The part no one talks about: suppliers are harder than products.
When I first started doing e-commerce, I thought product selection would be the hardest part. I spent weeks just looking for so-called “winning products”. But looking back now… it was actually the easiest step.
Whether it's Alibaba, 1688, supplier directories, or even some AI tools, you can basically find trending categories pretty fast these days. Product sourcing has become kinda standardized already.
The real hard part is actually figuring out if you can find a supplier you won’t regret later.
My process is roughly like this: for the same product, I’ll reach out to like 10–15 suppliers. Usually only about 8 reply. Out of those 8, maybe 4 will have samples or product photos that actually match reality. Then out of those 4, maybe only 2 can meet MOQ, price, and lead time at the same time. And out of those 2… usually 1 will become unstable or just disappear after the first order.
It’s basically a funnel.
Some things I learned along the way: response speed matters more than price — fast suppliers are usually more reliable. Always ask for factory real shots, product images online are pretty much useless now. Test at least 3 suppliers per SKU, otherwise you’ll get burned. Big factories ≠ better, sometimes small workshops care more about long-term cooperation.
Still not solved: how do you actually judge a supplier before spending weeks on sampling and back-and-forth? And like… are trading companies better or factories?
Reality is, you might spend a whole month just to find one supplier you can actually work with long-term.
Lately I've been trying some tools to speed this up, like AccioWork, which helps narrow down suppliers instead of starting from scratch every time. It doesn't solve everything, but it definitely makes the early chaos a bit more manageable.
Curious how others usually vet suppliers?