Trade with Chinese companies

How to Locate Better/Faster/Cheaper Suppliers?

• Posted by StevenGreen in Expert Blogs
• 2007, November 6th

Tag : E-commerce, supplier, trade

Good, reliable suppliers are critical to your business. But where can you find them? How can you locate the manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors and service providers you need?

Better, faster, cheaper.

Those three magic words can turn your hot prospects into happy customers. But in order for you to give your customers better products, faster service and lower rates, you have to develop a core group of reliable suppliers who cut you good deals on the products and services you buy.

Finding reliable suppliers who will sell to you at low cost is no easy task. In fact, it's not unusual for small businesses to find they can buy certain products cheaper from Wal-Mart than they can from a wholesaler. Nor is it unusual for a wholesaler or distributor to refuse to sell to a very small business. That's because it will take their sales staff the same time to process your $150 order as it would to process a $5,000 order.

Nevertheless, you can develop a core group of suppliers you can trust. Here are tips to help:

Be persistent

Good suppliers and good deals don't just show up on your doorstep. You’ll need to put considerable effort into finding the best products, prices and suppliers. You can find names of suppliers by scouring trade magazines and newspapers, searching the Internet and reading messages posted in online forums or mailing lists. Then it’s up to you to contact suppliers and get the best deal.

Don’t be so focused on getting rock bottom prices that you alienate your suppliers, though. If you nickel and dime them, act arrogant or make a nuisance of yourself, your suppliers won’t go out of their way to help you when you need it, and may ultimately decide they just don’t want your business at all.

Shop the ads in trade magazines

Whether you want to buy a pump to use in your laboratory, shredded paper to use as filler in decorative baskets, or silver earrings to sell at flea markets, you're likely to find the products you need advertised in a trade magazine for your industry.

Find suppliers on the web

Searching the Internet may help you find suppliers you’d miss in trade magazine. Go to Google or another major search engine and search for the name of the product you want to purchase followed by a word such as, “manufacturer,” “wholesale,” or “supplier.” If you’re looking for plastic boxes for example, type the term “plastic boxes wholesale” in the search box. Note the search results. If you can’t find what you’re looking for, try a variation of the original search term, such as “wholesale plastic boxes.” Often you’ll see slightly different results just by changing the order of words in your online search.

Find Local Bargains

Before you place an order from out-of-state vendors, try to find a local suppliers for the same goods. You may be able to save a considerable amount on shipping costs and greatly reduce the time it takes to get your order without paying extra for expedited shipping. To narrow your Internet search down to local vendors, use the same search term you did initially, and follow that by the name of your county and state or your city and state.

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