What will you learn:
- What online sources to use to get these suppliers?
- What makes the supplier trustworthy?
- A communication tool most of them like
- Negotiating product cost and shipping cost
- How to have a drop shipping agreement, what if they reject?
What online sources to use to get these suppliers?
There are plenty of sources and they are:
- AliExpress
- Alibaba
- ChinaBrands
- Chinese Sourcing Agents (you need to search Google for Authentic ones)
What makes the supplier trustworthy?
I follow these criteria to make sure I don’t face any trouble or minimize unexpected issues as much as possible:
- The store is 2 years old at least
- The product I want to source has 4 star ratings at least
- The product I want to source has 15 reviews at least
- The supplier is responsive, they respond maximum within 1 working day
- The supplier is willing to dropship and give dropshipping agreement
A communication tool most of them like:
As you know, China is blocking many websites like facebook and apps like Whatsapp. The top 2 communication apps currently are WeChat and QQ. Download these apps, create an account and you will make their lives easier.
You will first contact them on the platform (AliExpress, Alibaba..etc) and ask for a dropshipping partnership and agreement and share your username for WeChat.
Tip: Try using some Chinese words for greetings or for saying thank you, this will build rapport with them.
Negotiating product cost and shipping cost:
Don’t push too hard, they will not like you and they will think you are wasting their time. Remember you are not buying any quantity from them so there is no immediate reward for them and they are most probably busy serving hundreds of customers.
Tell them that you want to build long term business relationship and politely ask if they can provide a better price for the product and shipping and wait their response, if they say no do your calculations again and decide whether to carry on or reject their offer, if you reject their offers choose another supplier. But they reject it and you start working with them, I recommend negotiating again after several orders as they will feel the value you bring.
How to have a drop shipping agreement, what if they reject?
Explain to the supplier that as per ebay policy, the seller has to have a Drop Shipping agreement and in order for you to keep selling on ebay for a long time this document needs to be present with you.
You can prepare your -self an agreement of one page and suggest it to the supplier (to save them time and effort) and they amend it as well if they wish, they will sign on it and give it to you. The agreement will consist of both parties names, addresses and authorization to resell/dropship their products.
If they reject, you have these options:
- Ask for invoice for your purchases.
- Ask for proforma invoice. This invoice is given prior to purchase.
- Get a dropshipping agreement from a Chinese Sourcing Agent and use it for all products you sell from China whether it’s from AliExpress, Aliaba or ChinaBrands because these Sourcing Agents they can source from any Chinese store.
