Product Sourcing Nightmares?

If you are currently in the mindset of selling online, the term "product sourcing" has probably come up more times than not. Product sourcing is the process of finding suppliers to fill the needs of products that you wish to sell. While the concept of product sourcing is rather easy, the process of product sourcing can be rather confusing and complicated...especially when sourcing for products to sell online.

There is a bias AGAINST online marketers!

Even though the internet is moving at an exponential rate, "old-school" suppliers with a fear of technology has caused a gap in traditional supplier recruitment. And yes, to some degree this is a recruiting process. In the past, suppliers were happy to sell their products to almost anyone that had a license and a place to sell them. With the surge of the internet, however, suppliers may become hesitant to work with new internet contacts for various reasons including...

Ability to meet retailer quantity demands - A successful online marketer can sell quantities of products beyond anything they had ever needed to source in the past.

Little or no knowledge of the marketing strategies of the seller - Being associated with the wrong type of online marketing can hurt the reputation of the wholesale vendor.

Large number of inquiries with small percentages of true sellers - Because creating an online store (or an eBay Store) can be rather simple , suppliers receive more requests for wholesale/dropshipping contracts than ever before. This can drain the supplier personnel resources while receiving little return from the large percentage of "hobby" entrepreneurs.

Exclusivity to Brick-n-Mortar Retailers - Some suppliers want to continue to support brick-n-mortar retailers by not selling to low overhead, online marketers who can sell products at a significantly lower price.

And after all of this, you still need to find and contact these suppliers.

So what do you do?

First, you don't give up. There are plenty of suppliers that cater to online marketers. You can do this manually by contacting the manufacturers of the products you wish to sell and find out how their distribution center works. They may sell you wholesale, direct. They may offer dropshipping, direct. They may also outsource this to a third party distribution house.

There are plenty of questions such as buy prices, minimum purchases, reseller licensing, lead times, and more. And if they initially know you are an online seller, they may not want to do business with you, either. This may take a little bit of patience, practice, negotiation and experience, but it broadens your list of suppliers ten-fold.

There are other products, such as Worldwide Brands, that speeds the sourcing process along by identifying these internet friendly suppliers and providing you with the contact details and buying information needed to source your products immediately. They have one of the largest supplier lists currently online (but still, manually sourcing products may have a larger selection advantage).

Again, Don't Fear Product Sourcing.

Finding your products to sell online and developing a relationship with your suppliers is a major key to any successful online business. Spending the time at the beginning to find the best products to sell may be the best investment you will make with your business. And once you have completed this task, you may find your business developing at an exponential rate!