How To Find Wholesale Drop Ship Companies

Finding quality wholesale drop ship companies is the most important step that you need to make if you want to have a successful e-store. I have talked about this already in the beginners course. If you are landing on this page from somewhere else, I recommend you read the course first.

If you have good suppliers, 40% of the work needed for your successful store is done. The other 40% is promoting your store and only 20% goes to tech stuff, design and other similar tasks.

There are many ways to find wholesale drop ship companies that will work with small entrepreneurs, but not all of them are good. I'm not going to lose your time with losers like "search the drop ship directories", but will concentrate on what really works. As you will see, these methods are either less intuitive or require some work and cost some money, but hey - if you expect to create a successful drop ship business with no effrots, you have arrived at a wrong place. People who expect overnight riches end up buying $97 e-books that make rich only their authors. I know you are not one of those suckers, so let's get to work.

Search and Direct Contact

I'm starting with a workhorse method. I know "workhorse" doesn't sound too compelling but I can assure you it works far better than what most wannabes do - they search Google for "drop ship directory", drop on the first one and hope they will find quality companies inside. There is one very simple reason why this won't work well - it's because everyone does it. If you do it too, your drop ship store will not be able to offer anything different/better than most. Besides that, these directories are full of scams.

Much smarter method is to search for companies producing the goods in the niche where you are planning to work. (I hope you know or have already read that you must have a niche for your store, otherwise you are lost). Don't search for drop-shippers, just find manifacturers who offer the goods you want and who have good prices. Do some research on the Web for opinions about their goods, customer service etc. You don't want rip-offs, low quality suppliers, or companies with virtually no customer service.

Once you find such suppliers, contact them and tell them that you are interested in marketing their products and buying wholesale. Don't talk only about drop shipping, express interest wholesale too to improve your chances to get a positive response. A large part will say no, but 1-3 suppliers can be just enough for building a successful drop ship business.

Forums and Blogs

Here's another creative method for finding wholesale drop ship companies. Go to forums that discuss your niche or to blogs about it and say that you are looking for suppliers. There are many smaller companies whose owners or representatives hang around in forums. They aren't well ranked in the search engines so you are unlikely to find them with the first method. They are a lot less targeted by web marketers and a lot more willing to try new methods to expand their business. You can get surprised how many inquiries you can get by posting in forums that you are looking for products to promote.

Of course, don't be naive and thoughfully check everyone, epsecially the offers that look too good to be true. As I already told you, you have no use of selling low quality stuff or working with jerks - think about building a long term business.

This method can be very successful if you are looking to drop ship some handmade stuff - for example retro toys, furniture, art or whatever you can think of - the hobbyist forums are full of people who love to make good things with their hands and would love to make some money but marketing isn't their strength. Such people can give you great prices, friendly service and will take care for all the shipping hassles - just because you are giving them the chance to make money doing what they love most. Man, I know one of my next e-stores will be one that offers handmade goods!

"No Drop Ship" Marketplaces

You don't think that's all, do you? Here's one more killer method for finding dropship companies that will make your business successful. Just like in the first method you need to look where the others aren't looking. There are several global marketplaces - for example Alibaba - where thousands of companies worldwide are offerring their goods and services. You can use the same tactic from method one - just find ones which look reliable enough and have good prices, and contact them. The advantage here, compared to searching google, is not only that you have everything categorized nicely, but also that those are companies obviously looking to expand.

Note that Alibaba is not a place for drop shipping - and that's the key here. If you go to a free drop shippers directory you'll find what everyone else is finding. Most of your competitors wouldn't even think about going on non-dropshipping place because their thinking is too straightforward (not to tell a better word).

Paid Sources

If you don't have that much time, don't want to contact tens of suppliers, or don't like being turned off, the best idea is to pay for subscription based drop shipping resource. It usually costs around few hundred or $50 - $100 monthly and is well worth the money - unless you sign up for a scam service of course.

A good drop ship wholesale subscription directory will provide you access to thousands of companies in many niches. You will not need to beg for acceptance, because that are companies who already work with entrepreneurs like you.

These paid services don't cost much, but even their modest fee is a great entry bareer because the suckers, spammers and wannabes usually don't invest money in their business - so by joining such one you are leaving a lot of competitors behind you.

My favorite service is OneSource (aff), because their fee is one-time $299, they are honest and have millions of good products in various niches. Their support is also very helpful although you will rarely need it, considering how many guides on running drop ship business you will find inside.

Depending on your goals, time and money you can work with all four methods or choose one of them for your drop ship store. Or you may build different stores, each of them using different methods - it's up to you. Just don't go the loser's way by doing the most obvious which everyone does - make some effort, spend some time, money, or both and you will be rewarded by building a successful long term business.

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