Tips on how to find a good supplier

There are many ways to find a good supplier and the recent post by SaleHoo on trade shows is an excellent one for serious minded sellers.

Here is another one and a personal experience.

I have done this on several occasions and is quite simple.

I was at my local mall yesterday and there was a store with about 30 boxes just outside of their mall location. They were bustling about stocking up their store. Now this is a pretty new store, maybe about 2 months old. Whenever I walk by, I notice customers. Sometimes there are 20 people in there buying stuff.

They sell shoes at very good prices. Many under 20 bucks. The styles are very current and the quality is very good for the price range.

So as I walked by yesterday and took about 20 seconds to look at their boxes I easily spotted the supplier after looking up and down about 4 boxes.

We would never find this supplier online as they do not have a website. It's simply some importer in CA that imports shoes from Asia.

Anyway, when I got to my car I wrote down their name and when I got home I did some research and found a couple of references to this company on the web. I found their location/address and somehow I found an actual shipping receipt someone had put up on the net.

So keep your eyes open folks. Sometimes the good suppliers are right under our noses but not easily seen.

Nice one, planes! Thanks for sharing this technique/tip with our members :)

I'm sure many will find this quite helpful.

Cheers!

yes have done this myself in the past, many designer items from india and bangladesh.

Another oldie, but goodie from Planes I think, was to check underneath items while browsing, see if there is supplier details under there. Dumpster diving in another classic from planes I believe, get in there and check out the boxes from your favourite stores : )

Both pretty cleaver!

Yeah, I remember that post by planes as well. :) Oftentimes we have to play detective to catch these details.

Cheers!

I notice he's moved up market now Richelle, he's getting the boxes before the dumpster. Seriously Planes, doesn't that take all the fun out of it?

: )

I notice he's moved up market now Richelle, he's getting the boxes before the dumpster. Seriously Planes, doesn't that take all the fun out of it?

: )

I prefer to keep my hands clean nowadays.

Hey you guys
I absolutely love these tricks you come up with, although, as a Finance Manager by profession (CPA), I would have thought Economics would play a big part in the International trade arena, Supply and Demand. You create a supply and the demand if the price is right will auto come along, and as the demand grows, normally the price will increase, but, in my opinion, keep the price low and increase the supply expanding the manufacturing of the product to many regions to reduce the shipping costs over a long run, that way you use the auction sites and so on to sell your products, you need no sales guys, no entertainment costs of clients and an occasional trade show should promote you well.
This is obviously not the case with manufactures and wholesalers, I mean, logic says, if you want an Xbox, the cheapest place would be Microsoft, well, no it is not, they refer you to Retail shops where you can buy products as retail, never mind wholesale, the Chinese went and created OEM and Third party products to compete with the problem of not being able to find the wholesaler and they have theoretically, I say again, theoretically flooded the market with cheap electronics and clothing so much so that you can buy a plain white T-shirt cheaper imported across from China to USA to South Africa that what you can at the shop round the corner in the cheapest part of town.
Trying to buy Video Games is as I have just found out, so hectic, I mean, I want to buy myself a Wii Console, and the cheapest place I can find it is on Ebay, never mind any “wholesaler” or “drop shipper” on your site or any other I have found. The costs from China are so unreal you know it is a scammer and nobody is willing to take a chance. I found some people willing to be “Verification Agents” for a percentage of the invoice, what they do is go to the company and verify the company is legit, they confirm the QA of the company ensuring the products are quality and make you feel like you can pay that Western Union transaction, I did this, thought I could buy 15 Samsung 55” TV’s and got scammed by the company and the agent. I am sure the agent even got a commission from the scamming company.
Flying through the directories is like finding online retailers like myself, so it is challenging to find the wholesaler or even drop shipper, and yes, buy quantity means big cash or a warehouse, I don’t have that luxury trying to start out, hence the reason why so many people like me register at Doba, Salehoo etc etc, looking for the manufacturers and wholesalers.
If you get a list of wholesalers and drop shippers, even cheap retailers, let me in, I found Shopster and it seems to also be a good place to go.

Keep looking and good luck guys 

Finding local or reasonably nearby wholesale markets is also a great source. My main example is the AmericasMart in Atlanta, which is Heaven for wholesale, "Wheaven" if you will. Many of the dumpster-diving suppliers and looking-under-everything suppliers are represented at markets. I would think every major city in the US has at least one.


Frank

I really dig the ideas. I feel sheepish to say I would have never thought of that! I buy stuff for my son online (like from Macy's, etc.) and it comes in bags or what not-would they possibly have the supplier on there as well-I'd just have to do some 'decoding'? So excited to have my own business :) Thanks for the help & support

Don't overlook flea markets, they can be a great source for craft type items as the makers use these types of markets to sell their stock. There is always opportunities there for items if craft is an area of interest.

Walking is also a great way to find suppliers, just go for a walk around your local business area, see if there is anything a little unique that gets your attention, then stick your head in the door to have a chat.

I know someone that now sells artwork on eBay from sticking their head into a small local gallery.

This is why I put my items in plastic bins and do not transport them in boxes to my vending booths. lol I have been tempted to do this at flea markets, go around and check out other vendors boxes for their suppliers, but ethically I just can't bring myself to do it.

However, I would do it at a mall or retail establishment. Hmm, ok maybe not so ethical. I am sort of funny that way.