How to find a private label manufacturer for your products?

If you’ve confirmed demand and sales data for a product idea using a research tool such as Algopix, it’s time to get your private label product manufactured! While you might be thinking of making the product by yourself, you should be warned that this is a tough choice: you are likely to run into issues with production capacity and will have problems ensuring consistent quality of your products while trying to optimize your manufacturing process.

Finding a reliable supplier who takes care of manufacturing is probably your best bet. There are three basic steps you need to take: research suppliers, decide on one (or multiple) and initiate contact. Your main goal should be to establish a long-term and mutually beneficial relationship with a trustworthy supplier. So let’s look at each of these steps in some more detail.

How To Research Suppliers

Alibaba is the go-to source to find suitable suppliers for your private label business. Other manufacturer/supplier directories that you can try are Global Sources (free), SaleHoo (paid) and ThomasNet (free).

The process for any of these is the same: just plug in your product keyword(s) into the search bar. Make sure to take advantage of filtering options to receive optimal search results.

Obviously, finding some potential suppliers won’t cut it. Now you need to decide which one of them should be the manufacturer of your product and get in touch with each of them.

How to Decide on a Manufacturer and Contact Potential Suppliers

Here are some simple rules of thumb you can apply to come up with a short list of suppliers that you’re going to contact.

1. Look for suppliers that have lots of experience with your specific product/category. A good way to do so is checking the supplier’s profile page and list of products. Make sure that the listed products are similar to or ideally the same as the product(s) you are sourcing.
2. Look for suppliers that have experience exporting to your country. This makes it likely that they are already familiar with the expected level of product quality and manufacturing, customs and regulations.
3. Look for established suppliers as it is in your best interest to work with a manufacturer who has a strong track record in your product category, and specifically in your desired market. What qualifies a supplier as established is subjective of course but you should aim for at least two years of experience manufacturing.

Once you found some potential manufacturers for your desired product, you need to get in touch with them. To streamline this process, create a generic template that you can send to all of the suppliers you identified—just make sure to use one single email address to bundle replies. Here are some things to include:

• Product measurements.
• Material(s).
• Basic design, maybe include a photo of a similar product.
• Packaging
• Any other critical points (safety, branding, etc.)
• Can they manufacture this product?
• Past experience with this product?
• Can they handle your suggested product modifications?
• What is your MOQ (Minimum Order Quantity)?
• Request price for volume order and sample.

Once some replies start rolling in, you can move on to negotiating the details. Don’t get discouraged by a low rate of response, though, that’s perfectly normal!

If you’re constantly researching new product opportunities for your private label, you might want to take a look at Algopix. We provide fast & easy research with our Product Discovery Tool. Using simple keywords, you can perform broad searches and see all of the listings that match your search term along with Algopix’s data-driven insights. These insights include key data points like product identifiers, recommended market price, detailed expenses breakdown including Amazon marketplace fees and shipping costs, competition analysis, demand level, estimated profit and total sales estimation.

Algopix makes it easier than ever to browse market opportunities and scout niche products without requiring accurate product identifiers.