There are several ways of finding wholesale suppliers. Some of these methods include:

• Using search engines,
• Buying wholesale suppliers lists,
• Contacting manufacturers to get the names of their wholesale dealers,
• etc.

There are problems associated with these methods though:

• If you find a wholesaler directly from the search engines or from a list, there is no way you can independently verify that these are genuine wholesalers, and also find out if they are willing to work with small businesses.
• Most of the lists you buy on the Internet are outdated or plain fictitious,
• It can also be very intimidating to ring up large manufacturers just to ask them for a list of their wholesalers. Most of them will not disclose this information to you.

I am going to recommend two other methods you can use to find real wholesale suppliers:

1. Visiting Tradeshows;
Tradeshows are a great way to find goods to sell.
You get to meet legitimate wholesalers in the flesh and put all your questions and concerns to them, and find out first hand if they are ready to work with you and address all other issues you may have.
However attending these events is not cheap and they come round sometimes once or twice a year.
You can’t afford to wait that long just to find legitimate wholesalers.

2. Using OneSource from Worldwide Brands;
OneSource is a Supplier Database which contains over 7,000 verified suppliers willing to work with online sellers. These are all legitimate wholesalers who have all been verified by Worldwide Brands so you don’t have to worry about verifying these suppliers.
OneSource is more than just a Database of wholesale suppliers. You can also use it as market research & Intelligence tool. For a free trial of this tool Click Here.

Finally there is a free e-Book Starting Your Internet Business right which amongst other like how to become a successful online retailers, will also teach you how to find REAL wholesale suppliers. Get your free copy by clicking on Download Now Below.

What Should I Sell ? - Selling Physical Products Online.

Product Categories.

To help you get started, when you are evaluating products to sell online, physical products can generally be classed into 3 categories (although in some cases these Categories will overlap) :

• Commodity/Consumable products,
• Gift Products,
• Discretionary Products,

It is important that you place any product you are considering selling into one of these categories because the category will help you define:

• Your level of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) efforts,
• The consistency of your revenue – Some products categories are more seasonal than others for example Gift Products are more seasonal than others, so to understand the seasonality of your product, you need to know the category into which it falls.
• Your diversification opportunities – to increase you revenue streams, you need to branch out into other related goods.

Product categories defined:

• Commodity/Consumable Products – these are products that are used quite often and need to be replaced quite regularly. Examples include; Batteries (for cell phones, laptops, flashlights etc), Ink cartridges (Ink, replacement in cartridges, refillable ink cartridges), scrapbook inserts, Poker chips, wedding favors, etc.
• Gift Products – these are products that are generally purchased for someone else besides the buyer. Examples include; Doll house, Flowers, Figurines (wizards, dragons, action figures etc) Summer sausage, Collectibles, Elvis Plates, Model trains.
• Discretionary Products – These are products that are bought to enhance someone’s ego, or to add to their life experience. To put this another way these are products that people really DON’T NEED, but they want them so bad they go out and get them anyway! Examples include; Sports memorabilia, Home theater equipment, Tapestries, 50” Plasma TVs etc.

A Fourth Product Category

There is one group of products which is so hot so much so that they deserve a category all by themselves – Consumer Electronics. This is the product category where almost every newbie wants to get into, selling things like iPods, cellphones, mp3 players, etc. I know it’s very tempting, but this is a category to avoid as the competition is fierce and the profit margins are paper thin!

The Advantages & Disadvantages of Each Product category

Before you choose a product to sell online, you should know the advantages and disadvantages associated with the category to which the product belongs.
1. Commodity/Consumables

Advantages:

• Evergreen sales cycle – continuous sales cycle
• Life time value of a customer
• Brand name may not matter
• Quantity purchases
• Often require less customer service because customers already know what they are getting

Disadvantages

• Lots of competition
• Low margins of profit
• High post-sales expectations – customers want the product they ordered now. Because customers have these high shipping expectations, you have to warehouse these goods., because drop shipping will further eat into your profits and there are also problems with fulfillment.

2. Gift Products

Advantages:

• Sales often generated by 3^rd parties, so they are less discriminatory or fussy about products
• Higher profit margins – buyers want to impress so they spend a little bit money on gifts.
• There is only medium brand recognition

Disadvantage:

• The one major drawback of selling gift products is that they are very seasonal, as a result during the low seasons you have to look for other means to supplement your income.

3. Consumer Electronics

Advantages:

• The sales volumes are very high.
• There are super product cycles as new models of products are always being being launched like the recent iPhone 3G which customers want to get.

Disadvantages:

• Most buyers already go know they can get these products from the big chains like Bestbuy, Wal-Mart etc.
• Margins are very thin,
• As a seller you require product knowledge this may mean you have to acquire highly specialize product knowledge.

I have already explained why e-commerce is a recession proof business in one of my posts. But just to recap, I will explain again here.

Why e-Commerce is a recession proof business:

• Online shoppers are wealthier than the average consumer,
• Online shoppers are less affected by economic challenges,
• Online shoppers are optimistic about the future,
• Everyday more and more people are shopping online to:

1. Save on gas,
2. Save time,
3. Avoid crowds,
4. Compare prices,
5. Find any product they want,
6. Buy at any time of day.

There are three vital steps you should take to create your own Independent income, even in an unstable economy, through your own e-commerce business. These are: Product(s), Traffic & Conversion.

• Product(s) – choosing the best products to sell and finding real wholesalers for them, so that you can sell these products at a profit is the first and most important aspect of an online business. There already a blog post about which products to sell : What products do I sell online?
  
  
• Traffic – Once you have your product(s), you have to get customers to your website, to see those products. This what is known as driving traffic to your website.
  
  
• Conversion. – Finally the number of shoppers you convert into buyers. This is also crucial to your business as this is what determines your profit!

To see step-by-step instructions about exactly what you need to know to succeed with an e-commerce business during a recession, click on the following link:

“How to beat the recession with ecommerce video”

This is a free video series available for a limited time only.

This is one of the three critical questions any prospective ebiz owner looking to succeed at online business must ask themselves. Of course the other two questions are:

• Where do I find products to sell online?
• How do I sell products online?

 

I can not emphasize strongly enough that these are the 3 most critical questions at the core of any online business.

 

If you are going to succeed with your online business, you must have clear, precise answers to these questions as part of your long term strategy even before you begin. Otherwise you will just be 1 of the 9 people who fail at online business within the first year – yes 9 out of 10 e-businesses FAIL during the first year of starting.

 

Now back to the question what products do I sell online

No one can provide you with an answer to the question what product should I sell online from the top of their head, or at least nobody should! But most so-called Internet marketing Gurus would tell you to follow your passion, or go find a niche market to sell to. They might even point you in the right direction, like predicting trends, but that is as far as it gets.

 

Well first of all, selling products relating to your passion might not be very lucrative after all. It is one thing finding a niche, and it’s another knowing that the niche you’ve found is going to be profitable selling to.

 

To be confident that you have the right product to sell online, at a profit, you need to carry out proper market research! Now do not freak out, I know it sounds very complicated but there are tools out there that will help you do just that.

You can try them out to see if it is what you want to do.

 

The best such market research tool is OneSource. It can help you research hundreds of products in just a few minutes.

 

If you have any product(s) in mind you are thinking of selling, enter the product (or product name) into OneSource, and it quickly goes out and does the market research for you, and it will then return detailed information about your particular product such as:

 

• How well the product is likely to sell ( as a percentage %),
• Demand for the product – How many potential customers are actively searching for that particular product,
• Competition – How many people are selling that same product online,
• Advertiser volume – how many people have paid advertisement campaigns currently running for that product,
• Alternative products – Other similar products you can consider selling,
• Keywords – It gives you the keywords searchers (potential customers) are using to find that product online.

 

Armed with all this information, you can then make an informed decision whether this particular product you had in mind is worth your time and effort.

 

This kind of information is a great time and money saver. Imagine the amount of time and money you would otherwise spend if you had to manually set up testing campaigns to find out if each product will sell well and is profitable.

Try out OneSource free now by clicking on this link: TRY ONESOURCE FREE

 

Now that you’ve answered the question “what product do I sell online ?” by doing product research to determine which product(s) will sell well at a profit, and you have decided to run with this product, you also have to answer the next question which is: where do I find this product to sell online?

 

I am ending this post with a note of caution:
One of the deadly mistakes you can make online is to sign up for these “systems”, where you are provided with an online store complete with products to sell and you are charged a monthly fee, plus you have to find a way to market those products. I will explain why this is a mistake in a later post.