Shocking Secrets Of Sourcing Cheap Wholesale Inventory & Suppliers

Published – Feb 23rd 2018

Where can I buy cheap inventory and supplies? How do I find reliable wholesalers and suppliers? All good and valid questions.

Knowing where to buy inventory and finding a good supplier is over half the battle of being successful in eCommerce selling. This can relate to eBay, Amazon or any other eCommerce platform for that matter.

As a seller, it took time and hard work for me to find reputable sources of inventory for my business. Believe me when I say that I understand the struggle.

There is that old adage of “buy low, sell high“. Clearly, sellers want cheap inventory. If you have this then it means overhead costs will be lower which will then ultimately mean profits will be higher. We all want this in an ideal world but it’s not just going to fall into your lap.

If you can get a handle on this aspect then everything else will be fairly straightforward and fall into place … more or less. Okay, there is a little more to it than that. Although, if you can consistently source great inventory then that’s a giant hurdle you’ve just overcome.

“Learning how to keep track of inventory and cash flow and creating an income statement and a balance sheet are great skills to learn for managing existing businesses.” – Steve Blank (Entrepreneur)

Wise words, Steve. It’s all about being organised when it come to your in-goings and out-goings. Take particular note of the expense of purchasing inventory. This one of the few business costs you can have control over that can make a big difference to your bottom line.

I have picked up a few things in my experience as a seller that you might find useful. Allow me to now show you my thoughts on how to best go about sourcing inventory in order to earn maximum profits.

Should I start off selling my belongings as inventory?

If you’re an absolute beginner to eCommerce then it would be best to start off by selling unwanted items you have lying around the home. It’s what I did when I first started and this will act as your inventory for the time being.

It has to be one of your belongings. Make sure that it isn’t your Sister’s ‘Backstreet Boys‘ CD (or whatever the cool kid’s like these days).

I would stress that you do this before you invest money into inventory to sell professionally as a business. This is so you can gain some experience and get a hang of how things work in the online marketplace. You will also make more money as you won’t have the expense of originally purchasing the item to resell.

There is no point paying for goods until you’ve rid your house of the cr*p that you don’t want or use anymore.

Will my personal interests affect the inventory that I sell?

What are your pastimes and hobbies? It’s cliché to say this but you should sell products that you have an interest in. There is a good reason for this as it will feel less like a chore. You will enjoy your work more that way as opposed to selling inventory that you find really tedious.

Why even bother getting into to this line of work if it’s going to give you the same level of fun as having a dead-end job stacking cans of mixed vegetables in a supermarket.

Do I need to know a lot about the inventory I’m selling?

You should sell products that you have a decent amount of knowledge about. This will act as a shortcut for business progression and it mean you won’t have to do hours of research.

If one of your favorite interests is reading non-fiction books then maybe you should think about selling paperback text/study books.

What kind of inventory should I sell?

Discovering what to sell online is never an easy answer. Ideally you want to find inventory that is in high demand. Although, at the same time it has to have very few rival sellers selling that exact same thing.

This could possibly be spare parts for electrical devices (adapters) or something along those lines. You get that one for free!

In short, this is the hard part as no one can or will want to give you a straight answer. Other seller won’t want you cutting in on the action. Try selling a wide range of products and experiment to see what sells best. You can gauge what sells well through experience.

[bctt tweet=”You can get ideas on what inventory to sell when you explore the ‘bestsellers’ section of any shopping site.” via=”no”]

What should my niche be?

Fashion and electronics seem to be the two most popular categories of items to sell online. Try to also target specialist items that can’t be easily found with traditional retail methods on the high street. It will give yourself more exclusivity that way.

Why not find a niche like selling boys baby clothes which is a very specific category of clothing in general. You can brand yourself as the go-to guy or girl for that niche.

Why is it important to diversify my inventory?

Play it safe and diversify which products you source when buying inventory. You don’t want to buy up thousands of units of the same item a once.

You may have the misfortune of then later finding out that nobody wants them. This is money down the drain and could mean you have to end up selling them for a loss. I’ve fallen into this trap a few times myself.

Select a varied inventory in order to spread your risk. Next time you can buy more of the products that sell and then conversely dump what doesn’t.

Where should I search for my inventory & suppliers?

Scour forums and message boards online and you might be lucky to find a good source of inventory. People who have attained success usually got there with some help from other people. In turn, they may see it fit to give a helping hand to someone like you, just like how they have benefited.

This is long shot but you could try offline methods such as phoning up well-known supermarkets and department stores. If you’re charismatic enough, you could potentially find out who their suppliers are which would be a good start. The worse thing that can happen is that they hang up on you.

When sourcing your stock you would be wasting your time buying from traditional methods like high street stores. I naively tried this as a newbie and I can tell you the big boys are way ahead of you in that aspect.

The prices would be too high for you to make a profit by reselling, your best bet is browsing wholesalers. There are also plenty of online wholesalers and suppliers if you look hard enough.

What about trade fairs?

Another route you could take is visiting trade shows or fairs and talking to inventory suppliers while you are there. If you can, form a good relationship with them by pitching your business. Show them how they can benefit from your business and then they will take you seriously.

Practice a speech beforehand and really sell your business to them in order to give yourself the best chance. It’s also a good idea to know important numbers from memory such as turnover, profit, expenses and so on in case they ask. Networking in business can create giant leaps forward for yourself.

If you can do this then you have a decent chance of getting your foot in the door. You can then convince them to let you purchase inventory cheaply.

Where can I find quality inventory?

One of the key things about selling any product online is getting good quality inventory at a low price. More importantly, knowing exactly where to get it. You won’t like this will have to dig deeply by yourself in order to gain this knowledge.

People won’t just openly tell you where to get very cheap wholesale goods. Why would they want the extra competition coming from you? I know that isn’t helpful or anywhere near what you want to hear but it’s the hard truth. On the other hand, it doesn’t mean that it’s an impossible task.

The condition of the item needs to be adequate at least. If you’re not happy with the quality of the item then you can bet your bottom dollar that some of your customers won’t be either. This will inevitably result in a refund or return.

Which suppliers should I purchase inventory from?

There are lots of options available to you so let me help you so you can make a start. Here are a few ideas for suppliers I found that you might want to test out:

If you looking to source inventory then you could always give police auctions a shot and bag yourself some swag at a discount.

It turns out that there is such a thing as a “free lunch“. If you’re really lucky you can get something for nothing at freecycle and other free giveaway websites.

It’s very likely that you will have to collect the free item yourself. These sort of sites act as a free removal service so owning a vehicle with good storage capacity might help. People usually just want stuff moved out of their home even if it means giving it away for absolutely nothing.

Are there any other good wholesalers & suppliers?

‘Trade Clearing House‘ is a good wholesaler I have used in the past that has since closed down sadly. This company specialized in mens, womens and kids clothes for all ages. You could give Costco a shot which is pretty established and popular.

I would recommend that you check out wholesale directories. These are essentially online lists of wholesalers that may sell the products you want to resell. You can find these pretty easily with a quick Google search.

Should I buy inventory from overseas suppliers?

The last thing you want is to discover that your designer products are fake. This is one of the reasons why I partly recommend in some cases that you steer clear of buying inventory from overseas. This is unless you know that you can trust them.

The delivery costs will also be higher if you purchase inventory from abroad. It may be more cost-effective in regards to shipping to find suppliers local to you.

You may be able to buy dirt cheap stock from China but is it good quality and will they deliver on their promises?

Check out Alibaba if you want to source cheap products from China. There are some scams on this site so check that you’re buying from a reputable seller based on their individual seller reviews.

Are there any warning signs I should know of?

There are some fine examples of foreign suppliers. However, there is also the issue of whether or not the supplier produces the products ethically. To elaborate, I’m talking here about fair employee treatment and pay so there is a moral concern here.

I’ve even heard horror stories of people buying supplies online from international warehouse addresses that don’t actually exist in real life. Where you believe you are purchasing inventory from could be an empty plot of land or an entirely unrelated building. Can you imagine?

How do I know that a supplier will be reliable?

It would be common sense to do your homework and check reviews of suppliers and wholesalers. You would do this in everyday life with anything else you plan to purchase so why not in this instance too? I always check customer testimonials before making any big investments.

The seller needs to research this in order to make sure that they are buying from a trustworthy and reputable source.

If you know any acquaintances who sell online too then you could politely ask them to point you in the right direction if they’re feeling generous. Good word of mouth is important to take note of.

[bctt tweet=”Sell products that you know about. If you like reading non-fiction books then maybe sell text or study books.” via=”no”]

How much inventory should I order?

For your first time ordering from a new supplier, you may want to make a small order just to test the waters. If that all goes smoothly then by all means order larger amounts from the same supplier. If they are dodgy then obviously you don’t want them to run off with a large chunk of your money.

Rewarding loyalty is nothing new when it comes to business. They will sometimes reward you with a discount if you order a lot of inventory in bulk. This can also happen if you spend over a certain amount of money per order too.

This is what the big boys do as they have enough capital to buy thousands of dollars worth of goods each time they order.

How do I find out what’s hot right now?

Pay attention to current advertising for inspiration and also media such as:

TV
radio
movies
video games
music
internet
magazines
newspapers
books

In your research, you will be able to see what is cool right now (or hip and swell if you’re a high school student in the 1950s). You can also get a decent clue on which inventory to sell when you explore the ‘bestsellers‘ section of most retail sites.

You can use programs like Google Trends to see how popular certain products are. Items increase and decrease in popularity over time so it is worth checking in.

I’ve tried to pick out products that are quite unusual as there will be less competition among sellers. It has to be something that people want though.

How do I spot gimmick products?

Some trends that come and go can seem like gimmicks. In fact, a lot of them are. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you can’t at the very least make short-term profit from them.

If you’re on your toes and in the know you can snap up a certain product like fidget spinners. Remember those? *groan*. Then you can sell them off when they’re at the height of their popularity.

Where am I going to store my inventory?

Keep in mind that you will need storage space for your inventory. It might be the case that you could use a spare room or an attic/basement like I do. If your home is dearly lacking space then you can politely ask friends and family if you can drop some of your inventory at their place.

If you don’t have any of these options then you could always rent storage space for a price. This very issue is one of the reason people choose to try out dropshipping.

It works by storing all your inventory in a big warehouse somewhere else. Dropshipping also means someone else will take care of postage, packaging and shipping cutting down on the legwork.

How often should I check inventory stock?

Always do a stock check on a regular basis. You don’t want to be in the situation where a customer orders something, and then you find out that you don’t have any quantity of that particular item left (I’ve been there). How embarrassing.

This is why accurate record keeping is paramount. You need to keep on top of which inventory you have and don’t have.

I hope you can take my advice on the suppliers I’ve put forward. You should now be able to take steps towards sourcing quality, low-cost inventory.

From this post, we can gather the importance of having a passion and knowledge for the product you want to sell. We can also learn how to catch trends and which routes we can take to find suppliers of desired inventory.

I recommend your next order of business should be to compile a list of suppliers you are interested in. Try and obtain all the contact details that go with them. You can then called them up to order while at the same time attempting to negotiate the overall price down.

There are lots of other parts of online selling that you can’t afford to neglect. If you liked this post then why not check my 26 Postage & Packaging Tricks That Your Buyers Will Love list.

Do you have any tips for finding suppliers and sourcing inventory? What’s your best and worst experience when ordering inventory? Please don’t forget to share this with your friends and comment below. Thanks for reading!

17 eCommerce Online Selling Mistakes That Scare Away Buyers In Seconds!

53 Epic eBay Selling Tips To Skyrocket Your Profits & Reputation

17 eBay Selling Errors That Make You Invisible To Buyers

Why Won’t My Buyers Give Me Positive Feedback & Reviews?

The Most Useful eBay Upgrades With Fees + eBay Store Guide

How Top Sellers Handle eCommerce Payments, Returns & Refunds

Why Buyers Go Crazy For Spectacular Photos When Shopping

Which Top eCommerce Websites Are Best For Sellers?