Transcription
The biggest Amazon sellers and DTC brands have a dirty little secret they don't want you to know. And they're not smarter than you. They're not luckier than you. They just know all the tricks on how to get the best deals on the products they sell. And it's not where you think.
I'm about to teach you these tricks. While everyone's fighting over the same overpriced junk on Alibaba, the real money makers have a completely different playbook. They're finding products in places you never thought to look. Negotiating deals that seem impossible. And they're doing it with strategies so simple it's going to annoy you that you didn't know them sooner.
So, in the next 13 minutes, I'm going to save you more money than you've probably saved all year. And I'm going to expose the exact sourcing methods that seven figure sellers use to get the lowest prices for their products. Because once you see where they're really finding their winning products, you'll realize that you've been doing things wrong this entire time. And by the end of this video, you'll have the same unfair advantages that separate the million-dollar sellers from everyone else.
By the way, if you're new to this channel, my name is Steve Chu. I run a seven-figure store over at bumblebee.com. And I've imported from China for over 18 years. I give no BS advice and I actually sell online myself.
So, let's start with the biggest lie in e-commerce. Stop using Alibaba. I'm serious. Alibaba is designed to rip off foreign sellers and you're falling for it every single time. Here's what the seven-figure sellers know that you don't. Those prices on Alibaba, they're fake. They're the tourist prices, the stupid foreigner markup that can cost you 30 to 50% more than what Chinese sellers pay for the exact same product.
Let me show you something that will probably blow your mind. These men's slippers are selling for $18.98 on Amazon and Alibaba lists them for $1.96. You're thinking, great margins, right? Wrong. That same product on 1688.com, which is Alibaba's Chinese twin brother, cost just $0.67. So, while you're celebrating 90% margins, the real players are laughing at three times the margins on the exact same product from the exact same factory. So, just think about that for a second. Every order you've placed on Alibaba, you've been paying double or even triple what you should have been paying.
Now, before you panic, there are some caveats. 1688 is entirely in Chinese. And yes, most suppliers do not speak English. And yes, it seems impossible. But here's the thing, impossible is much less expensive. And expensive is exactly what your competitors want you to think. So, here's how the pros crack the code and use 1688 to get the best deals.
So, first off, never search in English on 1688.com. You're not going to get any results that way. Instead, take your product to Google Translate, get the Chinese translation, and then paste that into 1688. Suddenly, thousands of products will appear at prices that are way lower than Alibaba. And yes, these are the exact same products with the exact same photos. But here's the catch. You can't just click and buy like on Amazon. And that's where 1688 sourcing agents come in. They live in China, speak Mandarin, and negotiate deals you would never get as a foreigner. My student Jess from Dallas, Texas, a complete beginner who never imported anything from my class, messaged me last week telling me that she saved $3,000 on her first order just by using 1688. $3,000 on one order, which happened to be her very first order.
But this is just the beginning because while everyone fights over scraps on Alibaba, the real money is in strategy number two. The best time to buy is when everyone else is sleeping. So right now it's September. Every amateur seller is scrambling to source Christmas products, fighting each other for production slots, paying premium pricing, and praying that their inventory arrives on time. And they're doing it all wrong. The pros, they bought their Christmas inventory in February and March when factories were desperate for orders when prices were way lower when they could negotiate terms that were much more favorable.
Here's Mike's story. Mike sells pool accessories, so floaties, pool noodles, you name it. Last year, he sourced in March like everyone else. He paid $4.20 per unit, fought for production slots, and barely got his products in time for the summer. Now, this year, he called me in November and said, "Should I source now?" And I said, "Are you crazy? It's perfect." He locked in the same products for $3.50 per unit and bought all the spillover inventory. Same quality, same factory, $0.70 less per unit just because he bought when snow was falling instead of when everyone else wanted pool toys. And that is $7,000 saved on a 10,000 unit order just for changing when he clicked buy.
Now, let's think bigger. Christmas ornaments sourced in March. Valentine's gifts bought in October and summer gear purchased in December. This is Warren Buffett logic. Be greedy when others are fearful and be fearful when others are greedy.
But here's where it gets really interesting. These next three strategies are ones that my most successful students are using that not only save them money, but allow them to order in much lower quantities, especially when placing their very first order. And strategy number three is going to sound completely backwards.
By the way, if you're interested in learning how to find profitable products to sell online, make sure you sign up for my free 6-day e-commerce mini-course below. It's 100% free and I guarantee you'll learn a lot.
If you watch product sourcing videos online, everyone's always obsessed with using gold suppliers and mega factories with thousands of employees. But what if I told you that that's the wrong place to look? The biggest factories are pushing out cookie-cutter products for thousands of sellers. So, if you ever wonder why your unique product shows up in 20 different listings on Amazon, well, that's why the smart money tries to go small. Those factories bury it on page five of the search results. The ones that everyone ignores, they're hungrier. They need your business and they'll bend over backwards to keep you happy.
Let me tell you about Sarah's kitchen tool business. Sarah found a silicone utensil that she wanted to sell and the big gold supplier in Alibaba quoted her $3.20 per unit with a 3,000 piece minimum order. Standard terms, take it or leave it. Now, a smaller factory, which was literally one guy with 12 employees, offered her $2.75 per unit with only an 800-piece minimum and threw in custom boxing for free. When Sarah's first batch sold out in just 2 weeks and she was actually ready to order 3,000 units, the big factory said, "We'll get to your reorder in 6 weeks." But that small factory, they told her, "We can start production immediately." Now, to the mega supplier, Sarah was customer 47,891. But to the small factory, she was the client that kept the lights on. That is the difference between being a number and being a partner.
Now, I got to be honest with you, small factories can be riskier. They're less stable. They have weaker quality control sometimes. And that is why the pros always have a backup plan. But here's what they know. It's better to start small with someone who cares than to get lost in the machine of someone who does not.
Which brings me to strategy number four. Stop chasing the obvious bestsellers. This is where most sellers commit business suicide without even knowing it. They see yoga mats trending on Amazon. Massive demand, hundreds of thousands of searches, and they think they've struck gold, but they haven't because it's already too late. If you can see the opportunity, so can 10,000 other sellers. So, good luck ranking for a yoga mat when you're competing against billion-dollar brands and sellers who've been there for years.
But here's the secret most successful sellers know. They don't sell yoga mats. They sell what people buy with yoga mats. So look at any popular products frequently bought together section and that's where the real low competition money is hiding. Yoga mat straps with custom patterns, knee pads for extra cushioning, eco-friendly cleaning sprays to keep your mat fresh, and carrying cases that do not fall apart. Each one of these has 90% less competition. Each one rides the wave of yoga's popularity, and each one actually has better margins than the actual mat.
I once had a friend who sold television sets and stereo equipment online and he told me that the accessories he sells easily make more profit than the main event. Take air fryers. Everyone's fighting over the air fryer market and it's impossible to break into. But those silicone liners, the reusable parchment sheets, the recipe books. One of my colleagues owns that space. He doesn't sell a single air fryer, but he makes $50,000 a month selling everything people need to use their air fryers better. This is called product adjacency research, and it's how you build monopolies while everyone else is chasing saturated products to sell.
But wait until you see what happens when you combine this strategy with strategy number five. Most people think that sourcing is about finding products, but it's not. It's about finding people. While beginners fire off hundreds of emails to random suppliers, the pros are building relationships that last for decades. We've worked with some of our suppliers for our wedding linen store for over 17 years. And here's the truth. A good sourcing agent in China is worth 100 suppliers on Alibaba. They live there. They speak the language. They know which factories are legit and which ones will take your money and disappear. And they can walk into any factory, shake hands, and negotiate deals you would never get over email. But more than that, they can find suppliers that don't even exist online.
One of my sourcing agents called me last month. I found a linen napkins factory for you. Never been on Alibaba, family-owned for 10 years. They want to try international sales. Now, try international sales means that we'll be one of their first customers, and we'll likely get special treatment as a result. The other pro move is to go to trade shows like the Canton Fair in China or the Global Sources Expo in Hong Kong. When you show up in person, everything changes. You're not just another email in their inbox. You're the foreigner who cared enough to fly 14 hours to shake their hand. And those relationships get you prices that don't exist online, custom products no one else can access, priority production when everyone else is waiting, and quality control that actually works.
Tom from one of my mastermind groups spent $5,000 to go to the Canton Fair last year. And he locked in three exclusive suppliers, negotiated pricing 40% below market, and landed a product that became his first seven-figure winner. $5,000 invested, $1.2 million returned.
But here's the beautiful part. While he was there, he discovered strategy number six. This last strategy alone has saved my students over $200,000 collectively. When it comes to shipping, most sellers look for the cheapest freight forwarder on Google, but that's like letting a stranger manage your money. The pros negotiate DDP shipping up front. DDP means delivery duty paid. The supplier handles everything. Customs duties, taxes, delivery to Amazon's warehouse. You pay one price with no surprises and no headaches.
But here's the hidden advantage. Factories often have volume contracts with carriers you'll never access as a solo seller. My colleague Mark was paying $4.50 per unit plus separate shipping and customs fees and his total landed cost was $6.20 per unit. After negotiating DDP, his landing cost dropped to just $5 a unit. Same product, faster delivery, and no logistics headaches. That's $1.20 saved per unit. And on a 5,000 unit order, that is $6,000 back in his pocket. But it gets better. DDP shipping can also help with tariffs, which is something that is beyond the scope of this video, but feel free to ask me offline.
Now, not every supplier can handle DDP properly. Some cut corners, some use shady freight forwarders, and some screw up the paperwork and leave your container in limbo. That is why you have to vet their logistics track record first. But when you find a supplier who can handle DDP reliably, you've just eliminated many of the problems that plague new sellers.
So, I just handed you the exact playbook that took me 18 years and tens of thousands of dollars in painful mistakes to figure out. Most people will watch this video and do nothing. They'll bookmark it, save it for later, go back to doing the same things that keep them stuck. But you're different because you made it to the end and you're still watching this video.
So, here's what I want you to do right now. Pick one strategy, just one. Maybe it's setting up a 1688 account. Maybe it's researching adjacency products for something you're already selling. Maybe it's finding three small factories instead of chasing gold suppliers. Don't try to do everything at once, but don't do nothing either. Because here's the truth about success. It's not about knowing everything. It's about taking action.
Now that you know these strategies, make sure you watch this video here on how to find the best suppliers.