How to find suppliers for an online store? Basics of small business

Successful work of any online store is impossible without preliminary planning of purchases of goods. Businessmen should pay special attention to this moment. Otherwise, the risk of termination of the trading facility is high. And this is the lost time, money and accumulated debt obligations.

Businessmen, especially beginners, should remember that signing contracts with reliable suppliers is an important step in the development of their own business. Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs make the same mistake. Tired of wanting to open their own online store as soon as possible, they incorrectly choose companies selling goods. Inexperienced businessmen often conclude contracts with unfamiliar partners, without even delving into the agreed terms of cooperation. The result of such actions is sad. The delivery process is organized poorly, and this leads to disruptions in work, loss of income, the emergence of debts to buyers and eventually to the closure of the trading facility.

Internet directories

What first of all excites novice entrepreneurs who set themselves the task of opening a store selling goods through the World Wide Web? Most often they try to find an answer to the question, how to find reliable suppliers? And here entrepreneurs are waiting for the first disappointment. The fact is that the search in runet will not give the desired results. It will not allow you to get an answer to the question of how to find a supplier of goods for an online store. Why? The fact is that reliable companies have no time to post their ads. They are engaged in the purchase or production of goods. In addition, serious firms do not need special advertising at all. A novice owners of online stores need just such suppliers, because they have already proven themselves in practice. You can find such companies. The main thing is to know where.

How to find suppliers for an online store? To find reliable partners, you should refer to the appropriate catalog. The place of its placement are various search engines, in particular Google. To obtain the necessary data, it is necessary to search the list of suppliers. The result will immediately appear on the screen of the monitor. However, it is worth bearing in mind that among the listed companies there will be those that do not suit you at all.

Establishing contacts

How to find suppliers for an online store, with a list of operating companies? To do this, you need to arm with a pen and paper or just open the Word window. Further, from the whole list of firms specializing in the supply of the product you need, you should choose the most suitable. After that, you need to contact them in one of several ways. It can be:

• phone call;
• Writing a letter to the company's e-mail.

The first method is preferable, since it will allow to establish direct contact with one of the managers of the company. Many beginning entrepreneurs try to contact potential partners by e-mail. However, they should remember that this option is not able to determine clear schemes for further cooperation. After all, most often the electronic correspondence is read by ordinary employees of the Chancery.

Appeal to company sites

To date, almost all companies have their own page on the Internet. On it it is possible to familiarize with assortment list of the offered goods. However, you should not abandon the supplier, which has an unremarkable and unpretentious site. Serious companies often do not want to waste time designing it, which is not an indicator of responsibility. The fact is that the services of reputable suppliers are in demand and they do not need advertising. Even without special registration of the site such companies have a decent income from wholesale sales of goods, paying special attention to their quality.

Studying offline directories

How to find suppliers for an online store? A place to find potential business partners can be one of the offline catalogs. These are traditional publications, on the pages of which one or another sphere of public activity is covered.

What actions need to be taken? First of all, you will need to select the necessary topic, corresponding to the assortment of goods that are supposed to be sold in the online store. For example, it may be the rubric "Children's Health". And here the entrepreneur will be able to answer the question of how to find wholesale suppliers. After all, often those companies that are represented in these catalogs are guided by the shipment of only large quantities of goods. To conclude contracts for small amounts, they simply will not.

Suppliers of competitors

How to provide your online store with uninterrupted delivery of goods? To do this, you can conclude contracts with those suppliers that provide services to your competitors. Yes, this option is good and very promising. However, its implementation entails some difficulties. First of all, it is unlikely that such suppliers will initially deliver the product at the same cost as it comes to your competitors. After all, unlike you, there are already established connections and certain discounts work. The desired price for the goods can be assigned only after a certain period of time.

Another difficulty of this approach in selecting suppliers is that it is very, very difficult to achieve superiority over their competitors. For this, it is necessary to develop various marketing moves that attract the client to your online store. It can be shares and discounts, loyalty programs, high level of service, etc.

Appeal to domestic producers

How to find suppliers for an online store? A good option is to establish contact with the manufacturer. Directly procure goods from such a supplier is the most profitable and reliable business, bringing the maximum profit. The fact is that the price for products at the plant will be the lowest in the market, that is, the purchase price, without any trade margins.

However, in this case there are some disadvantages. The most important of these is the lack of high demand for domestic goods. Only a small part of them is suitable for online sales. Under such conditions, the assortment of the store will need to be supplemented with imported goods, having concluded contracts with foreign producers.

There are also certain difficulties in this. The matter is that when crossing the goods across the border, questions arise related to customs clearance and inspection. In addition, some high-margin goods in our country are subject to high tax rates. If you are ready to go for such cooperation, do not try to find easy ways. It is necessary to abandon counterfeit documents and illegal import routes, as well as deliberately understating the value of goods for customs authorities. All these machinations can have serious consequences. In addition, foreign companies are unlikely to cooperate with such buyers.

Federal Exhibitions and Fairs

How to find a supplier of products to a novice businessman? The most optimal and promising search option will be visiting the federal exhibitions and fairs. At these events an opportunity is provided:

• Acquaintance with large companies that produce the range of products you need and are ready to establish contact;
• Evaluation of the proposed product and discussion on the site of all conditions of cooperation.

A beginning businessman should remember that any exhibition or fair is a place where new acquaintances are made, ideas and business proposals are realized. In addition, at such events are often exhibited new items, which can not be better suited for sales in the created online store.

Foreign suppliers

Searching for partners outside of your state is the most difficult and expensive option. How to find a supplier from China, Europe or America? To do this, not one publication of your ad on one of the foreign resources. It is unlikely that your desire to order products will find a response from the management of large companies. Different scammers who sell Chinese goods of poor quality can give feedback on the announcement of cooperation. That's why when you receive a response from abroad, you should be careful not to fall for deception.

How to find a supplier of clothes, shoes, household appliances and other items of interest to you? The basic rule regarding the search for a foreign partner is to have a personal acquaintance with it, with its production and the quality of the goods produced. This will require considerable financial resources for an interpreter, for travel, for the preparation of necessary documents, etc. Small entrepreneur such costs are beyond their ability. Particularly relevant, this moment becomes for those who decide the next question: how to find a supplier from China? To overcome the language barrier, professional interpreter services are required, which are paid for at a high rate. But this is not all the difficulties that the owner of an online store will have to face. There is a certain specificity of international trade relations, concluded in the need to procure a large volume of goods. So foreign manufacturers are trying to protect their business from unreliable entrepreneurs.

Difficulties in the supply of goods from abroad are also related to the imperfection of our logistics and customs system. The impossibility of drawing up an effective border crossing scheme leads our businessmen to considerable losses.

However, despite the available pitfalls, working with foreign producers is a good and promising option. Such cooperation excludes contacts with intermediary firms, which allows you to pay for the goods at purchase prices.

What is dropshipping?

For today, the goods on the consumer market can be supplied by a completely new model. It is called dropshipping. This is a scheme that allows a businessman to buy individual things from a wholesaler, delivering them to his buyer.

What are the advantages of dropshipping? Under such a scheme, the entrepreneur does not need to purchase large quantities of goods. It is enough simply to organize cooperation with a supplier who agrees to direct supplies. At the same time, it is enough for your online store to act as a kind of shop window. When an order is received from the buyer, it is immediately forwarded to the supplier. The latter at the same time sends the goods directly to the address of the final consumer, exposing the businessman only an invoice for the shipped products.

Partner search

How to find a supplier by dropshipping? Before contacting a potential partner, you will need to assure the legality of the business you started. Before entering into contracts, suppliers are asked to provide information on the registration of a company or company, as well as a copy of the taxpayer's certificate. Only having a package of relevant documents in hand, you can start to establish links with those distributors that offer dropshipping. And here it will be necessary to show special vigilance. The market is full of scammers and unreliable information.

How to find a supplier for an online store (dropshipping)? In these searches, the most effective assistant for a businessman will be a search engine on the Internet. However, there are also pitfalls here. For example, how to find clothing suppliers for an online store? To do this, you need to carry out a thorough search. It is unlikely that the list of wholesale suppliers will be on the first pages of the search engine. These companies do not seek to promote themselves and are not strong in SEO. You can find them only by turning over several dozen pages.

Also, one who decides how to find a dropshipping supplier should not pay attention to web development of the cover of the site of such a company. A poorly designed and ugly page on the Internet does not mean that this partner will be unfair.

How to find suppliers of clothes for online store? To do this, do not confine yourself to just one question. Search is also for various derivative phrases. It can be "Large party of clothes", "Distributors", etc. These phrases will help to achieve the desired result.

Internet-shop of clothes

Very often, businessmen start their business with sales of wardrobe items. How to find suppliers of clothes in this case? To do this, you need to follow the standard steps:

• View vendor lists in thematic online directories;
• Contact local manufacturers;
• Flip through the usual directories and catalogs;
• Conclude contracts with foreign producers;
• Visit specialized fairs and exhibitions.

In addition, those who decide how to find suppliers of clothes for sale in the online store, it is recommended to contact representatives of trade brands located in Russia or in other countries. And you can go a little different way. Those who do not know how to find a clothing supplier can create their own advertising. It will need to specify the niche market that can interest a potential partner.

Experienced businessmen recommend signing contracts with not one, but at once with several suppliers. This will ensure uninterrupted trade.

When choosing a supplier, it is important to pay attention to such criteria as:

• quality;
• price;
• Frequency of updating the assortment;
• Minimum lots of purchases;
• Availability of necessary documentation and certificates;
• Methods and conditions of payment;
• Possibility of deferred payment;
• delivery method;
• Availability of packaging and its cost;
• The location of the warehouse;
• Availability of discounts;
• Guarantees of exchange and return of defective items;
• Availability of information on new products and price changes;
• Presence of the responsible employee.

How to find suppliers of children's clothing and adult goods in China? This question is of interest to those who want to buy high-quality models at low cost.

To do this, you need to know the basic ways how to find a supplier for an online store. Ukraine, Russia and other countries of the former CIS have long been using these schemes to buy goods. The very first of these is the search of the Chinese manufacturer directly. Such transactions are carried out in cases where the buyer knows the language of the Middle Kingdom and knows how to bargain.

Buy goods for your online store and you can use the services of intermediaries. At the same time, there will not be strict limits on the minimum volume of purchases, and you will offer a wide range of clothing to your customers. However, in this case, the product will have higher prices, there will be no production control and quality assurance.

Ensure the work of an online store can be and in the event that contracts will be concluded with companies that carry out wholesale deliveries. These intermediaries have a sufficient amount of information about the manufacturer. In addition, such firms undertake negotiations with sellers, as well as control the quality and quantity of the shipped goods. But it should be borne in mind that the contract should be concluded only with well-known and reliable wholesalers, well-established in the market.

Of course, all the conditions for further cooperation should be stipulated in advance and fixed in the contract being drawn up. This document will be an official agreement, suiting both sides. Do not rush to sign the papers. When there are more and more new questions, they should be clarified until the end. A good and reliable supplier who is interested in further cooperation will definitely give you the necessary amount of time. If you have an opinion that the second party is not interested in clarifying your questions and does not make any efforts to win the trust of a future partner, then it is worth thinking about. And whether such supplier is necessary? No. Use the compiled list from the catalog and start a dialogue with another company.

The election of a future business partner is a very important stage. This important step will require the entrepreneur to calculate accurately, cold analysis and a critical assessment of the situation. But even with an objective view of the state of affairs, the human factor should never be ruled out. The success of the opening online store will be influenced by both subjective reasons, and those personal relationships that have developed with the supplier.