If you are reading this review of Salehoo then it’s very likely that you are considering setting up a dropshipping or wholesale model for your e-commerce business.
And why not? Firstly, dropshipping allows you to reach out to suppliers, who fulfill and ship those orders directly to your customers. It’s an incredibly popular model for first-time e-commerce entrepreneurs. Why is that?
Well, it allows you to:
- Operate with just a laptop and an internet connection
- Have a low barrier for entry, with a high potential for revenue
- No initial investment. No money is spent on inventory, materials, and tools
- Only purchase from your supplier when you’ve made a sale
- Scale your business quickly. All the difficult work is done your supplier, so more sales won’t necessarily translate into more work
- No need to hire more staff
- Won’t need to operate from a warehouse and you will the avoid the overheads that come with that
- Have more flexibility. Want to sell different products? You won’t have to uproot your business to do this
As you can see there are benefits of setting up your store to operate with a dropshipping model. So, when it comes to dropshipping suppliers let’s take a look at one of the biggest in the field in Salehoo.
Salehoo Review: Overview
Founded in 2005 in Christchurch, New Zealand, Salehoo has become one of the biggest wholesale and dropshipping directories on the planet. This was helped the fact that they became one of the first companies to offer international wholesale contacts to their retailers.
Co-Founder Simon Slade was a former online seller himself and Salehoo was born from his frustrations of not being able to find a wholesaler who would cater to new businesses.
Salehoo now boats over 8,000 trusted wholesale and dropshipping suppliers. These companies offer over 1.6 million recognizable branded products that you can sell on to your customers. Salehoo currently has 137,000 paying members who take advantage of these opportunities.
What’s the difference between Wholesale and Dropshipping?
As you may be aware I’ve mentioned both wholesale and dropshipping already and they are two different types of supply chain management.
Wholesale – This is the process of purchasing inventory on mass at a discounted rate from a manufacturer and then selling it on to your customers at a markup price.
Dropshipping – This allows you to sell products to customers without stocking the inventory.
So at this point, it’s worth asking yourself, do I have storage for products? Based on the answer that will determine whether you will choose a wholesale or dropshipping model.
Salehoo Review: Pricing
Salehoo offers a flat price of $67 for access for a whole year. Plus a new option that gives lifetime access for $127.
The pricing for Salehoo is seen as very competitive within its market. Worldwide Brands, one of the biggest competitors to Salehoo offer a comprehensive directory of wholesale products which is upwards of 16 million. However, Worldwide Brands membership costs $299.
When you are considering who your dropshipping supplier is it’s worth thinking about how long are you going to do this for? Is your dropshipping business a short-term project to fund your ambitions of setting up your own store?
Money-back guarantee
Salehoo offers a 60-day money-back guarantee with no questions asked. All you have to do is send an email to support@salehoo.com for up to 60 days, or including the 60th with your receipt number and they will give you your money back.
Salehoo Review: Products
So what do you get for $67 a year with Salehoo? They have 5 main products which are:
Dropship Suppliers
Salehoo offers you the choice of over 1,000 trusted dropship suppliers. All of these companies have been vetted and assessed Salehoo so you can be confident that they can be trusted. There are cases of people not using someone like Salehoo and going straight to the supplier, only to find that they weren’t genuine and this is where money can get lost.
When you view each drop shipper you can see the following information in the blink of an eye:
- Contact information
- Product range
- Quality of goods
- Customer service reviews
- Where they ship to
- How they ship their goods
Whatever you want to sell there is likely to be a dropshipping company that can supply those goods. Salehoo has suppliers of popular product categories such as Clothing, Jewelry, Shoes, and Antiques.
Whether you want to sell domestically or aim for an international market, Salehoo can cater for you. Even if your in a country that doesn’t have many suppliers, you can take advantage of international dropshipping to grow your business globally.
Salehoo is fantastic for beginners as it allows you to sort suppliers via minimum orders. There are some suppliers that offer very low or even a zero minimum order, if you are just starting up then it’s vital to keep an eye out for them. Additionally, you want to stay away from suppliers which offer an application fee to get started. Currently, around 70% of suppliers don’t offer one so gravitate towards them.
Wholesale Suppliers
Salehoo offers over 8,000 trusted wholesale suppliers and very quickly you can view all the key information that you could with dropshipping suppliers.
As you can see from the image below, Salehoo offers a very extensive range of wholesale suppliers. All of the prices from the companies below come at genuine wholesale prices which allows you to make a profit when you sell them on. Sellers who use Salehoo look to sell their branded products on their website as well as marketplaces such as eBay, Amazon, and Etsy.
When it comes to Wholesalers you want to be more specific than with dropshipping as they will be sending you the products. Within a few clicks, you can search for suppliers in your country as well as companies that ship to your location. Additionally, you can also view their minimum order values and products. This process is much quicker than going through the rigorous exercise of searching via Google.
Market Research
On the pricing graphic above you may have looked at it and asked ‘what’s market research labs?’.
Salehoo tracks the 1.6 million products in their directory to help you find a niche that is trending and is potentially the most profitable.
Although this may be dependent on what location you are selling to and currency, however, their guestimates are very accurate.
It can be frustrating if you find a trending product only then to discover that thousands of other stores have just begun selling them. In order to counteract this Salehoo use ‘sell rate’ and competition data to discover products that have low competition. Therefore you can ensure that you will stand out and be unique in an otherwise saturated market.
Alongside this, you can also view month-by-month sales reports to catch seasonal trends before your competitors do. This will also help you avoid losing money on wasted inventory.
Lastly, you can also save products that you find interesting and run reports on them based on:
- Competition
- Sell rate
- How often is this product listed
- Price
- Trending
Training & Support
As Salehoo is geared towards supporting e-commerce entrepreneurs in the early stages of their journey, it’s vital that they get their training and support right.
Looking at talk online from sellers it’s evident that Salehoo has fantastic customer support. Their support is available via live chat and they are also available via telephone and email, Monday to Friday between 5:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. They also offer very quick support through their Facebook and Twitter accounts.
One improvement that could be made with Salehoo’s support is that they could find products for you if they aren’t listed, this is something that is currently offered Worldwide Brands.
Salehoo’s support area is also brilliant as well, they have 50 step-by-step guides and videos. As Salehoo knows that most of their customers will be looking to sell on eBay and Amazon, they have also offered some guides on selling on those marketplaces.
Lastly, on support, Salehoo has a fantastic online forum of sellers who are always on hand to offer advice. There are over 60,000 posts on the forum about selling tactics, trends, and suggestions on suppliers.
Dashboard
Salehoo’s dashboard is a joy to behold. There are three elements that are important to any seller and that’s suppliers, products, and training. These are all integrated and easily accessible through the dashboard.
Firstly you can store and save all your suppliers for future use. As you will want to build relationships with these companies it’s important that you aren’t always having to dig out their information.
This is also where you will have all your interactions with your suppliers. You will be notified anytime you receive a message or an order from them. You can also search through your message history and send messages directly from your dashboard.
As I mentioned previously, Salehoo also offers guides and training on how to sell on marketplaces such as eBay and Amazon. You can track your progress within your dashboard and jump in and out of modules with a click of a button.
You will also be able to track your interactions with your fellow sellers via the forum in the dashboard area. Salehoo has a very active community and offering advice as well as taking it will reap its benefits in the long run.
Pros of Salehoo
Customer Service – All you have to do is do a quick search for ‘Salehoo customer support’ and you would be very hard-pressed to find a bad word said about them. Lots of options to contact them and decent opening hours are essential for sellers just starting up
Brands – As stated above there are some fantastic brands available through Salehoo such as Disney, Lego, Adidas, and Sony.
Suppliers – All of the suppliers have been vetted and you can be fully confident that you won’t be scammed. If you decided to find your own suppliers then that could make you run into complications
Training – It’s not something that I expected when researching Salehoo, but their training area is fantastic. They’ve taken time to understand their customers, trawled through issues on their community forum and put together comprehensive guides and videos to help them out
No Hidden Fees – You pay a one-off $67 a year fee and there are no hidden fees. You may end up paying an application fee to a supplier but you will know so beforehand
Money-back guarantee – You have 60 days to try out Salehoo and will get a full refund with no questions asked if you wish
Low minimum orders – A great feature for people who are looking particularly at wholesalers. You may have acquired storage space and might not have much space originally, or you don’t want to commit too much financially. Salehoo alleviates this offering low minimum orders
Market research – Salehoo’s market research is fantastic. You can identify market trends, take advantage of seasonal products and analyze competition level to ensure you make the right calls
Cons of Salehoo
Marketplace Fees – Salehoo knows that a lot of their customers are likely to use eBay and Amazon to sell their products on. However, once you bought a product from a wholesaler or drop shipper and then sold it on one of these marketplaces, the profit margin may not be great. Third-party platforms charge selling fees and this will eat into your profits
Branding – Not necessarily an issue with Salehoo itself, but more so with all wholesaler companies. As you are selling other people’s products it’s difficult to build up a brand and identity for your company. That’s why a lot of sellers who use Salehoo don’t sell on their own website and instead sell on third-party marketplaces
Amount of products – Whereas 1.6 million products may sound a lot, it doesn’t scratch the surface of the 16 million supplied Worldwide Brands
Is Salehoo Suitable for Me?
Yes
If you are looking to build a dropshipping company to earn some extra money on the side then Salehoo is ideal. The money generated from dropshipping could help provide funds for you to start your own e-commerce store with your own unique products.
Salehoo is clearly a great platform for people starting up in the e-commerce world. Low minimum orders and an array of drop shippers mean that you won’t have many overheads. The training offered Salehoo is also an added bonus and is very accessible
No
Similar to its competitors, if you are someone who wants to get serious about e-commerce and build their own empire then Salehoo isn’t for you. There may be some success stories on Salehoo’s website of “customer X who made $100,000 in a month” but the reality is that it can take a good while to start making serious money.
Salehoo Review: Conclusion
Salehoo is a fantastic platform for budding e-commerce entrepreneurs who want to get started with dropshipping. If you don’t have your own storage space and you’re looking to take it to the next level then Salehoo can accommodate you.
With most of these companies and due to the number of products that Salehoo offers, there is a ceiling that can be reached.
Have you used Salehoo before? Do you have a particularly successful story of using wholesale or dropshipping? Are there any alternatives you have used to Salehoo to achieve this? If so, leave a comment below and let’s get the conversation started!
Rating: 4.0 – Review Richard Protheroe.