SMC and its thousands of resellers -- how to get around them

  • avatar

    by: fm1234
    SaleHoo Master Member
    596 posts

    SMC and its thousands of resellers -- how to get around them

    Posted 5 Aug 11 2:38 pm.

    I see many wholesalers/dropshippers who are merely reselling SMC's stuff for a markup. Many of these products are not bad-looking, and not terrible quality, but market saturation is a big deal -- in fact, for anything you might get from an SMC-sourced dropshipper you would be well served to copy a line or two from the product description and enter it into a Google search box. Often you will find that not only are you trying to sell the exact same thing as 10,000 other people, but with the same descriptions and the same general price -- or worse, if you're competing against eBayers and flea marketers who are dumping mountains of SMC products, and have for at least as long as I've been in this business.

    Some observations that are worth considering if you must absolutely get into the giftware/decor kind of market that SMC tends to dominate:

    1) Stay out of figurines, particularly wildlife figurines. More than any other subset, these SMC products are instantly recognisable, and are everywhere in the States. You can't swing a cat in a US flea market without knocking into a booth of these figurines. They're all over eBay, Amazon's market, and the smaller sites as well, usually with ridiculous asking prices -- but if you check the closed auctions on eBay you'll find that they almost never sell, and when they do it's for pennies.

    2) Know how SMC works. In general SMC's price is 1/3 the "suggested retail" price, plus shipping. If you find a product you like, it can be helpful to Google around a bit to make sure that you see consistent "suggested retail" prices (some sellers inflate this figure in an attempt to boost their own "wholesale" prices.) Once you're sure about the retail price, compare it to the price being offered -- if it's near, at or below 1/3 the retail price, the seller is trying to get rid of it, and you might well be able to get the item even more cheaply if you contact him and make an offer on multi units or multiple items (just bear in mind how stiff the competition is.)

    3) Know how things work on Planet China. If you really want to source the kinds of products you see at SMC resellers, the smart thing to do is find several related products, save the pictures, copy the dimensions and materials from the description, then go find yourself a supplier via one of the big gateway sites (DHGate or whomever you like.) Find a few suppliers offering similar items, send them the pictures and dimensions and ask for case pack pricing, with the implication that if the product is of quality and sells, you'll come back for greater quantities. You will be completely astonished at how cheaply that stuff can be sourced.

    Seriously, if you see the "World of Products" catalogue at any "wholesaler" you will be very happy with what you find if you just end-run this bunch of laowai and see if you can source the same or similar products directly. It will likely cost far less than you might think to make this kind of investment in your business (and yourself) and the potential return is so much more than that on spending irreplaceable time trying to post up the same stuff at the same prices as everyone else.

    Frank

    "Failure is not when you fall down. Failure is when you don't get back up."

    --J.J. Luna

  • avatar

    by: userexists
    SaleHoo Master Member
    227 posts

    Re: SMC and its thousands of resellers -- how to get around them

    Posted 6 Aug 11 6:51 am.

    What? Sorry Frank, but as I don't know what SMC is (and I'm thinking many other members will be in the same boat, I don't know how to assess whether the above post is helpful or not;

    When I Googled SMC this is what I got from Wiki

    Secure multiparty computation, a cryptography problem
    Secure Managed Client, a centrally managed discless solution for PCs
    SMC connector, used in radio-frequency circuits
    Sliding mode control
    Self-modifying code
    SmartMedia Card
    Sun Management Center, a system monitoring solution from Sun Microsystems
    Super Mario Cart, a format used for Super Nintendo

    Difficult I can do right away. Impossible takes a little longer

  • avatar

    by: fm1234
    SaleHoo Master Member
    596 posts

    Re: SMC and its thousands of resellers -- how to get around them

    Posted 6 Aug 11 1:53 pm.

    Huh. I know SERPs vary from place to place even for the same term, but I've have thought everyone in this business was familiar with SMC.

    link hidden

    Result #4 for me in Google for "SMC"

    Click on their products page and you're sure to recognise it. Several "wholesalers" online all are pushing these exact same products for more or less the same prices; in fact at least a few of them are in the Salehoo directory. As far as the SMC opportunity goes, it's all sizzle and no steak.

    Frank

    "Failure is not when you fall down. Failure is when you don't get back up."

    --J.J. Luna

  • avatar

    by: richellemonfort
    SaleHoo Staff
    3739 posts

    Re: SMC and its thousands of resellers -- how to get around them

    Posted 8 Aug 11 12:12 am.

    Thanks for the info and tips, Frank! Very insightful :) Cheers!

    Richelle

    Customer Support
    SaleHoo Group Limited
    Sell more with your own professionally designed and search optimized e-commerce website. Check out SaleHoo Stores now!

  • avatar

    by: userexists
    SaleHoo Master Member
    227 posts

    Re: SMC and its thousands of resellers -- how to get around them

    Posted 24 Aug 11 12:07 am.

    Thanks Frank.

    I clicked on that site a got a warning that "this site has a poor reputation". Enough said

    Difficult I can do right away. Impossible takes a little longer