Finding Wholesale Products
Finding wholesale suppliers is not an easy task, but it is one that requires due diligence by the online
retailer. I can take many hours or even many days to locate satisfactory sources for products you hope to
sell in your online store.
As I have previously indicated (on the first page of this section regarding starting an online store), I found
it useful to go to product sourcing experts. Here's a description of three
alternatives. I belong to all three, although I tend to use one of them far more often than the others.
Salehoo: Cost is $67 for a lifetime membership that gives you
access to their ever expanding database of thousands of wholesalers (some of whom do drop shipping as well).
This is a very good value. The only drawback is that many of your competitors will be using these same
resources, which means that you can't get a competitive advantage by finding a source that nobody else is aware
of. I recommend this company. Here's their link (opens in a new window): Salehoo
DropshipDesign: As the name suggests, they only handle dropship wholesale products. I'm sure they
would be happy to fulfill a larger order and ship a lot to your address, but you receive no discount for handling
your own fulfillment (i.e., shipping, packaging, etc.). Only their two highest options ($135 and
$185, respectively, for an annual membership) offer genuine value. If you can't
afford that, don't even bother looking at this one. If you can afford it, here's their link (opens in a new
window): DropshipDesign
Worldwide Brands: This is the most sophisticated of the options, although at $299 for a
lifetime membership, it's also the most expensive. There is a temptation to say that you can
always upgrade to this after you have some income. On the other hand, you can get that income faster and
with a higher profit margin if you take the plunge right away.
Worldwide Brands offers drop ship wholesalers, small bulk wholesalers, large bulk wholesalers (for when
you've grown), import wholesalers and liquidation wholesalers. What separates this option from the
others, and the reason that I use them almost exclusively now, is that they also provide a competitive assessment
of the product categories to provide a measure of your liklihood of success in selling that product. Perhaps
even more important, they offer lots of training materials related to product sourcing, much of which is included
in the membership. Here's their link (opens in a new window): Worldwide Brands
Based upon my experiences with these three top alternatives, I recommend Worldwide Brands first and Salehoo in
second.
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