Ordering my first shipment of samples to sell on Amazon direct from the manufacturer is exciting. Here I will share with you the details.

I have tried different mediums to sell stuff:

• Waking up early to go to garage sales and sell them on e-bay
• Going on Sales to get items cheaper and sell them for a profit
• Buying things from LetGo or FB marketplace and re-sell them

However, the profit margins have been close to nothing when I factor in my time and other resources. E-bay is a good idea but shipping costs in Canada are so expensive and eats more on your profits, leaving you with close to nothing.

I have initially tried Amazon FBA a couple years back. For products, I would go to sales, search the entire store, and look for something I could sell on Amazon. There was some profits in there but looking for the products took so much time and buying them up front cost some real money to a hustling new entrepreneur.

This time however, I have decided to take a different approach to it. I have decided to try it again and get my products from the manufacturers themselves.

Going for the Source

I’m sure you have heard of Alibaba. A great place look for manufacturers and getting the products cheaper. This will in the end get your profit margins higher.

You can go to the website itself through your computer but I would recommend downloading the Alibaba app (please do not confuse it with Aliexpress as that has a different purpose). The reason why I prefer the app is because I like the communication to be fast.

Choosing Your Manufacturer

There is a lot of ways that you can choose from the hundreds of manufacturers on Alibaba. Here are some things I look at when I choose them:

• Being a Gold Plus Supplier
• Trade Assurance
• How fast they communicate
• How long they have been on Alibaba

Sometimes I play around and try some that are not a Gold Plus Supplier but the other three are very important to me.

Choosing Your Product

I am at a point where I am fed up with thinking I should think things through too much. Whenever I do, I always end up not doing anything. This is called Analysis Paralysis. And so I have decided to do less thinking and more doing. Lately, doing this has actually made me so much more progress.

Having said that, I just choose my products by looking around me. See what people use and what’s becoming a trend. Then, I just test it out.

Buying Your First Products

When I first talk to a new manufacturer, I just send them the basic “I’m interested” message that Alibaba already has a button for. I wait for them to get back to me and see who communicates more effectively; speed, efficiency, and if they can communicate properly.

I then just have a conversation with them about the following things:

• Do you send samples?
• How much would it cost? The products, the shipping, etc.
  • Play around with what you can get. I normally do not order just one sample. I normally order enough to actually test the product, test the market with it, and make a small profit from the deal when you deduct all your costs.

A Conservative Profit Calculation

I normally calculate things this way:

[(number of products)x(cheapest market selling price – $1)] x 35%

So if for example I order 50 items, and the market is selling them for $12.99 then I would calculate them this way.

[50x(12.99-1)] x 0.35

[50×11.99] x 0.35

599.5 x 0.35

=$209.825

Now, did I make money from the transaction? If I did then I will go through with the deal.

Why 35%

Because there’s a lot of fees and costs involved and 35% is what I find the most conservative umbrella margin to see if I can make profit.