Starting or growing an ecommerce business means finding a trusted wholesale supplier to source products from. Whether you sell home furniture or sports accessories, the quality of your products will directly affect the longevity of your business. Therefore, it’s important to spend the necessary time to research and find a decent wholesaler to partner with.
In this detailed guide, I’ll reveal 5 simple ways to find wholesale suppliers for your ecommerce business. Make sure you keep reading as it will save you a huge amount of time and effort in the long run. The techniques you’re about to uncover are proven to work based on my personal experience with running a successful ecommerce business for the past several years.
1. Use a Wholesale Directory
For as long as the internet has been around, so has the existence of online wholesale directories. Essentially websites which connect buyers with wholesale suppliers, directories are one of the quickest ways to find companies to start sourcing products from. Whether it’s bulk wholesale or dropshipping products, directories make it easy for you to find the perfect supplier depending on your needs.
However, you should avoid paying a membership fee to gain access to a directory as there are plenty of free ones to use. SourceLow for example is a newer (free to use) directory which is quickly attracting attention due to its modern, simple and user-friendly interface. Finding suitable suppliers is as easy as doing one quick search.
Alternatively, wholesale marketplaces such as Overstock or Alibaba are similar to directories but facilitate the actual sale between you (the buyer) and the wholesale company, whereas a directory simply directs the buyer to the wholesaler and transactions are conducted separately.
- Find a useful and free to use wholesale directory
- Avoid paying membership fees for access to a list of suppliers
- Try wholesale marketplaces such as Alibaba
- Browse wholesale websites or blogs/informational resources
2. Try Quora
With over 300 million monthly users, Quora is one of the most popular question and answer websites in the world, often receiving over 40k new questions per day. From questions about starting a new job to queries about movie plots and sequel endings, Quora has an answer for it all, including how to find wholesale suppliers.
Take the time to browse Quora’s existing questions related to finding wholesale suppliers and if necessary, post your own new question. You’ll be surprised as to how quickly you’ll receive relevant, high-quality answers. Quora is a very quality focused Q&A website, unlike some of it’s past competitors. People also tend to share honest opinions and genuine recommendations based on their own personal experiences.
- Search for existing Quora questions on how to find wholesale suppliers
- Post a new questions asking for recommendations or options
- Follow other relevant answers to stay up-to-date with the latest posts
- Follow the most popular quora contributors to keep in the know about their latest answers
3. Search Facebook
Often missed out from other guides on how to find wholesale suppliers, searching on Facebook is another powerful technique. Not just a social network, but also a huge resource of information, Facebook has countless pages related to product sourcing, ecommerce and dropshipping, as well as several private groups where you can actually source one-off job lots of stock such as Wholesale JobLot Clearance Bulk and Joblots, Wholesale and Bulk UK.
- Browse for relevant Facebook pages using the search bar when logged in
- Join wholesale discussion and joblot groups to get updates and exclusive access to limited time deals or offers
- Like the Facebook pages of wholesale directories, marketplaces or blogs to discover potentially interesting stories within your feed
4. Browse Google
No guide on how to find wholesale suppliers would be complete without including Google, the search engine giant receives over 2 billion monthly users and 40k searches per second, it’s the most popular website in the world. One quick search will pull up an endless list of wholesale suppliers, as well as marketplaces for sourcing bulk goods.
However, make sure you include relevant keywords in your searches in order to weave out the irrelevant results. Instead of searching for ‘’wholesale suppliers’’, try more targeted terms such as ‘clothing wholesalers usa’ or ‘pet toys wholesalers uk’ and so on. You should also learn how to do an advanced Google search to find more relevant and useful results
- Use targeted keywords for conducting searches such as ‘womens clothing wholesalers canada’ or ‘mens hats wholesale usa’
- Try an advanced Google search to trigger more useful and relevant results
- Go beyond the first page and take the time to study each result
- Avoid getting distracted by irrelevant results such as paid directories or supplier lists
5. Contact Brand Owners
If you’re really stuck on how to find a wholesale supplier for your business, another effective method for hunting them down is by contacting the brand owners directly. While usually unable to supply you with products directly, brand owners will certainly be able to point you to the nearest wholesaler or distributor of where you can source that particular brand name product. Therefore, it’s worthwhile to seek out brand owners and send a quick enquiry email.
- Browse the brand owners website and find their contact details
- Send an enquiry about how to source their products in bulk
- Ask for a list of wholesalers or distributors that stock their products
Final Conclusion
In conclusion, these are the 5 very best, simple and effective ways to find wholesale suppliers for your ecommerce business. If you’re simply looking to buy in bulk, rather than find a supplier specifically, you could also try eBay or other online marketplaces for sourcing job lots such as Wholesale Clearance UK.
Whichever method you decide to implement, when you do eventually come across a wholesale supplier that ticks all the right boxes, make sure you do your research before placing an order. A lot of newbies make the mistake of not properly researching suppliers before closing a deal, often leading to poor quality products or a loss of invaluable funds. Do you research and you’ll have more confidence to place an order.
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