These past few weeks I’ve been in Asia so I apologize if I haven’t been terribly responsive via email. Between jetlag and my packed schedule, I’ve been either too brain dead or fatigued to answer mails or write blog entries.

But now I’m back and I’m eager to tell you about my trip! As many of you know, my wife and I try to go out to Asia to meet with our linen vendors directly as well as attend the big Canton import export trade fair as often as we can.

With two kids however, we haven’t been out to Asia in over 2 years. This year however, my wife and I were absolutely adamant about getting out there so we flew my mom, my aunt and my uncle out to California all expenses paid in order to take care of our 2 kids while we flew to Hong …

A few weekends ago, my wife and I had the pleasure of attending the annual San Francisco Gift Fair held at the Moscone center. My mom was in town so we left the kids with her and took off to check out the latest gift wholesalers from across the US.

The SF wholesale gift show had the usual requirements to keep out casual shoppers. You needed to show at least 2 forms of id which could consist of any of the following: your business license, LLC or corporation paperwork, EIN number, business credit cards etc…

Young kids were not allowed in and you had to pay a hefty fee to bring in guests that did not have their own business. These rules were in place to make sure that only true buyers and business owners were allowed on the show floor.
Tradeshows Are A Great Place To Find Products To Sell
Tradeshows …

It’s been a while since I’ve written about product sourcing, but I’ve gotten several questions lately on how to deal with new vendors so I thought I’d devote another post about the topic. Picture this scenario… You’ve put together a list of potential vendors that you want to work with either from a tradeshow or from a manufacturer’s distributor list. You’ve never purchased in bulk before. You don’t even have your online storefront up yet and as a result you are extremely apprehensive about contacting your vendors for the very first time.

Photo By Youssef Hanna

Don’t be shy! Unfortunately, you can never be sure what to expect when calling a vendor for the first time. Are your order quantities going to be too small? Are their prices going to be too high? Are they going to give you the time of …

The 5 steps outlined in my guide on How Create A Profitable Online Store do not have to be completed in order. Some people like to work on getting their website up first. Some people choose to take care of all the legal issues ahead of time. And some people try to nail down their product sourcing strategy before doing anything else.

What usually ends up happening though is that most people save the product sourcing problem for last because it requires human interaction and an active effort to develop business relationships. Recently, I received this email from one of my readers who was a bit apprehensive about contacting their first vendor.

Photo by Star5112

Hi,
Just want to say thanks for the extensive information you provide on your site. I have found it quite valuable and encouraging.

I’m just starting out with my new venture and was hoping you could help? …

Recently, one of my readers asked for some details involving importing goods, dealing with customs and paying importation taxes. The process may seem complicated at first but isn’t really that bad once you’ve gone through the process once.

Importing your goods from overseas is the best way to obtain quality products at rock bottom prices. But as with all good things, there are several logistical issues you have to work out in order to be successful.

In this article, I’ll try to provide a brief overview of what to expect when importing goods from overseas along with some details and tips on how to get your goods shipped directly to your place of business.

Photo by Ronnie44052

What To Expect When Importing

Long Lead Times – Most overseas vendors won’t even begin making your products until you actually place an order and put down a small down payment to cover the cost of …

After publishing my article on the best way to find vendors for your online store, I had a number of readers email me questions about traveling and dealing with overseas vendors. The tone of these emails were generally apprehensive and expressed a direct concern with being able to find and properly manage relations with foreign vendors.

I’ll admit it. It isn’t easy to travel to a foreign country and deal with a completely different culture. But you know what? You don’t want it to be easy. You don’t want the barriers to entry to be too low otherwise you’ll have a ton of competitors in your business niche.

Photo By Star

Running our online wedding linens business has required me to deal with several vendors across China, India and other parts of Asia. Here’s what to expect when dealing Asian vendors.
Expect A Language Barrier
Despite what you …

Lately, a good number of phone calls that we’ve been receiving have been from customers asking whether or not we sell our products wholesale. I always tell them no, but that we can provide attractive discounts for bulk purchases. More often than not, these customers hear the words “no wholesale” and usually just hang up.

What these customers don’t realize is that the discounts we offer are competitive with many of the wholesalers in the US. This makes me wonder what is going on in the minds of some of these customers. Do they think that wholesale is synonymous with lowest price?

Photo By El Isma

I’d be willing to bet that the majority of people out there believe that buying “wholesale” magically means that they can sell their products lower than anyone else. They probably think that obtaining wholesale pricing means that they can undercut the entire …

The number one question that I receive from readers who want to open their own online store is how to go about finding vendors and suppliers. Do I purchase wholesale? Should I drop ship or should I contact the manufacturer directly?

When my wife and I first started our online store, we faced these exact same questions. But having done a fair amount of research on each of the above options, I’d like to talk about our experiences and our take on each of these ways to stock merchandise for your online business.

While our experiences are primarily related to wedding linens, what we are about to tell you should apply to almost anything that you choose to sell in your online store.

Photo By Slapjack

Drop Shipping
Most people fall into the trap of getting excited about drop shipping when they first open their online store. Drop shipping seems appealing …