Yes it is! Register for your account HERE. Once logged in, you will find five suppliers in your list that you can contact and get yourself oriented with Supplier Pro. From there, you can start adding your own suppliers. Free accounts are limited to tracking 25 suppliers and can send 5 emails per day from within the application, although you can email as much as you prefer outside of Supplier Pro. There is zero risk to giving us a try!

To track more suppliers, send more messages, and gain access to additional features, such as Email Templates and Prep Centers/3PLs, then you will need to upgrade to a Pro account.

The category labels assigned to suppliers and selectable on each of the supplier details pages. These categories are modeled after Amazon’s top-level categories. We have found these to be suitable for most vendors and business models when categorizing suppliers and distributors.

Suppliers may have more than one category assigned. We have also included “Various” as a catch-all if a supplier offers a wide ranging inventory. Assign categories as you see-fit. At this time, we do not offer the ability to create custom categories. This may change in a future release as we are constantly improving Supplier Pro.

This is difficult to answer. Using email, you can contact a lot of suppliers quickly in an attempt to open accounts, especially when using the feature from within Supplier Pro to send emails. However, this is the most common method and some suppliers are overwhelmed with the number of emails they get from potential customers asking them questions. They may miss your email or not think you are a serious customer, and as such, may never respond. Your email copy is important, especially when doing the initial contact, to ensure you stand-out to the supplier. Our Email Templates are handy at giving you a starting point.

From working with many different online businesses that need to source products, we have heard that picking up the phone and giving them a call is often the best method for making contact with a supplier. Most suppliers are old-school and prefer this method. Having a phone conversation is a great way to start building the relationship with that potential supplier. However, this is also the most time consuming method. You might spend 5-15 minutes chatting with a supplier only to learn they will not be a good fit for you.

Suppliers get many email requests to open accounts, so do not take their lack of response as being out of business. You may have better luck on subsequent emails or making a phone call to those suppliers before sending them to Archive status.

Suppliers, especially small regional businesses, routinely go in and out business, so it’s possible a supplier is no longer in business. We do our best to curate the list a few times per year in order to filter those that may no longer be in business.

If you struggle to get suppliers to respond, try improving your email copy, be more persistent in your emails by sending a request every week or two before giving up. Persistence pays off. In the end, you might try picking up the phone and giving them a call the old-fashioned way. Most suppliers will answer the phone.

Soon! This feature is currently in development. We can say it will require a Pro subscription in order to access the Supplier Import feature.

Not at this time. Supplier Pro is best used on a laptop or desktop computer.

Prep Centers and 3PLs are not required for any online business model, but they do offer valuable services that you might need as your business grows.

Prep Centers ready your product for sale, if it does not come ready from your manufacturer. They can bundle your product with additional paperwork or other items, box them in cases, or apply labeling required for specific markets. Many Prep Centers can also prepare your items for sale on Amazon by applying FBA labels, assemble multi-packs, perform bubble-wrapping, etc.

3PL stands for “Third-Party Logistics”. Many of them also function as prep centers but usually offer a variety of other services, such as warehousing, handling returns, receive orders and ship inventory on your behalf (such as FBM on Amazon). if you are selling on Walmart, eBay, or your own Shopify store, you’ll want a 3PL to do this work so you are not doing so out of your garage forever.

You may even desire to have multiple 3PLs and Prep Centers. You can reduce shipping costs by locating their services close to your supplier and/or your customers. This allows you to reduce your costs while getting product to your customers faster.

When are you are doing business at scale or working with a lot of different suppliers, it is easy to lose track where you need your inventory to go once making an order. Assigning a supplier to a specific Prep Center or 3PL takes away the guess-work or tracking outside of Supplier Pro.

Ideally, you want a Prep Center to be located relatively close to your supplier in order to reduce shipping costs. Many Prep Centers do not offer warehousing so your inventory is going to have to ship again once the Prep Center is complete. This can apply to 3PLs as well.

Yes, if you have a Pro subscription. In Supplier Pro, you will have access to a list of Prep Centers and Suppliers in various areas of the United States, each tagged with the services they advertise. Their services may vary slightly, so be sure to properly vet them if you are planning on doing business with one in the list to ensure they meet your specific requirements.

Yes, if you have a Pro subscription.