Thursday, February 25, 2010

A lesson learned in seeking out vendors

I am putting together ideas for different ways to market my photo art, from photo paper to canvas works and even printed on metal (awesome by the way) and Plexiglas. I have worked with local vendors, national and even one international.

The following are some of my learnings;

First and foremost, sample it. I have had to absorb a bit of expense with sampling some products but in the long run it has saved me some serious heartburn.

Visit with many vendors, you never know who you will just fit with and what will work out. I have one vendor that does exquisite work…with out a doubt the best quality bar none. Issue is they price me out as the middle man. If I were to go directly to retail their incredible art work, I would do ok but to wholesale, I lose my shorts. I know, I am selling on ST Maarten so who needs shorts? I do!!!! I will use this vendor for a few items where it makes sense.

Have a second vendor that is like me fairly small potatoes. Very good to work with but draw backs are things like, I have shipping expenses so what ever it costs there is a small mark up just to get it to me as is a few states away. I have at least one product in mind that this vendor makes well and is worth me using.

Third vendor is a local ad agency. They are fantastic for my lower end products and some specialty printing they do is out of this world. I think they will get the bulk of my business. They are close by so I save on shipping and get very good prices and turn around time.

Fourth vendor is the vendor from hell. This is my international vendor, I tried a number of products. They misspelled words…that they spelled correctly in other places. Put logos on products crooked and even lopped off heads on simple photos. I have to wait weeks for these orders to complete and ship. Last item took them four full weeks to get to me. By the time I add shipping and time….these guys are simply unacceptable for product.

I am currently working low quantity and that is part of my expense with an over seas vendor. If I were ordering 2500 or more of an item and knew the quality was decent, then I would be in good shape with using the over seas vendor.

Rob is building his business on shoestrings so doesn’t have an extra 10K at hand to be able to order quantities like that so I guess I will work with my “local” vendors.

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