How to Find Drop Shippers and Wholesale Suppliers for a Catalog E-commerce Store

Running a catalog e-commerce site was one of my favorite experiences as an entrepreneur. Some successful e-commerce businesses generate 6-7 figures within their first year.

A catalog e-commerce site is one that lists lots of different products, usually targeted towards a specific niche.

A few people mentioned that they wanted me to write more articles about e-commerce, so I decided to write this article to share the answer to one of my most frequently asked e-commerce questions, which is how to find wholesale suppliers.

I also did a search on Google and most of the articles that turned up are pretty useless.

In this article, I’ve included a list of ways that I personally found suppliers for my e-commerce store as well as some other sources that others have used.

1. Trade shows and trade show websites

One of the best places you can look for wholesalers and dropshippers is at trade shows or on trade show websites. Sometimes trade show websites will list their vendors on their site so you’ll be able to see them even if you can’t make it to the trade show.

Vendors have to pay a good amount of money to get a booth at a trade show, so the vendors you find at these events are likely to be established wholesalers with a decent sized business.

Actually attending a trade show is a great way to talk to vendors and see what kinds of products they carry.

To attend a trade show, you usually just need a resale certificate which you can obtain by filling out some paper work with your state department. The trade shows that I went to in the past didn’t even ask to see my resale license when I showed up, even though their site said it was required.

So where can you find trade shows to attend?

A quick search engine query will usually reveal major trade shows. You can search by location and niche, for example, I can search for “FL gift trade show” to find trade shows in Florida in the gifting niche.

Once you find a few vendors, another great way to find trade shows is on their website. Vendors will sometimes list trade shows that they’ll be at on their website so that they can meet potential customers in person.

Trade shows are probably the first place I would look for new suppliers if I wanted to start another e-commerce store.

2. Search engines search

Another good place to find suppliers quickly is to simply search on Google. However, it is important to note that not all sites that appear in the search results will be legitimate wholesalers.

A business that is legitimately in the business of wholesale will require you to send them a resale certificate before allowing you to purchase items. Resale certificates are used for tax purposes and allow the seller to know that you are a legitimate business.

Most wholesale businesses also won’t sell small quantities directly to the public because that’s not their business model.

For my e-commerce store, there were some exceptions because my niche involved personalized items. But even those sites required a resale license to get wholesale pricing.

Search engines might turn up a few real wholesale and dropship vendors, but do your research and compare their pricing to similar items you find online. If you can mark up the supplier’s items and make a profit, then you may have found a good vendor (whether they are a real wholesaler or not).

3. Buying from competitors

Another way to find items for your e-commerce site is to buy them from your competitors. I actually use to purchase items from competitors who competed on price and sold their items inexpensively.

Their prices were low enough that I was able to mark them up and sell them for a profit.

If your site has enough traffic, then sometimes people will buy from you just because they found your site first, because your business is located closer to their address or for other reasons.

Sometimes you can find the actual supplier of their items once you get the item you ordered. The packaging will sometimes reveal the name of the manufacturer and then you can get in touch with them directly and ask about making wholesale purchases.

On a few occasions, the place I ordered from sent me items in the box from the actual wholesale vendor, which had their name printed on the box.

4. SimilarWeb

SimilarWeb is a site that provides free competitive analysis data on websites. Once you find a wholesaler, simply do a search for their site and scroll down to the bottom of the page.

In the “competitor and similar sites” section, you may find other wholesalers that people who went to your wholesaler’s site also visited. Be sure to visit all the sites to make sure because not all the sites on the list will be relevant.

5. Ebay, Etsy and other third party seller sites

One place I actually had some luck finding suppliers was on Ebay. Ebay and Etsy can be possible sources for finding unique items, but in most cases, you’ll only find items from solopreneurs and work at home moms.

Since my e-commerce site sold personalized gifts, Ebay worked out as a source for me. A quick search turned up some really nice hand produced items that I was able to sell on my store.

Once you find someone making items you want, contact them and ask if they are willing to sell items for your store. You may want to purchase an item from them first to test out their customer service, item quality and turn around time.

A couple of important things to note if you source products this way…

– Check the feedback profile of the seller to get information on how they run their business, the quality of their products and how reliable they are.

– Since these operations are usually run by just one person, keep in mind that they may have limits on how much they can produce. In other words, if you are expecting a very high volume of orders, then make sure your supplier can handle the extra work load.

– Individuals can also be affected by personal issues or require breaks due to vacation. Be prepared to deal with such issues if they arise.

Some of my best selling items were actually homemade personalized goods and overall, such items actually outperformed items from big wholesaler and dropshippers that were being sold everywhere.

5. Wholesale Directories

I decided to list wholesale directories as a place to find suppliers, although they are usually not the best place to look for real wholesalers. However, you may sometimes find a few real wholesalers in their directory.

The problem with wholesale directories is that many of them are not really well researched or kept up to date.

One of the directories that I tried out had a couple of the major suppliers that I use, but it was missing many of the other suppliers that I easily found elsewhere. In other words, it really wasn’t worth paying for the wholesale directory because I would have found all the suppliers from the other above mentioned sources.

A couple of really well known wholesale directories are World Wide Brands and Salehoo in case you still want to investigate this approach.

6. Manufacturing and Direct Importing

I never had to deal with direct importing for my original e-commerce business, but it is a popular way to find products for e-commerce. Direct importing can be worth considering if you are looking to maximize profit or if you are wanting to create your own private label brand.

Alibaba is one of the most well known sites for finding manufacturers from China, but another source worth consider is Global Sources. AliExpress was created so that businesses in China and other countries can sell directly to retail customers and sometimes they have really cheap items with no or low minimum order quantity.

Be sure to do your research before sending money to suppliers. Get samples and start out with a small order first. If possible, consider making a trip to the actual site and getting a tour of their business operations.

7. Other Tips

Although I ended up with around a dozen suppliers, I started out with just a few. Find a few suppliers and just get started selling and marketing your business.

Once my e-commerce website started getting traffic, suppliers started emailing and calling me to let them know about their business.

You can also reach out to business that offer interesting items for sale and ask if they offer wholesale or dropshipping. Sometimes those business owners will work with you if you can provide a decent volume of sales.

Summary

Importing for low cost countries like China can be a good way to make really high margins in e-commerce, but if you can reach an audience that is ready and willing to pay full retail price for what you are selling, then you may not need to deal with the hassles of importing.