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Need Some Help in Finding Manufacturers to Order From

WheelsRCool

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Hey all, in planning out my ecommerce business, I hit a slight snag. My problem is, I know there are different manufacturers for the products I want to sell, but I don't know how to learn which ones they are. I can't order the products from the manufacturers to sell on a site if I don't know who the manufacturers are in the first place.

I was wondering if anyone knows how to find these out? There are some other sites selling the same products I intend to sell, and I go to their sites, but they don't tell who the manufacturer is of each product. And I obviously can't ask them who their suppliers are and so forth, as that is critical business information.

One of the main ways I have been figuring out the types of products I want to sell is searching other ecommerce sites to find products in which I could focus on a particular niche. But how do I find out who the manufacturers are to order from?

I obviously don't want to give away what the particular products are, but I can say they are licensed merchandise. If anyone knows of how you go about figuring out the manufacturers of particualr stuff you'd like to sell, I'd appreciate it.

For now, back to the search engines.

EDIT: Actually now that I think about it, this may not matter initially as some of these sites I have scoped probably sell stuff wholesale as well, meaning I could order from them, then order from the manufacturers later on maybe, who knows. Currently I am checking for wholesalers of these types of products now...
 
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Peter2

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Z5 FILMS

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Coolbeans, thanks!

What do you mean by "licensed" products? With licensed products (say college football or NFL tshirts, UFC clothing, etc) you need to deal with the licensor(sp), or a distributor that's a licensee, not a manufacture most likely.

For example if you wanted to sell officially licensed Chuck Norris underwear, you would have to approach Chuck Norris and ask permission (if he does not kill you first with his bare hands) or find someone that Chuck Norris did not kill and gave permission to already and buy from them.

If you wanted to sell Barbie branded poker tables, you would have to approach Mattel, and get permission to sell poker tables with Barbie on it. They can say yes or they can say no.

Can you give us some idea of what it is? We could probably put you right on top of somewhere to get them.
 
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WheelsRCool

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This isn't the product itself, but let's say that I was starting an ecommerce site that was dedicated to selling all Care Bear products. By "licensed merchandise," I mean all products made by companies that got the license to manufacture Care Bear products (if that's how it's done?). So for example Care Bear plush dolls, the company that manufactures them would need the license or something to manufacture them, a company that makes Care Bear key chains would need the same license, etc...

Speaking of, for such products, do I need to get permission from the owner (s) of the license (s)?? For example, if I intended to start a Care Bear ecommerce site, would I need explicit permission from the company that owns the Care Bear license/franchise, or can I just order products and start the business?

I know for people who start, say, anime ecommerce businesses, well I mean if you are selling all sorts of different anime products of different animes, I don't think you need to get permission from all the different individual anime companies...?

Or for example if I was starting an ecommerce site selling "Lord of the Rings" merchandise, everything from action figures to books, etc...would I need explicit permission from the owners of the LOTR franchise?

Or could I just start the site and just order the products from the manufacturers or whole salers, etc...?
 

WheelsRCool

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Hey all, well I've been Googling and searching for wholesalers, but one thing that I wonder is, I have read that many online wholesalers are in fact scammers, and that the "real" wholesalers do not have websites and are much morel ow-key and just expect you to find them.

However, I have also read that this is gradually changing as online B2B ecommerce is now growing a lot more, moreso than B2C ecommerce even.

I just was wondering, is there any way to know if an ecommerce wholesaler is legit or not? The ones I have looked at seem legit, but you never know.
 
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royemunson

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Hey all, well I've been Googling and searching for wholesalers, but one thing that I wonder is, I have read that many online wholesalers are in fact scammers, and that the "real" wholesalers do not have websites and are much morel ow-key and just expect you to find them.

However, I have also read that this is gradually changing as online B2B ecommerce is now growing a lot more, moreso than B2C ecommerce even.

I just was wondering, is there any way to know if an ecommerce wholesaler is legit or not? The ones I have looked at seem legit, but you never know.

One spot to start is worldwidebrands. A lot of people use this site, but it has a huge directory of wholesalers and dropshippers. This got me started.

Another thing to do is try thomas register. this has helped somewhat in the past.

also when searching google, try typing in the product +wholesale or +manufacturer
you have to be creative in your search b/c if not you'll run into dead ends.

check out tips on ebay - i found a site that taught great ways to find this information and stay away from the scams (i can't think of it right now but the owners name is Lisa). The one tip I learned is the legit companies don't know Internet marketing and SEO, so they are tough to find. Plus mfgs sell to wholesalers so they don't advertise much at all.

alibaba is good, but you are dealing overseas which can be cheap but scary.

another thing to do is find the product and find the mfg info on the package or actual item and contact them. this has worked too.

to know if they're legit try the rip off places online or BBB. we almost bought from a liquidation company one time only to learn they weren't advertising correctly and had ripped off more than a few people.

hope that helps

Joe
 

WheelsRCool

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Thanks! Yeah I am not sure if I should just order directly from the manufacturers, or through a wholsaler.
 

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