Summary of the Week

My sourcing productivity was pretty low this week, thanks to so many products arriving at our garage, my having ensure that they all got prepped/shipped, and the distraction of the new warehouse.

Despite that, I still managed to close a small co-exclusive deal with an existing supplier (one of our first) who was seeing serious price erosion. It was so bad that if he didn’t decide to go exclusive with us, I was not going to be able to re-order any more product because the margin had been squeezed to less than zero.

Here’s a snapshot of my activity and results this week:

Here’s a snapshot of revenue for the past week. As you can see, sales were $7,768 and our profit margin was 14%.

And finally, here’s a snapshot of the month of October. As you can see, sales were $26,402 and our profit margin was 12%. (profit margin is net of all shipping and prep fees because we account for those is cost of good sold)

I expect November to be significantly more than October because we’re going to have more products in stock, and more products for sale = more revenue and more profit.

Trent’s Top Tips for Wholesale Product Sourcing

If you are new to my blog, I have already covered my sourcing strategy in detail in episode #213 of my podcast.

What I’m going to share with you today is just some of the key things that I’ve been focusing on as of late.

In explaining what I’m about to, for the sake of brevity, let’s assume the product meets the criteria I’ve outlined in episode #213.

Now that I have sourced enough products to put our revenue in the $60,000 – 70,000 per month range (once they are all in the warehouse and for sale), I’m starting to get pickier about the products that I go after.

In fact, now if I don’t think that I can eventually convince the brand to give me an exclusive, I don’t really try very hard to source even one product from them.

So, here’s my checklist of things I look for:

1. They have multiple products with total revenue of at least $50K a month combined. (as reported by Junglescout)
2. They are a relative small company with fewer than 150 employees on their LinkedIn page
3. Their listings are poorly optimized
4. No one is responding to their negative reviews
5. Prices have been all over the map (Junglescout shows price history. So does CamelCamelCamel)
6. They have approximately 20 sellers or fewer on the product in question

If I find a product that meets the above criteria, I will be relentless in my attempts to get my wholesale account approved, and then I will service the hell out of them to prove that my company is the best option for their future.