Forget China! How To Find USA Wholesale Suppliers And Avoid Paying Tariffs

if you don't want to go through the hassle of importing products from china or dealing with chinese suppliers this video will teach you how to find wholesale suppliers in the united states if you enjoyed this video don't forget

to hit the subscribe button and be sure to hit the bell button to be notified when new videos come out now when it comes to finding suppliers for products saw online most people look towards china and other asian countries because

the price of labor is far cheaper than the us but working with asian vendors comes at a cost for example you have to deal with language barriers you have to adapt to cultural differences you have

to pay import duties on your goods you have to pay high cost of shipping from overseas you have to contend with longer lead times for production and you have to communicate in different time zones now in contrast working with vendors in

the us is much more straightforward there's no communication barrier the minimum order quantities tend to be lower and the cost of shipping is significantly less in addition there aren't any import duties now one of the

biggest mistakes new importers make is not taking into account the tariffs that are imposed on certain raw materials and depending on the product these extra taxes can significantly increase your

cost of goods now first off there's this misconception that everything is cheaper in china but that's actually not the case in fact the cost of raw materials is very similar

between the u.s and china for example if i want to create plastic products and i already own my molds the cost of plastic is more or less the same whether i produce my products in china or the us

now the primary advantage of sourcing from china is the cost of labor which is more than an order of magnitude less than the us as a result any type of product that involves a high percentage

of human labor will almost always be cheaper in china this includes woodworking sewing stitching packaging assembly etc but if you're just getting started in e-commerce or if you are terrified of high tariffs on certain

materials and products then you may want to consider sourcing from the united states and oftentimes if you factor in the extra cost of shipping import duties material defects and the headaches of dealing with chinese vendors going with

a local us vendor might actually make sense in any case i will let you be the judge here's how i find suppliers in the united states method number one use reference usa

which is otherwise known as data axle today now in all my years of teaching e-commerce i find it perplexing that almost no one ever mentions reference usa as a resource

not only is reference usa or data axle 100 free but it's probably the best and most comprehensive database available in the united states now what is reference

usa reference usa offers the most up-to-date data on businesses in the u.s

and it can be used to locate any type of company nationwide research business executives any company find business opportunities and suppliers for your ecommerce store and find manufacturers

to produce your products but there is a small catch reference usa can only be accessed at your local library but most libraries support it and here's how you get access so step number one you have

to call your local library and ask them if they have access to reference usa or data axle now reference usa has a handy library locator that you can find in the notes below step number two is you need to get a

library card now most of you probably haven't set foot on a library since the dawn of the internet but you'll have to physically go in to get your library card now library cards are free and you can actually rent movies video games and

books in addition to access reference usa and then step three you have to access reference usa from the library website now most likely you'll be asked to type in your library card number and

a four digit pin to access reference usa all right and here's how to use reference usa once you get in when you first log in it will ask you what you want to search for then you want to click on us businesses and then you want

to click on advanced search now from here i click on the following now this tells reference usa to include smaller businesses in the search results

under keyword sic naics this allows you to search by keyword or topic and then finally under city and state you obviously want to include what location that you're at then i enter in what i'm looking for

along with the geography for example let's say i want a plastic mold company in santa clara california after i click on the view results button i'm presented with a list of plastic

mold manufacturers in my area and it's that simple overall reference usa is a great way to find contact information for any business in the us now the only downside is that reference usa also

returns retail businesses as well so as a result you often have to sift through the results to find your real suppliers method number two use thomasnet.com now thomasnet.com is another database of

u.s suppliers that primarily caters to

u.s suppliers that primarily caters to industrial and commercial suppliers and what's nice about thomasnet compared to reference usa is that thomasnet only includes real suppliers and not retail

shops as a result you won't have to do as much sifting through the thomas net results now the downside of course is that reference usa is infinitely larger than thomas net because it has access to

every business in the united states now for all practical purposes i like to start on thomas net first and then use reference usa if i can't find anything good now using the same example from

reference usa that i used earlier let's look for plastic mold manufacturers on thomas.net now as you can see thomasnet returns very specific plastic suppliers

categorized by their specialty then you can limit the results based on your geography now once again thomas net is more geared towards industrial suppliers so you probably won't find

general consumer products on there but if you are looking to fabricate your own designs whether it be clothing plastic or metal then thomasnet.com is an excellent resource in addition you

can also find cad designers and clothing designers if you want to create your own custom products from scratch method number three use worldwide brands now worldwide brands is a service that

aggregates light bulk and drop ship wholesalers into a nice searchable directory and they also prevent these suppliers to make sure that they are legit now i've had a worldwide branch account since 2011 and while i don't use

the directory that much these days it's actually an excellent resource for finding light bulk and drop ship suppliers in the united states now what does light bulk mean exactly a light bulk supplier is a term coined by

worldwide brands for suppliers that require a minimum buy of 500 or less as a result you can get started for a much lower cost than going with a traditional factory now while this sounds great for

beginners the reason why i haven't used worldwide brands in ages is because i no longer dropship and i don't sell other people's products at all in fact long time readers of mywifequtterjob.com

know that i'm pretty anti drop shipping in general but i get enough questions about drop shipping that i feel compelled to address them now here's what the interface for worldwide brands looks like when you log in by entering a

product worldwide brands will return a list of suppliers and by clicking on the see full details button you can get that supplier's contact information minimum order quantity and their vendor website

if you're struggling to find dropship vendors in the united states then worldwide brands can save you a lot of time method number four use maker's row

now makers row is a directory of over 10 000 us manufacturers across over a dozen different industries and similar to thomas net you can search by location and capability now makers row is

actually considered a premium service and it comes at a monthly membership cost but their interface allows you to easily get estimates book consultations and reach out to real us manufacturers

and here's how it works once you sign up you can browse the directory of manufacturers and what's nice is that makers row presents you with a beautiful view of the factory including reference samples pictures and videos there you

can learn about the manufacturer make contact and book a consult now once you've selected a factory makers row has project management software built in to allow you to provide product details and

manage your entire production process now keep in mind that makers row is tailored towards businesses looking to manufacture their own products from complete scratch and similar thomasnet and reference usa you will have to do

most of the heavy lifting in contacting and interfacing with manufacturers how do you choose from the different supplier research tools that i just specified now when it comes to sourcing

products to sell the four tools that i just described serve different purposes thomasnet and makers row are much more useful if you plan on creating and manufacturing your own products from

scratch as a result you won't find many suppliers on either service that sells other people's branded products now reference usa is a directory of every single business in the us which

makes it much more versatile than thomas net however you will have to go through the results of your searches more carefully to find a supplier that matches your needs now if you're looking for wholesale vendors try including the

keyword wholesale alongside of your search keyword terms and then finally worldwide brands is a directory of pre-vetted drop ship and light bulk wholesale suppliers in the united states

and there you'll find suppliers who are willing to drop ship their own brands now when it comes to sourcing the us it pays to do a full cost benefit analysis with an equivalent chinese manufacturer

so get a quote from a chinese factory and be sure to factor in costs such as the cost of inspection the cost of freight forwarding the cost of import taxes and duties and in addition to pure

dollar costs be sure to factor in a small amount which i call the mental anguish tax after all dealing with chinese suppliers will often take away a piece of your sanity because they are always trying to

cut corners and save on costs now when all said and done sometimes it's worth using a us manufacturer even if the cost is a little bit higher after all the lead times will be much shorter which

will allow your business to be more nimble in addition it's also nice to know that you're only a short flight away from visiting the factory floor of your us manufacturer hope you enjoyed this video now if you

like what you saw there's actually a lot more where that came from if you subscribe to my channel below and if you are interested in learning how to sell physical products online then click over here and take my free 6 day mini course

where i'll walk you through everything that you need to know to get started in ecommerce thanks for watching