Welcome back, Empire Builders! Recently, Alibaba had a trade show called March Expo, where suppliers showed off their latest products (including many winning 8-figure dropshipping products). It’s a bit like a smaller, online version of the Canton Fair, the biggest trade fair in China. Whether you haven’t begun building your business, you’re just starting out, or you’re already established in a niche, taking advantage of training like these events will benefit your business now or in the future.
Learn how to leverage Alibaba, along with events like the Canton Fair and March Expo, to find high-profit dropshipping products on demand and start making profits today. These events display the hottest up-and-coming products gaining popularity. Many of them won’t be available outside of China for years, if ever. That’s why it’s such a great opportunity to get ahead of the curve, learn the trends, and capitalize on them long before your competitors have any idea these products exist.
Start With Alibaba.com
Go to Alibaba.com. You’ll see tons of promotions for the March Expo or, once the event has passed, trending seasonal items. Based on your niche, click the category you want to explore. When looking through the products, you’ll likely see many you’re familiar with and others you may never have even heard of. Try to identify potential 8-figure products worth selling. (You can also prepare for events and seasonal sales in the latter half of 2021 and even 2022!)
Avoid This Common and Costly Rookie Mistake
One of the biggest mistakes that newbies make is finding a product and jumping in with a supplier — without knowing how to tell if they’re reliable or being able to recognize red flags. When people are just beginning, they’re understandably excited. To set your business up for success, however, one of the most important things is finding a reputable supplier.
The biggest limitation of selling physical products is logistics. You have to deal with things like confirming your suppliers ship orders on time, verifying that customers receive tracking numbers, ensuring sufficient inventory, and much more. A lot of this is the supplier’s responsibility. But you have to make sure your suppliers are doing their jobs properly. That’s why it’s so important to work with reputable suppliers.
Luckily, Alibaba shows the leading suppliers for each category and displays trust badges to help you decide who to work with. I always make sure my suppliers have a minimum of three to five years of experience. You’ll see that some have been in business for five years, while others have been around for as many as 18!
How to Pick a Supplier
Let’s focus back on the subcategories; suppose that you want to start selling gardening supplies. Then click on “View More” to see all the products in that category. If you’re still new to e-commerce, you may feel overwhelmed with all the options and confused about how to pick products. That’s completely normal. My first and most important piece of advice about this is: NEVER find a supplier and immediately click “start order.” You’d be surprised how many people do that without thinking it through.
1. Contact the Supplier
Contacting the supplier first allows you to discuss different pricing options and structures. With this simple step, you can get a better price for your 8-figure dropshipping products. If you reach out, they’ll often give you a better deal than the listed price. So, when you find a supplier that sells something of interest, go to their page. Look for indicators that they’re trustworthy. First, check the verification type. If it says “on-site check,” that means Alibaba sent somebody to physically inspect the location to make sure everything’s in order and the business is legitimate.
2. Do Business With a Manufacturer, Not Just a Trading Company
Next, focus on the business type. This is one of the most important things! If you only remember one thing I say today, remember that the ideal business type is a manufacturer, meaning they make the products themselves. If it says, “trading company,” though, they’re basically a middleman who just dropships somebody else’s products to you. Sometimes they’ll be listed as a manufacturer and trading company which is fine. If you can avoid working with a trading company, you generally should. Most of the time, working directly with manufacturers gets you the best deal.
I know people hate to hear, “it depends,” but in this case, that isn’t always a hard and fast rule. You’ll usually get a better deal with a manufacturer. But there will be times when a trading company is cheaper because they’re working with multiple sellers and getting bulk discounts you couldn’t afford. Just do your due diligence first when you’re investing in potential 8-figure dropshipping products. Speaking of due diligence, always make sure that the supplier brings in a decent profit. If they’re selling all those products and only making 100k a year, they might be doing something wrong. Look for companies making at least a couple million dollars.
Make sure any supplier you consider has a quick response time and a high on-time delivery rate so that you know you can count on them. It also helps to use a supplier with multiple products in the same category. This way, if you want to expand into gardening tools or accessories down the road, you already have a supplier instead of having to start over and juggling two different manufacturers.
Verify Your 8-Figure Dropshipping Products
Let’s say you see some products you think would work and you found a possible supplier who is reputable. But how do you know if the product(s) you chose is worth selling? Personally, I always like to leverage Amazon. They have powerful tools, millions of users, and so much data available and visible. Why not use it?
Just search your product on Amazon and see how much they’re selling for. Then, compare that price to the cost of buying it from your supplier to see your profit margin. Make sure they’re not dominated by one brand so that you can break into the market. Also, make sure that the product is actually selling by checking their seller rank to see if it’s under #20,000.
If you’re looking to take your business to the next level, sign up for my masterclass for exclusive training to learn how I used a simple 5-page funnel to make full-time money without buying ads or touching a single product. You can also visit my YouTube channel for more insights about 8-figure dropshipping products, finding suppliers, and setting up your sales funnel. Remember, your empire starts now.
