wholesale

4 Years and 27,485 views later..

I think it’s time for an update 🙂

4 years ago I created a YouTube video about finding Wholesale & Dropshipping suppliers, you might have watched it.

Things move fast in this business and some of the sites mentioned in the video are no longer relevant and so it’s time for an update.

Not only that I have loads more info to share, more sites, more tips and so it’s ended up being three videos long!

I’m going into detail about all aspects of finding the right supplier online and which is best for you. Part 1 is live now, I know you’re going to find it useful.

All I ask is one thing, if you appreciate the info please click the thumbs up button on the bottom left of the video to like it, this will help show others that its useful info.

Below are the sites mentioned in the video:

Simply Wholesale.co.uk -coupon code: 6FAFA

Salehoo.com

Wholesale Designer Handbags

If you haven’t subscribed to my YouTube channel you can do that there too so you will be notified when part 2 and 3 are released over the next few weeks.

The subscribe button is on the top left hand side of the video.

If you have any questions you can leave a comment below the video, you can also share it on Twitter and Facebook with the share button under the video which would be great too!

Top 5 Ways to Spot a Fake Wholesale Seller

A recent Twitter follower brought this topic to my attention, so I thought it would be a good idea to post a quick run-down on spotting a seller of fake items, usually designer clothes and handbags but it could be anything.

So these are my top 5 ways to spot a fake seller:

1. Seller is based in India, Pakistan or the Far East These countries are well known for mass producing fake items as the copyright laws are not inforced in these regions and in some places the manufacture of such items are activley encoraged as it creates jobs and is generally good business for the economy. So if your potential supplier is based in one of these countries and they are offering top brand name or desinger goods the chances are very high indeed that they will be fake. Brand owners control their stock very closely and there would be no reason why a company in these countries would have large quantities of wholesale stock.

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2. Seller has a Wide Selection of Colours, Sizes and Designs If you are lucky enough to find a genuine supplier of real designer clothes or other branded goods you have to take what they have available at that time, they usually sell out quickly and are in batches of random sizes and usually less of the popular sizes like Medium or Large. This is because they are getting end of line consignments that have not sold that season and it’s what is left over so quite often the less popular sizes. For the same reason you don’t get 10 blue shirts in small 10 blue shirts in Medium and 10 blue in Large. You might get 3 small one medium one large, four extra large and 5 extra extra large and you have to take the whole batch from small to XXL. This is so you cant cherry pick and leave the supplier with a load of XXL shirts that no one wants to buy. This is the normal way it works so if you are offered a large selection of whatever size colour or design ask yourself.. “Where the hell are all these coming from!!”

3. Seller is Offering Items at a Fraction of The Normal Retail Price This should be another great indicator, designer clothes are very high quality, using the best materials and production techniques which means even at their cost price they are worth more than the fakes are being sold at retail. The fakes however do not have the same overheads, the materials are cheap, the production standards are low and the factory workers are being paid less in a month than you pay for your next Starbucks. So if you see a Ralph Lauren polo shirt that normally has a retail price of around £55.00 and it’s being offered at £7.00 I can tell you here and now that it’s fake. There is no way in the world anyone can offer these shirts for that price. They are simply not available and you should smile to yourself and then run for the hills!

4. Seller Actively Advertising and Will Sell to Anyone A wholesale supplier that has access to a regular supply of designer goods has basically a licence to print money, they can control the market and they know that all their stock they have will always sell and sell fast, so generally they dont need to advertise, (you have to find them) and even if you do find them they may not even take your money. To get access to these products they often have to sign an undertaking from the brand owners that they will not sell the products to market traders eBay sellers or any non retail trader and that they are to be sold through retail stores of good standing and image. The reason is that the brand owners do not want their hard earned high-end image cheapened by a market trader selling their clothes on the street. Its not the image they pay so much to create in the media. A genuine supplier will expect you to fill out an application form with allot of details about how and where you trade. This is something as online traders we can get around if your clever which is explained in the Gold Level Membership but if they are not asking these types of questions and are welcoming you with open arms beware!

5. Seller has a cheap looking Website & uses a Hotmail address I guess this is pretty obvious but it can be human nature to overlook the glaringly obvious when you have $$$$ signs in your eyes as you see the beautiful looking images (mostly stolen from the brand owners site) of designer shirts and handbags at such a great deal. You can always find a reasonable excuse for anything if you want to believe it and the fake sellers will have plenty of excuses but the reality is if it doesnt look professional and the supplier has a free email address you need to ask yourself some serious questions. Common sense is your friend!

So these are my top 5 tips, if a potential seller hits more than one of these then you have a definite fake seller. Don’t get into an argument, just stay clear and don’t buy from them.

Finding a reliable and profitable wholesale supplier is one of the hardest and most important parts of setting up your own online business. As a Gold Level Member you can get unrestricted access to my own personal black book of tried and tested Wholesale suppliers from all over the world plus my personal help to get you on your way to success.

Read more about the Gold Membership Here

Author: Andy Lawrence

Where to Find a Wholesale Supplier: Part 2 – On The Street

In the second of three articles in this series we will look at a slightley different way to track down a wholesale supplier for you to use for your new online business.

One method I have used several times in the past is to to find a wholesale supplier on the street. In the offline world we go to our local shops to buy stuff right? This is where there are a ton of great retail products on offer and 9 times out of ten all the information you need to locate an excellent supplier is to be found on your local highstreet or at your local mall.

One of my most profitable suppliers was found with just this method, and here’s how it’s done.

Whenever you’re out and about just keep an eye open for good stuff, if you’re interested in toys go visit a toy shop. Take a look at the type of stuff you want to sell and if you take a look at the back you will see all the small print usuall at the bottom near the bar code.

You will have to look closely but take your time and in most cases there will be some details of the manufactuere, the supplier or both. They will usually have the name but quite often a website address but all you really need is the name as you can Google them when you get home and find out all you need to know.

If I find something I like I just take out my phone camera and take a quick close up photo of all the details to refer back to later, then once back at home you can look up the supplier and find out where they are and how to get in touch.

Sometimes you may find a supplier that deals in such big buisiness and high numbers that they are not interested in your enquiry but even then they may direct you to their official distributer that will be able to supply the stock in the quantities that you want.

So this method is a real winner and has proved so a number of times, all the information is there just waiting for you to make use of, so next time you are out shopping just take aminute to look and you’ll be surprised what you can find.

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Get My Own Personal Suppliers Here..

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6 Comments

Readers Questions: Dropship or Wholesale?

This question comes from Mike via YouTube, Mike writes:

I’m 14 and trying to set up an online aquatic store selling aquariums and all the accessories including filters and heater but im stuck. Im not sure whether to use drop shipping or wholesale. Im living at home still obviously meaning I don’t really have alot of money for a warehouse but I do have a garage the size of a bungalow not used so I could try and use that and when I get back from school at 4.00pm I could get the addresses and run up to the village post-office everyday before 5pm, which will be a task. But where can I find wholesale companys that sell aquatic products?

Dropshipping was an idea but I don’t feel its that flexible. I would like my logo on the box not Doba or whatever company and I would also like to have different delivery ideas. I’m also not sure whether I can trust the company’s. I was put off Doba when I found out that the support is a bot and that you have to put in your credit card details just for free trial. Could you help me please
Thanks
MIKE

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Thanks for getting in touch Mike, it sounds like you have thought this through quite well and have made some pretty good observations.

In this situation I think budget is more important then space, a big double garage is more than enough room to carry enough stock to get started, a wearhouse only comes later when you want to offer a bigger range of stock but for now a garage is plenty, you could even set up a table and shelves in the corner and have a packing bench with brown tape and boxes set up so you are ready to go when you come home each day, once you have packed a few up you should find it pretty quick and if you can’t make the post that day it’s not the end of the world, a two day turnaround is perfectly fine in most cases.

So that’s the space point taken care of the next issue to tackle is budget, being 14 I can understand that this is going to be the hard part. Normally I would suggest a minimum of a £200 first order to start with, but in your case if you can get together £50 that should get you a few of the smaller things to start with and then you can keep re-investing the money back into stock so you can build up your stock levels.

In this situation where money is short I would say that DropShipping might be a good idea, as I have said in the past it doesn’t have as big profit margins but it does mean you can advertise many items without paying for them up front. If you did this for a few months you could then build up enough money for your first wholesale order. Then keep building as mentioned above.

This will also give you time to work out what are the most popular selling items so when you do come to investing larger sums of money you will have a better idea of what you should buy, this is important as you don’t want money tied up in stock that is taking a long time to sell, it’s just dead money then. So you need to be always looking for popular items that you can turn around quickly and keep the money flowing, that is the key.

Once you have been trading well for a long time you can afford to buy much bigger quantities of stock and then it wont matter so much if some stock take a while to move as you will always have other items moving too.

You mentioned that you weren’t sure about DropShipping because of not having your logo on the box, I understand your point, it’s important to have a strong branding awareness but if you think about Dropshipping as a stepping stone to bigger things it’s not much of a compromise to have non branded boxes delivering products for a few months while you build up your investment capital. You are lucky enough to be starting young so you have plenty of time to build your aquatic store empire!

It’s a great time to learn the ropes as you go and understand the business so when you do have a big warehouse you will know everything about your market because you started from the very beginning and built up with solid foundations.

Next you mentioned that you weren’t sure if you could trust the suppliers, again this is a very sensible approach, it is good to be cautious when dealing with a supplier for the first time, there are many scammers out there waiting to take your hard earned money so you should always check out the supplier first as much as possible and try to get recommendations from other businesses that have already used them.

These desisions you make now will decide how your business will perform for years to come so take your time and get the basics right first because a well built company will be around for a long time, one that was started too quickly with a bad supplier and poor products will not last long.

Lastly is your question where can I find a safe and profitable wholesale supplier? – This Mike is the $100,0000 question and by far the MOST asked question in the 4 year history of this site. So I decided to build a definitive list of the top wholesale suppliers around the world, it is my own personal contacts I have used over the last seven years of building businesses online. Each one has a run down of their strengths and my own personal recommendation that they are tried and tested as being safe and profitable. UK contacts, USA and the far East for Importing too. It is continually being updated as I find new safe suppliers that are verified and tested.

So it’s a blatant plug for my Gold membership Mike but that’s because it’s an amazing resource it does have pet and aquatic supply contacts. I needed to put this information into the paid area as it’s my own personal black book of contacts and I can only share it with those whom are serious about building a profitable business and I can’t afford to keep it out in public.

So if you want to make use of the Gold membership it is a one time payment of £37.95, no monthly subscription. Lifetime access for a one time cost. https://wholesale-help.com/gold-level-access/

If you haven’t already you can get free Silver level membership by clicking on any of the menu items above and it will take you to my free registration page.

I hope this has been helpful Mike, and good luck with the new business.

Andy

Is Tradekey Safe?

This is a question I have been asked allot recently, and it’s a difficult one to answer, because Tradekey is simply the gateway to hundreds of suppliers from all around the world. Tradekey it’s self is safe in my opinion its a very reputable business that is well established with good intentions. Obviously this does not mean that you time on the site will be a totally safe one.

Despite the features in place to help the buyer asses each wholesale supplier there will always be potential scam artists and fake sellers on the site. It’s your own responsibility to choose carefully and to do your research.

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The one thing it is difficult to asses when using Tradekey is the quality of the wholesale products the pictures tend to be small and of poor quality. So you have to go by what the seller tells you.

If you have found a supplier you are interested and all indications show they are reliable and trustworthy I would recommend making a sample order first off to gauge the speed of delivery, order process and quality of the products you wish to buy. If all goes smoothly and you are happy with your sample stock you can then make a bigger order.

Tradekey will always be a helpful resource but always make your checks and be cautious when handing over your hard earned money for the first time.