Comments on: How I Find Suppliers

By: Kenric

Kenric — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 17:10:10 +0000

Hi Jane,

My stores have free shipping or flat rate shipping. My products are priced so that they are profitable if each is shipped individually. If an order comes from 5 different dropshippers, I do get them shipped individually and pay multiple shipping costs, or I ship them all to my house and then ship it to the customer if they are international.

By: Jane

Jane — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 16:50:50 +0000

Hi Kenric, thank you for sharing your experience.
You said that you have multiple vendors.
1. they all have different shopping cost. Do you link each product to individual shopping rate somehow?
2. If your customer orders let’s say 5 products from different vendors. He pays only one shipping cost, as he is buying everything in one place – your store. But in reality you need to pay shipping each time you order the product from the vendor – finally you pay 5 times more and you are loosing money! How do you deal with it?
appreciate your advice.

By: Kenric

Kenric — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 18:29:18 +0000

The manufacturers would ideally like to see a Tax ID instead of an SS#. Some are very forthcoming with wholesale info on the first email. With others you have to jump through many hoops just to get to the pricing.

I think you just have to convince them that you can sell their product for them. It’s just like the job catch-22 when you just get out of college.

You need experience to be hired, but they won’t hire you until you get experience.

You need a store to show them you can sell, but you need a supplier to open a store.

Once you get one supplier, you break the catch-22 and it will be very easy to find suppliers.

By: Weekend reading for investors: 18/4/09

Weekend reading for investors: 18/4/09 — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 11:40:57 +0000

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By: Monevator

Monevator — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 10:07:42 +0000

Thanks for sharing that Kenric. How important would you say it is for manufacturers to see a track record of trading etc? I have a few hobbies and I’d happily set up a 5-10 product niche store focused on one of them as a part-time business, with the aim of making $1-2K a month profit say, on the back of cheaper prices and excellent customer service. (I’m not turning down more money! :) But I’d be constrained by time regarding scaling it up).

But are manufacturers going to be interested in such small potatoes?

By: Kenric

Kenric — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 06:48:37 +0000

I buy direct from the manufacturer so I’m not sure what you mean by spread out your purchases. Each manufacturer only carry’s their brand and they are the only source of their brand.

You can find out how many people are searching for products in the niche using google adwords keyword tool.

By: DK

DK — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 02:16:26 +0000

Hi Kenric, thanks for sharing your experience. On your post above- do you use just wholesale price as a deciding factor for picking which product to purchase from a wholesaler OR if prices are the same- do you still spread out your purchases across multiple wholesalers – sort of avoiding the ‘all eggs in one basket’ analogy ? Curious on your thoughts on that. Also, before you decide on a niche product- how do you go about deciding that there is market for that product- even if it is a niche product. Thanks !