Tradeshows are possibly one of the best ways to find suppliers because some of them aren’t easy to find on the Internet and still market themselves mainly offline.
The other benefit of visiting tradeshows is that fact that you get to chat with the suppliers face to face and can build up a relationship much faster than if you were ordering from them by email or phone.
The best way to approach a supplier at a tradeshow is to say that you are the owner of ‘xyz company’ and you’re looking for a good supplier of ‘xyz’ and try to give the impression that you are interviewing them – not the other way around. When you first start out in ecommerce and possibly you don’t even have a site online yet – this is not something you really want to give away from a supplier as they just won’t take you seriously.
This is why we recommend setting up your business, getting some cards printed and having a basic website for your company set up before going to tradeshows.
Unfortunately you will come across some suppliers who don’t like dealing with web retailers as they fear you will sell their products at a huge discount and upset their physical stores who then cannot compete on price. The way to deal with this is to assure them that you won’t be selling them cheap and like to make a decent margin! You could also suggest that you will pay for all orders upfront and so there is also no financial risk on their part making you an ideal customer.
However you will come across suppliers who are very pro web retailers and some of these may also drop ship products for you if you ask.
So here are a few things you should ask a potential supplier when at a tradeshow:
1) Do you drop ship direct to customers?
2) Do you hold good quantities of stock?
3) What is your minimum order quantity?
4) Can you provide me with photos and descriptions of your products (They may have a website where you can get them if you ask)
5) Hold long does it take for me to receive the goods after ordering?
6) Do you offer free shipping? (Some may give free shipping if you order over a certain amount)
7) How long have you been in business?
These are just to give you an idea of the sort of things you will need to know in order to ascertain if they are a suitable supplier or not.
Another tip is to take a bag with you or pick one up early on at the show because you will be collecting brochures and flyers galore! So now that you know that tradeshows are a great place to find your suppliers, go and find out when the next tradeshow you should be attending is on with our amazing tradeshow finding tool!
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