Why Sourcing the Right Supplier Can Be Beneficial for Up and Coming Businesses?

When sourcing a supplier for your business, I wouldn’t recommend using a search engine. Search engines provide comfort, as long as you have a search term you have enough information to get you going.

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The challenge comes when you start to rely on the information provided by the search engine to make long term pivotal and strategic decisions such as supplier selection.

On page one of a search engine, you will find suppliers who put a huge amount of effort into their web presence. They’ve paid the most to optimise their SEO so they rank high on search engines, encouraging you to use their services.

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If most of the supplier’s money is ploughed into marketing, this means there is less money left over for customer service and product development.

I feel the supplier who spends less on marketing will be the supplier you should use because they’ve invested more resource and finance into their customer service and products.

You need to question, are these companies good at delivering the service or products you require?

This is the most essential part of the selection process of a supplier, you need them to be good at what they do and deliver on time quality products/service.

Here are some steps you can take when selecting your supplier:

Purchase Crown Connective’s supplier e-books and request references.

Ask specific questions that are important to your company and not generic questions.

Dig deep into the supplier’s customer service, delivery model and enquire if they can meet your business needs. You ned to get to the root of identifying if the chosen supplier will be beneficial for you and your company.

Discover the expertise the supplier is good at delivering, they may be great at one service but if they don’t have the expertise you require; then this isn’t helpful to you or your business.

Crown Connective’s supplier e-books are tailored for each business niche, which takes the hassle out of asking the above questions.

Even though Crown Connective provides you with supplier contact details, we would still encourage you to ask your supplier(s) questions.

Ask about and research the long-term business strategy of their business.

What new markets are they pushing, product development and are they on trend.

Don’t always Fall for the Cheapest Prices

Literally, quality is synonymous with a high price!

Suffice it to be that prices go down with quality on. With this in mind, you don’t have to feel you have got a good offer when you haggle down your supplier to the lowest price.

Do your research and find the price range from most sellers, and any odd price most probably indicates compromised quality.

Analyse Basic Information of the Supplier

Take your time to look at the details of your potential suppliers.

Look at their business name, what they sell, do they manufacture as well?

How many units of products have they sold? When was the store opened?

To check for these, ask your chosen supplier(s) from the Crown Connective supplier e-book.

Check other Products the Supplier Sells

Does your choice of supplier sell different niche-products?

Suppliers who sell a variety of items in a different niche often lack top-notch professionalism and offer less favourable pricing.

For instance, if you want to import electronic products, go for suppliers who specifically focus on the electronics niche.

With this idea, you can cross-sell as you’ll get a better product idea when you choose a supplier with a specific market focus.

Purchase from Suppliers That Have 95%+ Positive Rating

When you talk about seller evaluation, you shouldn’t undermine positive feedback rate and feedback score.

While the positive feedback rate indicates the rate of feedback the supplier has gotten over time, the feedback score shows the volume of sales made by the seller.

When sourcing our suppliers listed in the Crown Connective e-books, we chose suppliers with feedback scores of 2,000 or more and a 95%postivie feedback rate.

Another good tip is to stay away from products that have no feedback. Apparently, you wouldn’t want your customers to be the testers, and possibly pour their bad experiences – this kills your brand.

Communicate with your choice of supplier

When you shortlist suppliers, there is a need to communicate with them.

Call /contact your potential suppliers, ask questions, analyse their professionalism, inquire about the shipping details, and negotiate in the case of big orders.

Make use of the contact details provided in the Crown Connective e-books for each supplier, then take note of how long it takes each of them to reply.

Never Join the “Out of Stock” Team

No one would cheerfully want to tell their customers they are out of stock.

When you do, you don’t just lose customers but trust too. Here’s the way to go; get more than one supplier for the same or related products, so you don’t run out of products to sell to your customers.

If your first supplier goes out of stock, you can fall back on your second supplier, even if it entails selling a slightly different version of what the previous supplier used to offer.

When cases like this arise, you may make no profit or even lose a few pounds in the process; the aim is to maintain a large customer base that can always return and shop anytime confidently.

ePacket Shipping Service

Regular shipping can take about 20-60 days to deliver, but ePacket shipping cuts shipping time drastically to around 7 days.

When you want to choose a supplier, it’s imperative to find one that offers ePacket service because faster delivery doesn’t just build your brand but improves your buyers’ experience.

ePacket service was put into place to make shipping out of China cheaper and quicker.

If you choose a supplier based in the United Kingdom, enquire with Royal the best service to use for your business. Depending on the frequency and size of your products, prices and packages will vary.

If you choose a supplier outside of the UK and you find the shipping costs to be over your budget, I would suggest using a freight company.

Freight companies can offer your company a comprehensive personal service, that is seamless, more importantly, cost effective.

Order Samples

Now, you have completed your due diligence and found a couple of suppliers from the Crown Connective e-book you can buy from; it’s time to test orders.

If you have the financial power, you can place about 3 to 5 orders with various sellers and check their delivery time, product quality, and shipping package.

Do not upload pictures of the products onto your website before testing your samples, verify that the samples are up to standard before you place images of potential stock you intend on selling.

After every evaluation, the test order can be the last point of your supplier evaluation. Once your suppliers pass this and meet your requirement, you can use them.

Continue to follow Crown Connective and purchase their supplier e-books

The fact is that most retailers will not want to reveal their suppliers to you. All you need to do is purchase Crown Connective supplier e-books to find the right suppliers for your brand.

Get good at building relationships with insiders in the industry, and soon you’ll become one of them. Follow Crown Connective on LinkedIn and build your LinkedIn profile to be very professional, and start connecting. Subscribe to newsletters in your industry and build your network.

Order from your Competitor

This is something most business owners will not tell you. If your competitor has a different supplier from yours or who you intend to use, place an order on their store to get an idea of the level of service they offer. You might want to consider them or take your game up a notch to stand above the competition.

General Tips for Safety – Buyers’ Safety Policy

A partial refund is granted if the received item is not as described by the seller.

You can discuss possible solutions with the seller to reach to an amicable agreement.

Get your e-book at wwwcrownconnective.co.uk today, choose quality and reliable suppliers, and take your e-commerce business to another level!