than that in replacement parts alone, before you count the customer service hours and the refund risk.

At one denied claim per twenty orders you have wiped out roughly a third of your gross profit on the category. This is why supplier damage terms matter more than list price in this niche, and why I push people toward suppliers with a documented claims process rather than a vague promise to help.

It is also why a real business entity and real insurance are not optional here. If you have not set that up yet, work through business formation for high-ticket dropshipping before you apply to either supplier, because both dealer applications will ask for a resale certificate and a legal entity name.

Returns and Restocking Exposure

Chery publishes a 30 calendar day return window from the purchase date. It charges a 15 percent restocking fee on orders canceled after shipping and a 3 percent processing fee on credit card cancellations before shipment. Customers pay return freight unless the return is Chery’s error.

Chery also excludes BARGAIN, CLEARANCE, and AS-IS products from returns entirely, and recommends local warehouse pickup for those so the buyer can inspect condition before taking possession. That is honest of them and also a signal to keep clearance inventory off your storefront.

TMG publishes a 30 calendar day return window from the delivery date, and requires items to be unused, unopened, and in original factory-sealed packaging. Instead of a flat restocking percentage, TMG deducts actual costs from the refund, including the original outbound shipping cost and the return shipping cost if TMG arranges it.

Products that have been opened, assembled, installed, or used are not eligible for return at all, per TMG’s returns and exchanges policy. Service fees, residential delivery fees, liftgate service, appointment delivery, and Premium Shipping Protection are all non-refundable. Refunds process in 5 to 10 business days after inspection.

Which Return Policy Costs You More

On paper Chery’s flat 15 percent is easier to quote to a customer and easier to model. On a $6,900 shelter that is $1,035, which is painful but predictable.

TMG’s actual cost deduction can be worse or better depending on the lane. On a shelter that cost $900 to ship out and $900 to bring back, the customer eats $1,800 on a $6,900 order, which is worse than Chery’s flat fee. On a short haul it could be cheaper.

The bigger practical issue is TMG’s factory-sealed requirement. A customer who opens the crate, decides the shelter is too big for the pad, and asks to send it back has no return path at all, and that conversation lands on you.

Warranty Terms Side by Side

Chery publishes warranty terms by category. Shelter frames carry one year against manufacturing defects, PE coverings carry two years, and PVC coverings carry eight years. Skid steer attachments carry one year on parts and labor, and modular homes carry a three year structural warranty plus a three year warranty on replacement parts including electrical components and plumbing fittings.

Claims must be submitted within 30 days of discovering the defect, with proof of purchase, serial number, and photos or video. Exclusions on Chery’s warranty page include shipping damage and missing parts beyond 30 days, wind, snow, floods, and hail damage on shelters, and end panels entirely.

TMG runs a simpler and shorter structure. Nearly everything carries a one year warranty on parts and labor where applicable, including sheds and shelters against manufacturing defects. Ground engaging components like blades, teeth, shanks, cutting edges, PTO shafts, and hoses are treated as normal wear and excluded.

That eight year PVC cover warranty is Chery’s single strongest selling point in the shelter category, and it is a legitimate conversion lever on a product page. TMG’s one year blanket coverage is easier to explain but far less impressive to a buyer comparing two nearly identical structures.

Head to Head Comparison Table

Factor	Chery Industrial	TMG Industrial
Home base	Chery Industrial operates from Garden City, New York	TMG Industrial founded 2007 in Richmond, British Columbia
Live products	About 760 on Chery Industrial	About 861 on TMG Industrial
House brand share	322 of 760 carry the Chery Industrial name	628 of 861 carry the TMG Industrial name
Third party sourcing visible	Greatbear, Gold Mountain, KATOOL, Bastone, ALEKO resold by Chery Industrial	151 items via Doba plus VEVOR lines inside TMG Industrial
Median listed price	$2,699 across Chery Industrial	$2,399 across TMG Industrial
Top shelter price	$78,990 at Chery Industrial	$119,999 at TMG Industrial
Minimum opening order	Not published by Chery Industrial	$15,000 Bronze, $25,000 Silver at TMG Industrial
Physical location required	Not stated by Chery Industrial	Storefront, yard, or service location per TMG Industrial
Advertised price control	No published MAP from Chery Industrial	Up to 10 percent below list allowed by TMG Industrial
Dealer portal	Not published by Chery Industrial	Real time pricing and inventory at TMG Industrial
Dealer freight	B2B orders excluded from free shipping at Chery Industrial	Dealers pay freight, PSP on LTL from TMG Industrial
Return window	30 days from purchase at Chery Industrial	30 days from delivery at TMG Industrial
Restocking	15 percent after shipment at Chery Industrial	Actual outbound and return cost at TMG Industrial
Shelter cover warranty	8 years on PVC from Chery Industrial	1 year on defects from TMG Industrial
Habitable structures	Container and prefab homes to $52,999 at Chery Industrial	Not a focus for TMG Industrial
Machinery depth	Thin attachment shelf at Chery Industrial	79 skid steer attachments plus mills and chippers at TMG Industrial
Best fit	Solo online operator starting with Chery Industrial	Established yard or dealership adding TMG Industrial

Margin After Freight Is the Real Comparison

List price comparisons are close to useless in this niche because the delivered cost swings by a thousand dollars depending on lane, accessorials, and whether the address is residential. Both suppliers push that cost onto you once you are a dealer, so your quoting process has to price freight per order rather than baking in a flat rate.

TMG at least gives you the accessorial number on the consumer side. The $50 residential, school, farm, and construction site surcharge published in TMG’s shipping policy is a useful anchor for what those lanes cost even when you are quoting as a dealer.

Chery gives you nothing comparable in public because B2B freight goes through a sales agent quote. You will be building your freight table from your own first twenty orders, which is fine, but plan on your first quarter being a data collection exercise rather than a profit center.

If you want a systematic way to pressure test both of these before committing, the framework in my guide on how to find suppliers for dropshipping high-ticket products lays out the specific questions to ask on the first call. Ask about freight liability, claim windows, and dropship fees before you ask about discount percentage. The discount is the easiest number to get and the least predictive of whether you will make money.

Which One a Solo Operator Can Actually Build On

A solo operator with a laptop, a Shopify store, and no warehouse cannot meet TMG’s stated eligibility criteria. That is not a knock on TMG. It is a supplier that has decided its channel is dealers with physical presence, and it wrote that down honestly instead of stringing applicants along.

Chery is the supplier a solo operator can start with, and it is the one I point people toward when they are building their first industrial store. The catalog is deep enough to support a real niche, the ticket sizes are right, and the eight year PVC warranty gives you something concrete to sell against competitors.

The risk you accept with Chery is unpublished terms. You do not know your discount, your MOQ, your dropship fee, or your freight rate until you have a rep on the phone, and none of that is contractually visible in advance. Go in with a written list of questions and get the answers in email.

If you want the deeper single supplier assessment rather than a comparison, I wrote a full Chery Industrial review covering the supplier end to end that goes into product quality signals, warehouse footprint, and lead times. Read that one before your first sales call. Walking in with specifics changes the quote you get.

What About Running Both

Running both is the right long term answer if you have the capital. Chery covers shelters, container houses, and gates. TMG covers machinery, forestry, agriculture, and automotive shop equipment.

Together they cover almost the entire industrial and agricultural buyer, which is one of the better categories on any serious high-ticket niches list. Farm and contractor buyers write off equipment as a business expense and compare on capability rather than price alone. That combination produces higher close rates and far less discount pressure than consumer categories at the same ticket size.

What you should not do is start with both. Two supplier relationships, two freight structures, two return policies, and two warranty processes will bury a solo operator in the first month. Pick one, get to thirty orders, then add the second.

Where the Other Industrial Suppliers Fit

These two are not the only options, and neither is a perfect fit for every store. I ranked the wider field in my roundup of the best industrial equipment dropshipping suppliers for high-ticket stores, which covers the tradeoffs across the whole category rather than just this pair.

Supplier	Where it fits against this pair
Global Industrial	Global Industrial runs a formal reseller program with far broader MRO breadth and lower average ticket
Northern Tool	Northern Tool overlaps on attachments and shop equipment but competes with you at retail
Titan Attachments	Titan Attachments is narrower and attachment focused where TMG Industrial runs deeper
VEVOR	VEVOR already appears inside the TMG Industrial catalog, so selling it direct undercuts your own TMG lines
Doba	Doba supplies 151 items inside TMG Industrial, so you can reach part of that catalog without a $15,000 buy

Getting Your Business Ready to Apply to Either One

Both applications will ask for a legal entity, an EIN, and a resale certificate. If you are still operating as a sole proprietor with a personal bank account, you will stall at the first form.

Forming the entity is cheap and fast. Bizee handles the filing and registered agent side for less than most people expect, and having the paperwork ready before you call a supplier changes how the conversation goes.

Insurance is the second gate. Many industrial suppliers want a certificate of insurance naming them as an additional insured before they will approve a dealer, and Hiscox is the fastest route to a general liability policy you can actually produce a certificate from the same week.

Get all three in place before you submit either application. Suppliers read a complete application as a signal that you have done this before, and an incomplete one as a signal that you have not.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Chery Industrial or TMG Industrial cheaper for the same shelter?

Neither is consistently cheaper. Chery’s median listed price is $2,699 and TMG’s is $2,399, but the discount depth differs by product and both run frequent sale pricing. Compare specific SKUs by fabric weight and truss spacing rather than comparing brands, because a 17 ounce PVC cover and an 11 ounce PE cover are not the same product even at similar dimensions.

Can I dropship either supplier without holding inventory?

Chery is the more realistic dropship partner for a new seller because it does not publish a minimum opening order. TMG’s published Bronze tier requires a $15,000 opening order, which functions as a stocking requirement even if individual orders later ship direct. Confirm dropship terms in writing with either company, because neither publishes a formal dropship program page.

Who pays when a shelter arrives damaged?

It depends on the terms you negotiate and on whether the damage is noted on the delivery receipt. TMG applies Premium Shipping Protection to LTL shipments it arranges, which gives dealers a named claim path. Chery requires immediate inspection and immediate notification but does not publish a numeric claim window, so get that window in writing before your first order.

Does either supplier require a physical storefront?

TMG states it is looking for businesses operating a physical storefront, yard, or service location serving construction, agriculture, or industrial markets. Chery publishes no such requirement and accepts dealer applications across North America through an open web form. That single difference decides the answer for most online-only sellers.

What warranty should I advertise on my product pages?

Advertise only what the supplier publishes and only for the exact category. Chery’s eight year PVC cover warranty applies to the covering, not the frame, which carries one year. TMG’s one year coverage applies to manufacturing defects and excludes weather damage and ground engaging wear components entirely.

Should I sell both brands on one store?

Eventually yes, but not at launch. Two suppliers means two freight structures, two return policies, two warranty claim processes, and twice the operational surface area while you are still learning the category. Get to consistent order volume on one supplier, document your freight costs by lane, then add the second.

Bottom Line

For the solo operator with no yard and no five figure inventory budget, Chery Industrial wins outright. It is the only one of these two you can actually get approved with, the ticket sizes support real ad spend, and the eight year PVC cover warranty gives you a concrete selling point on the highest volume category in the niche.

For the established dealer, rental yard, or equipment business already selling to contractors and farmers, TMG Industrial is the better long term partner. Published tiers, a dealer portal with live pricing and inventory, Premium Shipping Protection on LTL, and 628 house brand products give you a channel you can actually plan around.

For the operator sitting between those two profiles, with a working store and maybe $20,000 to deploy, start with Chery to prove the category converts, then apply to TMG’s Bronze tier once you have order history and a real freight cost table. That sequence costs you nothing and gives you leverage in the TMG conversation.

If you would rather not spend six months learning freight math and supplier negotiation the hard way, my team builds and launches these stores for you through the done for you high-ticket store build and launch service, supplier approvals included. We handle the entity, the applications, the store build, and the first supplier conversations. You show up to a store that is already approved and already live.

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