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Ask me anything about eCommerce (Ongoing)

biophase

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First of all,thank you for your time and effort to answer all the questions. If you don't mind me asking questions that troubles me the most. I have been importing goods for more than a year. It's all seemed well. But my supplier just keeps on messing up(recently) I have canceled one product, another is on the line also, did you experience quality drop in your products? What would you recommend?
From the info online I was able to gather it seems like they are factory. I have tried various different suppliers but they are even worse. It's a beauty niche.

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

Some suppliers just mess up all the time. I have one that screws up something small each time, but their prices are so low that I keep using them.

A new manufacturer just sent me a glove that totally did not match their photos or sample, so I had to cancel that order.

And then I have one factory that is perfect every time. But they are a little bit more expensive.

You just need to find the right ones. Sometimes you pay more for better management.
 
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biophase

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@biophase

How do you assess demand for a unknown or less competitive product? And do you have a general min. threshold of sales/day when researching a product? (ex. Greg Mercer aims at 10 sales/day min.) I am looking to target more less competitive niches but I'm not sure how many ppl want to buy a retractable bird leash (not srs).

Thank you in advance.

I don't look at demand at all. But I am in a position where I have so many products that if I import 500 pieces and it takes me 1 year to sell them all to make $2000, it's just $2k added to my bottom line. All I need to do is find 20 more each year and it's +$40k.

No one product makes me rich, but some are better than others.

If you think you have a good product in a small niche, I would go for it. There's probably more demand than you think.
 

biophase

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Hey Kenric,

question regarding the UPC codes for an item.

Lets say I have 10 Pieces of a specific item in 5 different colors. Do I need a different UPC code for each piece, or just one for each color making it 5 codes in total?

You need a UPC code for each product and variation, so you would need 50 UPC codes in your scenario.
 

biophase

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Hey Bio,

Thanks for doing this AMA!

A few pages back, you mentioned a hypothetical situation where you said something along the lines of "if you buy 500 units, and set 100 units aside for a giveaway to get to the middle of page 1, etc....."

I was wondering if you can expand on the giveaway part... Where do you go to find 100 people to give the product away to, and I'm assuming you're hoping they leave a review, right? Also, I'm guessing you make a discount code in Amazon for them to purchase for free or something (because you mentioned moving up the page rankings).

Can you just expand on this process a little more? I feel as if everyone is doing these giveaways to kick start a new product launch on Amazon with sales/reviews.

There are amazon review groups that you give your codes to and they buy your product and guarantee to leave a review. Many groups are private, but there are some that charge to get in. I'm not sure how you find them, some just found me. Many are run using FB groups. And yes, everyone is doing it these days.
 
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biophase

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Hi!
I am from Brazil and I work with affiliates market, but I would like to know how can I reach more market abroad and wich are the best way to launch it. Thank you in advance

I'm not really sure how to answer your question. Are you trying to reach more people in the USA? Is this an info product or a physical product?
 

biophase

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Bio-I have questions regarding shipping specifically. Is there an item size or weight limit that you set for the products you seek out? I see how the FBA benefits you in this area specifically, but I would also be interested in learning how you handle fulfillment from your own warehouse/webstore. Do you use one specific method for shipping your products? One specific company? How did you learn to appropriate/minimize cost in this area? Im aware of some of the stuff you sell specifically and I once bought a few items from your online store, so I have an idea about the size/weight/packing of those items although this was some time ago, so Im not sure if this still applies. Any insight you could provide would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

My products are huge. So no I don't have a size limit. Unfortunately, my products are about 18x12x8 and 6 lbs. So I get killed in shipping costs, and by Amazon oversized fees and by Amazon storage fees. But that's all part of entry right? Who else is going to get in with a hurdle like that!

I ship Fedex and USPS. I use Shipstation to automate it. My Fedex account is in pretty good standing as I spend alot with them, so I have a decent discount. But still it costs me an average of $15 to ship my orders.I also get a small USPS discount.

To minimize cost you just need to ship in the smallest box possible. Not much else you can do about it. I guess the perfect place would be to be located in Oklahoma or somewhere in the middle of the country. Then every order is delivered in 3 days and the cost would come down a bit going to each coast.
 

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Thanks for the insight! I was under the impression that amazon fulfillment charged you a flat rate for most of your stuff although apparently I misread that somehow/somewhere. I need to go back and look at this again. FYI, my buddy still uses the stuff I bought from you to this day. Time constraints/lack of interests made me sell it but besides minimal wear it has held up great.
 
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biophase

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Thanks for the insight! I was under the impression that amazon fulfillment charged you a flat rate for most of your stuff although apparently I misread that somehow/somewhere. I need to go back and look at this again. FYI, my buddy still uses the stuff I bought from you to this day. Time constraints/lack of interests made me sell it but besides minimal wear it has held up great.

Amazon charges fulfillment by order, number of items, weight and size. They also charge you storage fees monthly by cubic feet. So my stuff costs more for everything compared to a person selling an iphone case.
 

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You need a UPC code for each product and variation, so you would need 50 UPC codes in your scenario.
You mean 10 codes since I have 10 total peices in 5 different colors, and regardless if it is the same exact color I would still need a different code.
 
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biophase

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You mean 10 codes since I have 10 total peices in 5 different colors, and regardless if it is the same exact color I would still need a different code.

Oh, I thought you had 10 pieces of 5 colors each. What do you mean by pieces? Because if you had 10 different products, the fact that they are in 5 different colors doesn't matter.
 

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Oh, I thought you had 10 pieces of 5 colors each. What do you mean by pieces? Because if you had 10 different products, the fact that they are in 5 different colors doesn't matter.
Hehe, let me clarify.

I have 1 product and lets say i have 200 units(peices) of that 1 product. I offer the product in 4 different colors. Would i just need 4 barcodes, one for each color and use the same barcode as long as it's the same color.
 

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There are amazon review groups that you give your codes to and they buy your product and guarantee to leave a review. Many groups are private, but there are some that charge to get in. I'm not sure how you find them, some just found me. Many are run using FB groups. And yes, everyone is doing it these days.

Hey Bio,

Maybe I got something wrong but I thought these fb review groups were outdated. I think I remember reading it somewhere that amazon is deleting feedback from buyers who bought with a coupon.
Is this right?
The only option to get feedback now were to let friends buy and give them the money back (get the product back) I thought.
 
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Nrr

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You can always try to buy a smaller minimum quantity. Most sellers are slightly flexible on this. I guess my opinion is that I don't market test. I feel that I know my products well enough that I am fairly confident that they will sell. So far, I've only had 2 duds. These days on Amazon, you almost need to order a couple hundred units to market test, but I assume your market test is going to include some giveaways or discounted sales.

So you order 200 units, giveaway 100 units and sell the rest at regular price to breakeven on the whole 200 unit order.

I m working in the Pre-launch in this moment, How you get these 100 people that buy "100 units?"

I´m using FB ads and for the moment I can get a cpc 0.06 USD - 0,4 USD (the problem is that I dont get High research in FB ads ) and working yet in my opt-in page (conversion 10 % - 37 % )
 

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I don't look at demand at all. But I am in a position where I have so many products that if I import 500 pieces and it takes me 1 year to sell them all to make $2000, it's just $2k added to my bottom line. All I need to do is find 20 more each year and it's +$40k.

No one product makes me rich, but some are better than others.

If you think you have a good product in a small niche, I would go for it. There's probably more demand than you think.

@biophase thanks for the feedback. I'll let you know how it goes.
 

biophase

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Hehe, let me clarify.

I have 1 product and lets say i have 200 units(peices) of that 1 product. I offer the product in 4 different colors. Would i just need 4 barcodes, one for each color and use the same barcode as long as it's the same color.

Yes, 4 barcodes.
 
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biophase

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Hey Bio,

Maybe I got something wrong but I thought these fb review groups were outdated. I think I remember reading it somewhere that amazon is deleting feedback from buyers who bought with a coupon.
Is this right?
The only option to get feedback now were to let friends buy and give them the money back (get the product back) I thought.

I can tell you that these groups are still running their reviews. Amazon may be deleting reviews but it will probably be a while before they get to every single one of them. It would be better if you did not have to use these review groups, but for some people that is their only way to launch.

Getting friends to buy is great. But it is sort of tough to do if you need to get 100 friends to do it.
 

biophase

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I m working in the Pre-launch in this moment, How you get these 100 people that buy "100 units?"

I´m using FB ads and for the moment I can get a cpc 0.06 USD - 0,4 USD (the problem is that I dont get High research in FB ads ) and working yet in my opt-in page (conversion 10 % - 37 % )

People are cheap, so you need to give it to them at a discount. I bet that if your FB ad had a 90% off coupon code people would buy. I'm not saying that's what you should do. But you need to give people an incentive to buy, even if they don't need your product.

Since you can get clicks so cheap, I would probably offer the people who click a discount so they feel special and will more likely buy. The next part, getting a review from them will probably be tough though.
 

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If I order a new product to sell on my website (own brand, small sample) to test out the market, is the barcode mandatory from the start? Is it ok to wait and sell a few without barcode and then add the barcode when we have decided that the product is a keeper?
 
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RisingStars

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If I order a new product to sell on my website (own brand, small sample) to test out the market, is the barcode mandatory from the start? Is it ok to wait and sell a few without barcode and then add the barcode when we have decided that the product is a keeper?

If you dont mind me answering and not bio...
No you dont need a barcode to test on your own website.
Basically you dont need it at all if you only sell on your own website. The barcode is only necessary for amazon because they have so many products yours would get lost or could not be identified without.

On your website it becomes only necessary after some time if you have many products to identify them yourself or let employees identify your products.
For now dont worry about the barcode thing if you dont want to sell on amazon currently.
 

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Kenric you said that you use alibaba for sourcing.
I also found my supplier on alibaba and I am quite satisfied with the products and contact.
Out of 100 pcs only 1 feel through my quality check. Thats really good I think.

A few things still have me worried about my manufacturer:
1) My salesperson wrote me if I had any more inquieries. I said not at the moment because my product does sell better in the summer.
She said that her company felt that too and she took a part time job in another factory to produce sewing kits.

2) The paypal acc I wired money to is "hername"@"notcompanyname".com

3) 2 other salespeople I contacted on alibaba with the same product said that they are all 1 company with different alibaba accounts. All of the 3 tried to steal the business from each other tho. When I asked if they know each other they all said yes.
They also have only a few cents in price difference.

I didnt get scammed or anything but I fear that I trow profit away by dealing with a trader.
What speaks for them as a manufacturer is that they were able to print my companys name on the product.

So my actual question is how do you make sure that you deal with a manufacturer and not a trader? I know you never can be 100% sure, I even heard that people went to china and their "manufacturer" showed them someone elses factory, but what is your progress in finding a legit manufacturer?

Thanks :)
 

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Hi. I operate a one person home business selling brand name consumer electronics on Amazon and eBay. I'm talking Apple, Samsung, Blackberry and more. I am making about $4,000 a month in profit and this is selling as much as I can physically handle by myself. Not because of shortage of products or sales but simply because I do it alone since my wife takes care of our two young boys. I literally sell everything I list in less than 1 week. So if I list 200 iPhone today I sell them withing a few days. I am looking at options on expanding like hiring help or leasing an office or warehouse but I am worried that the new expenses like rents,wages,utilities and so on will just out weigh any new gains and will just hurt me in the long run. I need some advice. Thanks
 
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biophase

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Kenric you said that you use alibaba for sourcing.
I also found my supplier on alibaba and I am quite satisfied with the products and contact.
Out of 100 pcs only 1 feel through my quality check. Thats really good I think.

A few things still have me worried about my manufacturer:
1) My salesperson wrote me if I had any more inquieries. I said not at the moment because my product does sell better in the summer.
She said that her company felt that too and she took a part time job in another factory to produce sewing kits.

2) The paypal acc I wired money to is "hername"@"notcompanyname".com

3) 2 other salespeople I contacted on alibaba with the same product said that they are all 1 company with different alibaba accounts. All of the 3 tried to steal the business from each other tho. When I asked if they know each other they all said yes.
They also have only a few cents in price difference.

I didnt get scammed or anything but I fear that I trow profit away by dealing with a trader.
What speaks for them as a manufacturer is that they were able to print my companys name on the product.

So my actual question is how do you make sure that you deal with a manufacturer and not a trader? I know you never can be 100% sure, I even heard that people went to china and their "manufacturer" showed them someone elses factory, but what is your progress in finding a legit manufacturer?

Thanks :)

It's not unusual for sales people to compete. When I went to visit my China factories I saw their names on the white board and next to it the amount of sales that each one had brought in for the year. I don't know if stealing clients from the same office is considered ok though. I've only dealt with one person at each factory, but sometimes I would get an email from another person working there.

Alot of their paypal emails are just a bunch of numbers. Not many have company domain email addresses.

I think you can tell after a little while if you are dealing with a factory or a broker. There are just some questions that only someone who has been involved in the manufacturing process can answer. It's hard to say how, but you will know after a few orders. Especially if you make slight changes on each order.
 

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Hi. I operate a one person home business selling brand name consumer electronics on Amazon and eBay. I'm talking Apple, Samsung, Blackberry and more. I am making about $4,000 a month in profit and this is selling as much as I can physically handle by myself. Not because of shortage of products or sales but simply because I do it alone since my wife takes care of our two young boys. I literally sell everything I list in less than 1 week. So if I list 200 iPhone today I sell them withing a few days. I am looking at options on expanding like hiring help or leasing an office or warehouse but I am worried that the new expenses like rents,wages,utilities and so on will just out weigh any new gains and will just hurt me in the long run. I need some advice. Thanks

Do you need more room to store your things? If you are selling Iphones and electronics, I can't see how you run out of room at home unless its a small condo. What kind of help do you need? Where do you think your bottleneck is right now in your business?
 

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Do you need more room to store your things? If you are selling Iphones and electronics, I can't see how you run out of room at home unless its a small condo. What kind of help do you need? Where do you think your bottleneck is right now in your business?

Honestly, I have not run out of space in my 2nd floor apartment as of yet but that is because I only buy as much as I can store or handle by myself. I can not accept freight shipments or do not have any space for pallets. I do get some amazing offers for truckloads and pallets on consumer electronics that i know I can make some good money on but I just can't take them because of the space and manpower to move the products. I believe where I need help is in being able to handle all the sales that would come in if I buy more products. I just don't know if when expanding to a warehouse and hiring some help, the new expenses will outweigh the new income. I am sure that is a thought most e-commerce sellers have had when expanding and I would like to know how it worked out for those with experience.
 
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Hey Bio,

Thanks for doing this AMA!

A few pages back, you mentioned a hypothetical situation where you said something along the lines of "if you buy 500 units, and set 100 units aside for a giveaway to get to the middle of page 1, etc....."

I was wondering if you can expand on the giveaway part... Where do you go to find 100 people to give the product away to, and I'm assuming you're hoping they leave a review, right? Also, I'm guessing you make a discount code in Amazon for them to purchase for free or something (because you mentioned moving up the page rankings).

Can you just expand on this process a little more? I feel as if everyone is doing these giveaways to kick start a new product launch on Amazon with sales/reviews.
You basically give away products for reviews, the more positive reviews,the more sales you get on Amazon.

But Amazon is cracking on this one and also fake reviews,people still use black hat stuff to rank their products.

From my understanding, you rank when you have higher CTR and add to basket and purchase %. This is just simple example,maybe someone else can elaborate more and give exact example.

This is my answer to what I know, it got nothing to do with OP previous posts of his strategy, just letting you know how some people operate.

Keep in mind,that there's many more factors of why and where your product ranks. I honestly believe,that Amazon will improve search query due to a spam like Google did so with few years back. It's not so intense now,but it will get
 

biophase

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Honestly, I have not run out of space in my 2nd floor apartment as of yet but that is because I only buy as much as I can store or handle by myself. I can not accept freight shipments or do not have any space for pallets. I do get some amazing offers for truckloads and pallets on consumer electronics that i know I can make some good money on but I just can't take them because of the space and manpower to move the products. I believe where I need help is in being able to handle all the sales that would come in if I buy more products. I just don't know if when expanding to a warehouse and hiring some help, the new expenses will outweigh the new income. I am sure that is a thought most e-commerce sellers have had when expanding and I would like to know how it worked out for those with experience.

I would just find some place to accept the pallets. Maybe the cheapest solution is to get a self storage garage. That solves the inventory and acceptance problem.

Why would you not have time to handle all the sales coming in? How many sales do you do a month? You just need to automate and manage the process better. If you work 8 hours a day, you should be able to ship out alot of product. I remember when I used to time myself, that I could do 22 orders per hour manually printing out the packing slips and shipping labels. That would be 160 orders a day. Do you do anywhere close to that?
 

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For online orders via your site, did you ever find a way to automatically print orders/packing slips as they came in or do/did you do them individually?
 
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biophase

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For online orders via your site, did you ever find a way to automatically print orders/packing slips as they came in or do/did you do them individually?

I'm using ShipStation now. You still need to login and click a few mouse buttons per order, but that's it.
 

biophase

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BTW, A little rant and information about importing...

In my experience, the companies that ask ridiculous amounts for a sample always seem to end up being the shitty ones. I would venture that they are shitty so they only make money by asking high prices for samples.

I usually get samples from 2-4 different vendors. Some companies will charge a reasonable $10 for a sample and some will charge $50. Then some will charge $30 for shipping and others $50. Then on top of that, some will charge a 5% paypal fee.

So I usually get a sample from whoever I like in my email exchanges and I tend to ignore the high costs because in reality, I can spend $200-$300 getting samples, because I know that when I get the correct sample, I will make alot more later on.

However, after doing this a few years. I've noticed that the high sample priced companies never delivered on quality. I have never moved forward with a company that made me pay alot for a sample. I usually got the best samples from the companies that sent the sample for free or a low price and charged reasonably for shipping.

Because I am fairly experienced at this, I usually send all the information that they need in my first email. I send my quantity, all my artwork, logos, pantone colors, header card design, packaging information and even my ship to address. What I really expect is an email that just says, we can do this at XXX price shipped to your door.

But what I usually get back is a bunch of questions that I answered in the first email. However, there will always be that one vendor that read the whole email and quoted everything perfectly, or very close to it. I usually give these guys a shot at a sample no matter their price.

Just last night, I was in talks with 5 vendors on a new product. This is a fairly simple screen print onto polyester product costing between $.50-$2.00.

Vendor #1, I sent my artwork PDF and they literally printed it and sent me back a photo of a finished product within 1 hour! And it looked good. I was like holy shit, that was fast. I paypal'd them $30 and they are sending my the sample so I can see and feel it.

Vendor #2 game me excuses like they couldn't read my file, the artwork was the wrong size, and wanted me to resize my artwork. I told them I would not do it and also told them I had samples coming already. Then magically they could do it! They want $60 setup charge to make my sample and $30 to ship it. No thanks. Their prices are 60% the price of Vendor #1.

Vendor #3 could not understand my artwork, I told them I want a 2.5cm x 2.5cm logo in the corner and they sent my a proof with dimensions showing the logo at 5cm x 4cm. Not a good sign to start with. They were priced the same as Vendor #1.

Vendor #4 and #5, were out of the ballpark in pricing. My guess is that they were not a factory.

So in this case, I only ended up with one sample coming. If it matches my current offering, I'm going with them. Even if they aren't the cheapest.
 

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