Showing posts with label wholesale. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wholesale. Show all posts

Monday, June 30, 2008

Featured Wholesale Products

Here are some featured new products from Trade.Meritline - Free B2B Marketplace of International Trade Leads for Wholesale Trade Service, for more information, just simple click the picuture.



Metal detectors for hobbies FEATURES 1.Recycle the deposed or old metals. 2.Detect or search for police department. 3.Detect underground metal cultural mineral and bullion material. 4.Check old metals, detect various metal minerals, valid to detect some high quality mineral, especially natural yellow metal. 5.Detect underground pipeline, wire, cable. It is the important tool for the task of building and constructing, fitmending tap water, offering changed eletricity and rebuilding city. PURPOSE Horizontal balance: Can eliminate mineralized reaction of the ground, own good penetrating ability. Identify: Can distinguish black and coloured metal Can detect all metals include gold, silver, iron, tin etc. And can penetrate clay,china, rock, plastic, cement, wood material which cover on it. Metal detector MD-5008 is a handheld apparatus, can be take portably. It has two detecting head. SPECIFICATIONS Signal frequency 437KHz Sensitivity 35cm for a US(25cent)quarter with meter Shooting frequency 6.99KHz Detecting depth(Max) 3m Gross weight 3.2Kg Disc Control Ground Balance Control Accessories battery box and battery bag Tune Control Sensitivity control



Product NO. Type Technology Parameters Application Fields LCD All In One EPC 171E CM440 1.6G; 512M DDR; 2G DOM; Integration display card; 17?LCD; Sound box Office of Hotel, family, government and enterprises; the cashier inquiries in the industry of Food and entertainment; Shopping guide in malls; the automatic inquiries in the business office of bank, telecommunication, securities, etc; the informationization of education and other special industries. EPC 170V VIA C3 1.0G; 256M DDR; 2G DOM; 10-100M Network Card; 17’LCD; With the function of TV (including remote control); External interface:1VGAport, 2 USB ports, 1 Network port, 1 PS/2. EPC 190V VIA C3 1.0G; 256M DDR; 2G DOM; 10-100M Network Card; 19’LCD; With the function of TV (including remote control); External interface: 1 VGA port, 2 USB ports, 1 Network port, 1 PS/2

How to Source Wholesale Products

If you’re starting a retail business and looking for products to sell, you’ll need to find reliable wholesale suppliers. Sourcing wholesale products can be challenging, and there are certainly lots of pitfalls that business owners need to look out for. This serves as a guide with some helpful tips for finding the right wholesale product sources for your business.


Decide what you’re going to sell. There are many ways to go about this. You want to choose products that are going to sell well, but that the market isn’t completely flooded with. In that case, you would need to be ultra-competitive in order to get sales. Perhaps you make your own items to sell (like handmade jewelry or crafts), or you want to sell fashion accessories or clothing. To determine what kind of items are selling well, you’ll need to look at trends. If you’re opening up a physical store in your area, you’ll need to do some research into local trends. If online selling is your game, then your potential for sales will increase exponentially. You can use one or more of the many online tools available to check out selling trends. eBay Seller Tools, for instance, are very robust and easy to use and allow you see product trends over a period time.
Choose your supplier type. Depending on what kind of business you’re starting (online vs. brick and mortar), you’ll need to decide on the type of wholesale supplier you want to use. Here are the types to consider:
Manufacturers: Most times buying direct means a high minimum order. Usually manufacturers will have smaller retailers buy their product through one of their local distributors. You can find this information either on the manufacturer's website or by contacting them directly.
Distributors: Usually distributors tend to carry a large variety of products in a certain category (say pet products) from several manufacturers. Their prices are slightly higher than buying direct, but minimum quantities are usually low and you have the convenience of purchasing products from different manufacturers on one purchase order.
Liquidators: If you are flexible about your product needs, this is a fantastic way to get a real break on price. Many times you can purchase a bulk load of product for up to 75% off the original wholesale price. Consider your purchases carefully because once a product is sold out it's usually gone for good.
Importers: If you plan to sell specialty products from another country, you’ll likely have to go through an importer to get them.
Drop Shippers: If you have an online business, drop shipping is one of the best ways to supply products for your business without worrying about manufacturing processes or warehousing costs. Drop shippers are basically distributors in that they buy from manufacturers or other distributors, but they will ship orders directly to your customers for you, as orders are placed.
Where to look. The most common place to look is online. You can use general search engines like Google and Yahoo, or you can use wholesale-specific search engines, like goWholesale, Top Ten Wholesale, or Wholesale Central. There are also trade lead sites like Alibaba, trade.meritline and Global Sources, which allow you find suppliers all over the world. However you can also check print publications (such as The Closeout News and Retailers Forum), print directories and attend trade shows (where vendors get together to showcase and demonstrate their products).
Do your research. This cannot be stressed enough. There are many scams, fakes and just plain bad businesses to watch out for. There are a ton of resources available for free, so use them! The first place you can check is the supplier’s website. Check out all of their policies (returns, damages, backorders), and make sure they have their contact information and physical address posted on their site (not just a contact form – this is a big red flag). Your best source of information is the supplier themselves – call or email them and ask questions about their products, policies, and terms. You may even be able to ask them for customer references. Don’t forget to use online forums—they are a great place to get references and ask questions, but beware of members who are simply trying to self promote. You can also check your suppliers out through the Better Business Bureau, Hoover’s Online, and even the FBI.
Contact the vendor and place your order. Many vendors have online payment systems set up, but beware of suppliers who aren’t giving you true wholesale pricing. Real wholesale suppliers normally deal with businesses only (not the general public) and require tax IDs to do business. While requirements vary from state to state, here is a list of things that may be necessary for you to have before beginning to buy and sell products:
Local Business License: Typically, the city or county where you are operating your business will require that you have a local business license. Just call or visit your city hall to find out what the requirement is in your jurisdiction.
State Business License: Unless you are selling products such as alcohol or cigarettes, you probably won't be required to have this license. You can find out your state's requirements by simply calling your local government offices.
Sales Tax License:If you live in a state that collects sales tax, you will most likely need this license. Having it will allow you to legally charge sales tax to customers purchasing your items. By calling your State Franchise Tax Board you can find out how to get this license.
Federal License:This license really only applies to a very small portion of businesses that are selling products or services that are highly regulated by government agencies (i.e., if you are selling firearms or offering investment advice). If you think your business falls into that category, you can call your state government offices for more information. However, if your business is required to have this type of license, it may be best to hire an attorney to make sure you are complying with every law and have all the necessary licenses, permits and documentation.
Seller's Permit (also referred to as a reseller's permit or sales tax permit):This permit is typically required for businesses that are purchasing wholesale products for resale. Usually your State Franchise Tax Board is the agency that grants this permit.You can also set up payment terms and arrange credit with your suppliers, so make sure to ask them what kind of options they can offer you.
Develop and maintain a positive relationship with the wholesale supplier if all goes well so far. You can have more than one supplier, especially if you sell a wide range of products. This can be beneficial, because you’ll have more product options, possibly better prices, and lower risk in case something happens with one or more of your other suppliers.

How to Find a Supplier in China

Suppose you come up with a product idea or think you have market channels for certain products, and you want to find a supplier in China because of the low product development cost and low production cost there. If you Google the product name or concept, you will find tons of China suppliers/manufacturers. However, you still think you have not got one, because you want to find a capable and reliable one that would satisfy your specific needs and have a strong desire to do business with you. Many people get frustrated because they have been communicating with suppliers in China for months, but fail to move forward. The reason, most likely, is that they did not find the suitable one at the beginning. To successfully find a suitable China supplier, you need a strategy. This strategy will consist of awareness, knowledge and a good amount of homework. Below are some practical steps to find a suitable Chinese supplier for you.

STEPS
Understand what you need. You need to first know what is available and have a way to categorize the information. Here are some categories to help you think about Chinese suppliers: manufacturer vs. 3rd-party supplier; Big corporation vs. small family-owned; 3rd-party supplier with in-house product development capability vs. 3rd-party supplier that just buys-in and sells-out; vertically integrated manufacturer vs. assembly-based manufacturer; etc. Properly categorizing the suppliers will help you understand what you need. For example, if you need to import products in a narrow range, you may choose a manufacturer other than a 3rd-party supplier. If you are a small business and need dedicated attention, you may want to develop a good relationship with a small family-owned business.
Do some preliminary Internet research to further develop your category system towards your specific needs. Create a data table to help you record the search result, so the job can be done more efficiently and effectively. The table should include columns like company name, contact information, business scale and scope, category check boxes (important), and notes.
Use search engines to search information related to your product name. The first 100 results would be the most relevant websites related to the product of your concern. You can also find your competitors' information and develop a better sense of market segment and marketing channels.
Use popular business directory websites to obtain very structured information for Chinese suppliers. The directory websites are also excellent resource to obtain industrial knowledge.
Narrow down the the list of suppliers you want to work with to a manageable amount. At this stage, you may already know what your real needs are and what is available. Initiate contact with the suppliers you want to work with, and further develop relationships with them. Eventually, you will find the one. The process can be fun and a friendly experience.

TIPS
Analyzing the types of suppliers has strategic importance. It will help you to understand where you are, what kind of results to expect, and what are the things you need to take care of in the mutual cooperation. You may want to have an experienced person help you to analyze the information. In your strategy, you will also need to include the consideration of the future contracting and operation. You may seek advice from Chinese professionals who understand the Chinese mentality, culture and business practices. You may get the incorrect interpretation if you visit the supplier's English website, or you could omit data that contains key information.
Just because a site is ranked higher in Google search listing, this does not necessarily mean it is a more serious business. Some very good Chinese suppliers are not well-versed in having their website listed highly, while some other Internet guys can have their website listed very highly. Use your industrial judgment.
Information comes from seemly insignificant data, for example, the email addresses may reveal useful information about Chinese suppliers. However, do not judge an address too quickly. You never know where good information can come from.
Be aware that while the decision-maker may not speak any English, establishing good relationship (guanxi) with the top management is crucial for long-term success.
Email is good for exchanging product specifications, catalogue and price list. To establish a deeper relationship, a phone call is 10 times better than email. A personal meeting is 100 times better than a phone call. Many people want to start a business, so you have to show you are more serious. As long as your contact person uses English, you can just go ahead and give that person a phone call. It does not matter how much you and that person can understand each other; you can always follow up with an email.
Work with suppliers that have already exported their products to Europe or the US. Pay attention to the agent relationship. Many manufacturers may have their products exported to the US in good quantity through a third party supplier without an exclusive supply agreement. They may want to have direct channels to the US, and that might mean more business for you.
Consider accessing the U.S. customs records for your supplier to get an independently verified list of their shipments to the U.S. This will tell you who their customers are, how loyal those customers are, as well as the volume capabilities of your factory. Import Genius offers these hard-to-find customs records at affordable rates.
A visit to your supplier production site in China is the only reliable way to truly know its capabilities, to check that the data you have collected on the company is 100% correct, and that ISO & Quality principles are applied: Check the factory organization, its process flows, the quality of goods produced, the packaging, the workers' training level, the overall working conditions, equipment maintenance, etc. This will give you an indication of how the company is managed. A face-to-face meeting with the supplier's management team will also give you an idea of their experience and willingness to embark on your project. You will also be able to create a friendly relationship, which is crucial for your project!

Business Process Outsourcing: A Cheap Alternative to Get the Job Done

Try to imagine that you need a business process to be finished. You hire a professional in your country that charges about a hundred dollars to get the job done. This can prove to be too expensive for your company. What if you can get the job done, with the same quality made by a person with the same qualifications as the person you hired before, to do the particular business process at half the price?
This can prove to be very attractive. However, how can you be able to find this person with the same qualification but charges half the price your professional charges? The answer to this question is to outsource your business process in developing countries full of talented professionals.
Since developing countries have lower minimum salary rates, outsourcing can prove to be a cheaper alternative to do a particular business process that you need. Not only that, if your company is burdened with heavy workloads, outsourcing can help your company ease the burden. This will mean more efficiency and productivity for your company while saving a lot of money in the process.
By outsourcing your business process, you can be sure that you will be able to get the job done at half the price. Developing countries, such as India, China, Philippines, and others can provide cheap labor compared to hiring professionals in the United States.
Outsourcing companies is considered as a major industry in developing countries. Governments of developing countries are welcoming outsourcing companies to provide top quality jobs for their professionals with high paying salary. Although the salary you will give to outsourcing companies in other countries may be considered high, in the United States it will be considered to be very low, the minimum wage in developing countries is far lower than you can imagine.
Outsourcing business processes in other countries will also mean saving a lot of money on company insurance, social security payments and other benefits that you will be required to pay for if you hire a regular employee in your company to do the job.
As you can see, outsourcing your business process' main advantage is providing your company with cheap labor and at the same time quality and professionally done jobs. The bottom line for outsourcing is saving a lot of money for your company.
So, if you are looking for a way to get cheap labor for your company, you can consider looking outside your country for outsourcing companies that can tailor your needs for your company.
However, before hiring a particular outsourcing company, you have to make sure that the quality of their work meets your company standards. Outsourcing companies are now providing ways for you to evaluate their work first before you hire them. Because of this, you can be sure that you will be getting the best outsourcing company to get your business process done.
Outsourcing doesn only provide cheap labor for your company, but it can also ease the burden of heavy workload because of the growing demand for your company services. Through outsourcing, you will be able to increase productivity and efficiency of your company.
However, you should always remember that outsourcing is not for everybody. You have to determine if your company should outsource your business process or not. If you think your company can handle it, you should keep the work in your company. But if it proves to be very burdensome, you should consider outsourcing. So, instead of hiring additional regular employees in your company, you can outsource your business process and save a lot of money.

Sunday, June 29, 2008

How Business-to-Business Works

Unlike retailing, which is mostly a Business-to-Consumer (B2C) industry, B2B deals with working with vendors, distributors, and other businesses. How does Business-to-Business (B2B) work, and especially how does it work for retailers?
There are different types of B2B ecommerce sites that work in various ways and are broken into two major groups: the verticals and horizontals. Verticals are B2B sites designed specifically to meet the needs of a particular industry, such as retail. Vertical sites are the most likely to contain community features like industry news, articles, and discussion groups.
Horizontals provide products, goods, materials, or services that are not specific to a particular industry or company. Horizontals that retailers could use might provide travel, transportation services, office equipment, or maintenance and operating supplies.
Horizontals and verticals can connect buyers and sellers together directly or act as intermediaries who facilitate transactions. There isn't one ubiquitous model for B2B electronic commerce. B2B sites vary from those providing simple lead generation, to complex marketplaces serving a variety of buyers and sellers, to private extranets.
Auctions allow multiple buyers to bid competitively for products from individual suppliers. Auctions can be used to get rid of surplus inventory by item or lot, or excess fixed assets like display fixtures. Since the seller can set a minimum price with prices moving up from the minimum, the sellers can usually get more than a liquidator would pay for the same items. Buyers also have the ability to pick up product and equipment well below list prices.
Reverse auctions, in contrast, allow retailers to post their need for a product or service and then allow vendors to bid on fulfilling the need. Some reverse auction sites aggregate demand from many small buyers providing economy of scale. Small retailers ordering as a group will get a much better deal from a vendor than they could individually.
B2B sites also include catalog aggregators who act as intermediaries between many vendors and retailers. They standardize content by combining catalogs from multiple vendors. Catalog sites generally have fixed pricing, although pricing may be tiered based on the buyer's profile or quantity ordered.
Exchanges are two-sided marketplaces where buyers and suppliers negotiate prices. Frequently utilizing a bid/ask process where prices move up and down depending on the market. Exchanges can be used for new items and supplies, or used to trade excess inventory and fixed assets.
B2B sites can also provide project tracking or collaboration services to their members. Collaboration allows retailers and vendors to work on new products, provide better forecasts, and improve response.
Buyers and sellers can come together on B2B sites openly or by using infomediaries. Infomediaries are third parties that act as agents. They are frequently used to allow the participants to remain anonymous while transacting business. In addition to transaction services, an infomediary could provide advice or research helping retailers make informed buying decisions.
Facilitating B2B ecommerce in yet another way, are the channel enablers who create online marketplaces for existing distribution channels. Channel enablers support both buyers and sellers with B2B ecommerce services that vary from consolidating product information, to managing distribution and payment, to integrating with the members' back-end systems. This last service is a common use of channel enablers in the retail B2B area: translation services to EDI.
The translation service is needed because the underlying technology of B2B ecommerce replaces the current retail ecommerce standard, EDI (Electronic Data Interchange). EDI is less standardized and more costly than Internet based ecommerce, which typically uses XML (eXtensible Markup Language) to allow buyers and sellers to communicate online. Many B2B sites integrate EDI-to-XML transactions enabling trading between large and small companies.
XML provides a flexible way to describe product specifications or attributes. In simple terms, XML is similar in concept to HTML, which allows you to "mark up" language to control how it looks. Unlike HTML however, XML allows you to "mark up" language to describe what it is. Using XML you can label part number, UPC, price, color, size, etc. and the system will know exactly what the tag references without the complicated file structures and proprietary networks required for EDI. The only issue is that XML only works when everyone uses the same tag references, which is why groups are busily working to generate standards.
What do retailers need to know about these standards and how do B2B systems work with their existing legacy systems?

Benefits of Business-to-Business

Why would retailing, the ultimate Business-to-Consumer (B2C) industry, benefit from Business-to-Business (B2B) electronic commerce? Wouldn't the nature of retailing make it unsuitable for B2B transactions?
Considering the depth and breadth of products and supplies used by retailers, it is ripe for B2B transactions. Using B2B ecommerce can help lower procurement costs. Working in conjunction with other retailers can introduce an economy of scale. Being connected to suppliers creates an efficient purchasing process. Business-to-Business transactions can improve cycle times and productivity.
Here are just a few of the possible uses of B2B sites by retailers:
Consolidating orders with other retailers to obtain discounts from manufacturers.
Auction off excess inventory for quick liquidation, freeing inventory dollars.
Exchange assets or sell them for cash.
Sell back-hauling services for the trucks used to distribute goods to the stores.
Arrange to share transportation costs on LTL shipments.
Post requests for proposal (RFP) or request for quote (RFQ) in one place saving time and effort while broadening response.
Some significant retailers and retail organizations are jumping on the B2B bandwagon. The National Retail Federation announced in January that it was joining in a B2B site with i2i Retail. Then, just one day after the first part of this series ran, Sears, Roebuck and Co. and Carrefour Supermarche announced plans for a major B2B site in conjunction with Oracle.
The two retail giants, Sears and Carrefour, are working with Oracle to launch a global business-to-business online exchange serving the retail industry. GlobalNetXchange will offer a global retail goods marketplace, supply chain management, and other collaborative solutions. Initially focusing on Sears and Carrefour's combined $80 billion supply chain purchases from 50,000 suppliers, partners and distributors, Sears and Carrefour expect GlobalNetXchange will significantly reduce their purchasing expenses and enhance supply chain efficiencies with their trading partners.
The ability of Internet marketplaces to connect international and geographical markets without major infrastructure investments makes it ideal for large and small retailers alike. In addition, B2B sites can offer services that make them valuable to retailers:
Content, such as product knowledge, news, and industry articles.
Buyer and seller ratings.
Logistics services.
Escrow and financial settlement.
Back-end integration with the retailer's computer systems.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

New Trend of International Business

Presently, there are many more organizations, companies and corporations seeking all
possible ways to market their products, partner distributors or resellers overseas and set
the company image or brand worldwide but because of the lack ness of effective sale and
promulgation channel as well as the direct way of contacting buyers, the influence of
oversea branding campaign is not so good as it is presumed to be.

The world of B2B (Business-to-Business) is changing fast. Using the power, speed and
versatility of the Internet, today companies of all sizes are conducting billions of dollars of
new business everyday, thanks to secure and mission-critical business to business
applications. B2B is defined by two companies doing business together directly, with no
intermediaries. Such a method has proven itself as fast, economical and, above all,
extremely efficient. Truely there are lots of sites there being famous now like aliaba, trade.meritline and others not.

As a leading B2B E-commerce export service provider in China and USA, Trade.Meritline
provides a B2B online marketing platform for both Chinese enterprises and global buyers.Based on Meritline's 15 years of E-commerce service experience of 30 million users in
over 64 industries, Trade.Meritline provides large variety of on-line and off-line integrative
international trade service for Chinese suppliers and global buyers, such as supplier
recommendation, promotion in global exhibitions and business matching, by the advanced
information service techs (e.g. on-line searching and multidimensional exhibition) and the
strict 3rd-party authentication system.

About T.M
Trade.Meritline is a leading B2B E-commerce service provider in China. On the strength of its Internet product, an online marketing platform, and the professional services and
cutting-edge Internet technologies, T.M serves as a reliable trading platform that provides
a full range of e-commerce services for small-and-medium-sized enterprises. At present, it
has over 5 million registered users and serves up to 8 million buyers in more than 60
industries, making itself the most influential e-commerce service provider in China.

For more, please visit: http://trade.meritline.com