Thread: How I find suppliers for my Ecommerce Stores

Curiosity mostly...I have the capability of creating sites that look as good as yours, and with your seo knowledge and all that I was just curious about the financial side of it all and if i should commit to the e-commerce model.

If you told me you were making 50K vs 500 that would weigh considerably in committing to the advice within this thread, not to say whether the advice you are giving is good or bad. I believe what I've read in this thread has been very beneficial, and I thank you for it.

I'm after the freedom of not working many hours as well. However, to reach that freedom I have to commit substantial time to whatever it is that can provide that for me. I can make relatively passive income on ebay right now, but I'm in search of committing my time towards "something" that can make big money, and still keep a level of passivity.

To counter what you ended with. I'm after the freedom of not working many hours, and the dollars.

Originally Posted by biophase

Many people always email me and ask me how I pick my niche product and how I find dropshippers or suppliers. There’s no exact science in finding a niche products. Alot of it is trial and error. You may find a decent niche product that has little competition and then find out that the wholesalers will only sell to you for $440 and the product has a $500 retail price. That is not a good product.



It’s hard to explain how to find the product. Sometimes it’s just comes to you while you are surfing the web or shopping in a mall. Other times, you realize you need to buy something and find out that you can’t find many stores that carry it.


Once I find a niche that looks promising I do a google search on it and write down the contact information for all the manufacturers. There should not be too many manufacturers if you are truly looking at a niche product. Once I have the contact info, I shoot out an email like the one below:

Hello,
I am launching a new online store that will sell only WIDGETS. My store will carry about 30-35 total products from various brands of WIDGEST. I would like to carry your WIDGETS in my store.


If you are interested I can fax you my business license, EIN number, etc… I would like to know if you offer dropshipping and if not, what your wholesale order requirements are. I prefer to pay by credit card for my orders, but can purchase on PO’s and pay invoices also.


A little background about me, I create and run online retail niche stores for a living. I purposely target niches because I feel that I can instantly compete from day one and I can concentrate on providing great customer service, aggressive marketing for my products. This is much easier to do efficiently and effectively if I target a specific niche. My store will also all include a very active blog that will be updated frequently. The blog will run promotions, contests and product reviews. All of which will generate relevant, fresh content about your WIDGETS and your brand.


Please let me know if you have any questions, feel free to call me or reply to this email.


Thank you.

I usually get a few responses, maybe about 40%. If the niche has 10 manufacturers, 4 or 10 may be enough to open a store. I usually send a follow-up email a few days later. This usually gets me a few more responses. So if I get enough manufacturers to field a store of 30-50 products, I feel that I can move forward to the next step.


The next step is to evaluate the margins. In most of the responses, the manufacturers include their wholesale price list. I go through and calculate profit margins and wholesale requirements. They also usually tell me if they do or don’t dropship.


If they dropship great! If not, you have to look at their minimums. As long as their minimums are small like $200 order total or 6 total products, I feel that I can deal with it. Let’s say I’m selling a $100 product and the wholesale price is $50 and I only need to order a $200 minimum. I will wait till someone orders 1 and then I’ll order 4 for $200. I sell one for $100 and have 3 in stock. This capital outlay isn’t that bad.


Based on all this data, I decide if I can profitably create a store.


I am moving to a stock and ship type of system now because I feel that I can afford to stock products now. As my ebizes grow and I continually add more, I can sell the same stock in all my stores which gives me a better chance of not getting stuck with stuff. Worst case scenario with stock is that you offload it on ebay at cost.


Questions? Ask away.

I have checked into this. I feel that a lot of the time, good products for online selling are the kinds of things sold by dollar stores. The wholesalers who sell to dollar stores usually have an association, or a few trade shows per year. They also have an online directory of exhibitors at the tradeshow. you get their names, and their websites. Then you register at their websites by giving your business tax number to show you're real, and not a consumer. Check through their products, and make note of items of interest, their wholesale price, and minimum order. Then check those out online to see what they are being sold for and by whom. You'll soon discover products on which there's a good markup, and a that seems like a decent product to carry. But before ordering, go into a dollar store, buy a few of them retail, and then sell it online. If they move, you've got a winner. Then you can order a case, or whatever the minimum is, and start selling.

Hey Kenric,
I've been looking at Interspire's product and it seems perfect for the type of store I want to launch. I'm assuming you bought the licensed version since you told me at lunch that the software was $300. Why did you decide to go with the licensed version as opposed to the monthly hosted version? I understand that there are advantages to both, and I know hosting alone usually runs about ten bucks a month. Was it just more cost effective to do it this way? Any conflicts with the hosting/software relationship?

Hey Kenric,
The other question I had for you is whether or not your wholesalers required that you pay for their wholesale price list. I've read this is the case with certain wholesalers and it seems a little shady to me. Your thoughts?

i've been using pinnacle cart. it's working out well for me.

Originally Posted by savvacon

"Have you ever looked at worldwidebrands.com? I'm thinking about giving up the cash so i can try it out."

Hi Savvacon, did you try worldwidebrands.com ? I would like to try them too, so I need your advises.

I always enjoy re-reading this thread! So many good nuggets. Fun also to see how the things that jump out to me are different every time, depending on where I "am" at the time.

Anyway, if there's another thread out there that discusses this in more detail that would be better, please point me there. But I'm trying to determine which eCommerce platform to use for a store. It is currently on Magento. But anytime I want something changed, I have to hire a developer to do it for me. BUT, I think I remember seeing somewhere that I can run a number of different stores from one instance of the software, by just partitioning the inventory into different stores. Is this true? Or did I make that up?

Will BigCommerce allow this? Any others? Or should I just suck it up and load a different store for every site I run? I just cringe at the thot of paying $30-50/mo x 20 stores before I even know whether they will be profitable. Looking for feedback / ideas.

Thx.

I wouldn't have all 20 immediately. But even so, it just seems more efficient to use one instance to store all my inventory, especially since it's free. But as i said, it may cost more in the long run since I'm not a developer and don't know how to customize anything in the back end. Is Big Commerce easier in that way? If not, then what are the advantages?

Yeah, it IS interesting.

I guess I just need to bite the bullet and do the BC then, because I do like to tinker with the site myself a little. And let's face it, I waste $500 a WEEK on stupid stuff. So I guess I can swing it! ;-)

Thx for the prompt responses.

Originally Posted by Jill

I always enjoy re-reading this thread! So many good nuggets. Fun also to see how the things that jump out to me are different every time, depending on where I "am" at the time.

Anyway, if there's another thread out there that discusses this in more detail that would be better, please point me there. But I'm trying to determine which eCommerce platform to use for a store. It is currently on Magento. But anytime I want something changed, I have to hire a developer to do it for me. BUT, I think I remember seeing somewhere that I can run a number of different stores from one instance of the software, by just partitioning the inventory into different stores. Is this true? Or did I make that up?

Will BigCommerce allow this? Any others? Or should I just suck it up and load a different store for every site I run? I just cringe at the thot of paying $30-50/mo x 20 stores before I even know whether they will be profitable. Looking for feedback / ideas.

Thx.

do you have a link to your current store?