For a successful online dropshipping business, the two essential things are finding the right products to sell and the best suppliers. The suppliers play a key role in this business. They are your partners who will work with you for a mutually beneficial relationship.
You would, of course, want to select wholesale suppliers as they would provide products at lesser prices, which can help you make a good profit. There are different ways of finding suppliers for your business.
In this article we will discuss 6 best ways to find suppliers for your online dropshipping business.
Finding Suppliers For Your Dropshipping Business
1. Get In Touch With The Manufacturer
One of the easiest ways of finding a supplier is to contact the product manufacturer. If you contact the manufacturer, you will be able to get a list of their wholesale suppliers. This list will help you get the contact details of authentic merchants.
You can then contact the wholesalers, to find out who among them offers dropshipping services and if they would be an ideal partner for your online business.
2. Use Oberlo
Oberlo is an app by Shopify that helps you find suppliers for your dropshipping business.
Oberlo is a software application that allows you to easily find suppliers for your business and import them into your online store, created using Shopify. It is an easy-to-use software that offers many features like:
- Finding products from a wide range of options for you to sell online.
- You can automate your dropshipping by using a free extension for Chrome.
- You can easily customize your products and even your online store in six different languages.
- You can change suppliers in a single click.
- Tracking customer orders and monitoring suppliers is easy using Oberlo, and so is setting prices.
3. Use Google
Google is without a doubt the most popular search engine. It can help you find virtually anything. Thus, it is not surprising to use Google to find dropshipping suppliers for your business. There are certain things that you need to keep in mind when using Google to find suppliers.
While finding suppliers for popular products is easy, for other products, you may need to conduct a deep search. Also, you may not find the suppliers on the first page and may have to go further into the search results.
Add modifiers to your search string to get the best results as you might not find the suppliers’ sites easily. The reason is that wholesalers may not have invested in SEO. Furthermore, remember to add modifiers like supplier, bulk, or distributor along with the other keywords.
If you find outdated websites of the wholesaler, don’t reject them straight away. Talk to the manufacturer before deciding.
4. Get The Data From Your Competitor
An interesting way of finding suppliers is to get them from your competitors. Of course, you should do this in a way that your competitor doesn’t know what you are up to.
Place an order from your competitor. Once you receive the product, find out who was the supplier who sent the product. You can easily do it by searching the address on Google. Once you find the supplier, talk to them to find out if they are willing to work with you.
5. Meet Them At a Tradeshow
Trade shows are events where all types of suppliers participate and showcase their products. If you visit a tradeshow, you can meet most of the wholesale suppliers who provide the product you are interested in.
Meet up with them, talk to them, discuss your requirements, and you can easily find the best supplier to work with. This method requires that you invest time in traveling to the trade show and meeting suppliers.
6. Use A Supplier Directory
A directory is nothing but a database or an official list prepared by an industry association or an agency. It would contain a list of all suppliers with their contact details and other information. This directory is an authentic listing as the details would be verified before being published.
However, you may need to pay money to get the directory. It is best to do some homework before spending your money so that you get the best directory. Some of the directories you can consider are:
- Wholesale Central: This is a directory that has a comprehensive listing of around 1400 suppliers of more than 700,000 products for you to choose from.
- Worldwide Brands: This directory lists thousands of suppliers and more than ten million products that you can refer to.
- SaleHoo: This directory has more than eight thousand listed suppliers who are into dropshipping.
