Finding Suppliers

After deciding what to sell, finding suppliers is the next step. Note that sometimes, you may end up surfing a supplier’s website BEFORE spotting an innovative product that you feel has selling potential, so I guess the first two basic steps of selling stuff online (deciding what to sell and finding a supplier) could be interchangeable and happen concurrently. As a beginner without any viable contacts of direct wholesalers and suppliers, your best bet would to search online for suppliers with readily accessible websites.

One thing you have to note though, is that these so called ‘wholesalers’ are probably not exactly the original REAL wholesalers, who probably do not need a website at all (or have very obscured hard-to-find sites) because they don’t need to have one. This is probably because they already have regular clients (which are the ‘wholesalers’ that have readily available and easily found websites). HOWEVER, while the wholesalers you have access to might not be selling stuff at the ABSOLUTE rock bottom prices, they certainly have prices that are comparatively LOWER than the prices of the same products you would find at brick and mortar shops (real life retail shops) and on auction sites like eBay.

Many of these ‘wholesale suppliers’ offer discounts for bulk order or dropshipping services (will be discussed later). The first time I sold some stuff online, my products were from DHGate. Since then I have sorted out a list of wholesale suppliers that you can buy stuff from. All of these sites contain search functions that let you search for a specific product, or if you prefer, you can also go to their ‘top sellers’ section to find out what is hot or simply just browse through the categories. My favourite categories are those of toys and novelty items as those products generally sell well for me. However, note that you should find product niches that work for you. Are you a member of any specialised online community? For example, if you belong to an online forum where people are interested in R/C toys, you would probably do well importing R/C toys people in your area have never seen before.

Here is a list of some wholesale supplier websites that sell things generally at a lower cost than that of retail shops:

1. FocalPrice

The latest shipment I’ve gotten from them are a couple of lightsaber keychains. Have bought 100 of them for a start and plan to sell each one at a profit of about 4USD. Based in Hong Kong. Dropshipping service!

2. DealExtreme

Mixed reviews about this Hong Kong based site, with some people claiming that products take anything between 2 weeks to 2 months to arrive! Proceed with caution. The draw? Dirt cheap items with FREE shipping.

3. DHGate

Bought a shipment of Mini Card Lamps to resell for about 200USD.

4. Alibaba

A very established online B2B marketplace based in China. Contrary to popular belief, there are many merchants from other countries using the site. More info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alibaba_Group

5. Artsnow

A great supplier dealing in DOZENS of sellable stuff ranging from watches to mousepads. The draw is that all items are customisable and there is no minimum order quantity. Join the reseller program to get exclusive reseller prices. I’ve been selling customised watches on eBay for a while. My review of ArtsNow.

This list is NOT EXHAUSTIVE! Over time, I will post on the blog on the main page and update here regularly.

Also, learn how to bargain with suppliers to get the best prices.