What to know all about Salehoo from someone who’s been a member for over 8 years? Not only that but I’ve been an eBay Powerseller, an Amazon FBA reseller and have developed ecommerce sites. I love finding great deals on products people love and then figuring out the best way to resell those products for a profit!
Also, before I get into the actual review, I want to encourage you to check out the comment section below where I answer a lot of questions people have about drop shipping and starting a wholesale business. Of course, if you have any questions that don’t get answered in this review or in the Q&A below, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment and I’ll be happy to do my best to answer 🙂
I first started selling items on eBay back in 2003. Back then I would find things around the house to sell that I no longer needed or wanted. Personally, I found it very exciting selling things online. I loved the thrill of seeing how much an item would go for when I listed it using the auction format. Creating an amazing customer service experience has been something I’ve always loved doing so I found eBay was a great play for me to practice this skill. Whether it was following up on an order or creating a listing that would help people make an informed decision, it was my mission to give people one of the best eBay experiences possible!
I remember seeing other sellers on eBay with the coveted Powerseller status and remember thinking how amazing it would be to achieve that… to me it was like reaching a sort of celebrity status on eBay! haha 🙂
Click Here for access to a huge directory of wholesale companies
Ultimately though, I started getting frustrated by not having a consistent source of products that I could resell for a profit. I was limited to the “deals” I could find online or hunting around town at stores like “Ross.” Clearance items can be great for reselling. For example, I remember finding these quality leather belts on clearance that I would then turn around and sell on eBay for $20. I was like “Whoo-HOO!! this is GREAT!!” But the challenge was that you can’t always depend on being able to get items consistently this way.
This led me to DHgate which functions like a wholesale directory of products produced by Chinese suppliers. Now when I started using them, there were a lot of items that were fake (or imitations as the suppliers liked to call them). So at first, I was VERY excited because they were selling items like P90X for $20 a piece which could then be resold on eBay for $70 – $100. Cha-CHING! But… I learned that they were actually fakes.
When you’re selling fake merchandise there is more than one way to get yourself in hot water. First, if you get caught by Customs, that can land you in some hot water. Also, someone can complain on eBay or the company itself can make life miserable for you by getting you involved with lawyers (not fun).
Now I know there are people that have gone down this road and made several thousands of dollars. Some then stopped before they got caught, while others pushed it too far and ended up worse off than before they started. Personally, i don’t think it’s a risk worth taking.
My In-Depth Salehoo Review
Finding products you can resell honestly and ethically is the way to go, and that’s were Salehoo came into the picture for me. As I started researching my options for finding wholesale companies to purchase from, Salehoo kept popping up as a possible option. Even though there’s a cost to join, the fact that they have a “60 Day Money Back Guarantee” gave me peace of mind that if it wasn’t helpful, I could always get a refund. So I decided to give it a try and check it out.
To give you a quick bit of background on Salehoo, Mark Ling is the original owner who started this company. When I first became a member, I really didn’t know much about him but I can say that he is one of the better, more honest and ethical marketers out there. Unfortunately there are a lot of marketers who are purely driven by making as much money as possible, no matter what they have to do or say to get it. But Mark Ling is one of the few marketers out there that seems to genuinely try and create value for people.
So not knowing any of this before joining, I figured I’d jump in and hopefully this new membership would help be create a more prosperous future! I set a goal to find at least one company initially that would provide a consistent source of products that I could resell for a profit. I started out emailing and calling about 10 companies a week and within three weeks I had found not just one but 2 companies! I was pretty excited about that 🙂 Not only that but both of these companies were really cool to work with and gave me some tips on reselling their products that they had learned from other resellers.
Now I think it’s worth mentioning that while it’s possible I could have found these companies doing a Google search, it would not have been likely. A lot of these wholesale companies are horrible at SEO or trying to doing anything that would help them get found in the search engines. So normally, people might find them if they go to different trade shows or subscribe to certain industry publications. It wasn’t long before I starting seeing that this is the value of having a Salehoo membership. They actually go out and find these companies for you and add them to their directory (which they’re constantly updating).
If you’ve ever felt the rush of having some success making money online, it can create a LOT of excitement! And that’s exactly what happened to me. I though, “HURRAY!! I’ve finally found something that works!!” So I started putting more and more effort into contacting more companies. Eventually I contacted over 2,000 companies (by phone and email). Most of them were in the US but many were overseas as well. As a result of doing this, I learned a TON. Not only about buying and selling products online, but also about the pros and cons of using Salehoo to help with this.
Benefits of a SaleHoo Membership
In 2017, Salehoo made some pretty significant enhancements which I’ll talk about in more detail below.
But even since initially joining Salehoo, I can say there are a lot of benefits to joining that go beyond even the wholesale directory. For anyone who’s truly interested in reselling products online, the membership can easily pay for itself. The thing to keep in mind though is that it does take work on your part to get some value out of it. Here are several of the things I have found valuable and very worthwhile about joining:
1. Professional, Friendly and Helpful Support
One of the stand out features of being a member is how attentive and supportive the staff are. You have lots of ways to interact and ask questions, whether it’s in the forum, sending a private message or submitting a support ticket. Something I appreciate and value a LOT is when people genuinely care and that’s something that I’ve always felt from the staff at Salehoo.
For example, at one time I was getting serious about selling costumes online so I asked them for some ideas and help with that. One of the staff members actually compiled a list of companies for me to contact even though that is something I’d normally just expect to have to do on my own. To me it meant a lot because that saved me the time and having to go through and create that list myself.
2. Helpful Forum
Over the years I’ve been actively involved with a number of different forums (especially in the internet marketing niche) and a lot of them are really hit or miss as to how helpful they are. In fact, many can leave you more confused between all the conflicting information or lack of knowledgeable input from someone who really knows what’s going on. Fortunately I’ve found the Salehoo forum to be really useful. Whether it’s a comment made my a staff person or just another member, you can learn a lot by getting involved with the forum.
As an example, I mentioned earlier how dealing with fake or imitation items can get you into a lot of trouble. When you’re first starting out it can be stressful trying to figure out whether certain items might be fakes or not. Fortunately, I found the forum had a lot of great advice from staff members to help you steer clear of selling these types of goods. Ultimately, it’s a pretty simple thing to avoid doing once you get a little guidance from those who’ve been down that path or have a lot more industry experience.
2. Super Huge Wholesale Directory
This is obviously the best part, and what I think most people join Salehoo for in the first place. They have a TON of companies in their directory. It seems like just about anything you could think of reselling, there’s a company for in there for that somewhere.
I also really love how they’ve organized their directory in such a way that you can sort through the thousands of companies really fast and easily. So if you just want companies that offer drop shipping, you can sort by that. Or if you want companies located in a certain country, you can sort them that way as well. They also let you filter by companies that don’t require a tax ID#, whether a minimum order is required (or you can set the minimum order amount you’re comfortable spending) and now you can even choose to just look at companies that have uploaded a product catalogue!
For example, lets say you want to start out drop shipping only and don’t want to mess with purchasing products in bulk to store at your home or warehouse. Or if you don’t want to work with a company that charges too much to handle a return. Rather then have to call or email a company to confirm whether they offer drop shipping or how they handle product returns, you can just check out their company profile on Salehoo and save yourself a lot of time.
Just as a side not, even if a company hasn’t been in business that long and isn’t a part of the BBB, it doesn’t mean I wouldn’t work with them or contact them. How I handle those situations is I first would see if there’s a more reputable company offering the types of products I’m looking to resell. But if I’m not finding a good option then I might consider reaching out to that company.
I’ve had that happen MANY times where I’ll reach out to call a a company like this and talk to the coolest people who are totally passionate about their products and so thrilled and willing to work with you. That being said, it’s worth being cautious, but I just wanted to encourage you not to disregard those companies.
4. Company Profile Reviews
This is another REALLY cool feature. A lot of the companies have reviews written by an expert, such as an eBay Powerseller. This person will tell you what it’s really like to work with this company. You’ll get a sense of how good this company might be to have as a supplier before you ever contact them yourself. You can learn more details about the application process or whether they’re ok with you reselling their products on eBay or Amazon. Sometimes they’ll even give you examples of product pricing.
This can be super helpful because many wholesale companies don’t post their wholesale pricing so that just anyone can see it. You often have to apply and get accepted as a supplier before getting access to this. Here again, you can save yourself a ton of time by using these company reviews to get a sense of whether a company might be worth your while or not.
5. Market Research
There is a whole section of your membership that helps you to easily discover profitable products. Each week the staff will scan and research popular products that could be sold online to save you time trying to go and do that yourself.
This is an example of an area that was enhanced in 2017. You can filter products by category (ie. electronics, home, kitchen, jewelry, etc.), sell rate and then competition level. For example, I just did a fresh search today in the Toy’s & Games category looking for products with low competition that have a sell through rate of at least 75%.
One of the products I found are the 5mm Neocubes. I then clicked on the “competitors” link to see what the competition looks like on eBay. I see there are only a handful of people offering these and they’re all from China! So this could be a great opportunity for me to offer these products for someone only wanting to deal with a US supplier.
I then click on the “supplier” link where I’m taken to the “Toys and Games” category within Salehoo. From here I can see there are over 563 suppliers. So next I begin to narrow down the list by choosing suppliers that offer drop shipping and are located in North America. So now the list has narrowed down to 116 suppliers. I can continue to narrow down my list until I have a comfortable list to start with and then I can contact those companies to see if they offer this particular product and go from there.
So the Market Research Lab is a powerful tool for anyone who’s looking for some ideas to get started with. If you have a category you want to sell in you can start there, or if you don’t care you can just go through each category one by one until you find some products that look good to you. Either way, this is a very cool feature to have in addition to the wholesale directory.
6. Special Articles
Sometimes there will be featured articles written by a staff member or eBay Powerseller to help teach or train on some topic related to buying and reselling products. I remember one of the articles was especially helpful to me because a Powerseller took the time to outliner her research strategy for finding new products to sell and make a profit with. As a result, I learned about a cool new research tool that I had never heard of before.
7. Additional Education and Training
Overtime, Salehoo has added an education and training section which has all sorts of information related to getting started as a drop shipper or buying products wholesale. What I loved most about these is you can get a snap shot of what reselling in a particular niche might be like.
For example, if you’re thinking of getting into the fashion clothing niche you might want to better understand the pros and cons of reselling these types of products. It’s a great way to get a heads up before committing a bunch of time into reselling a particular type of product, only to realize later on what the downsides are.
8. Supplier Catalogues (New for 2017)
Now that we’re in 2018, this is still one of my favorite new features that Salehoo added and it keeps getting better over time. Because in the past, I would have to contact suppliers individually and many times I would even get a new account created with them in order to view their catalogue and wholesale pricing.
This is what I found to be one of the time consuming parts of this whole process. Because I would often take the time to call and talk to a company, then take the time to complete an application, then wait to be approved. Many times I could be approved and checking out their catalogue within a day or two but sometimes it would take a few days. Then I’d go and view their catalogue and pricing only to find out it wasn’t really what I was hoping for.
So what Salehoo has started doing now is including these wholesale or dropship pricing catalogues directly within the directory. They are continuing to work with suppliers to help get more and more catalogues added so again, this is a HUGE time saver. It’s a feature I really appreciate them taking the time to do.
They have new catalogues being added every day now, so if you’re not picky about the types of products you’re reselling, you could literally bypass contacting companies now to get this information and just browse through the new catalogues listed each day to see if anything might be a good fit for what you’d like to resell.
9. Additional Tools For Contacting Suppliers (New for 2017)
One of the challenges of trying to reach a new supplier can sometimes be finding the best person to contact and the best method to contact them. Previously I would call a company and let them know I was interested in becoming a reseller and wanted to know who the best person to speak with would be. Sometimes I got the right person right away, sometimes they would transfer me to the correct person but then I’d get their voice mail. So if they didn’t call back within a day, then I would try calling them again and getting an email address if possible. But other times when I’d call they would just pass along my information and I’d just hope I’d hear back from them.
Salehoo has helped bypass this process by implementing a way to contact suppliers directly from within Salehoo. So it takes the time and guesswork out of figuring out who to contact and how to contact them.
10. New and Trending Suppliers List (New for 2017)
This isn’t what I consider a necessary feature but it’s another way to find a new supplier that you may have not otherwise noticed or thought to look for. For example, the trending suppliers can give you insight into suppliers that are becoming popular to work with. Even though they may not be in an industry you’re as familiar with or interested in, I’ve found it can be a great way to learn about new products that I might like to try and resell.
The same can be said about the new suppliers list. And what’s nice is this is constantly being updated. For example, in the past three months they’ve added 210 new suppliers to the directory.
11. Manage Supplier Messages Within Salehoo (New for 2017)
There is now a facebook-style messaging system you can use to see all your messages to and from suppliers. This is actually REALLY convenient because in the past, I would often have to do a search through my emails to find a particular message or response from a particular supplier. And sometimes I didn’t have the exact search phrase I needed so I would be pulling up more emails than I needed to filter and sort through.
But with this messaging system, you can have everything in one place so your entire history with every supplier you’ve contacted is easy to see at a glance.
Reasons Not To Join Salehoo
As I mentioned earlier, I believe this membership EASILY pays for itself may times over. That being said, there are a few reasons joining Salehoo may not be a good fit for you.
First and most importantly is having proper expectations. I think some people join Salehoo thinking that every company listed in the directory will be a gold mine that they can buy products from and then sell on eBay or Amazon for a profit. While there are certainly companies in Salehoo that you can do this with, some of the companies offer what I call “retail discount pricing” which is more like a 10-20% discount off what you’d normally pay. While this could work for someone who has their own online or brick and mortar store, the margins may not work for someone who strictly wants to sell on eBay or Amazon.
Personally, I’m glad Salehoo includes these companies in the directory for a couple reasons. First, if I were to come across this company just searching in Google, I would have most likely had to contact them to clarify what they can or can’t do as a drop ship company as well as get a sense of what their pricing is like. But if they’re in Salehoo, a lot of that information will already be there which can save me a lot of time.
Just keep this in mind if you come across companies like this. It’s not that Salehoo is a scam or worthless, as they’re are still LOTS of companies that provide true wholesale pricing.
Something else to realize is that it will more than likely take work to find companies you like and will want to work with. Early on I remember reading one of the featured articles that an eBay Powerseller wrote about how she contacted 100 companies before finding 1 or 2 that she was happy with. That helped me to have some proper perspective as I was getting started. It kept me from getting discouraged and frustrated during the first week or two as I realized it was all part of the process.
And as I mentioned in the beginning of this review, it took be about three weeks to find those first two companies. Had I given up during the first two week I would have totally missed out!
Salehoo Review Video – And In-Dept Look At The Member’s Area
My Overall Thoughts and Impression
So the bottom line is that if you look at Salehoo as a resource or tool that will help you find those great companies to work with, then you’ll most likely really benefit by joining. Don’t think of joining Salehoo as a “done-for-you” drop ship program where all you have to do is just list products and make money.
You still have to do the work of finding those companies you want to work with. But the process is made MUCH easier by joining and not only that, but you’ll probably find companies to work with that you more than likely would have never found on your own just trying to Google them.
Having all these wholesale companies in one place saves so much time and as I’ve said before, a lot of these companies i would have NEVER found just searching for them in Google.
If you’re just getting started with reselling then this membership could be a huge benefit as you’ll not only have an enormous list of companies to start contacting and working with, but you also have the additional research tools and educational area to help you get up and running that much faster.
For someone who’s more established as a reseller, I think the benefits of joining are still worthwhile because of the time saved. For example, if there’s a new company I hear about or come across on my own I can check out Salehoo to see if they are listed in there and if so, get some immediate information about that company. If I don’t like what I see, then I just saved myself the time of contacting them for more information and I can move onto the next company or project that much faster.
Likewise, sometimes I’ll hear about a particular product online and think, “hmmm… I wonder if that’s a product I’d like to try and resell.” Once again, I can quickly check out their directory for possible companies to contact that have this product, maybe send some emails to get some pricing and I’m done. I just saved myself the time of having to try and find these companies in Google (if I would have found them at all).
For someone like me, although I’m not using Salehoo every day, I love having it as a resource because when I do use it, the time and energy it saves me is well worth it. Not to mention I do a better and more thorough job of exploring a possible product opportunity.
*NOTE* Feel free to check out my updated Salehoo Review here if interested.
My Salehoo Bonus
At this point, if you’re thinking you’d like to experience Salehoo for yourself then I have some incredible bonuses I’d love to send to you. If you purchase your membership through any of my affiliate links on this review page, then I’d love to send you these so that you can have an extra advantage over others starting or pursuing this type of business.
1. My Personal List of 5 Star Companies
As I mentioned before I’ve contacted over 2,000 companies and even personally written reviews for over 900 of them. Out of those, there were a select few that I gave 5 star ratings to. I spent about an hour contacting, researching and reviewing these companies so you’ll get the benefit of my 900+ hours or research.
2. Build a $10k/month Dropshipping Business Using This Simple 4 Step Process (Newbie Friendly!)
This is a no-fluff, 19 page, step-by-step guide which shows you exactly what to do and how to do it. It’s all about following the steps and taking action which you’ll of course be able to leverage with your Salehoo membership
3. Learn How To Make Money on eBay (20 Page Guide)
For those that want to sell products on eBay, this will help who you how it’s done. It’s another no-fluff, straightforward guide that even a complete beginner can follow.
4. Email Script of Questions for Contacting Wholesalers
I remember when I first started out, something as simple as contacting a wholesale supplier seemed so daunting. I remember thinking, “what should I ask and how should I word things?” The reality is that the whole process is quite simple. But nevertheless, I want to include the exact script I use to contact new suppliers with. So you can just literally copy and paste it (or make slight adjustments as necessary) without having to over think what to say or how to say it.
5. Listen to Me Call and Talk to a Real Wholesale Supplier
One of the things I see people hesitating to do is to pick up the phone and call a supplier. And I truly get it because I remember feeling the exact same way. I thought “what if I ruin my chance with this supplier?” or “how do I not sound like a complete newbie?”
And though you can do everything over email and calling a supplier isn’t always necessary. I wanted to show you how do-able it is and hopefully take away some of the mystery about what an actual conversation with a wholesale supplier might sound like. It’s truly not as bad as it seems. But I wanted to send you something that would help make taking that first step a little easier for you 🙂 So you’ll get a link to listen to this entire conversation (a little over 30 min long).
>>>Click Here to Get Your SaleHoo Membership<<<
To take advantage of these bonuses, you’ll want to forward a copy of your Clickbank email receipt to: salehoobonus (at) reviewsbylance.com
Once you do that I’ll send you the bonuses listed above which you should receive within 24 hours (and if for some reason you don’t, please check your SPAM folder, then just let me know in the comments section below).
But either way, I appreciate you taking the time to read my review of Salehoo. I hope it was helpful and I wish you the best in all your reselling endeavors!
And if you have any comments or questions, please don’t hesitate to post those below! 🙂
Hi Lance
I found your comments good and honest. I am about start selling, looking at drop shipping and or purchsaing from whilesalers in small volume to start. I considered World Wide but was not sure about them particularly after reading reviews. I also looked at Terapeak but did not seem to fit my needs, plenty of info not much on wholesale lists. I am doing a course with BuddingBizz, Matt and Amanda Clarkson and find them good, thorough and helpful but they push for auction but I want ‘buy now’elling and this has led me salehoo and I am going to join up right now.
Thanks for words
Edddie
Thanks for the comment! Starting in small volume is the way to go. There are PLENTY of wholesalers/dropshippers you can find through Salehoo that will allow you to do so (I know because I’ve literally called and talked to hundreds of them). Terapeak has it’s place, I’ve used it in the past and it’s particularly good if you want to do most of your selling on eBay. Don’t forget to try selling on Amazon as well. It can be a little awkward at first if you’ve only sold on eBay but I found I was able to get more money for the same item on Amazon, compared to selling in on eBay. People generally trust Amazon a little more and thus, they’re willing to pay a little more buying it through them. My biggest piece of advice would be to not give up when you’re first looking for sellers on Salehoo. It’s kind of like mining for gold 🙂 Set a goal of contacting 1 a day or 1 a week, whatever is reasonable and that way you’ll always be getting to evaluate new opportunities!
Hello Lance,
I just saw your review although it is a bit dated as of this writing 3-1-14. I am a new seller on ebay. I have been listing products from Amazon on ebay and dropshipping. I would like to continue doing this but not using Amazon to get away from using “Amazon” marked shipping boxes. Would Salehoo be a good altenative? Can you list a single product from a Salehoo supplier to ebay? Copy and paste? I am interested in joining please let me know if this is a viable option.
Thank you,
Kim
Hi Kim,
First, congratulations on your success so far. I can understand your motivation though for getting away from “Amazon” marked boxes 🙂 Salehoo would be an excellent alternative and that is definitely one of the purposes of joining their wholesale membership directory. Now not everyone listed in Salehoo offers blind drop shipping, but many do. If you purchase through my link https://reviewsbylance.com/SaleHoo and send me a copy of your receipt then I’ll send you my bonus list of highly rated companies (and there are definitely drop shippers in that list).
You can pretty much copy and paste with some of the companies. Not all will work this way though. Some want you to provide your own photos and/or product description but there are many that are fine with you copying and pasting (even if it’s just one item).
Hopefully that helps answer your question but feel free to post another comment if you’d like more clarification 🙂
Lance
Lance,
Thanks for the info. I’ll join through your link!
I will be signing up right now via your link. Thanks.
Hi,
Loved your review. I’m going to sign up today and take you up on the offer to send a list of companies because I’m new to this stuff and have never sold on ebay or amazon. Any more tips please?
Thanks
Hi Nancy,
Thanks so much! I do have a few tips to share when you’re first starting out. I would recommend not sourcing products from China when you’re starting out. Although there are some great deals, there are a number of additional challenges that can leave you frustrated. If you’re BRAND NEW to selling on eBay and/or Amazon I would find any little thing you have around the home to build up your seller rating. Just a handful of things is fine so that you can get positive feedback, which helps provide social proof for people to continue to buy from you. You’ll get a little higher price for items selling on Amazon compared to eBay. eBay is great though for unique or vintage type items.
Once you get that list from me that will give you a HUGE jump start. I’ve literally called through hundreds and hundreds of suppliers using Salehoo and this list has my 5 Star Suppliers. I also included an additional bonus section of 4+ rated suppliers. These are also really good as well. For example, one of the suppliers I listed is for Scuba Gear. This guy is AWESOME and is one of those people that is willing to help you grow your business as a scuba gear reseller. To me, these are the companies that really stand out. They’re the ones that not only provide a great wholesale/drop ship program but they’re also willing to get involved with you to help you. The only way you’d find these people is to call them and talk to them… and that’s how I discovered these 🙂
Thanks for your comment and I wish you much success!
Lance
I wanna start it Lance, How could u help me out by this stuff. I am from Pakistan and wanna do it. Have made some research but not reaching on a result yet.
Please would u like to help me out
Thanks
Hi ZR!
That sounds great. What kind of products are your interested in reselling? And are you interested in drop shipping or buying in bulk? Are you using SaleHoo for your research or just searching the internet?
Let me know and then I’ll do my best to give some helpful input or try to guide you in the right direction 🙂
Lance
thanks Lance. I sent you a copy of my receipt.
thanks
I am excited about this i’m going to purchase this through your link. will you send me what you promised
Absolutely! Just send me an email using the address I mention above. You should get it within 24 hours or 1 business day. I’m excited for you to have it as you’ll get a big jump start on finding some great companies to work with right away. Also, these companies are really nice folks to work with so I like it when I can connect them with good re-sellers 🙂
Hello Lance,
Many thanks for this, very insightful. I’m about to start selling children’s ware and I was wondering if you could give me some advice on how to start, and where to buy from.
Would really love to hear from you.
Thanks
You’re very welcome! Children’s clothing is a great niche to get into 🙂 I think it’s best to start with whatever you are naturally most interested in or even most familiar with. For example, if you’re interested in selling dresses, then that would be a great focus.
Here is a line list you can use to start your research. Of course there are lots more companies in Salehoo, including reviews about many of them as well. But these are some quality companies you can start taking a look at:
le top * rabbitmoon * So So Elise * Apres les Petites * David Fussenegger * Deidra & Kiki * Foxfire * Hartstrings * Huggalugs * K.C. Parker * Kitestrings * Knot Genie * L’Amour * Pluie Pluie * Tuff Kookooshka * Wee Ones
For clothing, I think it’s easiest to start your own ecommerce site or even getting started on eBay can work as well. Amazon can be a little trickier selling clothing.
I created a YouTube video where you can actually listen to me talk live with a wholesale company: http://youtu.be/kSTcLETmfEM
If you’re newer to reselling I recommend watching the video to give you a good idea of what a conversation can be like 🙂
Will do, thanks a mill
Question, can I do this without money I am unemployed. I am between jobs
You sure can! What you would want to do is start out with just drop shipping. Don’t try and pre-purchase inventory. You can certainly get better deals this way, BUT you can still be profitable drop shipping. The nice thing about drop shipping is you only have to purchase the item AFTER someone has already paid for it. There are a lot of companies that I would consider to be more like “retail discount” sites rather than true wholesale sites. That’s what’s nice about SaleHoo is there as TONS of reviews so you can learn from others which sites you’re more likely to be able to make a profit from. Otherwise you’d have to spend a ton of time on your own calling or emailing to find all that out.
Do these dropship and wholesales companies that are listed in Salehoo charge a monthly or yearly fee to purchase from them?
Excellent question! Most of them don’t, and I mean like 98% of them don’t. And there are several that you don’t even need to have a business license to purchase from! BUT, having at least a business license/reseller certificate is really all you need. I found the ones that did charge a fee usually were not worth it. UNLESS, you really wanted to resale products that only they provided. For example, I remember contacting one that was in the New Age niche. They charged a $25 or $50 fee annually to anyone that wanted a drop ship account with them. So if those were the only types of products you sold, and you couldn’t find what they carried anywhere else, it could certainly be worth it. But for most people, I think it’s worth passing as most companies don’t charge you anything. Again, really good question and I’m glad you asked that!
Hi,
I’m very interested and really appreciated the review. What I have been trying to figure
out is do I need to sign up to pay taxes too. I called to find out how to get a resell
certificate in my state of Mississippi and I think that they charge $500 and it is refundable
I think,but that’s a lot of money. I’ve been wanting to buy from liquidation companies and
possibly visit one,but I was wondering is there a way just to get the resell certificate or
do I have to go through the whole process sign up for a Business License,etc.etc. Thank You!
Hi Tonya,
Good question. My state, Oregon doesn’t have sales tax. So I don’t have to worry about paying any taxes on items I sell. I’m shocked that you might have to pay $500 to get a reseller certificate. Again, in Oregon you can get a business license for about $50.
There are certainly liquidation companies that will sell to you without a business license or reseller certificate. Particularly because you usually have to spend more to place an order. So from their perspective, they’re happy to have someone spend the money.
Here’s an example of a super cool liquidation company I connected with through Salehoo, GeneralSurplus.net. General Surplus is a closeout wholesale company for apparel, furniture liquidation and general merchandise. Creating an account with them is as easy as calling them or emailing them and placing an order. So you don’t need a business license or resale certificate to order from them. However, you’ll need about $2,000 to place an order (including shipping). I do a full review inside Salehoo on them but they were very cool to talk to.
Brian is the owner and he’s really nice to speak with. He gave me all sorts of advice and even told me how some of the ideas I had probably wouldn’t be a good idea. Now not all liquidation companies are this helpful, but I was actually surprised how many were. I reviewed quite a few in Salehoo. For liquidated products you’re looking at spending around $300-$2,000 per order. But, you’re able to get some great deals and bypass having to get a business license. Then you can take your order and resell it individually on eBay, Amazon, Craigslist, Etsy, etc.
I hope that helps, that was a good question!
hello friend first excuse my English is not the best haha. I have a question in relation to markets apparel, accessories and electronics (cell phones, etc..) Can find good niche markets salehoo, give me an example please. Also how do I affiliate and have already done with Salehoo can give me an account paying you and you give me the list, if it can be so?. Wait your answer.
Hi Jeisson,
No problem at all 🙂 I don’t know that I completely understand your question but I believe you’re asking if there are good suppliers in Salehoo for things like apparel, accessories and electronics such as cell phones, etc. The answer is a big YES! There are lots of great apparel/accessory/electronics suppliers though I found a lot of the good ones will require a minimum purchase of around $100-$300.
Capelta Couture is example of a company offering couture merchandise. I spoke with the president of this company, Monique and she’s great. This is a product line she started herself and now celebrities are wearing her designer creations. This is a perfect example of a company that I found as a result of Salehoo. Probably the only other way I would have known about this company is if I went to a trade show or something of the sort and discovered them that way. But, I certainly don’t have the time (or desire) to be traveling all over and attending trade shows/conventions. Salehoo goes and finds these companies then adds them to their directory. Now not ever company in there is a winner, there are certainly some duds but that’s why the reviews can be so helpful.
I wasn’t quite clear about your last question. If you wouldn’t mind re-phrasing that one I’d be happy to try and answer 🙂
Not sure what to call my site. You said to sell things that I have passion for. Well I love gadgets
but then you say don’t sell stuff everyone else is selling. Help me
Hey Randy,
It’s not impossible to sell something that’s really popular, but realize it may be more work. Now if it’s something you’re passionate about, then the extra work could very well be worth it. You’ve probably heard the story of Gary Vaynerchuk? This guy was in a pretty popular market… wine. Yet, he goes out and does these really cool wine videos. Before too long he’s selling wine and doing millions of dollars in business. This is a very simplified version of the story.
BUT, let’s say you love electronic gadgets. You pick a different gadget each day and make a quick youtube video about it. You could be in front of the camera if that’s your thing, of you could just talk about it… but either way, be yourself and add some personality to it. Then you put a link to your product on eBay for people to purchase if they’re interested. Then, take it one step further and create some sort of value add for people. Maybe when they buy your product they’ll get a free eBook about something related. Let’s say they’re buying some sort of computer type gadget. Let folks know that if they purchase from you that you’ll include a list of the 5 best places to purchase electronics at huge discounts.
You may be thinking, “but Lance… I don’t even know what these sites are??” Well, you could start searching the internet for them. Or think of something that you’re already aware of. The idea here is to get you thinking about what you could do.
Hopefully that helps give you some ideas about how to approach gadgets.
As far as a name goes, there are two approaches to take. You can use a brandable name like “Randy’s Gadget World” or look for keywords that people are already searching for. Let’s say you find out that 1,800 people a month are search for “popular computer gadgets” Then you could name your site “www.popularcomputergadgets.com” and try to get some of the traffic that is already searching for this. I personally lean towards a brand-able name, but both are good.
Now some products I would just flat out stay away from like cell phones. The margins are just tooooo small. Now accessories are great to sell though and I would definitely encourage anyone to go after that market. I remember coming across a company in Salehoo that may high end accessories and product with a Nautical theme. They were thinking of creating some sort of iPad case. At the time I wasn’t interested in going that direction myself but I remember thinking, “Wow, these would be great to drop ship!” As you start to go through all the different suppliers on Salehoo you’ll come across these companies.
Oh yeah do you have any suggestions as to how to market online
So the obvious choices are usually eBay and/or Amazon. Those are definitely worth looking into but here’s something else I would recommend:
1. Create a Facebook Fan Page
If you have time to create a post each day that is ideal. But at least once a week would be fine. Highlight a different product each week. You could post a photo and a quick statement about the benefits of a product or why it’s cool. You could then link the to wherever your product is being on sold… whether your own site, eBay, Amazon, etc.
2. Create a YouTube Channel
Basically repeat the same step as above. Here’s a REALLY great blog post about this principle. So let’s say you found a bunch of product on Salehoo that you want to drop ship. You could pick a new product each day (or week) to do a video on. The again, you can link to where people can purchase the product in your description.
3. Pinterest is another “lesser know” place to market online. Now this won’t work for everything. I believe Pinterest has an 80% female user base. BUT, if you have something that appeals to women, this would be a GREAT place to get exposure to your product.
Those are a few ideas to start with that I know work 🙂
Good day I am so grateful I found your website, I really found you by mistake, while I was browsing on Digg for something else, Nonetheless I am here now and would just like to say thank you for a tremendous post about how to find a good source for drop ship and wholesale suppliers. And an all round enjoyable blog (I also love the theme/design), Keep up the nice work!
Thanks so much! If you have any questions about Salehoo or finding wholesale suppliers, feel free to ask and I’ll do my best to answer 🙂
Hello Lance:
I read all your advises and I found them really usefull. Thank you for that.
I have some questions for you if you can help me, I am interesting on have my web page and sell products for woman via drop ship suppliers, and my questions are:
– Do I need to have my web page totally designed and online before contacting or choosing a supplier? or they can also help me with the web site?
– Do the suppliers will be linked in some way to my web page, in order to automatically change the products when these ones become out of stock?
– The suppliers that are in “Salehoo” deliver the products just to US market? or anywhere in the world as for example Europe, Latin America or Arabia?
– Besides selling the products in US, I am interesting in sell the products in Germany, does it exists other list of Drop Shipers Suppliers that are mainly focus in europe or Germany? Do you know something about this?
– Actually i am not living in US and I am not american, do you know if most of the suppliers will ask me for my business registration in US? Do they will expect a registration from US?
– How can you advise me to generate traffic in my web page, after I choose the suppliers and lunch the page in the market?
Thank you for your help
Hey Paula!
I’d be happy to help and thanks for all the great questions 🙂
Do you need to have a website?
Some suppliers will supply you with a website but that isn’t often the case. I would estimate only about 1% or less do something like that. Out of the hundreds of companies I have contacted, only two come to mind… one is in the horse niche and the other was for scuba diving. So it’s not unheard of but I wouldn’t plan on that.
But you definitely DON’T need to have a website set up before choosing a supplier. In fact, I think it’s better to start finding a supplier or suppliers first because that can take some time. Also, setting up a website can be a little mundane at first so if you already have some products you’re ready to start listing that definitely ads to the motivation!
If you’re looking for a great place to create a website for a drop ship business, I recommend Shopify.
They make life easy for you by taking care of things like payment processing (which can be a real headache!) and all the other things you’d normally have to take care of yourself. Unless you already know how to do all these things I HIGHLY recommend doing something like this. That way you can focus more on promoting your website/drop ship business and not get bogged down with the set-up.
How to keep up with inventory when drop shipping from your own website
This is a really good question and something a lot of people don’t think about at first. Some companies have an inventory feed which allows you to keep up with how much inventory they have and it automatically updates your website. This is something you can ask a company about when you contact them. Some companies have this while others don’t. It really is hit or miss. That’s one of the reasons I like Salehoo is that there are a lot of suppliers to choose from so although one might not have inventory feeds, another one might.
It’s certainly not the end of the world if a company doesn’t offer that though. It’s just something to factor in when you’re deciding on a supplier.
Do suppliers in Salehoo directory ship globally?
Some do and some don’t. I have worked with US suppliers that don’t ship overseas whereas others do. Likewise, I have worked with suppliers in the UK, Australia and New Zealand that are fine shipping to the US while others don’t offer that as a service. The challenge is the shipping cost. For example, I can remember a company in the UK that made baby cards that also reminded people when the next feeding time for baby was. They were really unique cards and I thought they would sell great in the US. However, I found it would work better to buy the cards in bulk, and then ship them to myself or somewhere like Amazon.
So it really is a case by case basis. But there are plenty of suppliers in Salehoo that do ship around the world.
Are there German wholesale and drop ship suppliers in the Salehoo Directory?
There certainly are. I did a quick search and found several different companies. Here was one I found: http://www.schmuckperlen.com
Again, one of the great things about Salehoo is that you get a lot of helpful details about the company before you even contact them. For example, I can see that this company has been in business for 10 years and has been a part of Salehoo’s directory for 6 years. They have no minimum purchase requirement and offer volume discounts.
As a member of Salehoo you can also have their staff help you locate specific types of companies. For example, you could ask them to help you find German drop ship companies that sell kitchen items and then they would compile a list for you. It’s another nice time savor!
How to Generate Traffic to Your Website
I’m glad you asked about this because this is one of the most fun parts of the business!
There are many different ways to build traffic to your website. You can try to rank for certain keywords and hope you’ll show up in the search engines. So if you have a website that sells dog toys, then you might want to try and rank for a keyword like “bouncy dog toy” so that when people type those words into the search engine your product will come up. This can be tricky to do depending on what products you’re selling and how competitive the search engine is for those keywords. Honestly, I wouldn’t depend on this unless you already know what you’re doing.
(to be continued…)
It depends on the company. You’ll want to ask whether a company offers “blind” drop shipping or not. Most companies know what this means but occasionally you will have to explain what you mean. And again, it varies whether a company will charge for this or not. Some do, some charge a small fee. Also, some companies will go the extra mile and include your marketing materials for you. For example, you could send the company a bunch of your brochures or business cards and then when you place an order to have something drop shipped, they’ll include your business card, etc. in with the package.
This is a pretty standard question to ask, and often times you can get the answer by sending the company an email. The nice thing about SaleHoo is that you can look for companies that already have reviews and/or state whether they offer drop shipping. This can be a huge time saver when you start to look at company after company.
I just joined SaleHoo last night and I’m finding a lot quite a bit of merchandise cheap. The problem is that when I go to EBay to see what I could make on the resell its even cheaper! Sometimes with free shipping on top of that! How are these resellers getting it so cheap? Is haggling over pricing something I should call and do?
Hey Mike!
Awesome, I think it’s great you’re already checking out the SaleHoo directory and looking for products. If I understand you correctly, are you saying you’re finding products on eBay for cheaper than what you could purchase them for through a particular supplier? I have definitely encountered this. There are a couple factors that might be going on:
1. The Wholesaler may be more of a “retail-discount” store
In other words, some sites claim to be a wholesaler but they’re really just selling products at a discount off of retail. That be the case, you may be wondering why they’re in the Salehoo directory. Well, SaleHoo is includes both the excellent companies, the bad companies and those inbetween. The reason this is actually helpful is so that you can get information about a company to make a more informed decision whether you want to work with them or purchase through them. Let’s say you come across a site on the internet or maybe you read about a company on a forum somewhere. You then decide to look them up in SaleHoo to see what you can find out about them. You then discover there are two reviews from people who gave them a 2 star and a three star rating. You read what they have to say and decide they’re probably not a company you want to do business with.
BUT, if SaleHoo hadn’t included that company then you wouldn’t be able to have access to that information and it would be up to you to either contact the company on your own or take a chance and purchase them to see how it goes. So it’s definitely a benefit to having a comprehensive directory like SaleHoo does, but not every company in there is one you’ll want to do business with.
So in situations like this I would see if I could find another supplier of the same product or type of product to compare wholesale prices to.
Here’s a real live example in the “spy gear niche.” Let’s take the example of a spy pen or spy watch. You can find products that look about the same but cost quite a bit different. Sometimes you will have two manufactures making basically the same product but one is a higher quality product. So you may be getting the product cheaper but the quality isn’t as good. This is the case with many industries. I was talking to a distributor a few months about about para-cord. He was giving me the whole low-down on the quality of para-cord and what the difference is. I learned that one of the most popular products selling on amazon for para-cord bracelets is actually made by a lesser quality manufacturer. So if you were buying para-cord bracelets from the distributor I was talking to, you would have a tougher time making a profit trying to resell them for the same price as what they’re selling for on Amazon/eBay. In situations like that you have to educate the consumer why yours is more expensive. Or you can purchase lower quality material and go the route, like what these guys on Amazon are going.
Now if you’re talking about a branded product like an iPod. That’s a whole different story, that typically has more to do with just buying in bulk.
2. The Seller may be buying in bulk
Sometimes sellers are buying huge quantities, like orders of 10,000 or more. This gives them the lowest price possible to purchase a product at then they can sell it as cheap as possible as well. On top of that, some people/companies will sell an item that only makes them about $.25 profit or so. They then try to make it up in volume.
I’m speaking in generalities here as I don’t know the specific situation but I wanted to give you some insight as to what might be going on.
My recommendation would be to see if you can find another supplier or two in the same industry and see what the prices are like. Also, you can ask if they give a discount if you buy in bulk. A lot of companies are willing to give you a price break when you make a larger order. Companies are also fine with you asking about that. I’ve never felt like someone was put off by me asking if they give discount for larger orders.
A simple rule of thumb is the larger your order, the more room you have to haggle, the smaller your order the less room you have to haggle. So if you’re just drop shipping a product, don’t expect to be able to haggle the price down (until you can show them you’re bringing them lots of orders each month). But if you want to make a $10,000 order, then they will probably be willing to negotiate with you.
Hopefully that helps give you a little more context 🙂
Sorry, I didn’t notice the poor grammar until after I hit send! Lol! Thanks for your time and great info!
Thanks! It’s not uncommon for new suppliers to be added daily, but you’ll definitely see new ones added each week. Some of from the US, some are from the UK or other parts of the world. They have a global directory so you’ll have access to suppliers from all over the world.
Great question and thanks for asking 🙂
Lance
Hello Lance,
Thank you very much for the great post. By reading all the questions and answers, I learned a lot. It is so nice of you to respond to each question so sincerely. I’m impressed!
Terumi
Hey Terumi, thanks so much! Glad my Salehoo review was helpful 🙂 I always appreciate people who take the time to help give me a little advice or input when I ask a question on other blogs so I’m glad to try and to the same thing here–
Thanks for stopping by and I appreciate your comment!
Lance
Hi lance. your salehoo review was in detail and really helpful. I was a member back in 2005 but had no idea how to start… this time I seriously want to make money out of it.. i’m interested in dealing with dropshippers.. I don’t want to go for name brands but like eye catching things, accessories and jewelry.. give me ur advice and I would like to hear ur ideas.. as far as dhate is concerned they don’t give u a huge margin for profit.
Glad my salehoo review was helpful and it’s good to hear you’re ready to give it another try! The product or product category you choose can definitely have an impact on your success. Some name brand products, particularly electronic items can be very difficult to make a profit on as the margins are so slim. Accessories, or jewelry as you suggested would be EXCELLENT categories to start with. I personally have made money selling accessories (like for the iPad) and that does work well. I have purchased some items from DHGate and so far I’ve had a good experience. You have to be aware though that if you purchase anything from them that appears to be an original product (like Beats by Dre headphones), more than likely they are fakes or “imitations/replicas” as they like to call them 🙂
They key is just to ask if you’re not sure. Everyone I asked they were always upfront about that. The trick is finding a good supplier that sells quality items. So the upside is that you can find some good deals but the downside is you have to order a lot of samples from different people to see which one really is the best quality.
Let me know if you have any other questions about getting started again with your drop ship business, but otherwise I think you’re on the right track!
Thank you for the thorough review- not to mention all the extra pointers and info after I forwarded my receipt! I’m really excited about getting further into drop-shipping and Salehoo so far seems like it really is a great place to start.
Anyone else reading this, Lance here is a great resource if you want some additional help getting started!
WOW just what I was looking for. Came here by searching
for an honest and detailed SaleHoo Review
Hi Lance
Great Review
Is there Australian Wholesalers and Dropship Company’s or are the majority
international as i am in Melbourne, Australia
Thanks! I just did a quick search and it looks like there’s about 200 companies in Australia. A majority of the companies in Salehoo are from the US (I believe).
I did a quick screencast so you can see how many Australian companies are in each category: http://screencast.com/t/rAfSZXOO2wrQ
Hope that helps 🙂
Hi lance
Tried salehoo in 2007 for a few months and kept finding products price to be same as ebay/amazon prices. Could not find a single product. Maybe things have changed now. I want to try it again after reading this blog. Can you list one product from salehoo that is selling for less on ebay and we can assume the seller is making a decent profit. Just one product to change my mind. You could list a link to the ebay seller and salehoo supplier. Or you could just put product info. I just don’t think it’s possible. I spent hours after hours and couldnt find products to compete. I believe only maybe 1 out of 10 people are successful using salehoo or any othese other directories. Can you change my mind?
Hi Ali,
I appreciate your honesty in regards to your experience a few years back. I know Salehoo has continually been working to improve the quality and experience of their wholesale directory and I’ve seen first hand those improvements since I’ve been a member. So it’s very reasonable to think in my mind that things have simply improved since you were first a member.
However, as I mention in my review video, there are still a lot of companies in Salehoo’s directory that I wouldn’t recommend. The benefit of having them as part of the directory is that if someone reviews that particular company, you can know to probably keep away from that one. Otherwise, if you found that company on your own you might call them, waste your time and possible your money if you make a purchase from them.
How you perceive Salehoo’s wholesale directory is important. If you expect a majority of the companies in there are all selling products that you could turn around and sell on eBay/Amazon for a profit then you’ll be disappointed. Those companies are in there but there mixed in with all the so-so companies as well.
But to your point, you spent hours trying to find at least one company/product that you could resell for a profit. In my mind, it could be either the quality of the membership was lower back then. Or it was just a matter of not contacting enough companies.
For example, I contact between 10-30 companies a month. I’ll spend anywhere from about 15 minutes to an hour on each company. I try contacting them by email and phone then I’ll write up a review based on my experience with them (this is why you see a TON of reviews in Salehoo from me). I’ll typically come across at least 1, if not a few companies that you could buy and sell their products to make a profit from (even on eBay or Amazon).
Here are a few more companies I just called last week that show some good potential:
This is a company I literally just called a few days ago and I’m pretty excited about:
http://groupsalesinc.com
There’s not much to go on from their website but after calling them, it sounds like you can get you some nice margins (on toy type products). To get better margins though, you’d want to be able to spend a few hundred bucks per order. I just wrote up a review for Salehoo on this company but I don’t think it’s been approved yet, so you can watch out for my review to show up as well.
This is another good one that is more ‘fair trade world craft’ type products:
http://www.globalcraftsb2b.com/
This is a nice company. You can easily create an account online and then you can check out their prices. One of their bestsellers are their animal leather bookmarks: http://www.globalcraftsb2b.com/store/pc/Animal-Leather-Bookmark-32p657.htm
You can order just 1 of these for $1.25 (if you order 101 or more the price goes down to $1.12). Currently there are just a few of these types of products selling on eBay/Amazon for between $4.25 – $15 shipped.
I love this company because they have no minimum purchase requirements, but you can get larger discounts if you choose to order in bulk. They also have a lot of unique/distinctive items that are Fair Trade.
So I’ve been a member of Salehoo for a few years now, contacted and called literally hundreds and hundreds of companies and I just came across this gem of a company. Now if I had specifically been looking for fair trade companies I would have found them a lot sooner. And I’ve come across LOTS of great companies besides this one (which is why I include my bonus list of 5 Star Companies for anyone who signs up for Salehoo through me).
For me, Salehoo is a HUGE timesaver. Now I’ve been doing this a while so technically I don’t need Salehoo. But there have been numerous times where I was thinking about getting into a new niche (like bath salts or something) so I would immediately go into Salehoo and see what reviews had already been written about companies. Even if there are not any reviews written about a company there is still lots of great information such as how long they’ve been in business or what their order minimums might be. Again, I could contact each company individually and find this out but that would be a LOT of extra time I’d rather not spend. A Salehoo membership averages about $6/mo so I found that it pays BIG dividends (even if it was only for the time it saves me).
Finally here’s one last site that many eBay Powersellers use:
http://koleimports.com
I literally just went to their site again and found a Kitchen Cutlery Wall Clock for selling for $6. The same items is selling on Amazon for $21.25 shipped.
Again, these are all companies I have found in Salehoo. There are many more in there but you do have to dig in there.
If you decide to give Salehoo a try again, my recommendation would be to FIRST, forward me a copy of your receipt (assuming you sing up through me) and then you’ll get a list of my 5 Star Companies. Take a look at these first and see if anything looks good. This will be a huge time saver as I put all these great companies in one place. SECOND, I would look for any company I’ve reviewed in Salehoo. Write down any that look promising. When you get a handful written down go ahead and setup an account with those companies and go from there.
Hopefully this helps! Again, I appreciate you sharing your experience from the past and being open to giving Salehoo another go 🙂
I signed up through you a couple of days ago. How do I send you my receipt so that I can get this information from you as to the list of your 5 star companies?
Thanks.
Hey Toni!
You can send it to: lg.bydesign (at) gmail.com
If for some reason you don’t get a response within 24 hours, just post another comment and we’ll figure out what’s going on.
And Congratulations on joining Salehoo! I’ll be happy to help offer any advice/suggestions that I can 🙂
Thanks,
Lance
Great stuff, Lance. You definitely made my weekend of supplier hunting much easier. I signed up for SaleHoo and found your reviews exceptional. I’ll be following your work closely. Thanks!
Hi Lance!
can you help me recommending me some good dropshipper companies?
Thank you very much =)
Best,
Marian
Hi Marian,
If you read through the comments others have posted, you’ll see I make a few recommendations of some great companies to check out.
Thanks for your comment! 🙂
Thank you Lance! I will do it 🙂
Lance,
Great Review…
I have NO experience selling on ebay and you seem very knowledgeable.
Thanks
Gary
Thanks Gary! 🙂
Congratulations on becoming a Salehoo member!!
Please don’t hesitate to post any questions here that come up along the way–
Hi Lance, I am small time supplying Ebay in Australia only from a very reliable dropshipper. Do you think I would get value out of Salehoo for dropshipping in say just Australia and New Zealand?
Hey Garry,
It’s very possible. There are currently about 260 Australian companies and about 20 New Zealand companies in Salehoo. Here’s one of the New Zealand companies I gave a 5 Star Review for: http://www.boneart.co.nz
They offer blind drop shipping and give you a larger discount for purchasing in larger volumes.
I think you should still be able to get value out of Salehoo though. Out of 100 companies I contact I always find a few gems (meaning companies I could resell their products on eBay/Amazon and make a profit). And finding even just one company more than pays for the membership cost (in my opinion). Now if you have something very specific you’re looking for (ie. birdcages) then that might be a little trickier given the smaller pool of suppliers for your region (compared to the US).
Let me know if that doesn’t answer your question or free to ask more questions if there’s anything else I can help with 🙂
Hi Lance,
I am starting an ecommerce site in 2-3 weeks. I will be selling dog aparrel and products. I have found a couple of wholesale venders by doing web searches, and i am actually impressed by their products and prices.. I was wondering if you would recommend me signed up with salehoo for my type of business. I notices you spoke a lot about ebay and amazon, but not much about ecommerce sites and online businesses.
Definitely! I end up talking more about eBay/Amazon simply b/c that’s what more people are interested in at first. However, it often is better to start your own eCommerce site as you can be more profitable that way. I’ve noticed that there are often times products in Salehoo that I wouldn’t be able to sell on eBay/Amazon (b/c of the fees) but they would be perfect to sell through an eCommerce site.
Here’s a screenshot of the beginning of the list of Pet supply companies you find when doing a search in Salehoo: https://reviewsbylance.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Salehoo-review-pet-companies.png
There are a lot more but this will at least give you an idea.
Personally, I think the best route to go is to combine what you’re doing with what you find in Salehoo. That’s what I do and. For example, when doing my own search I sometimes come across a company that’s not in Salehoo yet. However, there have been many, many times where I found a company in Salehoo that I wasn’t finding on my own just using Google. So one of the big benefits to me with a Salehoo membership is the time you save. Having an instant list of companies to look into is a huge time saver. And then of course, those companies that have reviews written about them saves me even more time.
Hopefully that helps, but please don’t hesitate to ask any other questions if you think of any 🙂
Hi Lance,
I absolutely love all the info you have provided to us…very detailed and insightful. I am interested in starting to sell products on ebay and possibly amazon and maybe one day like Maluni create my own ecommerce site to keep more of the profit.
I have the motivation to do this but lack the technical knowhow of how to get started…
Do you have, or could recommend, any step by step materials for the newbie? I love the whole idea and have some ideas of how to create a customer base, but lack the know how as said.
Thanks again..GREAT INFO!!!
Hey Scott!
Thanks so much 🙂
Currently “Online Selling Tactics” which was created through Salehoo is my favorite for newbies:
https://reviewsbylance.com/online-selling-tactics
This course is really designed for the newbie in that it walks you through everything from square one. It’s the most over the shoulder course I have come across. There are less expensive courses but I find that still leave you with lots of questions.
Social media is a great way to begin creating a customer base. For example, starting a Facebook Fanpage and a YouTube channel would be excellent places to start.
But to keep things simple, just focusing on selling some items on eBay/Amazon to start is a fine way to go. It’s also a great way to figure out what types of items you like selling or get good at selling. For example, I found a great company in Salehoo to buy spy products through. I started selling them on Amazon and it was working well. However, I found people would have questions after purchasing their item such as how to get it working properly. I decided the time I was spending helping customers with product questions wasn’t something I wanted to keep doing. So the whole experience was helpful in that I was able to find this out before creating an online store and deciding I wanted to sell something else.
Lance,
Great review. Along with some other reviews I read about Salehoo, I think I am going to give this a shot…
Through your link of course!
Question though. I am brand new to this and Salehoo is offering a free month trial of their Salehoo Store.
Is this at all worth my time or should I just concentrate on selling on Ebay and Amazon out of the gate?
Thanks!
Awesome! I appreciate that 🙂
The free month trial is really cool. But if you’re brand new, honestly I think it could be easier to just focus on eBay/Amazon. For example, set a goal to make enough profit to pay back the cost of the Salehoo Membership. Then from there you can decide if you’re ready to launch a store or not. Having a store is a GREAT idea, but it can take a little longer to make sales that way. So it’s a better long term strategy. BUT, it can be discouraging if you’re not making any sales initially so that’s why I say do the things that will help you get a few sales the quickest. Then it’s fun and keeps you motivated. Once you have a little momentum built, then adding a store will help you to continue to build and grow your online sales from there.
Also, I don’t know if you saw these videos I made yet but I walk you through a live call with a wholesaler (that I found in Salehoo) over the phone:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSTcLETmfEM
And then I walk you through how to evaluate which products might be good to try reselling on eBay/Amazon:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7sTweL00WM
If you have questions after watching a video, just post them in the comments below–
Lance
Thanks! I thought so but wanted your insight before moving ahead.
Bob
Hi Lance, I read your review in full and watch the video. It is excellent source of information to anyone starting new.
I am new to drop shipping / online retail. My question is…is Salehoo configured to upload data feed from all those supplier? Can you upload data from multiple suppliers (Not manually).
Thank you
Thanks Raja! I appreciate the feedback 🙂
Just to clarify, are you referring to using a Salehoo store?
Salehoo itself is the membership directly. Within the membership site there are lots of wholesale companies in there that do provide data feeds (but not all of them). It is possible to upload data feeds from multiple suppliers. But not all suppliers are set-up to provide this level of automated service.
Hello Lance, what do you think, can I find better price than DHgate (in 20-50 tablets)
Than you!
Mike
Hey Mike!
I’ve used DHgate with some success in the past. For that quantity I would also take a look at http://www.aliexpress.com
Aliexpress allows you to purchase in smaller quantities. You can also visit http://www.alibaba.com to see what purchasing in larger quantities would do. Within Salehoo I’ve found some suppliers who offer things like refurbished brand-name tablets at good deals. I’m not sure if you’re interested in selling name brand tablets or not. If you want name brand tablets you’ll probably need to purchase in the thousands to be able to make any money.
Thanks Lance.
You’re very kind, I’m not looking for name brand tablets, by now I prefer the non name brand tablets, then do you recommend this website for this kind of electronics?
I think I am going to give this a chance.
Through your link my friend.
Thank you again!
Hey, Lance,
I’ve been looking around for some time and I just wanted to ask if this post is still current and if you’re still giving away your list of 20 companies if I sign up under you as an affiliate.
Thanks and hoping for a speedy response,
Nikko
Hey Nikko!
Absolutely 🙂
And if there are any tips/suggestions I can offer I’ll be happy to do that as well–
Lance
Thank you for your honest salehoo review! I am looking to set up a website to sell women’s petites. I have not been able to locate a supplier that offers nice day and work wear. The very few that I have found are either clothes that I would ground my Daughter for wearing or something I would wear in maybe, 80 more years! :-). In your research, have you come across something “normal” for petites? Perhaps I am not looking in the right places. I do understand there is limited market for it but it is something I am passionate about. Thank you in advance for time.
Hi Sarah, you’re very welcome! You’re website idea is a very good one. I did a quick search in Salehoo and saw they have 62 suppliers currently listed in the “Designer and Fashion” clothing category. Of course not all of them are in the US but most of them seem to be. I saw this one which had 3 reviews written from other users who liked this company http://www.dlmoffpriceonline.com and the service they provided.
I haven’t worked as much in this particular niche but what I’ve found is that I will be contacting a company I find in Salehoo and then that company will forward me to a sales rep who represents several other lines besides the one I was originally contacting them about. Unfortunately, a lot of these reps are very poor at SEO and being found online so in my experience it can be very difficult to find them by searching in google.
Definitely don’t give up though as again, I think this would be an excellent niche to get into! And if you’re passionate about it then that is a HUGE plus 🙂
Thank you Lance for the information! I looked at the link you provided and feel better knowing these types of suppliers are out there. I need to get busy and register with Salehoo and increase my knowledge of the whole process. Honestly, I am scared to take the first step, but also very excited!
Your willingness to help others is very much appreciated. Perhaps one day I will reach a Higher level that I can return the favor :-). Wishing you, and the others on here, the very best!
Ahh, thanks Sarah!! I really appreciate that 🙂
Yes, there are definitely some good suppliers out there, even in your niche! Do know that feeling scared at first is VERY normal. I don’t know if you saw this video I did yet, but I actually go through a live call with a wholesale supplier on the phone http://youtu.be/kSTcLETmfEM
Then I debrief the call afterwards. I think it helps to be able to “listen in” on what it actually can sound like talking to a wholesale supplier. And if you’re not sure what questions to ask them, I include the same list of questions I use every time in the description box below the video.
If you start to get too scared though, try turning your thoughts to all the people you’ll be able to help and serve by providing a great online business people can get the types of things that you’ll be selling. It can happen to me as well but when I shift my focus to helping others and come from that “servants heart” attitude it doesn’t always erase the fear but it gives me the motivation to push through. And often times, things aren’t nearly as scary as we think they’ll be 🙂 That’s definitely the case with calling wholesalers. If you do decide to join Salehoo and you purchase through my affiliate link you’ll get a list of top suppliers that I highly recommend. Even if you don’t want to resell their products you can literally call these companies and just get practice talking to them. They’re that nice and it’s why they’re on the list. Once you call a handful of super-nice companies and get the jitters out of the way, your confidence starts to go way up!
Also, if you find a company in Salehoo that you’re interested in but there’s no reviews written about them yet and you feel intimidated to give them a call. Let me know and more than likely I’ll be able to contact them, find out all I can so that I can go ahead and write a review for Salehoo to benefit everyone but I can pass the information onto you as well.
Again, thanks for the great feedback and like you said, just take it one step at a time 🙂
Hey,
Thanks for the in detail review about Salehoo. Thinking about doing dropshipping to bring in more income. Probably gonna do a bunch of things, but one thing that im most interested in hockey cards, and card supplies. Can you let me know if there are any dropshippers for those categories. I do know that there is limited market for it but it is something I am passionate about. Thank you in advance for your time.
Thanks-Matt
Hey Matt, absolutely– glad my review could be useful 🙂
I do remember coming across a few companies in Salehoo that dealt with athletic trading cards but I can’t say for sure about Hockey. If you join Salehoo, here’s how I would approach finding a supplier or two:
1. Put in a support ticket and ask them to do some research for you to see what they can find (they’ll create a personalized list for you which is pretty cool… kinda like having your own personal assistant).
2. Start searching through companies on your own that you find in Salehoo related to this niche.
3. Use Salehoo as a springboard to finding that perfect supplier or two. For example, I remember coming across a company out of Alaska that provided trading cards for the fantasy gaming market. This guy was amazing and VERY knowledgeable. He was giving me all sorts of business start-up advice as he used to run several successful gaming stores. I would have never found this guy except by digging around in Salehoo. Someone like him might already sell those kinds of cards or he could get access to them (at wholesale) or refer you to someone to contact next.
The downside about a niche like yours is it might take a little more work to find a good supplier. The good news though is that most people will give up because it takes extra work and so you have less competition as a result 🙂
If this is a category you’re passionate about then you should definitely go after at! 🙂
hey lance you were saying when you join the salehoo site you would recomend the 20 companies you’ve rated 5 stars.. how do we do that i dont see a link to it_ can you reply to my email please
thanks
Hey Michael!
Sorry for the confusion there. So basically clicking any link on my site that takes you over to Salehoo will count. But just to be sure, you can visit this link: https://reviewsbylance.com/SaleHoo
Then the email address to send your receipt for the Salehoo Bonus is just above the bottom of the post, which is: lg.bydesign (at) gmail.com
Now if you send me an email and don’t hear back with 24 hours, go ahead and post another comment and then we’ll figure out what happened.
Thanks for your question about that though 🙂
Lance
Thanks for your review about salehoo, it is fantastic.
I am evaluating some of the drop-ship companies such as doba , dropshipdesign…. So far,. salehoo is top on my list.
Doba and dropshipdesign offer ebay listing tool, which automatically populates product listing information into ebay. I will not need to manually cut and paste , transferring information.
However, these companies cover all the wholesalers, whereby, my price will be lot higher and becomes less competitive.
I don’t see this feature on Salehoo. ? Do you know any add-on feature that I can do similar to Doba ?
Sam
Hey Sam!
Thanks for the feedback, I really appreciate it 🙂
Salehoo doesn’t have a feature like that built in. What you would need to do is sign up with a third party to provide that service for you. Doba can work in certain situations but just like with Salehoo it’s important to know what it does and doesn’t provide as well as the strengths/weaknesses. The strength of Doba is convenience. Just like you discovered, you can quickly and easily populate your eBay listing with the products you find in Doba. The downside is that most people find out the hard way that you’re really not able to make a profit off of these items selling them on eBay. Where Doba is useful is if you have your own established website and you’re looking to add more products to sell.
That’s where I believe Salehoo is the stronger choice starting out. You get access to their directory of thousands of wholesale suppliers (including user reviews) so that you can actually source products at true wholesale prices. Then you can start selling those products on sites like eBay or Amazon to start. The bottom line is that I’d rather take products that I have to list manually on eBay, but can make a profit off of, rather than products that are automatically listed on eBay but there is not enough margin to make money. So then once you start building a little momentum on eBay and/or Amazon you can then start your own ecommerce site and start building your traffic to that site. Then as that starts to get established is when Doba could come in as another way to source additional products.
Granted, the convenience of Doba is attractive but you pay for that convenience with lower margins. And when you’re selling on eBay and/or Amazon you figure you lose about 10% just in fees. Now as I’ve mentioned throughout this post and in the comments previously, not every company in Salehoo is a goldmine. You do have to search for them but they’re in there.
Hopefully that helps offer some perspective. Great question though and I appreciate you asking about that 🙂
Hey Lance!
We just talked, and I’m about ready to start drop-shipping. My only concern is with eBay.. I have 27 feedbacks and a 100% rating on my account, but i haven’t sold anything for some time now. Would i have to sell and ship off some things personally at first to build up a rep that allows me to instantly access paypal funds to pay the companies I am selling from? I obviously want to be able to instantly get the customer’s orders in and get them their merchandise, and don’t want to get myself into a pickle with a payment being on hold. Also, should i start an eBay store? And would you recommend eBay over Amazon? I just don’t know how the whole payment process works. Thanks for the help!
Noah
Hey Noah!
Great question about feedback. Generally, I’d say anyone would want to have at least 5 Feedback with a 100% rating. 10 feedback would be even better and 27 is actually quite good to start (especially with a 100% rating). You would be in the “safe” zone by most buyers standards. You should be fine to start selling goods and I wouldn’t worry about trying to build up your feedback score anymore than that. I would just let it build naturally over time.
I believe you should also be fine when accessing PayPal funds. To be safe, you could give PayPal a call (which I’ve done many times myself) and that way you can be aware of any ‘special circumstances’ but otherwise you should be fine. Sometimes you may have a customer who uses an electronic check and then it takes a while for the funds to clear and show up in PayPal. But I just remind buyers of this and I’ve never had a problem. So if it take a week for their funds to clear, then wait until they’re cleared before purchasing the product to have it dropshipped.
With eBay’s new policy on listing fees, I don’t think you necessarily need a store right away. You can list up to 50 items (per month) without paying a listing fee. If you’re on a budget, then I would start with that to keep things simple. But, if you have the money and time to get your store set-up then it does offer some advantages. I wouldn’t consider it a high priority though, so feel free to wait a few months if you like before launching that.
eBay vs Amazon is other great topic. There are pros and cons to each. Generally you will earn a larger profit selling the same items on Amazon. People trust Amazon more and are willing to pay a bit more because of that. However, eBay is better for more unique items. Also, eBay allows you to customize a listing whereas with Amazon you have to go with what they have unless you upgrade to a paid account which allows you to create and modify your listing (about $30/month).
eBay is also a good way to see what people are willing to pay for something. You can set something up as an auction and then see what it goes for.
Getting paid on Amazon can be tricky as well. It takes about 3 days for the funds to reach my bank account whereas with eBay they’re instantly loaded into my PayPal account. Also, as a new seller on Amazon I ran into the problem of getting my account frozen because I started selling too much too fast. It’s just a safety measure they have but I was initially surprised by that 🙂
Overall, eBay is easier so if you can find products to sell there, that’s the easier place to start.
Great questions Noah, thanks for asking those!
Hello Lance.
First of all GREAT info and feedback to all of these questions. Thank you for providing this and the links. Secondly, I am a 2x Power seller on EBay (2 seller accounts) with thousands of feedbacks (only 1 neutral and 1 negative out of all of these). I am lucky enough to have some warehouse space and have a keen eye at the Estate Auctions so products have not really been an issue, (until now). We are now in a liquidation situation and moving to South America towards the end of this year. I am now looking into drop shipping in the US because it would be ashamed to lose the momentum after these few years of hard work. I really have no interest in a sight at this time but am more interested in the list that you are going to provide with the reviews and info on the vendors (once I sign up). My only concern is to keep my customers happy with fast efficient service with accurate item pictures, descriptions and of course quality. A few questions to you if I may.
1. Do you think that it would be a good idea once I find the certain items that I want to sell from your info, that I purchase 1 of each to take my own pictures AND possible ad to or modify the descriptions to suit what I think will work? Another reason that I ask this is a LARGE portion of my feedback is that my items are always nicer than describe, thus a happier (and returning) customer.
2. I am really interested in orders that ship within 24 hours of my notification to the source.
3. Is there a formula for estimating the shipping cost in a drop shipping situation so that I don’t end up eating part of these costs? I have seen on most of my research that the drop ship vendor will list an item weight. This does not help at all when estimating shipping because of the additional weight of packaging and the box (unless the weight listed is all inclusive). As an example I shipped an item from Florida to California last month, the item itself weighted 18 pounds, but due to its nature required extensive packaging. The total weight out the door was 27 pounds. FYI, 98% of my sales listings are set up with a flat rate shipping cost to the continental US.
4. Will there be any negative affects with the drop shippers concerning the new EBay Global Shipping Service?
I am sure that I will have more questions but will give you a chance to get back with me on this. I am holding off on consideration of any other drop shipping services at this time, and will go through you when I sign up here. Thank you once again for your kind assistance. I am looking forward to hearing your response. TB
Love hearing about your success with eBay, that’s fantastic!
I’ll attack your questions one by one here…
Regarding photos, it will greatly depend on the supplier. Some companies supply gorgeous high resolution photos that you can download, a few might supply a CD but there are others that you would want to take a photo of yourself. If I find a good supplier, in the end I’ll take my own photos if need be, but it is a consideration. So it’s really up in the air, and again depends on the supplier. But as you said, photos can make a big difference! And even if a supplier can supply a nice photo, you still might want to take additional photos so you can show multiple angles. The same for descriptions, come companies have excellent descriptions available for you to use while others are bare bones. I would say be prepared to write your own description though as most companies are lacking in this department (especially for reselling on eBay).
Finding suppliers who can process your order and ship it within 1 business day is possible, though 1-2 business days is more typical. I’m with you on that one as it allows you to get the shipping information to your customer right away and it’s a selling feature. Selling on Amazon you definitely don’t want to go past two days so one day is always preferred (and some might argue necessary). So yes, their are supplies who are lightning fast with your order but you’re not as likely to find those. They’re not rare by any means, but I wouldn’t say it’s common either.
For shipping costs, some companies will charge you a flat rate so you can control/predict your costs. Other companies will have a list of the exact cost of each item. And then others will charge you a flat rate based on your order amount. For example, orders under $25 might cost $5 to ship while orders between $25-50 might cost $7 to ship. I wouldn’t say there is a formula you can use across the board, as it will really depend on the company.
In regards to eBay’s Global Shipping Program I think you should be fine. This seems similar in nature to Amazon’s FBA program. You’ll want to double check with your supplier but it shouldn’t be a problem. If there’s any documentation you need to have included in your order I’ve found most suppliers are happy to do that for you.
Hopefully that helps, sounds like you have a fun adventure ahead of you!
Lance
Hello again Lance.
You just got a 5 star positive feedback, Lololololol. That was really quick. THANK YOU for the heads up on some of my concerns. The long and short of it is I would like to keep this up for income while traveling South of Zero (the equator) and drop shipping seems to be the answer. I am sure that you are starting to understand my visions as one seller to another. I will have internet access, and just want to deal with professionals that will see to it that things go as smoothly as possible, but I am aware (have the drawer full of “been there done that” T Shirts) that things do happen. I will notify you with the receipt when I sign up for the 1st annual voyage with SaleHoo so that I can start digging through your findings to match up the distributors for this new chapter in my life.
On another note, I am seriously thinking of following through with the “test” purchase of each of the items that we select. You covered some interesting points as far as the photos, (especially with EBay now letting you load 12 pictures for free). Who better could describe with hands on detail, the description of something that you have actually had sitting in front of you? I could sell the items as new once I reviewed and photographed them. The only thing that I would be out is the shipping once the item was sold, plus it would give me the experience of actually receiving the order from specific potential distributors. I see this as a very small price to pay in an effort to boost sales of my listings, and could potentially net me even more per item because of the ability to answer most any question that a customer could hit me with. Thank you once again for all. I feel lucky to have found your page and thread. Talk again very soon. TB
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and experience with SaleHoo, this has been the most helpful review i’ve read, thanks
All I Can say is WOW!!!!
I just got into this game and I’m excited. I’m a online marketer and I market affiliate products on Facebook. A friend of mind showed me what he was doing and I decided to get into this game. I researched a lot and found you on you tube.
You were my first pick and did not look at another video review. Joined and now I’m ready to find a drop shipping company. I pretty good at finding a products and testing it on Facebook to see if it will sale. With good marketing, it should sell within 24 to 48 hrs. I don’t want to be responsible for shipping this is what confuses me. I put the product on my site, someone buys, I then purchase the product and put in there shipping information and the company ships it to them. That’s what I want. My only problem is that if 20 people purchase the product in one day, do I have to buy it 20 different times. Is there some type of software available.
You made my day Cedric, thanks!! 🙂
First, congratulations with the success you’ve had so far. It sounds like you’re doing really well, nice work!
You ask a great question. Typically, you would have to place 20 different orders if 20 people purchase the same product. However, you can get away from that but I’ve found it depends on the company you’re working with. Some companies are set-up with this type of automated service but not all of them are. But the automation basically means a customer can place an order, then the company will fulfill that order without you having to get involved.
If you’re interested in working with companies that operate along these lines, I would check out Inventory Source https://reviewsbylance.com/Inventory-Source
I’ve worked with some of the companies they’re connected with and they’re solid companies. If that looks appealing I would recommend giving them a call as they were really helpful to me when I spoke with them.
Either way, I think you’ll need to have a shopping cart platform that allows you to “sync up” so to speak with your suppliers inventory so they can fulfill orders automatically. Another site you can look at is http://ecommhub.com
Again, great question and definitely worth looking into!
Lance,
This was a great article for someone getting started with Salehoo, or looking to get started. This article helped me out tremendously with some of the gotchas!
The list is invaluable because for a newbie it saves TIME and EFFORT. It’s always best to work smarter not harder and this list helps me do that!
I also like some of the points you made about some minor changes that will improve the site, but also like you mentioned, these are small cosmetic fixes and overall my experience has been great!
Thank you for your time and this great article!
Cheers!
Tammy
Hi Lance,
I am planning to start with retail selling online. So far all experience I have is selling used things lying around home on ebay and got them sold successfully.
I am planning to become SaleHoo member as I do see lot things which can help me in getting started. Your article helped me a lot in making this decision.
Got few questions for you
1.) Should I plan on using my current ebay account which same good ratings or start with new account which I will use for online retail
2.) When we sell on ebay, our address is pretty much visible to buyer. I plan to run from my home and do not want it to be published out like this. What do you suggest. How most of the people handle this scenario.
3.) I plan to start with dropshipping. When we do this whose address is shown as the shipper, will it be mine or the dropshipper’s
Hi Anna!
That’s a great way to start selling. You get some great experience by doing that and it’s a good way to start building up your feedback.
In terms of the questions you asked:
1. I would recommend using your current eBay account. You can always change your eBay username if you want to brand it differently. You’ll just have the “change name” icon showing for about 30 days I believe.
2. You can use a different address that uses the same zip code. Just pick any generic address (or make one up). You could even do something fun like “1200 CandyCane Lane.” The key is making sure your PayPal address is correct so that an item can be returned to you if it needs to be. But your eBay address is more cosmetic. However, it’s good to have an accurate zip code so that people know which state their item is shipping from.
3. This is good question and it will depend on the drop shipper. Some will show their information and sometimes it won’t. Your information can be included on an invoice but that depends. Many times they’ll allow you to include your information with the order. However, if you want to remain anonymous that shouldn’t be a problem at all.
I hope that helps! 🙂
Lance
Hi Lance,
Great article and excellent info regarding Salehoo!
I have been selling on eBay for about a year, mostly items that were a result of cleaning out the house and some sports collectibles. I have received a 100% positive feedback rating with over 100 items sold. I have enjoyed doing this and am interested in taking the next step of reselling via drop ship or buying inventory. From reading your article and other comments, sounds like the way to make greater profit is by the actual purchase vs. drop ship. The area I am primarily interested is in sporting goods, particularly golf equipment, which I have had some success in selling used on eBay. However, it looks like a fairly competitive area with large suppliers on eBay but pricing looks to be considerably less than the large box retailers. Also, is there any way of knowing what suppliers may be involved in selling counterfeit equipment? Is this an area that can work with by utilizing the wholesalers of Salehoo and/or are there good wholesalers listed? I am definitely considering signing up with Salehoo thru your link as I have sold many different products on eBay and have interest in other products other than sports equipment.
Thanks for any reply…
Hey Jim,
Thanks for your feedback and excellent questions! Having already sold several items on eBay is a wonderful advantage. If anything, just being more comfortable with the whole process and gaining some confidence from making a profit selling some items is always a good thing. Your feedback is perfect and having over 100 items sold should put you in good standing with any potential buyer.
You’re correct in that your profit is greater most of the time when purchasing vs drop shipping. However, for some items like “golf bags” it might be getter drop ship something like that rather than purchasing 20 and having them all sit in your garage. Also, shipping costs as you know can be a real profit killer 🙂 So if you only have to ship it once (ie. drop shipping) then that can actually be a better situation.
The golf niche is an excellent choice. I think the key would be to go after ‘non-branded’ items like ‘golf cleaning towels’ or other helpful gear and gadgets. Trying to resell things like golf clubs is possible, but my guess is it wouldn’t be very profitable. Another way to have a unique item is to do personalization. For example, you could take the “gold cleaning towel” and add a famous golf club to it or a scripture verse. People love having something that is unique and is also more of a reflection of themselves.
As far as counterfeits go, you’re much more likely to run into that overseas. In my experience, China in particular. But, anytime I’ve asked a Chinese supplier whether something if fake (or a “replica” as they like to call it) then they’ve always told me it is. That’s not to say a wholesale supplier could lie about something like that but I wanted to at least share my experience. You hit the nail on the head there in regards to Salehoo. That’s one of the HUGE advantages of being a member is you have access to all these suppliers as well as user reviews. Personally, I can’t remember even coming across a company in Salehoo that sold fakes. And I don’t want to say it’s impossible, but that’s where the community would step in and probably say something about that company if that were the case.
There are some great sports companies in Salehoo. There’s actually a really cool sports company in the bonus list of companies you’d get from me for signing up through my link.
Again, sounds like you’re already off to a great start and you’re asking the right type of questions so I’m sure you’ll continue to do very well 🙂
If you decide to sign up, just forward a copy of your clickbank receipt to the email address I list above (near the bottom of the post) and then I’ll get that list over to you.
Thanks for your questions!
Lance
Lance,
Thanks for your reply. I have signed up for Salehoo via your link. Could you please send me your bonus list of companies in Salehoo.
Thanks again….
Lance,
Thanks for your article! It is very helpful. I’ve been selling mostly used items on eBay for over a year and had good success with it, but as you mentioned it takes time to find and list those unique one of a kind items. I’m interested in adding more new items to sell, but have a few questions before moving forward.
1) I’m guessing that sales volume and profit margin per item are two key factors in determining if you are going to add on a particular product. Do you have a certain target in mind that you are hoping for when you add a new product? Can you tell us your own specific criteria that you use in your decision making process? Do you have a specific profit amount in mind that you’d like to make per month when considering an item?
2) How do you forecast or predict sales volume for specific product when selling on eBay or Amazon?
3) When does it make sense to drop-ship versus buying in bulk and re-selling and vice versa? What are the typical savings to buying in bulk?
Thanks in advance!
Craig
Hey Craig!
It’s great hearing about your success on eBay— that’s awesome!
To answer your first set of questions I created a video response here:
http://youtu.be/xViECagZ7ZU
For your second question, I use https://www.merchantwords.com to help see volume on Amazon. I also use Googles keyword research tool to get an idea of how many people are searching for a particular type of an item each month. Generally, for someone starting out I’d say it be good to shoot for items that are rated in the top 200,000 for that items top category. So if you’re thinking of selling a spy gadget of some sort, try to see if that type of item is ranked at least 200,000 or better in the electronics category.
Very generally speaking, you can get 10-20% increase in profit by buying in bulk. There are certainly exceptions to this but I’d say that’s a good rough estimate.
I like to drop ship anything that weighs over 1 lb (generally speaking). If I’m buying in bulk and shipping to an Amazon warehouse, then I will consider anything and everything as that makes life much easier 🙂 If I’m buying in bulk and storing it myself, then I like to have items that weigh less than 1 lb because shipping costs are just a pain to deal with and really eat into profit.
Hope that helps! 🙂
Lance
Hi Lance,
Thanks a lot for your post! I am just getting started out in the space with my best friend, and we are very into mason jars, canning, party decorations, home decor, and cute kitchen appliances. Would you say this is a good niche to get into? I’d love to hear any recommendations along those lines.
Also, I would like to purchase the Salehoo access as well really soon. I just had a couple of questions. After you pay the monthly price, do you have to pay an additional price for each company you make a deal with, or is that taken care of in the monthly fee?
Thanks for all your help!
Hi Megan!
Great questions… i LOVE your niche ideas!! Especially b/c you could seek out some really distinctive products for those categories. Also, I think it’s a good direction to go b/c it’s not something people normally think about selling (unless it’s something their already naturally interested in).
So once you pay the membership fee I would say about 97% of the companies in Salehoo don’t require any additional fees to do business with. There are few that require a small one-time fee (anywhere from $5-50) to set up your account. And often times they credit that towards your first wholesale purchase.
Hope that helps 🙂
Lance
Hi Lance,
What a great review! The responses you’ve provided to everyone else was extremely useful and informative which has really gven me some confidence in taking this direction with SaleHoo.
But I am a little worried…my concern is that I am an Australian living in Hong Kong. And judging by the feedback you’ve provided to other threads, it doesn’t sound like there’s any decent wholesalers in Hong Kong, or is there? Are there any recommendations in your list that will be useful for me once I sign up for membership?
My only other option I was thinking was to work with Australian wholesalers and have the products delievered to a family member in Australia instead of drop-shipping. From your extensive experience, will wholesalers (or even Salehoo) allow me to do this even if I don’t live there?
Additionally, in your opinion do you think it’s possible to be successful selling from HK via ebay.com? Being so close to mainland China, people might think all the products I sell are counterfeits. I don’t intend on selling high end brands or electronics so I think I should be fine but I’d just like to get your thoughts on it.
Thanks in advance!
CJ
Thanks CJ!
I think you’ll find there are still decent wholesalers in Hong Kong, but there’s just a LOT more US based wholesalers in Salehoo. My list is mostly US based wholesalers, BUT there is a company I worked with out of Hong Kong that is a wholesaler and distributor of mobile phones, tablet PC’s, and related accessories. They are an exceptional company to work with. There in Salehoo but if you decide to purchase through my link, remind me to send you their info and I’d be happy to do that.
I think it’s possible to be successful on eBay via Hong Kong as I’m seeing more and more people doing this. The main skepticism in people’s mind is the issue of fakes and counterfeits but you can definitely overcome that.
Wholesalers shouldn’t have a problem shipping your merchandise wherever. As long as it’s going to one place and not being shipper to more than one destination you’re fine. So you always have the option to drop ship (living in HK) or you could have orders shipped to someone in Australia and have them fulfill orders for your that way as well. You definitely have options 🙂
Hi Lance,
Thanks for your response. I researched it a bit more and I can’t use ebay 🙁 Ebay in HK is only written in Chinese and I need to build my feedbacks before I can sell internationally. Bummer! But I might have a contingency…to be continued!
CJ
Hello Lance,
I just purchased a membership to sale hoo
through your site and im waiting for my bonus
gift! ..Thanks..Im excited.
Awesome! Thanks Andre 🙂 I got your email and sent the Salehoo bonus list to you– Have fun!
Hi Lance, thanks so much for the review. I purchased SaleHoo membership from your link. I do have the receipt but it has my personal info which I don’t really want to disclose to other people. Is there any other way I can get the bonus gift from you?
Hi Rosa,
You bet, all I really need is the order number from your Clickbank receipt. it’s a combination of 8 numbers and letters. It should be at the top of that receipt (again, the Clickbank receipt, not the PayPal receipt). Just email that order number to me and I’ll send over your Salehoo Bonus 🙂 Thanks and congratulations on becoming a member!
Hello Lance,
Awesome Article and insight on the ecommerce industry! I think it’s great that you take the time to answer people’s questions and give truthful and positive advice.My wife and I have been researching drop shipping, wholesale product resale, and ecommerce in general and can’t wait to get started. We are kind of nervous though because we don’t know what to expect having never attempted this business.
-What is the best advice you can give us in terms of starting and succeeding in this business?
Thank you
Hey George!
Thanks so much, I appreciate that great feedback. My best advice would be to model the success of others. And secondly, decide if it’s more important to build a business around something you love, or something that is very profitable. Sometimes you can do both (which is ideal) but realize some niches are going to be tougher to make money in than others. Finally, try to do something each day that is what I call an “income producing” activity. You could spend 8 hours working on your business but it could be things that just feel good to do rather then the sometimes necessary activities to move your business forward. For example, you could spend all day trying to get the perfect looking banner advertisement when it would have been better to have at least contacted 1 supplier during that time as well.
Now if you’re brand new to all of this and looking for a road map to follow. I just wrote a review about a drop ship course that literally takes you by the hand and shows you everything you need to know in order to build a successful online business (Click here to read my review). I have been through many, many different courses and programs and this is the first time I’ve found one that I can recommend (because it really works!).
I’m very excited for you guys! If you haven’t already seen my video where I contact a wholesale supplier live over the phone I definitely encourage you to watch that. It will give you a good idea of how a conversation can go.
Thanks for your comment!
Lance
Thank you Lance, much appreciated
Hi Lance,
Thanks for your honest reviews. I am thinking of opening a salehoo account soon. I am still doing research for which path i would take for my business. I do want to start selling on ebay because i believe its a great medium to get someones product out there for customers. I was wondering if you’re still active and offering the bonus package if i sign up with your link and sent you the a copy of the receipt.
Also, I am fairly new to selling online would you be able to explain a little bit more in details about drop shipping, how it works and the advantages?
Also would you recommend Ebay vs Amazon to start selling products based on your experience and research.
Thank you for your help
best regards,
Alexander
Hey Alexander,
Congratulations on becoming a member! I got your email and forwarded you the bonus list of suppliers but I wanted to answer your question as well regarding eBay vs Amazon.
Personally, I do prefer Amazon because people are typically willing to pay more for an item on Amazon. I wouldn’t go into the whole psychology of why that is, but bottom line is that I have tested this myself and found it to be true.
I do like eBay though for more unique items, antique type items or for doing more creative packages that would be harder to do on Amazon. For example, maybe i want to combine three different items into one listing to create more value for a customer. On Amazon I would have to list each item individually but on eBay you can do whatever you want.
Also, another great feature about Amazon is taking advantage of Amazon FBA. There is where you basically send items to an Amazon warehouse and then they store the merchandise for you until it sells. The nice thing is that Amazon prime members will get your items shipped to them with the free two day shipping so it’s a pretty cool deal.
This is a great strategy to use with Salehoo. I find companies all that time that are just fine shipping orders to an Amazon warehouse for you. So again, it works really well. The downside is that there is typically more of an upfront investment but you can certainly send over items one at a time.
Now if you fine eBay/Amazon is too competitive for the niche(s) you’re interested in then I would recommend switching gears and selling your products through an ecommerce site. I wrote a review about a course a HIGHLY recommend for anyone interested in going this route. If you follow the steps outlined in each module, you will make money. It really is that easy but you do have to follow the steps 🙂
My review for this course is here: https://reviewsbylance.com/dropship-lifestyle-review
Again, congratulations and thanks for your comment and questions!
Lance
Hi Lance,
I was wondering if you have ever dealt with Queen bee of Beverly hills. I saw a lot of terrifying reviews on ripoff report and a lawsuit in 2005. But they are recommended by salehoo. do you have any information about this supplier? thanks a lot for you help.
Sam
Hey Sam,
I haven’t personally worked with them yet. I looked them up in Salehoo though and there are already 5 reviews from other people who’ve worked with them (there was even one from an eBay powerseller). Everyone had nothing but high praise and positive things to say. Now, there hasn’t been a review written though in the past year so it’s possible things have changed? Also, sometimes people make mistakes and then try to take it out on the company. All the reviews were from 2010 and later so it’s possible they cleaned things up if there was a lawsuit in 2005.
If you’re interested in possibly working with them, I would try giving them a call. You can tell so much more about a company by talking to them over the phone as opposed to email (though email can tell you a lot as well!). I would even bring up the report and see what they say. There may be a good explanation or they may just admit to making a mistake. Then if everything checks out, you could place just the smallest order possible to be on the safe side. Or if you’re still concerned, let them know and see if they’d let you order just one item to test them out. That’s definitely a reasonable request particularly if there’s some negative press floating out there about them. But w/ all the positive Salehoo reviews, I’d certainly be open to giving them a chance 🙂
Great question Sam and good job finding that company, looks like it could be a good one!
Lance
Hi lance
I’ve been reading your comments and I like your commentary about salehoo very much. I’m going to sign in through your website, and I’m going to send you the receipt for the top companies as you said. I have been a member of ebay for a year, I have 77 feedbacks all 100% positive, but I don’t really make that much money. I also have a question : is it better to buy the items or use drop shipping? Because the way I’ve seen you explain it, it seems as though you buy more than you use drop shipping.
Thank you- Emerio
Hi Emerio!
I appreciate the great feedback, thanks! Nice job with your feedback on eBay–that definitely makes a difference 🙂 Drop ship vs buying in bulk is more about context then one always being better than the other. If I’m interested in selling larger, high-profit items then drop shipping is definitely the way to go (ie. TV’s, electric furnaces, etc.) Also, it depends on where you’re selling the items. If selling on Amazon, a great thing to do is to buy in bulk and then have the items shipped to an Amazon warehouse (Amazon FBA) and allow Amazon to store and ship the items when a customer makes a purchase. If you have your own ecommerce site, then I think it’s generally better to drop ship when starting out unless you’re selling something really small like greetings cards, cleaning cloths, etc.
The nice thing about Salehoo is there are tons of wholesale suppliers in there that offer drop shipping, buying in bulk for a larger discount or both. Now, if you find you’re not making as much money as you like then I would certainly recommend starting your own ecommerce site. These work REALLY well as long as you have a proven system to follow that shows you exactly how to be successful. If you think that’s something you might want to consider, click here for a post I wrote about how to build a profitable online ecommerce site.
Hope that helps and thanks for your question!
Hi Lance
Happy Easter! and thank you so much for your help you rock man! thanks again
Hello i am looking to start drop shipping for the first time, I don’t want to deal with Ebay personal reason just got banned they have to much power, any way is there another site you would recommend beside Ebay and in regards to SaleHoo how much capitol does one need to get up and going.
Hey William,
I can understand your motivation to move on from eBay. There are definitely some other options to consider but it also depends on whether you want to stick with an auction style style or if something like Amazon works which has fixed prices. Alice from Salehoo actually wrote a nice article about other options to consider: http://www.salehoo.com/blog/sick-of-ebay-try-these-alternative-places-to-sell
In terms of start up capitol, it’s really minimum if you’re just focusing on drop shipping as you aren’t charged anything until a customer places an order. If you’re thinking of going the route of setting up your own ecommerce store then there is more of an initial investment. I break all that down in a review I wrote which you can read here if you like: https://reviewsbylance.com/wholesale-suppliers/drop-ship-lifestyle-review
It only starts to get more expensive if you start buying in bulk. I’d say on average, minimum orders for wholesale order is between $150-$300. Buying in bulk is great, b/c you typically get better pricing but then you have to deal with packaging and shipping the item to each customer (unless you do something like Amazon FBA).
Great questions and thanks for the comment! 🙂
Hi Lance,
If I join it will be through your link. I appreciate the review. Quick question…well 2 actually.
1. Are there Canadian companies on salehoo?
2. Are there wholesalers for vitamins/health products on the site?
Thank you.
Hey Stan,
There are definitely a lot of Canadian companies in Salehoo (and some really great one as well!). I haven’t contacted as many of them personally as I’ve dealt mostly with US companies, but I definitely connected with a few that I was really impressed by.
There are also LOTS of wholesalers for vitamins and health related products as well. Many of them ship internationally or at least to Canada even if there in the US.
Great questions and thanks for asking! 🙂
Hello Lance
How are you? First, Thank you for your honest review, Thans God I found you review.you gave much more motivation to star to sell on internet. I’v been live in France for 5 years now, finding a job it’s so hard in here and when you’re finally get one it’s for only for 6 months, so I can not continue to live like this anymore. So I’v been thinking to sell women clothes on internet, I would like to creat like a women fashion shop web site, but I don’t know where to start, I have a friend who can creat a web site for me to open the shop but I don’t know how many pieces to buy. I’d like to ask you it is better to star selling on ebay/amazone first or star to open up my own web site, considering that I don’t have a lot of money. What do you think?. What would you recommend me to star selling women clothes on internet? Thank you, thank you, thank you
I wish you a beautiful day. Blessing
Karen
Bonjour Karen!
Thanks for the great feedback. I know how daunting it can be to try and figure all these things out when your first getting started so i want to try and give as much helpful information as I can.
You ask some very good questions. First, women’s fashion is a VERY good niche to sell in. I took a course from a guy once who create a niche website that focused on selling women’s fashion shoes. He did very well from this site and he doesn’t even know that much about women’s fashion. So if this is an area that you’re passionate about or at least have some interest in then you could potentially do very well!
Selling on eBay and Amazon is easier to get started but it’s often more competitive. Also, you will pay a fee or commission to them everytime something sells which will be around 10% (approximately).
I know in Salehoo there are LOTS of women’s clothing suppliers. For me personally, the trick is determining what items would have value and appeal to people, particularly if they’re not a known brand. This is where you can make some good money. The other option is buy bulk quantities of liquidated items that might contain a lot of high fashion, well-known brands like Prada, Gucci, etc. But you typically need to spend $200-$300 or more to get those.
I think setting up your own website is the way to go, but that does take more effort and then you have to figure out how to get traffic to your site. And there are whole courses written on just that part alone 🙂 After searching long and hard I finally found a course that teaches people everything they need to know about how to set up a very profitable ecommerce website. They literally take you by the hand and walk you through everything from selecting suppliers to adding products to your website. You can learn more about this drop ship course by clicking here.
Setting up your own ecommerce site will cost a little more money. You’ll need to spend about $8/month on hosting and then I recommend a store front service like shopify as they do all technical hard work for you but that service costs about $30 month to start.
The bottom line though is that drop shipping as a business really does work. Apparel Candy is an example of women’s clothing company I just found in Salehoo. They are located in the L.A Fashion District (which I’ve been to). I can see that two other people have already given them 4 star reviews and looks like they’ve had good things to say about them as well.
A company that focuses on fashion boots is Capelta Couture. Monique is the owner and creator and she is really wonderful to work with. She’s super nice and has a true passion for fashion. She also offers drop shipping so this is a great example of the type of company you could work with.
So these are just a couple of the many companies in Salehoo. One I’ve worked with and one I just found doing a quick search.
Hope these thoughts were helpful but feel free to ask any other questions 🙂
I wish you all the BEST!
Lance
Hi Lance,
Great article and thank you for all your effort. It’s a great resource for people just starting out.
I am from South Africa. E-commerce here, although not as big as in other parts of the world, is really starting to grow quite rapidly and i’m seriously looking at setting up a niche website. I haven’t decided which products to focus on yet. I guess it will depend on shipping costs and lead times etc.
So my question really is,
1. Are there any companies in S. Africa that do dropshipping?
2. If not, will companies on the list dropship to South Africa?
3. If they do, what is the avg. lead time for delivery from the U.S?
I’ll really appreciate your help with the above and thank you once again.
Hello!
It’s great to hear you’re from South Africa!
I used to work with someone from South Africa and learned a lot about what a wonderful place it is. It’s wonderful to hear that e-commerce in South Africa is growing. If that’s the case, then you are wise to start now!
To answer your questions:
1. I don’t know of any companies in S. Africa that do drop shipping.
2. but, there are MANY companies that offer international drop shipping. there are certainly US companies that will drop ship to South Africa but also I would encourage you to look at Asian and European countries as well (particularly Asian countries like China). The Chinese (generally) seem to be VERY open to work with anyone in any part of the world and can be a little more reasonable with shipping costs (though it can take longer to get items).
3. There’s two things to consider for delivery time: order processing time and then the actual shipping time. Ideally, I like to work with companies that can process an order within 1-2 business days (and there are lots of companies that can do this). I’m not for sure on how long it would actually take to receive items but my guess would be between 1-3 weeks depending on where it’s coming from and how it’s being shipped. What I might consider offering your customers (if you haven’t already) is having more than one shipping option. So you could have a lower cost shipping rate and a higher cost shipping rate that would allow them to get the item faster.
The nice thing about Salehoo is you can sort your searches by thing like “drop shipping” and “ships internationally” to make searching for companies like this easier.
Also, if you feel like you could use some guidance on building a successful ecommerce site then I highly recommend reading the review I wrote about the drop ship lifestyle course.
Again, great questions and I wish you much success!
Lance
Hey Lance,
Awesome review was very helpful
was tossing between Salehoo and worldwidebrands but after looking at your review i have gone ahead with Salehoo now
I myself was looking for a reliable drop shipper for one of my upcoming projects of developing an eCommerce store.Mainly targeting US based and AU based customers in the fashion niche
Also,I have purchased the salehoo membership through your link as well,hopefully I’d be able to get a good use of it:-)
Cheers
Eran
Hi Eran,
The fashion niche is an excellent niche to get into. There are lots of clothing and accessory companies in Salehoo so you should be able to find some great companies to work with. Also, you can now target where a company is from so when you’re doing a search you can set the filter to show only companies from the US or AU. I just sent you my Bonus List of suppliers as well so be sure and take a look at that for any possible suppliers as those are all excellent companies to work with.
Congratulations on becoming a member and thanks for the comment!
Lance
Hi Lance,
My friend and I are new to drop shipping, but we’ve noticed that the few things we’ve put up sold fairly quickly, and now we want to get more serious about it. Your review was really helpful, and we’d really liked to take advantage of your lists. We are going to sign up now through your affiliate link, but we saw in the URL that there isn’t any info with your site on it. So should we just send you the receipt upon signing up?
Thank you for all your help!
Megan
Hi Megan,
You got it exactly right 🙂 As long as you click through to Salehoo from a link on this page then you should be good to go. Drop shipping can be a lot of fun but also frustrating at times, especially when you’re first getting started. Feel free to post questions as they come up as well. I also got your email and replied back with the bonus list of suppliers so if you didn’t receive that, let me know.
Thanks for the great feedback, really appreciate it!
Lance
Hi Lance, I read your recommendation on ecommerce stores and I am very interested I perhaps starting one Through your link but before I start as ways I have some questions, 1) besides the money that I have to pay for learning and getting support with Anton Kraly how much more money would I need to start the store? 2) I have a tax ID already but I would like to know if I need a business license as well because I want to be ready before I start anything
Thank you so much for sending me the information on the salehoo stores and all of the 4 and 5star companies that really helped me a lot!
Hey Emerio!
For a list of expenses, check out the section I wrote near the end of this review: https://reviewsbylance.com/wholesale-suppliers/drop-ship-lifestyle-review that’s called “What Additional Expenses Are There?”
The main thing you’ll have to want to pay for is a domain name, hosting if you don’t have it already, and then your monthly fee for the store platform you’re using. Now you can use free options for this as well but I recommend avoiding that as the cost to get a domain name, pay for hosting and your store platform is very reasonable.
From there, the only real variable expense wise is what you might spend on marketing. Now, you’ll have some free credit to work with initially, so you could just start with that. Also, you can certainly make good use of a small budget of say $20/month to start. So you don’t need to spend big money (or hardly any money) when you’re getting started. Spending at least a little bit on marketing though will help start building that momentum and traffic a little faster. You can do that for free if you have the time, but it just take a little longer to get things going.
If you have a business tax ID#, then you should be good to go. If it’s a personal tax ID# then that’s not the same thing. Not all companies require a business ID# or reseller# but some do. So I can’t say for sure whether you’d want that right away or not… it just totally depends on the niche and the suppliers you find in that niche. But I’ve found a lot of great companies that don’t require that so it’s certainly possible that it won’t be an issue. Cost wise, I believe it varies from state to state. The cost for mine was only about $40 so I went ahead and got one.
Great questions though. If you’re serious about wanting to creating an online store then I can’t recommend that course enough. Looking back I wish I would have known about this before starting a franchise business with two other partners. We spend a LOT of money opening that store and then spent the next year building it up to where we could finally take a very small salary. There was a lot of risk and stress involved with a business like that as well. Oddly enough, starting your own online business is SO much cheaper, there’s really no risk accept the time you put into it and a small investment on money. And if you have a course to follow that shows you exactly what to do then as long as you follow those steps you’ll start making money, and in a few months you’ll never look back 🙂
Thanks again for the great feedback and comment, I appreciate that I’m glad to see you’re doing your due diligence!
Lance
Hey Lance ,
As always you helped me a lot I really appreciate your lengthy explanations honestly I wouldn’t know where to start or where to have gone from after starting if it weren’t for you. I know this is a little stupid after I have been asking you SO many questions but I am a little uneasy because as an eBay seller I am used to physically handling my merchandise and so I was wondering what I am to do if a customer asks me questions about the dimensions of say a shirt or a pair of pants (because I am aiming to start a clothing store) how would I be able to answer them if I decide to do drop shipping and cannot measure the item; or actually how am I to answer personal questions on the item in general?
Thank you again for your patience man I really appreciate all you have helped me with
Hey Emerio!
Thanks for the great feedback 🙂 Happy I’m able to be helpful!
For clothing, there’s a few different approaches. You can sell items as-is and if people are getting a good deal then they may not mind taking a little bit of a chance. You can also offer a return policy so people can return it if not happy (you can even have the pay the return shipping costs as that’s pretty standard).
Also, if you’re drop shipping then you should be able to talk to the company you’re getting these from to get the dimensions you need. If it’s just a few items, you might even ship some items to yourself, measure them and then send them back to the company (just let them know what you’re doing first to make sure they’re ok with that).
If it’s tough to call the company, then try emailing. Some companies are great about responding to email and others aren’t. It really depends on the company.
But that would be my first choice, try contacting the company to see if they can help provide that for you. If that doesn’t work out you can see about shipping some to yourself, measuring them and then shipping them back. Finally, if it just doesn’t work to get measurements then you decide what type of return policy you might want to offer to help compensate for that.
When you’re first getting to know a companies products, it’s common that the customer will ask you questions, you won’t know so you ask the company. The company tells you, then you tell your customer. This can go on for a few weeks, but then you start to hear less and less questions that you don’t already know the answer to. I go through the same process whenever I start working with a new company or product, it’s just part of the process.
Hopefully that helps!
Great question and appreciate you asking about that—
Keep up the great work!
Lance
Hi.I am from Italy..I just wanted to know..are there alsoItalian dropshipping companies.
Hi Vicky,
I just double-checked and there are just a handful of Italian companies in Salehoo. I found 1 for pets and 3 for jewelry. I’m not sure if Italy has a lot of drop ship companies to begin with. If not, you could always try contacting companies and see if they might be willing to do that, particularly if they manufacture their own products. Great question and thanks for the comment! 🙂
Lance
Hi,thanks so much for the great review. I am a Chinese Amazon seller who cannot wait to work with a real wholesaler in the US. I don’t like dropshipping personally and just want to order in bulk for FBA shipments. But the US suppliers I worked with in the past weeks never gave me real wholesale prices. I would lose money for most items if I sell at buy box prices on Amazon. Do you think the suppliers on your list will give me real wholesale prices given the fact they know little about me? Thank you again for your time.
Hello!
That’s great to hear that you’re a Chinese Amazon seller. I don’t know if you’ve had a chance to look on Alibaba or hktdc but there’s certainly a lot of manufacturing companies in China 🙂 That is one of the best ways to source products. However, with American suppliers, sometimes they may be giving you wholesale prices but unless you’re ordering 100,000 pieces of an item, you won’t be able to compete with prices on Amazon. Other timers, you’re not dealing with a wholesaler but instead just a middle-man and getting retail discount pricing which really isn’t helpful for reselling.
The companies on my list will definitely be a good place to start. However, having access to all the suppliers in Salehoo will give you plenty of additional suppliers. You can even sort by “manufacturer” to find those companies that can probably give you the best deals as you’re buying straight from the source.
The companies on my list (particularly the 5 star companies) should have no problem giving you wholesale prices. However, for some you will want to come across as a legitimate business. Meaning, it would help if you have a business license or something similar but money talks, so if they know you’re willing to place an order then at the end of the day, that’s often what really counts 🙂
Great questions and thanks for the comment!
Hi Lance.
Enjoyed your thorough review of Salehoo. I would appreciate if you could assist me with some important information. I opened an Ebay account in April of this year. Since then I have been trying unsuccessfully to make a sale. The dropshipping company I am currently working with fails to offer genuine wholesale prices. Hence, my prices on Ebay are uncompetitve. I am seriously considering Salehoo after reading your review.
However, I do not have a sales tax ID neither have I registered my ebay business due to the fact that I just stared out and worst not making any money.
Can you say whether will I still be able to find dropshippers from your top 30 picks who will be willing to work with me despite not having a sales tax ID right now?
Once my business picks up it will be registered.
Regards,
Christine
Hi Christine,
I completely understand the problem of dealing with a drop ship company that isn’t truly offering wholesale pricing. There are plenty of them out there that offer what I can “retail discount” pricing. Meaning, it might be a good deal for you if you’re buying something for yourself, but it really doesn’t allow enough profit to try and resell the items.
One of the advantages of using Salehoo is that there are lots of companies in there that don’t require a business license. They have a new feature now which allows you to filter your search results to only include these types of companies. This is obviously convenient because you have all these companies in one place (rather than trying to search for them in Google) but it’s also a HUGE time saver because you’re not having to contact all these companies individually to find out if that’s a requirement or not. I’ll have to check me list again to see how many require a business license, I know that not all of them do. But again, the benefit of having access to Salehoo is that you’ll have lots of companies in there to check out as well.
It’s a reasonable goal to go ahead and find some companies in Salehoo first (or my list) that don’t require a business license, start selling some of those items to make some money, then you can start using those profits to pay for your business license. That is definitely do-able 🙂
Great question and thanks for the comment! 😀
Lance
AWESOME ARTICLE!! I’ve been entertained all evening reading every word on this page from beginning to end. I’m floored how you interact with every single person who comments! Sooooooo happy I stumbled across this article. I was wondering how people were writing you on here, but I already sent an email in regards to the questions I had for you. So I’m not going to repeat myself to you again…hope to hear back from you soon! You’re so amazing Lance!
Hi Deondra!
Thanks so much 🙂 It can take a while to read through all the comments but I want to try and provide real information that’s helpful to people. I know what it’s like to just want an honest answer, especially when you’re getting started doing something like this so I enjoy trying to help as much as I can.
In regards to the question you sent me. I’ve gone the DHGate route myself. And while there are some good sellers there, there are also fakes to be careful of. And while it looks so tempting, it can get you into hot water with eBay or even the law. But the good news is it seems you’re not afraid to take action, and believe it or not this is where a lot of people get stuck.
Salehoo does have some legitimate brand name shoe suppliers. I haven’t dealt heavily in this area but I have come across companies that can give you some true wholesale pricing. From what I recall, some of it is liquidated merchandise. This means you’ll need to buy in bulk as opposed to drop shipping. Bulk purchase amounts are typically around $100-$300 so not completely unreasonable but it helps if you know what you’re buying or the market you’re trying to sell to. So if this is a niche you’re passionate about then you should be able to do real well 🙂
Also, what’s fun about Salehoo is you can learn lots of great industry information as you start talking to various suppliers. For instance, I started learning a lot of great information about getting into the liquidated furniture business. Now this niche isn’t one i wanted to get into but if I ever did, I feel like I already have a better idea how other successful resellers have made it work. You’ll find some of these wholesale companies are truly excited to talk to you and help you (not everyone is that way but they’re out there). So even if you contact a company in Salehoo that’s not the perfect fit, they may share some information with you that will give you a great idea to try. Or they may recommend another company they’ve heard good things about. You can think of it as a scavenger hunger where one thing leads to another thing.
So again, if this is a niche you’re excited and passionate about, I think there’s definitely some legitimate companies in Salehoo you could start with. Just keep in mind that for the shoe niche, you may need to spend $100-200 on your first order to get your foot in the door. I’m not 100% sure about that, but I just want you to be prepared–
Thanks for the great feedback and if you end up joining Salehoo, definitely forward me a copy of your Clickbank receipt and i’ll send you the bonus list of suppliers as well 🙂
Lance
Hello Lance
Very knowledgeable and must facts for a startup like me.
Actually I am not living in US and I am not American, do you know if most of the suppliers will ask me for my business registration in US? Do they will expect a registration from US?
Can I start the business on eBay? As work can be done from anywhere in the world so can I market products on eBay and get it delivered from US companies though I’m not a resident there?
Sam
Hey Sam!
Some companies will require a business license but there are plenty that don’t. The nice about Salehoo is they allow you to search for companies that don’t require a business license. This is a HUGE time saver as you’re not having to contact all these companies individually to find out if they do or don’t require that.
So you could totally start a business on eBay (or Amazon) and then just focus on those companies that don’t require a business license. These companies will most likely prefer you pay with a credit card so as longas you have that you can place your order with them and then they can ship it to your customers (whoever buys a particular product from you). After you get going and are making some money then you could invest in a business license which will give you access to a greater variety of companies to work with.
Great question and thanks for asking! 🙂
Lance
Thanks Lance for quick response.
Are the suppliers true and properly checked, i.e, if I order a product and transfer the payments then will they deliver the product. I’m asking because I read in some reviews that supplier take money and don’t ship the product. As an seller this will bring down a lot to my credentials.
Thanks
Sam
and please tell me are there some uk wholesalers in women fashion department and US wholesalers ship globally?
Hi Carla,
There sure are. I just double-checked and there are both UK suppliers for women’s fashion merchandise as well as lots of US suppliers that ship internationally. There are not a lot of suppliers based in Italy, but if you’re ok with dealing with companies from the UK or US then you will have several to choose from.
Great question and thanks for asking! 🙂
Lance
Hi Lance,
I’ve been with Ebay for 6 years, I just sell pre-owned items and sometimes I look and buy for good deal items and resell them on Ebay. I have a 100% feedback. Now I want to level up but dont know where,how and what product to start. I’ve been researching and by chance take me to this site and find it interesting. I was thinking of starting with hair and skin products and planning to sell here in US and my community back in the Philippines. Do you know if SALEHOO have suppliers here in US and Asian countries for this type? Do they also offer drop shipping?
And of course, I’m also interested on selling other products and want to see your bonus list!
Thank you.
Hi Nanette!
That’s excellent!! It sounds like you already have the perfect foundation to start taking things to the next level. I assume you’re already comfortable with listing items, shipping items and so forth so it’s now just a matter of scaling up to find more items you can consistently sell for a reasonable profit 🙂
Salehoo definitely has suppliers for these products (quite a few actually) here in the US but not so much for the Philippines. But, a lot of these companies offer international shipping. What’s great about some of the updates Salehoo has made is that you can now filter your search results by companies that drop ship or companies that drop ship and offer international shipping. It makes life SO much easier this way.
If you end up joining, be sure and forward me a copy of your Clickbank order ID# and I’ll send you the bonus list of suppliers as well.
Great questions and thanks for asking!
Lance
I have signed up. Just wanted to know are the prices of items on websites given in directory are final or they give discount after we register with them? In many websites I can see they say retail price and their price. Do they give further discount on registering with them?
Hey Sam!
Congratulations 🙂 It depends on the company, but I would say often the prices listed on their site on the “non-wholesale” price. Then once you register with them you’ll have access to their wholesale pricing. Again, it depends on the company but the true wholesale companies will often only provide you their wholesale pricing after you register.
Great question and thanks for asking!
Lance
Hi Lance,
I want to start drop shipping on ebay. Are you still giving your list to those who join salehoo through your link? Thanks Ben
Hey Ben!
You bet, you can forward me a copy of your clickbank receipt (or just the clickbank order# is fine) and then I’ll get the list of suppliers to you as well as the additional bonuses I mentioned in the post.
Thanks for asking about that! 🙂
Lance
Hey Lance question? I would just like to sell on ebay and maybe craigslist and penny saver. I heard you say no minimum with some of the wholesalers dose that mean I could just buy one item at times or do I have to buy mostly in bulk? Also what if I see an item I would like to purchase for myself at times could I do that? But mostly I would join to resale and make some money.
I think also it’s smarter to have items ship to myself that I think I could resale and then list them and ship them when they sell, what do you think?
~Chris
Hey Chris!
You got it exactly right. Many companies have a “no minimum purchase requirement” policy which means you can order as little or as much as you like (even just ordering 1 item is fine). Now some of these companies also offer blind drop shipping (meaning they’ll ship to your customer without it looking like it came from them) and some don’t.
Your craigslist idea is great. For example, with Fall and Winter coming you could have a nice electric fireplace shipped to you for wholesale, then you mark it up a bit and list it on craigslist. Then you don’t have to pay shipping costs shipping it out somewhere and it gives you a way to sell products to people in your area. Then maybe when the Spring/Summer rolls around you could do the same thing with something like Paddleboards.
And you can certainly have stuff shipped to yourself and keep whatever you like as well.
Now depending on how large the item(s) are you may not want to have them shipped to yourself. You could just list them online and then when a customer buys one you can have the company ship it directly to your customer (if they can do that, and many can).
And sometimes, you just have to make your best educated guess and experiment a bit to see what will work best 🙂
Either way, I think you have the right idea!
If you end up joining Salehoo, be sure and forward me your receipt (or your Clickbank order# is all I need) then I’ll send the bonus list of suppliers as well as the additional guides which you might find helpful in giving you some more ideas to try.
Great questions and thanks for asking!
Lance
Hi Lance, awesome review man.. My name is Stephon and i’m from the Caribbean Island of Trinidad. Been doing drop shipping for over 6 months now and achieved the Power Seller Rating.. i slowed down a bit and now looking to get back in the game and ramp things up. Have been doing some research and bounced up Salehoo. Decided to review them and that’s where i found you. You seem to be very honest and straight forward like myself and i see you reply promptly. I like what i read and i’ll be starting through your link today and look forward getting my additional bag of goodies 🙂
Thanks in advance
Stephon
Wow this is really impressive. I sincerely appreciate your effort in putting this GREAT review about
Salehoo up. What inspired me most is the way you responded to every comments in a flash. Definitely you know your stuff.
I have decided to start selling on Ebay, i will sign up through your link hopefully to replace my income, but am new to it, i know you can help me out if i get stuck.
Hi Lance,
Just thought I would give salehoo a go after reading your review.
Thanx
Blaze
Hi,i found this page today an im amazed on how helpful this info is and i will be joining really soon from now but i got a question,i noticed someone was selling name brand used men suits on ebay and was very suscesful ,do you think i can find name brand used men suits in Salehoo?thanks a lot and hi from la isla del encanto Puerto Rico!!
Hey Rico!
Great question. Yes, that is definitely possible. I’ve found some great wholesale clothing suppliers in Salehoo. With this particular individual on eBay, they may have bought a large inventory (like a liquidation) and are just selling through the merchandise. Or it’s possible they have a regular, ongoing source they’re buying from. If clothing is something you feel comfortable selling and if you’re good at figuring out what’s a good deal or value and what isn’t then I think there’s definitely room for you to get started 🙂
One things to keep in mind is when you’re starting out it can be helpful not to have your heart totally set on one thing. So let’s say you really want to sell Armani suits but all you can find are Hugo Boss or Calvin Klein suits. Start with what you can find and work towards what you’re most passionate about (ie. Armani), but don’t let that stop you when you’re first trying to find some things to sell.
Hope that helps 😀
Hi Lance. First of all thank you, thank you!!! I purchased my Salehoo subscription through your link and I appreciate your suggested wholesalers list. A couple of quick questions come to mind initially.
1. How often do you find that wholesalers require a business license and / or resale certificate?
2. I have literally one one eBay review (it’s positive!) and have yet to set up a store with Amazon. I was planing on using one of what you call a “retail discount” drop-shipping company where I can presumably order one piece at a time directly from their site. I would offer extremely competitive pricing so as to generate sales and positive reviews on eBay and Amazon. I intend to start pursuing wholesalers at the same time.
a) Do you think this is a good plan and might you recommend an inexpensive “retail discount” drop-shipping company to get started?
b) How many positive reviews do you suppose I need to develop a good base in order to confidently jump in with both feet going direct?
3. It was suggested to me by an Amazon seller to focus on Amazon Fulfillment due to better exposure. I want to have my ducks in a row as much as possible in order to avoid them rejecting my application for FBA. Since I have yet to set up with Amazon would you suggest that I set up a “standard” account with Amazon (if that’s how it’s done) before applying for FBA (again if that’s how it’s done)? I want to make sure to do everything I can to meet the requirements to become an FBA seller (your thoughts on that idea are appreciated as well).
Many thanks again for your invaluable tips!
David
Hey David!
You bet 🙂
There are a lot of companies that don’t require a business license but some do. And I’ve found that there are also some that sort of “unofficially” require it but if you talk to them on the phone and make a good impression then you can get your food in the door and get started without one. But it also depends on the industry you’re working in or the types of wholesalers you’re dealing with. For example, a lot of the liquidators I’ve called don’t require a business license, but larger volume companies typically do. But the bottom line is there are plenty that don’t so that shouldn’t be a barrier to at least getting started.
Having just 1 positive review to start is not a problem, but it is worth focusing on. I definitely agree that the best approach is to focus on generating some quicks sales, even if you’re barely making any money or just breaking even. Then be sure to deliver outstanding service, follow-up if they don’t leave feedback and aim to get at least 5-10 positive scores (whether eBay or Amazon). Even if you can find some stuff around the house to sell, that works great 🙂
Once you have a handful of positive feedback scores, that’s enough social proof to help make sure people trust you enough to buy from or through you.
I TOTALLY agree with getting started with FBA. You can even use this as a way to build up your feedback on Amazon. Start with one or even a handful of items that you’ll send to Amazon so they can be shipped by Amazon once they sell. When I first got started with FBA I called them up and found them VERY helpful. So if you can, I’d recommend calling and then they can literally walk you step by step through the whole process if you like.
My one recommendation with that though is to have Amazon apply the bar code label rather than trying to figure that our yourself. It costs just a few cents extra to have Amazon do that but it’s worth it just to keep things simple.
So two companies I recommend you take a look at are Wynit, Mini Gadgets and Kole Imports. If you contact Wynit, ask for Bryan Burns. This guy is outstanding! He works with Amazon sellers that do over 100K/month yet he’s very down to Earth and will do whatever he can to support your success. If you like the idea of spy type gear, check out minigadgets.com and ask for Andrea Williams. She’s also really fantastic and supportive to work with. I sold some items on Amazon using them and they have great customer support as well.
And of course there’s lots and lots of other great companies in Salehoo, so as you have time start exploring in there as well 🙂
Hope that helps! 😀
HI Lance
Great review really helpful for new newbie who want to start this business.
Just quick question. I am from Pakistan can i start this drop ship business.
If your answer is yes then what should i d?
Can i join salehoo?
Hopefully you will answer me soon
thanks
The nice thing about a drop ship business is that you can start it anywhere in the world. The question is whether your customers will be in the US, Pakistan or wherever else you’re interested in.
Salehoo is a director of wholesale suppliers from all over the world but a majority of the suppliers are based in the US. But as an example, you could work with a US drop shipper and sell to customers in the US. I’ve found it can be helpful to contact suppliers by phone, but email can work as well.
So you can definitely join Salehoo and this would be a great place to start because you not only have access to their directory but they have a whole area of the membership that’s dedicated to providing you education on getting started. If you decide to join I’d highly recommend reading through the guides they have available to help get you started.
And of course, if you join through my link I have some additional guides I’ll send you to help as well.
Great questions and thanks for asking 🙂
Thanks for your detail answer to my question.
One other question if you don’t mind.
I checked on internet that Paypal Hold your money for 21 days.
How can Buy item from Salehoo if Paypal hold the money.
I am unemployed so cant afforded to pay for the item by my self.
So plz suggest me something.
Thanks
You bet! 🙂
Regarding PayPal, I would also contact them to further explain the details about how the 21 days works. For example, for me personally PayPal funds are available immediately (I don’t have to wait 21 days). So they could clarify what requirements you might need to meet in order to not have to wait.
But for now, assuming that’s the case there are a few options:
1) You can use a credit card if you have one. Then when PayPal pays you 21 days later you can pay off your credit card before any interest is charged.
2) Find some things to sell around the house that you can live without in order to create some cash to work with. You could list the items on eBay or sell them locally.
So both of these are good short-term solutions but either way, I would still contact PayPal and find out what you can do so that you don’t have to wait 21 days 🙂
Hi lance this is Prashanth from india. I am interested in selling the products online through ebay or amazon. But, unfortunately i am a newbie and struggling to get right information to get started in this business. As a matter of fact, Iam in india and dont know if really the dropshipping works in my country. I was in fact in a hunt to find the niche market in india, as a result of my search from long time i finally found your helpful information. Could you please help me. Thankyou and appreciated.
Hi Prashanth!
So there are two ways you could approach drop shipping. You could focus on selling to customers in the US or India (or both). Now I don’t know if eBay or sites like Etsy are popular in India, but if so then you could go that route. But if not, then you could always market to US customers. The nice thing about drop shipping is that you’re having the company ship products to your customers. So you can list products on eBay or Amazon as an example, then when a US customer purchases something you have the company (most likely in the US) ship the product to that customer. So it can definitely work 🙂
Hi Lance,
After reading your article I signed up to Salehoo! I followed your affiliate link 🙂
Just a quick question, I am based in the UK will this matter when dropshipping?
Awesome, that sounds great!
And being based in the UK is just fine. You can drop ship to US or UK customers, either one or both is totally fine. Obviously though, that will affect where you sell your products. For example, you could sell to US customers on Amazon.com and UK customers on Amazon.uk. But again, you can definitely do this being based in the UK 🙂
Great question and thanks for the comment!
Lance
Hi Lance, i am reading your forum and would like to receive your list of the best suppliers, the only problem is that i have purchase my membership yesterday and i could send you my receipt if you can still send my the infos
If not i understand
Thanks
Hello Jacinthe,
First, congratulations on becoming a member of Salehoo! And that’s no problem at all. Go ahead and just send the receipt to: salehooreviewsx (at) gmail.com
And then I’ll get you taken care of 🙂
Now’s a GREAT time to get started because of the Christmas season, so good timing on your part!
Lance
Hi Lance,
I’ve made a SaleHoo purchased thru your website but I’m not able to send the receipt to you. Can you give me your email address again so that I can receive the info as you promised?
Thanks.
Hi Sue,
Congratulations on becoming a member of Salehoo!
The email address is listed near the bottom of this post, where I talk about the Bonus for Salehoo. But here it is again: salehooreviewsx (at) gmail.com
Of course you’ll need to replace (at) with an actual @ sign 🙂
But if that causes any confusion let me know—
Thanks,
Lance
Hello,
Does Salehoo provide suppliers that will work with private labeling? For example, let’s say I want to sell travel pillows, but I want them to be branded with my logo. Is Salehoo and good source for this? Thanks.
You will definitely find LOTS of suppliers in Salehoo that do this. However, if you have something very specific you’re trying to find a private label supplier for then it can be hit or miss depending on the product. Personally, I love having Salehoo for the fact that I’ll find suppliers in here that I won’t find in places like Alibaba or just searching on the internet. Now something else to keep in mind is that sometimes companies will offer private labeling when you call and talk to them, even though they don’t specifically advertise that on their website. This has happened to me many, many times. So don’t be afraid to ask even if you don’t see anything mentioned about private labeling initially 🙂
And of course, if you end up purchasing Salehoo through one of the links above, remember to send a copy of your order# to the email listed at the end of this blog post and I’ll be sure you get the additional bonuses as well.
Hi Lance
It seems from what I have read so far, that most of these companies on SaleHoo are based in the US. Do you know if there is information regarding UK suppliers as well? Something I need to clarify before deciding to go for it.
Thank you
That is correct, most of the companies listed in SaleHoo are based in the US. However, there are companies from the UK as well and some really good ones. I actually contemplated trying to work with a few but the shipping costs made it too difficult at the time (since I’m based in the US). The bottom line is that there are some really great companies from the UK in Salehoo, just not as many when compared to the number of US companies. Hope that helps! 🙂
Hello Lance, thanks SO much for the info here….hugely valuable! Just a quick question: Is your offer of the (20) 5 star companies still available (here on 7 Jan, 2015), if we sign up via you? Has the list been made current since you initially offered it sometime back or do you still feel strongly about those (20) companies that they are still top-notch? Thanks Lance for all that you are doing!
Hey Dan!
You bet, I’m really glad to hear this was helpful 🙂
The offer is still available and the companies are still current and top notch for sure. What I recommend doing is signing up for my newsletter as well. I’m using that as a way to communicate new companies I come across which I think might be beneficial. So if you sign up for Salehoo through my link above, you can get the bonuses and then if you sign up for the newsletter you can learn about any other great companies I come across.
Great question and thanks for asking! 🙂
Hello Lance,
Just FYI…I enrolled under you and emailed you my receipt. ‘Am looking forward to the list of 30 5-star companies! Thanks in advance!
Hey Lance that was some great information you were talking about i’m going to get salehoo.
Hi Lance,
First of all, thank you for the great write up.
I purchased the membership with salehoo by clicking the link on this review page.
Would you please email me some guides to help me to start to build the business???
Thank you very much.
Dennis
Hi Dennis,
Congratulations on joining Salehoo!
Go ahead and forward your Clickbank receipt (or just the order ID# is fine) to: salehoobonus (at) reviewsbylance.com
Once you get the guides, take your time going through those as well as the additional training and educational material within Salehoo.
Again congratulations and I wish you much success!
Lance
Hi Lance!
I have been searching high and low for wholesale dropshippers. I was thinking of selling young women’s clothing more so dresses and shoes; maybe jewelry. I am certainly open to other items and look forward to the marketing lab Salehoo has. My question is, how does Salehoo work? Do they create a site for you to to display the items by the wholesaler? I have never used Ebay/Amazon for selling and I don’t really want to start there. Any suggestions?
P.S. I will be using your link to register with Salehoo. : )
This has been very helpful so far. Thank you!
Hi Tiffany!
Great questions 🙂
So Salehoo functions mostly as a wholesale directory. You don’t buy through them, rather they supply a HUGE list of wholesale suppliers in various industries and categories. Then you pick the ones that look interesting to contact.
The niche you’re thinking of is REALLY good, especially if you have an eye for what looks good, what people might like, etc. There are lots of wholesale clothing companies listed in Salehoo.
Now an additional feature Salehoo offers is getting your own online store front. This is an additional cost though. If you want to stay away from eBay/Amazon, etc. then this is the way to go. The nice thing about a Salehoo store is that they take care of the “tech” type stuff so you can focus on just finding new products, and then adding them to your store.
Hope that helps 😀
And if you use my link, that would be great! Remember to send your receipt to: salehoobonus (at) reviewsbylance.com so you can get the additional bonuses from me as well 🙂
Again, great questions and thanks for asking!
Quick question!
How do I track inventory if I’m dropshipping? It seems tricky! I started my website and have begun adding clothing items. What if someone orders and when I go to the site its no longer available?
Hi Lance,
I’m based in Australia. Does your top 5 list of companies ship/drop ship to Australia? Great article, I’m excited!
Thanks,
Sonia
Hi Sonia,
Unfortunately my list doesn’t include any Australian companies. However, there are obviously many in Salehoo. In my own research I just haven’t contacted as many Australian companies since I’m based in the US. But, the other bonus guides I offer would still apply to you.
Great question though and thanks for asking! 🙂
Lance
Hi Lance,
I have just begun my journey into ecommerce after much research. So far I’ve used DHgate with positive results on a small investment. I’ve used Terapeak for product research too.
I’m looking for reliable dropshippers mainly now. Does Salehoo have an abundance of dropship contacts? Also if I sign up through your link am I still entitled to the 60 day money back guarantee?
From what I have read so far I have a feeling I’ll be keeping it since it seems to suit my specific needs. Also looking forward to reading your useful information on the companies you have contacted.
Thanks,
Rohith
Hi Rohith,
Nice job! I started out with DHgate as well and still check them out from time to time. Aliexpress is another good one if you haven’t seen them yet. And glad to hear you’re using Terapeak, that’s a pretty powerful tool 🙂
So Salehoo does have an abundance of drop ship contacts. That’s exactly what they are. You can think of them as a huge directory which you can sort by industry or minimum order amounts, etc. For example, there are companies I found in Salehoo that I probably never would have found trying to Google them. A lot of these “true” wholesale and drop ship companies do little or nothing to make sure they’re visible in Google. So unless you’re attending industry events, etc., again you’re odds of learning about them are slim to none.
And yes, if you sign up through my link you still have the 60 day guarantee. And you get to keep my bonuses regardless 🙂 Even if it doesn’t work out or you don’t get the value out of it that you were hoping, it’s my way of saying thanks for at least taking the time to check out.
Great questions and thanks for asking!
Lance
Thank you for the prompt reply. I will absolutely begin researching with Salehoo and see if I can make it fit my needs, from how it sounds it seems like exactly what I need. I don’t mind doing the research and contacting suppliers (great way to learn). All I need is the contact info and product diversity. Also if we stay in contact long-term would that be ok? It would be great to have mentoring along the way.
Thanks,
Rohith
Hi Lance,
Just read your review, I have always desired an online business but can’t seem to find the pathway. The idea of working for someone else has never settled with me once I found you can make a living of the internet. I have a genuine interest but so far I have not a single item on ebay…never tried…to be honest the internet is an overwhelming repository of info. I only wish I could have a genuine & experienced mentor.
If you are genuinely successful & living off the internet, than pls guide me on how I can walk this path. Maybe we can discuss a mentoring program as well as taking advantage of how we both can benefit.
I am genuinely interested with Salehoo but where to from there….
Looking forward to your response my friend 😉
P.S. Love your post & review
Hey Freddy!
I know what you mean. When I first learned about the idea of having an online business, I was completely intrigued by it. And over the years I’ve tried many different methods from CPA to creating white board videos to affiliate marketing. The most helpful thing for me was to pursue something I have a genuine interest or passion in.
So knowing you have a genuine interest in an online business is a good start. The next step is figuring out if selling things on eBay, buying and selling wholesale products, etc. is something you like doing or not. For me, one of the things I loved about eBay is it appealed to my creative side. It gave me a chance to use my photography skills to take nice product photos and then I’ve always been passionate about creating amazing customer service experiences so that is certainly relevant to an eBay business as well.
Now if you’re brand new to all this (which is totally fine) then I’d actually recommend a course Salehoo offers called “Online Selling Tactics” https://reviewsbylance.com/online-selling-tactics
This course is extremely thorough in walking you through the entire process of starting a brand new eBay business. They also show you other online places to sell products so you don’t feel like you have to just use eBay. You learn what to do when you have zero feedback and how to build that up. They literally walk you through the steps to finding products to sell, listing those products and use live examples so you can truly see how it all works.
Personally, I would recommend starting here. Otherwise if you get the Salehoo membership you’ll be left trying to figure the “how to do this” part on your own. Also, If you decide to take this course, I’d consider it an investment in yourself and figuring out whether this particular model works for you or not. After taking this course, you’ll either be totally excited to start doing this yourself, or you’ll get the feeling that this is not for you.
Either situation is great, because then you can confidently move forward one way or the other.
I certainly appreciate your interest in having a mentor but unfortunately that’s not something I’m able to do right now.
It’s something people do ask me about quite a bit, so at some point I may do some sort of group coaching program. But for now, I can highly recommend the “online selling tactics” course as it will show you everything you need to get started doing this.
Thanks for taking the time to ask these great questions and I appreciate the helpful feedback as well 🙂
Lance
Hi Lance
Good article. I am thinking about starting an ebay business and like the look of salehoo and thinking about taking you up on your offer. I am currently in Australia, is salehoo and your deal geared up for Australia or is it mainly for the US and Canada?
Also as a newbie what tools would you recomend initially. I like the look of Terapeak but are there any others out thee that will help analyse the market and give ideas on what to is best to sell.
Thanks
Richard
Hi Richard,
Salehoo is ok for Australia but it’s definitely geared more towards the US and Canada. But depending on what you want to do, that could still work. Meaning, you could work with companies in the US and have them drop ship to US customers or you could have them send merchandise directly to an Amazon warehouse and sell through Amazon that way.
Terapeak is a definitely a nice tool, but another one I really like is Merchant words
It’s normally $30/month but the link I provided takes you a discount page for $9/month (if still available). This is strictly for telling you keyword volume for products being sold on Amazon.
Now Salehoo does have a neat tool to help evaluate product potential so definitely check that out if you join. The nice thing about Salehoo is they have a money back guarantee so you could check it out, try the research tool, look through the directory, read through the education and training area and see if you’re getting enough value out of the membership.
One final tool I like to use a lot for eBay is their completed auction search tool.
If you click on the link it will take you to movie auctions that have ended and if someone bought something, how much they paid (in green letters). You can change the category to say “All Categories” and search for whatever you like and see how much products are selling for. This is a REALLY useful tool (that’s free) and gives you some real world results.
Hope that helps give you at least give you a few more things to think about 🙂
Lance
Hi Lance, I really liked your review and I’m interested in signing up with Salehoo and want to get the bonus your offering but not sure which link to use for the subscription. Can you help me out?
Thanks
Said
Hi Said!
Thanks so much for the great feedback 🙂 Any of the links above should work fine, but just to be safe, you can use this one: https://reviewsbylance.com/SaleHoo
Thanks for double-checking and hope you enjoy being a member!
Lance
Is this still working for you
I have found that people promote something for awhile and then move on to something else.
Hey George,
It sure is. I totally know what you mean as there are some programs that I have joined which seamed to only be worthwhile for a certain period of time. However with Salehoo, I’ve found it continues to provide value and be something I find useful month after month, year after year. Personally, I’m not using it every day, but when I do use it I find it often saves me a ton of time or gives me some new insight into a particular product I’m considering to resell. Also there are new suppliers being added so it saves me time having to hunt for these companies as Salehoo goes and finds them for me and then does all the background research on them as well.
As I mention in my review, Salehoo isn’t necessarily going to be for everyone. But that has more to do with how interested someone truly is in getting into the drop ship business as opposed to there being something wrong with Salehoo.
Great question though and thanks for asking! 🙂
I am interested in buying salehoo year subsribtion. I am new to dropshipping.
That’s great to hear! Since you’re new to drop shipping, I’d recommend going through the education section of Salehoo. There are lots of great tips in there to help you get started.
So can you send me the link where i can buy the saleehoo. What is the email that i have to use to send you my reciept so i can get bonus that you said you will give out. Do i have to send you the whole reciept.
Hello Fatima!
Here is the link where you can sign up for Salehoo: https://reviewsbylance.com/SaleHoo
The email you’ll want to send your receipt to is: salehoobonus (at) reviewsbylance.com
You don’t need to send the whole receipt. The only thing you need to send is the Clickbank transaction ID#.
Thanks so much and congratulations on joining Salehoo!
Dear Friend,
Many thanks for sharing this review on Salehoo. Your review is one of the most comprehensive and I got some great insights. Thanks for sharing this valuable information to help people like me. Keep rocking and posting this type of informative reviews. All the very best! I will come back to your website to learn more information.
Your Friend,
Paul