Manufacturer minimum orders.

[JayHill]

I'm having trouble finding a manufacturer that doesn't have a minimum order, or that drop ships. Can I request they do this specially for me? Is there another way to get around this?

I also wanted to know if anyone knew anything about opening corporations outside the US.

[soulstice]

I had the same question and am interested in the answer. I've found a product from a manufacturer abroad. They have a minimum-order requirement and there has been no mention of dropshipping. I decided that since the manufacturer is in another country, the shipping cost for the consumer would be expensive and defeat the "lower price than the competition" angle of my product.

Just out of curiosity, does anyone have experience with dropshipping products from other countries?

[jazzdrive3]

You need to bite the bullet and pay the $250 for worldwidebrands.com.

[Webzu]

You need to bite the bullet and pay the $250 for worldwidebrands.com.

Wow, thanks Jazz that's some site. The instant market research feature of onesource is awesome. Time to whip the credit card out.

[karlin]

Whoa - DO NOT bite the bullet and pay the $250 for WorldWideBrands - EVERY ebayer and their mother knows about the worldwidebrands site so you're going to have stiff competition from people who think it's great to make $5 on a dropshipped item.

I checked them out a few years back and it was JUNK. Save your $$$

[jazzdrive3]

Interested on how you can say it was junk.

The search feature and "market research" is pretty limited, but the list alone that you can browse is priceless. I found four drop-shippers in my targeted niche that I am about to approach. And some suppliers are so varied and have so many products that you can find a very little known product in their catalog that other people have overlooked entirely, if you take the time to focus and look.

[agolden]

...There's an opinion'... the saying goes.

I'll tell you what, I haven't made a decision on Worldwidebrands.com just yet. But certainly appreciate the link to learn more.

What's of interest is that there's certainly a demand for the service and a plethora of products and resellers have been able to connect. Competition, in my opinion, is always a good thing for the consumer and for the provider. I'm not surprised that the top Ebay'ers and then some are all over the site...but there's always a way to compete and for one to creatively differentiate their offering other than on price.

Look forward to hearing and learning more.

[ruffneck119]

To dropship correctly and sell online you have to find a source "outside" of the net because most everything else is over saturated or package the items differently . To setup stuff without order minimums practice negotiating skills LOL. I am in the process of finding manufacturers and distributors of certain products myself and it really makes a difference to be able to go to the actual businesses themselves.

[Webzu]

There is a huge merchant fair in China twice a year. My brother and I have been talking about going for a couple years. We're looking at hitting the one in October. Thousands of merchants selling thousands of products. Although I doubt they drop ship from China. But you can't get more direct than China.

[AmandaUrban]

Just curious.. would anybody be interested in 'sharing' a subscription to worlwidebrands.com with me? As in, we split the cost and use the same login codes? I have to be a bit cheap, I don't exactly have a lot of money to spend. But it might be a good investment (this thread doesn't really give conclusive evidence about this ;) ).

At this point I am only considering worldwidebrands.com, and should I decide to subscribe it won't be untill about 3 weeks from now, but if anybody is interested in this, please let me know via this thread, pm or e-mail!

Amanda

[TimW]

This post is in reference to the OP's question, and I answer it to explain why most manufacturers, esp large ones or OEM manufacturers, have minimum order level and won't drop-ship:

Economics.

A manufacturer is in the business of MAKING stuff. They make their products in large amounts, usually. It makes absolutely no economic sense for a company producing thousands of widgets at a time, to make 5 of them in a non-standard color for you, due to tooling/production/setup/etc.

If you're looking to have something with your brand on it (called OEM manufacturing), then you are looking to have to buy hundreds, if not thousands, of the item. Some companies might do smaller volumes, but the per-unit price will be MUCH higher due to the aforementioned costs involved (see lulu.com or cafepress.com for examples). This makes your item less cost-competitive than somone who orders MANY of them, driving the per-unit cost down.

Since manufacturers are generally not in the business of selling to smaller re-sellers, they employ wholesalers/distributors. These companies buy large quantities of various items then work with smaller re-sellers to get them smaller quantities. Some distributors will drop-ship for re-sellers, some won't.

In my business of military and police gear, I sell Safariland holsters. Safariland's minimum yearly purchase level to maintain a direct relationship are in the 10's of thousands of dollars. No way I will ever buy/sell that many. However one of my vendors is a major distributor for this type of gear, and they DO buy that amount of holsters from Safariland per year.

So, I work with the distributor, who will gladly sell me onsies-twosies and will gladly drop-ship for me for a small extra fee.

Remember folks, this is all about making money. If a manufacturer can make money by having low minimums and drop-shipping, they will (some of my vendors will, but most will not...I am also in a unique industry where many manufacturers are very small and can do it). If they are in a mass-production mode, like most manufacturers in China, they won't....and may require minimums of a 1/2-1 container load (40' Connex boxes) to do your OEM project.

[Nineset]

Just curious.. would anybody be interested in 'sharing' a subscription to worlwidebrands.com with me? As in, we split the cost and use the same login codes? I have to be a bit cheap, I don't exactly have a lot of money to spend. But it might be a good investment (this thread doesn't really give conclusive evidence about this ;) ).

At this point I am only considering worldwidebrands.com, and should I decide to subscribe it won't be untill about 3 weeks from now, but if anybody is interested in this, please let me know via this thread, pm or e-mail!

Amanda
I have a membership if your wanting to link into it pm me and we can work something out simple.

[marcspag]

Hello All,
I can help anyone who needs to buy health supplements at wholesale prices.
Minimum order is just 60 bottles. My source will private label under your name
or you can use the "house brand" name to promote,your choice. They cannot drop-ship individual orders,but will ship the bulk orders to any address,in case you sell wholesale to your customers. Just tell me what type of product you want,ex:weight loss,sports nutrition,cardio,arthritis,etc.,along with initial quantity you want and I'll give you a price quote with shipping.Hope that helps.They can also customize products if you have a specific formula.
Thanks everyone and good luck!
Marc J.Spagnuolo
mjsspag@bestnetpc.com

[webgal]

This is a great thread. Keep in coming.