Your Brand: White Labeling & Product Sourcing

It is essential to understand how product sourcing and white-labeling can help boost your e-commerce business. Now, what exactly do we mean by "sourcing" and "white-labeling" products? Let's review both terms; because each word explains the other.

What is Product Sourcing? 

Product sourcing is the process of looking for good quality products from well-known, reputable suppliers at reasonable prices. The steps to product sourcing are as follows: 

• Research a product to sell,
• calculate the total costs and market prices, then
• close deals at the best rate to order.

In a nutshell, product sourcing is identifying the best products on the market from various reputable suppliers at reasonable prices to make their sales for a profit margin. However, product sourcing is sometimes not as simple as it sounds because of unreliable suppliers, hidden costs, and low-quality products.  

White-Labeling of Products:

White labeling is a mutually beneficial partnership between a manufacturer (supplier) and retailers (eCommerce business). The supplier provides products with the eCommerce business' branding; then the eCommerce business sells the products as their own merchandise at a markup. 

Product Sourcing vs. White-Labeling

Product Sourcing is the process of finding the product, and white-labeling is when you sell the product under your brand. It is like a two-step process: sourcing the product, then white-labeling it for your brand. 

For example, 

• Suppose you found some software to sell for a supplier; this is product sourcing. 
• Then, you convince the supplier to print your brand's logo on the box and include it in the program; this is white-labeling.

How Can e-Commerce Business Flourish Through White Labeling & Sourcing: 

White-labeling products on Amazon is indeed an excellent way to start or expand your eCommerce business. But the most important factor to keep in mind is finding the best suppliers. 

Sourcing products is usually one of the main challenges white-label resellers face. Why? Because finding the best manufacturers that will finalize deals at reasonable costs to resell products on profit margin can be a very long process. 

Searching and contacting dozens of suppliers and deciding who are the best candidates takes time. But if you want to save yourself the search and "vetting" time, you can find reliable suppliers fast on the platform CJ Sourcing. 

How can Sourcing and White-Labeling Help Grow E-Commerce Business? 

Here are some of the main reasons why an eCommerce business owner should consider selling white label products: 

Reduction in Manufacturing Costs:

One of the primary reasons business owners rely on white label products to reduce manufacturing costs is fewer logistics for the eCommerce business.

White-labeling of products significantly reduces the manufacturing costs of producing them yourself. You don't pay for the factory, employees, legal, and other applicable fees to manufacturing. Additionally, you won't be liable for defective products. 

Then, reducing expenses through white-labeling will allow you to re-invest in more items for your store. 

Lean Operations:

The practice of sourcing and white-labeling helps your business run lean and clean of clutter: You will not be married to responsibilities of maintaining and managing a warehouse, allowing your attention to focus on other tasks. 

Not to mention, history shows that businesses with exorbitantly high manufacturing costs amid a financial crisis have difficulty surviving the financial burdens. Therefore, any company with a lean operational status can adjust itself according to the market. 

Maintaining less responsibility with the product will also help with eCommerce business setup.

Better Customer Experience & Feedback: 

According to statistics and surveys, businesses that focus on customer service have likely generated more than six times of revenue than businesses with low-standard customer support. 

When you source and white-label, you set the stage for: 

• the ability to invest in your customer support, not manufacturing, 
• and a greater chance of feedback & recognition through branding products with your business.

Since the eCommerce businesses are known for their customer experience and reviews, sourcing and white labeling saves time and provides a persona to help grow eCommerce businesses. 

Sourcing and White-Labeling are Ideal for Rapid Growth:

When starting or expanding an eCommerce business, sourcing and white-labeling products can boost your business, unlike any other business model. You'll be able to sell various products of different types at a marginal profit by associating with a manufacturer. 

When sourcing the best manufacturers, you get instant access to their entire line of products, allowing you to expand your eCommerce business to a new market of consumers. 

Pro Tip: You can also outsource these tasks with a product sourcing agent, relying on their expertise of various suppliers and niches to make the process much more efficient for you.

CJ Wholesale & CJ Dropshipping through Amazon & E-Bay:

Over 450,000 sellers rely on the CJ Sourcing platform because white-label manufacturing affects operating costs, profit margins, reputation, competitiveness, and many other aspects of an eCommerce business. CJ Sourcing finds suppliers to source for you with the best quality products, competitive pricing, and reliable delivery, ensuring you find a profitable price without spending too much time.

Why and how to source from China with CJ?

Global merchants rely on and know that China is the world's home to the most numerous and best manufacturers for all kinds of products. Importing allows countries, local economies, and your business the ability to supply consumers with various nonexistent, scarce, high cost, or low-quality products. China's manufacturers produce the most extensive range of products at the lowest prices with the best efficiency available. Yiwu, home to the world's largest wholesale market, had a total import and export value near the end of 2019 of ~$ 37.9 billion; and there are a lot of places in China like Yiwu, answering market demand worldwide day and night. 

The traditional method of finding suppliers is attending trade shows, such as the most famous in China, Canton Fair. But the easiest way to find suppliers is with an internet search, which most dropship sellers do these days. 

But because of all the scams on the internet,  the safest and most professionally recognized way to find products is to use a sourcing agency. Sourcing agencies can be costly, incurring service fees as commissions on the purchase price. However, sourcing agencies like CJ Wholesale are much more convenient and reliable, and most importantly, there are no service fees.

With CJ, enter the info for the item or type of thing you're looking for (Pro Tip: you can provide product links from Alibaba, Amazon, or any other website), and CJ will find the supplier of the exact item for you within 24 hours. A personal sourcing agent will then help you find the best prices and top manufacturers, providing quotes in less than 2 working days. 

The best part of sourcing with CJ is that most of the manufacturers available on CJ can't be tracked down easily on Alibaba or trade shows, which means they offer the most competitive price in China.

What's more, CJ assists sellers with branding their business with services such as product customization & customized packaging. Post your customization request, chat with CJ's team, and CJ will forward your request to the local factories to produce your personalized product.

For packaging, CJ will help sellers print and produce all kinds of packagings according to your design, offering as much support as possible when creating your brand.

CJ Sourcing can also expedite dropshipping services, which usually consume a lot of time and effort, benefiting both suppliers and retailers. CJ Dropshipping integrates with various online selling and purchasing platforms (eBay, Amazon, and other online stores). 

After integrating with a selling channel, your business can list products and manage inventories using a single central dashboard. CJ Dropshipping can also synchronize all the stock and prices in actual time to prevent over-selling.

In Conclusion

Keeping your eCommerce business ahead of competitors requires learning effective product sourcing strategies to maximize potential profit from each sale. 

Ultimately, relying on white-labeling and product sourcing through proper channels incurs many benefits and is very lucrative, boosting your e-commerce businesses.