At the previous part of this challenge baltic makers have decided to move forward with three product categories:
In this part, Baltic Makers will analyze possible suppliers, list examples of products that we chose for our selected niches, and finally, decide on the product category that we will be working with on this Baltic Makers challenge.
Various suppliers offer their customers a drop shipping service with easy integrations with their e-commerce shops as well as simple dashboards to view their sales and statistics. However, due to their ease, these platforms tend to be popular and that might put you at a disadvantage due to high competition as the product offering might be similar, thus we do not reject the idea of working with suppliers which might not offer such integrations or drop shipping in general.
Modalyst is a web-based platform that helps e-commerce retailers connect with suppliers, add products to sales channels, monitor digital inventories, set pricing, and manage shipping standards.
Modalyst advertises to offer access to 10 million products with the ability to expand the listing with Aliexpress products increasing the number even more. Product categories vary from fashion items and jewelry to consumer electronics. However, we found that the product offering in our niches of interest was quite sparse.
The pricing plans consist of monthly or yearly payments depending + a 5% transaction fee. The monthly offerings can be viewed below, yearly plans allow customers to save up to 25%.
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BigBuy is a B2B wholesale platform specializing in the supply of a multitude of products to customers that sell on the online channel throughout Europe. BigBuy offers both dropshipping and wholesale supply to physical stores. The platform partners with various brands and suppliers in Europe.
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Alibaba is one of the world's biggest online platforms connecting buyers with suppliers. Tens of millions of products from various categories can be found on Alibaba, however, unlike the previously mentioned platforms, it does not offer any additional services and only exists to connect customers and business.
Dropshipping with Alibaba is possible, however, due to expensive and long delivery, paired with often met minimum order amounts, does not make it an ideal platform for it. However, it is great if you are up for managing the logistics between you and your customer.
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Etsy is an online marketplace on which its users can purchase various vintage, unique and handmade products from individual sellers.
As most retailers or Etsy are private individuals, their products are usually offered in low quantities and are usually of better quality and higher price than others as most are hand-made and individual. Moreover, most of the retailers might not be interested in offering drop shipping services.
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Aliexpress is an online marketplace like Amazon for example. Its users can browse and purchase various products, which are usually manufactured in China. As it is owned by the Alibaba group, this platform acts as an intermediary between buyers as sellers, on the other hand, Alibaba is the one suited for B2B supply.
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The last and most direct way of getting the products that you wish to sell is to contact the supplier directly and receive the products at wholesale price, although it should be clear, that none of them are likely to agree upon drop shipping. The main two ways in which suppliers can be reached are either via email or by filling out a form on their page. The latter option is quite simple, as all the needed information will be asked in the form, however, when reaching out via email, keep these points in mind:
Plants and flowers are very popular in Lithuania, there are various flower markets located in most cities, moreover, flowers can be found in most bigger specialty stores. E-shop grounds are no different, there are dozen of online shops with vast assortments, which besides plants, flowers, or even trees, also offer to personalize them as gifts and other services, moreover, most offer next day delivery. Competing in such a product category would be difficult for us as we have no means of storing and caring for the plants and neither consult our clients on it. Dropshipping is not viable as well due to delivery time and price, as we were unable to find a local supplier which would cooperate with us in this regard.
Competing in such a product category would be difficult for us as we have no means of storing and caring for the plants and neither consult our clients on it. Dropshipping is not viable as well due to delivery time and price, as we were unable to find a local supplier which would cooperate with us in this regard.
Having in mind that this niche is popular, we have noticed a lack of smart, tech gadgets specialized for plants, as well as modern takes on plant & herb growing, f.e "grow yourself" kits. Some of such examples we found for ourselves are:
Because of quarantine restrictions, people are currently spending more time at home, however, in Lithuania, we are already seeing some of the restrictions being slowly lifted, and with warmer weather outside, people are going to start thinking about their summer look.
Many personal trainers moved their clients to remote platforms and some of them were able to grow their appearance on social media by sharing free tips for workouts while being at home. Getting our product to one of the personal trainer's audiences would be ideal for us as we could see whether we have the right product quickly and with low investment. However, it is worth noting, that in order to be eligible to sell supplements online in Lithuania, you have to be registered and have a permit from the State Food and Veterinary Service.
Since there is a lot of competition right from the start, we figured that the best approach would be to target specific niches, such as "Daily vitamins" or "Vegan / Vegetarian supplements", hence we selected some of the products we could use:
Due to gyms being closed, most have turned to attempt working out at their home and this newly picked up interest is likely to continue even after everything reopens.
Sports equipment is easy to store, also as the term is very broad, it is possible to offer a lot of products for various sports and activities, as well as offering sports clothing or even combining this category with supplements.
Although the competition in this niche is quite high, the supply of such products, dedicated to working out at home, from various suppliers is high as well, some of such products that we found are:
After analyzing possible suppliers and their offered supply of products that fit our categories, we have decided to move forward with plant kits & gadgets. The conclusion came to us after seeing a lack of such products currently in the Lithuanian e-commerce market, as well as after finding some great products on both Etsy and other platforms.
For the grow your own category we will be looking at products like the Bonsai growth pack and we also might try to pivot the Smart Gadget scene with this or a similar Smart Flower Pot depending on the customer demand we will observe in our next experiment.
We will select multiple types of products and then run landing page experiments to see which of these items converts the most buyers.
Baltic makers will begin working on the next part of the e-commerce challenge and try to select a platform, on which our e-shop will take form. As we still need to investigate which products will sell, we will experiment with different landing pages and some test ads on Google & Facebook.
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