Go ahead: Pick a product, any product, from head (Hats, Scarves) to toe (Shoes, Boots). Or pick “A” (Arts & Crafts), through “G” (Gifts, General Merchandise), till you run out of alphabet (Radio ID Ear Tags, Toys, Valentines, Watches).
You’ll find no lack of Sellers, Manufacturers and Distributors. But where do you find the right source for your reseller scale and business needs? Who do you trust? And how on Earth does one find reliable wholesale suppliers in a global marketplace?
Savvy Buyers need to find reliable sources for affordable, quality products … at terms, quantities and wholesale prices that meet their needs. And let’s not forget the end-buyer — your customers — who request products by spec or hot trend, marketplace demand or price point.
Here are sources and search sites, shortcuts and search terms, to find trusted product sources.
1. ARE YOUR SOURCES LISTED AT RELIABLE INDUSTRY SITES?
Reliable and responsive product sellers cluster together at wholesale industry (vertical) sites. Look for product sourcing sites that are well established, focus on a specialized segment of the Seller/ Manufacturer / Supplier chain, and have their own brand name reputation to protect.
· Find Global Products and Manufacturing Sources. To find new products and companies in the global manufacturing sector, try the business search engine at Manufacturer.com .
This specialized site features product lists for Sellers (New Products Wanted, such as a request for laptop computers in the UK); and Buyers (New Products, such as RFID Animal Electronic Ear Tags, by place of origin and detailed operating specs). Background data provided to Buyers/ Sellers lists date joined Manufacturer.com exchange, year established for business, number of R&D staff, registered capital, and Terms (payment, order, packaging, lead/delivery times).
Those lists are in addition to searchable global product sourcing in popular product categories:
Apparel … Apron … Bags … Bathroom … Cable Ties … Chair … Electronics … Furniture … Garment Steamer … Golf … Gifts … Handbags … Jerseys … Ipod … Jeans … Jewelry … Knives … LCD TV … LED … Luggage … Medical Equipment … MP3 … Organizer … Painting … Printer … Screw … Slim Natural Tea … Shoes … Solar Products … Stepper … Sunglasses … Negative plate … T-Shirts … USB … Welded Mesh … Watches
Manufacturer.com partners with ASD/AMD (see Trade Shows, below), Fashion District.org and Top Ten Wholesale …
· Locate Quality Wholesalers Who Sell Direct to Buyers. To connect with thousands of new product sources of apparel, footwear and general merchandise selling at all price points and quantities, search at the best established wholesaler search network — Top Ten Wholesale .
Top Ten Wholesale’s product directory and search network connects buyers and sellers at all points in the supply chain (importer/manufacturer to retail market) with quality products … at affordable, wholesale and below-wholesale prices. Top Ten Wholesale features Hot Deals, Most Popular Products and a free Top Ten Wholesale Trends site that plots and displays the volume of search requests for specific products from 20,000 buyer and seller searches every day. A kind of wholesale pulse check.
Top Ten Trends
Searches at Top Ten Wholesale network offer qualified sources of over 50 popular product categories, including:
Apparel … Arts and Crafts … Automotive … Body Jewelry … Books … Business Services … Cellular … Closeouts … Clothing … Convenience Store … Customer Returns … DVDs … Dollar Store … Dropshippers … Easter … Electronics … Fashion Accessory … Fragrances … Furniture … General Merch … Gifts … Greeting Cards … Handbags … Hats … Holiday … Housewares … Imports … Ipod … Jewelry … Knives … Leather … Licensed … Lingerie … Liquidations … Luggage … Music … Novelties … Off-price … Pet Supplies … Security Products … Shoes … Sporting Goods … Sunglasses … Toys … Valentines … Video Games … Watches … Tools
· Bid on Specialized Product Categories at Auction. Do real-time product sourcing, at your pre-set price points, on specialized auction sites. Examples: Bidz, which hosts 15,000 live jewelry and fashion accessories auctions every day. Liquidation, where wholesale auctions on liquidation merchandise start at $100.
2. DRILL DOWN PRODUCT SEARCHES BY YOUR OWN CRITERIA
Reliable industry sites not only offer full searches on any product category, but they help smart buyers source products on terms that match their business needs. Refine product sourcing at industry sites by adding key words to your searches.
For example, to drill down to the right suppliers for your needs, add to a product category search (say clothing) one or two key words that match your most important criteria …
Price Point ADD: closeout, off-price, below wholesale, discount, returns, liquidation, excess inventory
Quantity ADD: truckload, pallet, minimum order, no minimum order
Delivery ADD: dropship, no setup fee, displayed, pre-inventoried, free shipping orders, quantity in stock, warehouse capacity, lead time
Custom Order ADD: personalized, customizable products
Quality ADD: first quality, seconds, irregular, manufacturer brand, label, designer
3. DO YOUR SELECT PRODUCT SUPPLIERS SHOW UP AT TRADE SHOWS?
More than simple product displays or exhibition parties and goodie bags, wholesale trade shows tend to be working fun … lots of order-taking and order-filling, a place to build face-to-face business relationships.
Whether they’re large convention center shows or small, specialized regional expos, the most trusted and reliable product distributors and manufacturers make sure they make it to the shows. Finding product suppliers at wholesale industry trade shows is an immediate way to measure customer service and product support. And trade shows come as specialized or comprehensive as product buyers up and down the supply chain. Look for your potential suppliers:
· Off-Price Show is the right place to source discount, below-wholesale and closeout merchandise, from clothing to giftware. As the Off-Price Specialists say: You have to buy right to sell right!
· ASD/AMD is a huge trade show that organizes discount and designer lines of merchandise – from Fashion Accessories, Jewelry and Gifts to Military outerwear/surplus, Tools and General Merchandise – in specialized product category floor plans. In addition to face-to-face product sourcing, buyers can attend wholesale marketing seminars and tap industry news sources.
· ASAP Show showcases overseas apparel manufacturers, connecting the Top 5% of contract apparel producers with thousands of international buyers. An all-under-one-roof product sourcing opportunity billed as The Authority in Global Sourcing.
· Value Price Expo focuses on the extreme-value marketplace (health and beauty merchandise, accessories, housewares, gifts, consumer electronics and hardware), targeted to dollar/discount chain store buyers, as well as deep discount product buyers for independent and online auction retailers. To meet regional marketplace needs, Value Price has split its expos by the calendar (January, March, May) and by U.S. region (East and West).
For Everything You’d Want to Know About Finding Trade Shows – US and International — see Top Ten Wholesale Newsroom’s Mark Your Trade Show Calendar .