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The market research wizard developed by Worldwide Brand Inc. is a great tool, which shows in a probability scale whether it is worthy trying to sell your selected product online or not. You can find it over here. (http://www.worldwidebrands.com/?8188)
Locate drop-shipping companies
After selecting product next step is to find a reliable drop-shipper for it. This might not be an easy task! The things that you should look into a drop-shipper are followings:
1. A reputable supplier with drop-shipping experience 2. Ready to ship one item at a time 3. Do not ask for any membership payment 4. Will use your name as shipper 5. Will enclose blank invoice or invoice from you 6. On packaging there will be no indication that they are supplier.
You might think that easiest way of finding a drop-shipper is just to buy one of numerous lists on Internet for sale. I won’t recommend you to use them for number of reasons. Often, these lists are outdated or carry wrong information. Even if you find companies through lists, since many people use these lists, you get into fierce competition for market share not even starting to sell.
Use following approach instead:
Online search
The first step is, naturally, to use search engines. Using various combinations of keywords of your product with words: manufacturer, wholesaler, drop-shipper, dealer, see if you can find original source of product.
If several online retailers are already selling this product, do some detective works! Check out sites thoroughly. May be, you can find a clue, which will help you track down supplier.
If it is an imported product go to sites like Alibaba, ecplaza, Rusbiz, trade-india. Locate manufacturer and get in touch with them to find who you should contact in your country to retail sell their products. If product is manufactured in North America, best source to find them is Thomas register.
Trade exhibitions
You should definitely attend trade shows related to your category of products. This is an easy way to find a number of suppliers, who might be willing to work with you.
Trade magazines
Trade journals and publications are also a good resource for finding suppliers of your products. Although, you might have to go through a sizable quantity of them before you stumble on right supplier.
Conclusion
Drop-shipping has some inherent drawbacks too. The biggest of them is you have to totally rely on drop-shipper to fulfill your order and get product to your customer on time. The others are: you don’t have any control over price or availability of product. However, a good drop-shipper cares for his reputation since his business depends on retailers like you. That’s why you have to be very careful in choosing right drop-shipper.
Nowshade Kabir is the founder, primary developer and present CEO of Rusbiz.com. A Ph. D. in Information Technology, he has wide experience in Business Consulting, International Trade and Web Marketing. Rusbiz is a Global B2B Emarketplace with solutions to start and run online business. You can contact him at mailto:nowshade[at]rusbiz.com, http://ezine.rusbiz.com/archivenews.html?nl_oid=47