Suppliers Can Make or Break Your Business

One supplier decision cost me £38 million in lost sales. Not through fraud, negligence, or incompetence—but through a single policy change that seemed, on the surface, completely legitimate.

This is the story of how my biggest supplier nearly destroyed my eCommerce business, and the hard-won lessons that emerged from those ashes. If you're building an online store and relying heavily on one or two key suppliers, you need to hear this.

The £38 Million Mistake

A few years ago, one particular product range—let's call the supplier "Beauty King"—was my biggest seller by far. We were shifting £6.5 million worth of their products annually, making us one of their largest worldwide customers.

The relationship was formal, transactional, professional. Not unfriendly, but not particularly warm either. Still, the numbers worked brilliantly, so I didn't worry too much about the lack of personal connection.

Then came the letter.

Not a phone call. Not a meeting. A formal letter announcing an immediate change to their pricing policy. The new structure was bizarre: the more you bought from them, the more you paid per unit.

Overnight, my costs increased by 30%.

Within months, we'd lost half the business in that product range. Over the following years, sales plummeted from £6.5 million to under £1 million annually. The pricing made us completely uncompetitive online.

When I tally up the lost revenue over those years—the sales we would have made had nothing changed—we're looking at roughly £38 million in lost opportunity.

Understanding Why Suppliers Change Direction

Before diving into protection strategies, it's worth understanding what happened with Beauty King. They weren't trying to destroy my business—they were trying to build theirs.

They'd watched retailers like me sell millions of pounds worth of their products directly to consumers. They did the maths and realised: if we're doing that ourselves, we keep significantly more profit.

So they shifted from a wholesale mindset to a direct-to-consumer model. By making it prohibitively expensive for retailers to remain competitive, they effectively cleared the field for their own online sales operation.

This trend is accelerating. More suppliers are recognising the profit potential of selling directly to end customers rather than through intermediaries. The internet hasn't just enabled small businesses to reach customers—it's enabled suppliers to bypass traditional retail entirely.

The Single Point of Failure

My Beauty King experience taught me something fundamental about eCommerce vulnerability: any single dependency creates catastrophic risk.

This applies beyond product suppliers. If you're exclusively selling on Amazon, you have one supplier of customers. If they change their terms, algorithm, or policies, your business faces existential threat.

The pattern repeats across digital commerce:

Relying on one traffic source (Google, Facebook, one influencer)
Depending on one payment processor
Using one fulfilment partner
Banking on one product range

Each represents a potential £38 million mistake waiting to happen.

The Supplier Evaluation Framework

After nearly losing everything, I developed a systematic approach to supplier relationships. Here's what actually matters:

Values Alignment

Look beyond products and pricing to examine whether a supplier's values match yours. Recently, we explored a beauty supplier promoting environmental sustainability. Their branding looked perfect—eco-friendly packaging, ethical sourcing claims, the works.

Deeper investigation revealed a disconnect between their marketing and actual practices. We walked away. When values don't align, the relationship eventually fractures, often at the worst possible moment.

Ask yourself: If this supplier's internal emails became public tomorrow, would I want to be associated with them?

Trading Requirements Deep Dive

Before committing to any supplier relationship, forensically examine their trading requirements:

Physical Presence Requirements: Some suppliers mandate brick-and-mortar retail locations. I discovered this while researching Lamy pens—fascinating product with strong demand, but the manufacturer required a physical shop for retail partnerships. Without one, the conversation ended there.

Minimum Order Quantities (MOQ): These can shift dramatically as suppliers grow. One brand we work with started requiring £500 minimum orders. Today? £7,000 minimum. That's a fifteen-fold increase that could break a small business operating on tight cash flow.

Territorial Restrictions: Many beauty brands prohibit selling into certain countries where they have established distributors. Currently, this is legal—a supplier can restrict your geographic sales territory. However, understanding these limitations before building your business model is critical.

Pricing Policies: Here's where things get legally murky. In the UK and Europe, price-fixing—where a supplier dictates your retail price—is illegal. Yet suppliers often dance around this through creative means.

Beauty King didn't technically tell me what price to charge. They just made their wholesale pricing so high that competitive retail pricing became impossible. Legal? Arguably. Ethical? Debatable. Destructive? Absolutely.

Recently, another supplier sent a letter threatening to stop supplying us because we weren't selling at their recommended retail price. That crosses into illegal territory—lawyers love these cases. But knowing the law doesn't prevent the disruption.

Building Supplier Relationships That Last

The Beauty King disaster taught me that transactional relationships are fragile. Here's how to build something more resilient:

Remember They Have a Business Too

Your supplier isn't responsible for your success—they're responsible for theirs. They're trying to sell maximum product within boundaries that protect their brand and build customer value.

This sounds obvious, but it's easy to forget when you're focused on your own growth targets. Understanding their business pressures helps you anticipate changes before they become crises.

Pick Up the Phone

If you're under 40, you likely have what I call "phone aversion"—quite happy to email or text, but calling someone feels uncomfortably involved.

Get over it.

My biggest regret with Beauty King was maintaining a purely transactional, email-based relationship. Had I invested in regular phone conversations, built personal connections, understood their strategic direction, I might have seen the shift coming.

Schedule monthly calls with key suppliers. Ask about their weekend. Learn about their kids. Discuss their business challenges. These conversations create relationship capital that pays dividends when situations get difficult.

Extract Maximum Value

Always explore what suppliers can provide beyond products:

Gifts with Purchase (GWP): Many suppliers offer promotional products when you hit certain order volumes. These become powerful tools for building customer value and differentiating your offer.

Marketing Support: Some suppliers contribute toward advertising spend when you promote their products. We've had suppliers co-fund Google Ads campaigns and Facebook marketing, dramatically improving our effective margins.

Dropshipping Capabilities: Especially valuable when starting out, dropshipping eliminates warehouse costs and inventory risk. Not every supplier offers it, but asking costs nothing.

Growth Incentives: What additional support becomes available as you scale? Volume rebates, dedicated account management, exclusive products, early access to new launches—suppliers often have programmes they don't advertise until asked.

Schedule Regular Reviews

This is where I failed most spectacularly with Beauty King. Everyone assumed everything was fine until it catastrophically wasn't.

Monthly review calls should cover:

Current performance against targets
Upcoming promotional opportunities
Their strategic direction and focus areas
Your growth plans and support needs
Any concerns from either side

These conversations create early warning systems. You'll spot strategic shifts before they become policy changes that destroy your economics.

Risk Mitigation Strategies

Even with strong relationships, protect yourself:

Diversify Product Sources: Never let one supplier represent more than 40% of revenue if possible. Yes, this complicates operations. Yes, it reduces per-supplier volume discounts. But it also means no single supplier can destroy your business overnight.

Build Direct Relationships: If you're selling on Amazon exclusively, you don't have customers—Amazon does. Build your own eCommerce site, grow an email list, create direct customer relationships that no platform can take away.

Maintain Cash Reserves: The Beauty King situation nearly broke us because we lacked financial cushion to absorb the shock. Aim for 6-12 months of operating expenses in reserve. Boring? Yes. Business-saving? Also yes.

Document Everything: Written agreements, email confirmations, recorded policy changes. When supplier relationships sour, documentation becomes your protection.

The Silver Lining

Losing £38 million in sales was horrific. We laid off staff. Downsized offices. Questioned whether the business could survive.

But remarkable things emerged from that crisis:

We diversified our supplier base, making us more resilient
We identified new product opportunities we'd ignored whilst Beauty King dominated
We built systems to spot supplier risk earlier
We learned to value relationships as much as transactions

Most importantly, we stopped taking supplier relationships for granted.

Your Next Steps

Don't wait for your own £38 million lesson. Take action today:

Audit Your Dependencies: List every critical supplier relationship. How much revenue does each represent? What would happen if they changed terms tomorrow?

Schedule Review Calls: For your top three suppliers, book monthly review conversations for the next quarter. Use them to build relationships, not just discuss orders.

Diversify Deliberately: If one supplier dominates your revenue, create a 12-month plan to reduce that concentration. Not by reducing their volume necessarily, but by growing alternatives.

Build Direct Channels: If you're platform-dependent (Amazon, eBay, Etsy), invest in building direct customer relationships. Start small—a simple email list can become a lifeline.

Create Legal Protection: Have a solicitor review supplier agreements. Understand your rights around pricing, territories, and contract changes. Knowledge becomes leverage when situations deteriorate.

The Uncomfortable Truth

Suppliers can make or break your eCommerce business, often through decisions that make perfect sense for them but devastate you.

You can't prevent suppliers from changing direction. You can't force them to prioritise your success over theirs. You can't guarantee relationships remain stable regardless of market forces.

But you can build a business resilient enough to survive when suppliers change course. You can create relationships strong enough that you see changes coming. You can diversify dependencies so no single relationship becomes your single point of failure.

The difference between businesses that survive supplier disruption and those that don't isn't luck—it's preparation.

Don't learn this the expensive way. Build supplier relationships that strengthen your business rather than threaten it. Pick up the phone, ask difficult questions, diversify dependencies, and never assume the status quo will last forever.

Because somewhere, right now, your biggest supplier is making decisions that could change everything. The question is whether you'll be ready when they do.

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0:00
[Music]
0:07
welcome to the curiosity podcast a show
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about everything ecommerce and digital
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business the aim is simple to help you
0:15
thrive online and now your host Matt
0:18
Edmondson
0:21
hello and welcome my fellow ecommerce
0:24
entrepreneurs my name is Matt Edmondson
0:27
and this show is for those of us who are
0:30
curious about e-commerce and want to
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know how to get better at doing digital
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business in today's show I'm gonna
0:39
finish off a little mini series about
0:43
finding high demand products to sell
0:44
online this is part three of that little
0:49
mini series and we are going to talk
0:51
about suppliers I'm gonna talk about how
0:54
one particular supplier in my my little
0:57
ecommerce business cost me millions and
1:00
millions in lost sales so you are not
1:03
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always any links and notes will be on
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the website Matt Edmondson comm so do
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check that out and whilst you're there
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hit the collab project button it's a
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project is all about that it's all about
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collaboration working with partners so
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if you've got something you want to sell
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this might sound a little bit
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information at www.oesc.ok.gov this
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little series we looked at how and why
3:17
you should niche right how to choose a
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niche how to find a niche and the
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importance of getting your niche down
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right so we looked at that that is
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3:31
haven't done so already once we'd
3:33
figured out a niche we then insert we
3:36
went into part two which was episode
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number six on what to do when
3:42
researching products to sell online but
3:45
how do you research that niche how do
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you find the best products for your
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niche to sell online and we start to
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look into that and that's actually where
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my new course the jam jar product funnel
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is also going to add a whole heap of
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step-by-step all in that course that
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course is getting launched very very
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soon let me tell you we are just putting
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the finishing touches on it now it is
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some gray stuff let me tell you I wish
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somebody would have told me all of the
4:22
stuff that I'm showing in that course at
4:23
the start of my e-commerce journey
4:25
goodness me would it have helped oh
4:27
absolutely
4:28
and in this episode I want to close the
4:31
circle right and on this whole idea of
4:34
products and you can't talk about
4:36
products without talking about supplies
4:39
so we are going to get into the whole
4:42
supplier thing in this particular
4:44
episode right but if you've not heard
4:46
the other two
4:47
do check them out you can get them on
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iTunes or stitcher or wherever get your
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totally free and like I say you get it
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all automatically now I want to tell you
5:11
a story right this is a true story but I
5:15
have as they said changed the names not
5:18
necessarily to protect the innocent but
5:21
because I don't want this to become
5:22
about a particular company I just want
5:25
to tell you the story and I'm then going
5:28
to share with you what I have learned
5:29
from this said story okay now there is a
5:35
range of products we sell on one of my
5:38
websites like say I'm going to change
5:40
the name I'm going to call them Beauty
5:42
King now they're not actually called
5:43
Beauty King but in this story I'm gonna
5:47
refer to my supplier as Beauty King okay
5:50
and a few years ago Beauty King was my
5:54
biggest selling product range on my
5:56
website by far okay I was selling
5:59
millions and millions of pounds worth of
6:01
their product each and every year on my
6:03
website it was going strong let me tell
6:07
you now I didn't have what you would
6:10
call a particularly good working
6:12
relationship with that supplier and it's
6:14
not necessarily from a lack of trying
6:16
you know I'm the kind of guy that likes
6:19
the handshake policy that you know and
6:21
Joy's just sitting down with people
6:22
getting to know people I'm friendly kind
6:24
of a guy like that and and when I've
6:26
worked with supplies in the past I've
6:27
worked with supplies all over the world
6:29
from Germany to the States
6:30
I've always got on well and I've always
6:34
gotten better with people that just have
6:36
a similar value said to me Jeremy in a
6:38
sort of similar outlook on life that
6:40
just yes they've got a business to run
6:43
yes there's things to do but you know
6:44
what they'll pick up the phone they'll
6:46
have a conversation you can normally
6:47
sort things out over a pint of beer and
6:49
everyone is happy well I didn't enjoy
6:52
that particular relationship with this
6:54
particular kind of sybilla's particular
6:56
supply beauty King it was very much on
6:59
their terms but you know what that was a
7:01
at the time because like I say we were
7:03
selling a lot of their product and we
7:06
were worldwide probably one of their
7:08
biggest customers and we like I said was
7:11
selling millions and millions around six
7:13
and a half million pounds a few years
7:15
ago to put an exact number on it which
7:17
at the time it's not the case now but at
7:19
the time was around ten million dollars
7:22
right so there's a lot of their product
7:23
that I am shifting now what happened was
7:28
after after trading with this company
7:32
for a number of years and growing the
7:33
business they wrote me a letter and it
7:36
was a very formal electric wasn't even a
7:38
phone call wasn't a conversation that's
7:40
why I'm just trying to get across to you
7:42
the kind of relationship we had is very
7:44
formal letter and in that letter the
7:46
supply basically said listen we're
7:47
changing our pricing policy effective
7:50
immediately and basically the more you
7:53
buy from us the more you are going to
7:55
pay for that product now I appreciate
7:58
that doesn't necessarily make any sense
8:01
for the way we'd normally do business
8:04
and at the time it made zero sense to me
8:07
because what it meant was my prices from
8:09
that supply were going to go up by
8:11
thirty percent overnight that's right my
8:14
prices went up by thirty percent
8:16
overnight now and the result of that was
8:20
with inside of a few months we'd lost
8:22
half of their business so when you're
8:23
talking about a loss in income you're
8:26
going from several million pounds right
8:28
and you're losing several million pounds
8:30
a year in revenue and I'm not
8:32
exaggerating when I say this okay so
8:35
over the space of a few years if I look
8:38
at how much of their product I sell now
8:40
it is less than a million pounds okay so
8:43
that's a fall of around four five
8:45
million pounds worth of product over the
8:48
last few years because their product to
8:51
me is so expensive I am no longer priced
8:53
competitive online in that particular
8:55
range of products okay and you may be
8:59
wondering is there more to this story
9:01
because something is a bit fishy in
9:03
something doesn't sound right
9:04
well yes and no right you've got to ask
9:08
why did Beauty King do that did they do
9:13
that to put me out of business
9:14
so I don't think so I don't mean I mean
9:16
we didn't have a great working
9:17
relationship but I don't think they woke
9:18
up that that morning going how can I
9:20
screw over Matt I just don't think that
9:22
happened right I think what happened was
9:25
Beauty King changed their thinking and
9:28
they went to what I would call a
9:31
direct-to-consumer way of doing business
9:34
right so they saw that I was selling a
9:38
lot of their product and not just me
9:40
there was quite a few people selling
9:41
their product online and they were we
9:43
were selling a lot of their products
9:45
millions of pounds worth of product
9:46
direct to the consumer we were selling
9:48
to the consumer and beauty king can look
9:50
at that and go you know what if I was
9:52
doing that if I was selling direct to
9:54
the consumer I would be making loads
9:57
more money we're talking millions and
9:59
millions of pounds more profit okay and
10:01
I get that I understand that and
10:03
actually a lot of suppliers more
10:05
recently because of the internet have
10:07
now started to go direct to consumer and
10:10
if you remember in my conversation with
10:13
Casey golden where we talked about how
10:16
to sell a six thousand dollar sweater
10:18
online and you'll remember that we
10:20
talked about this and how businesses
10:22
have moved from a wholesale mindset
10:25
which is what Beauty King was they would
10:27
wholesale the product to me and then I
10:29
would retail it on they have moved from
10:31
that wholesale mindset to a retail
10:34
mindset they're going direct to consumer
10:36
themselves because it is a much bigger
10:38
profit margin and you can see the
10:42
business benefits of doing that right
10:45
now the lesson that I want to sort of
10:49
draw out of this is not I don't
10:50
necessarily need you to feel sorry for
10:52
me but if you do I mean by all means go
10:54
for it right but I did learn a very very
10:57
powerful lesson because actually this
10:59
almost broke my business to the point of
11:03
no repair you know we had to layoff
11:05
staff we had to downsize we had to
11:07
rethink our whole business and whilst I
11:10
don't necessarily get the the more you
11:14
buy the more you pay model I don't
11:16
actually think is particularly fair I
11:18
think it's a slightly gray area in terms
11:22
of is it a method of fixing prices which
11:24
is totally illegal but is it I don't
11:27
know
11:28
but that's not you know that I mean like
11:30
if does that change anything
11:32
no no really um I just have to change my
11:35
thinking and change my business model
11:36
and whilst it was horrific let me tell
11:39
you some amazing things have come out of
11:41
it as things genuinely generally do
11:44
right there's always a silver claw
11:46
silver line into every cloud and but
11:49
there's I want to draw out this point
11:51
right suppliers are important because
11:52
suppliers can make or break your
11:55
e-commerce business and they are such an
11:57
important part of the chain okay so
12:02
here's my top tips when dealing with
12:04
suppliers don't do what I do will do
12:07
what I did and but lesson let's
12:09
definitely learn from my mistakes in the
12:12
past so that going forward your business
12:14
is much more sure okay
12:16
because if you're in a place like me
12:18
where you're predominantly relying upon
12:20
one supplier you've got potential
12:22
problems and that supply can be someone
12:25
who is supplying product to you in my
12:28
case Beauty King but also if you're for
12:30
example selling on Amazon so you've got
12:32
one supplier for web services and you're
12:35
just literally selling on Amazon you're
12:37
not growing your own e-commerce website
12:39
you're not growing any other outlet you
12:41
are relying upon one supplier to feed
12:43
you your e-commerce sales again that has
12:46
a whole stack of potential problems
12:48
right so don't just build your business
12:54
if you can around once a player or if
12:56
you do build it around that supplier
12:58
mitigate your risks as much as possible
13:02
because if that supplier changes their
13:04
mind about you and they have every right
13:06
to do that and there's every possibility
13:08
it's going to happen trust me on this
13:10
you know if you had asked me a few years
13:12
ago would Beauty King ever do what they
13:14
did I'd be like no that would be foolish
13:16
because they're going to lose millions
13:17
in sales through my website right
13:19
they're just it just doesn't make any
13:21
kind of sense but they did it anyway
13:23
right so just watch out for that so all
13:28
that said here are some top tips when
13:31
looking at suppliers when working with
13:33
suppliers which I think will help you
13:35
okay number one and this is important
13:39
always look at the values of
13:41
the company that you are get that you
13:45
are buying from right so whether you're
13:47
getting a product or a service whoever
13:49
is your supplier look at their values
13:51
and do their values match your core
13:54
values okay so for example we were
13:58
looking at a supplier a few weeks ago
14:01
around some products to do with beauty
14:05
and we're like you know what we
14:07
definitely feel as a company we need to
14:09
get much more into the the ethical
14:12
packaging of site Beauty companies are
14:14
really really bad I think with their
14:16
packaging on their products and so we're
14:19
like let's move to getting some more
14:22
products which are much more
14:24
environmentally ethical and sustainable
14:26
right and so we look to this one company
14:29
and on the outside we thought oh this
14:31
this particular company looks great
14:33
they've got a great brand they're kind
14:35
of getting more and more known they've
14:37
got an interest in product idea
14:38
I can see demand is growing on that
14:41
product but when I looked at their
14:43
values I think they were a little bit
14:45
different to mine and because what they
14:47
did didn't match what they said they
14:49
were going to do and so I just thought
14:51
you know what from a values point of
14:52
view I think we're going to struggle
14:54
here okay now I always look at their
14:58
values are they conducive to you and
15:01
your business and your website so so
15:04
important the second thing that I'm
15:07
going to suggest you do is look at their
15:09
trading requirements very very carefully
15:11
you want to know what their trading
15:13
requirements are for example and the
15:17
supplier may require you to have a
15:19
bricks and mortar store right so
15:21
recently I did something on lamby pens
15:26
you may have seen that where I did some
15:27
research around lamby pens and I thought
15:29
men these are a really interesting
15:31
product with really high demand is this
15:33
a product that I could sell so I
15:35
contacted the pen manufacturer and said
15:38
listen can I set up an account with you
15:40
and they said listen to do that you have
15:42
to have a bricks and mortar store right
15:44
you have to have an actual shop where
15:45
you can retail this product from which I
15:48
didn't have I don't have a shop that I
15:50
can retell them from so that kind of put
15:51
an X nee on that okay
15:53
look at things like minimum
15:55
all the quantities this is so important
15:58
there's a brand that we work with at the
16:00
moment that when we started there were a
16:02
bit of an unknown brand and the minimum
16:04
order quantity or moq as they call it
16:07
was super low right I think we spent
16:09
like 500 bucks with them on and on our
16:12
first order now whenever we order from
16:14
that supplier we have to order a minimum
16:16
of seven K's worth seven grands worth of
16:19
product rights their minimum order
16:20
quantity has gone right through the roof
16:23
and as the demand for their product has
16:25
grown so just be really clear on what
16:28
the minimum order quantity is the
16:30
supplier is asking you to undertake you
16:33
also want to be super super clear before
16:35
you order anything right or get involved
16:38
in anything what are the selling
16:40
restrictions that they're going to put
16:41
on you for example a lot of the beauty
16:43
brands don't want won't allow me to sell
16:46
in different countries so I'm not
16:48
allowed to sell beauty products for a
16:50
lot of the brands to say the United
16:52
States and that's because a lot of these
16:54
brands will have distributors in America
16:56
and we're not supposed to encroach on
16:58
each other's territory and at the moment
17:00
it is fair for a supply to say yes you
17:03
can sell the products but you are
17:04
restricted in terms of countries right
17:07
one of the things to watch out from
17:10
though is pricing and price fixing and
17:13
again this is just a lesson I've learned
17:15
over the years and beauty King for
17:17
example are they price fixing are they
17:20
nuts with their changing on the supply
17:23
price you could argue that actually what
17:25
they've done is cut out a lot of
17:27
internet retailers by making them
17:28
increase their retail prices because
17:30
their supply price is gonna so price
17:32
fixing is where a supplier comes to me
17:34
and says you know what the this price
17:37
retails for a hundred bucks you have to
17:39
sell it for a hundred bucks on the
17:41
website currently in the UK and in
17:43
Europe that my friend is illegal no one
17:47
can tell me what price I sell at okay
17:49
I'm Beauty King I have to be fair to
17:51
them have been very clear to say they
17:53
are not price fixing they are not
17:55
dictating what price I can and can't
17:56
sell it on my website
17:58
they have restricted massively the price
18:01
that I can sell it but they're not
18:03
dictating it right so it's a gray area
18:06
of law but I have had one supplier
18:08
recently
18:09
and who I will be writing to in the next
18:11
few days they sent me a letter saying
18:14
listen we've noticed on your website
18:15
you're not selling this particular brand
18:17
of product at our P or the recommended
18:21
retail price and so we're going to stop
18:24
supplying you
18:25
well that is illegal they cannot do that
18:27
I mean lawyers love that kind of thing
18:30
right so price-fixing is really illegal
18:33
and actually I can get into trouble if I
18:36
go you know what if I go back to them
18:37
and say listen I will just sell it
18:38
retail price if you supply me that's
18:41
called price-fixing right and I can get
18:43
into trouble for that so just be really
18:45
really careful with supplies and what
18:49
they say around pricing now here are my
18:52
tips for getting supplies to work with
18:55
you okay number one and this is
18:57
important remember they have a business
18:59
to run as well okay
19:02
what do I mean by that well they're
19:04
supplying product to you their aim is to
19:06
sell as much product as they can within
19:08
the you know within the boundaries that
19:09
they have to sell that particular
19:11
product in a way that doesn't do damage
19:14
to their brand and builds value for
19:16
their customers right so they have a
19:18
business to run to the whole supplier
19:22
relationship is based on the fact that
19:24
we all have businesses to run they're
19:26
not necessarily looking out for your
19:28
business they are predominantly looking
19:30
out for theirs so always remember that
19:31
okay my second tip is this pick up the
19:37
phone and call them now again if you
19:40
listen I'm just going to refer back
19:41
again to the KC golden podcast which was
19:43
just fantastic when we talked in there
19:45
quite a bit about how if you're sort of
19:48
40 and under you have an aversion to
19:49
picking up the phone and actually call
19:51
in people you're quite happy to email
19:53
quite happy to text but a call somebody
19:55
well that's a little bit more involved
19:58
right and I'm gonna recommend that
20:00
actually you call people up and you get
20:02
on the phone or Skype or zoom you meet
20:05
these people and have conversations with
20:07
them and build relationships with them
20:09
get personable with them because this
20:11
was one of the mistakes that I had with
20:14
Beauty King right we I tried to build a
20:17
bit of a relationship with him and I
20:19
don't know if I would if I tried hard
20:21
enough if I'm honest with you if I'm
20:22
going to be
20:23
brutal on my own shortcomings in that
20:25
particular failing I wished I'd actually
20:28
had a better relationship with them to
20:29
do that it's all about picking up the
20:31
phone
20:31
whereas emails convenient but you know
20:34
you can have those sort of conversations
20:35
how was your weekend how the kids always
20:37
good to do on the phone when you talk to
20:41
your suppliers always always always find
20:44
out what they can give you that extra
20:46
help to help build your brand okay for
20:49
example you could ask them for what we
20:52
call GW peas gifts with purchase and a
20:55
lot of our suppliers will do that so if
20:57
we buy certain levels of product from
20:59
them they will give us a whole lot of
21:00
extra product that we can then use to
21:03
build and add value for the customers
21:06
will they give you marketing help again
21:09
we have certain supplies where we you
21:12
know when we spend over certain amounts
21:13
they'll help us with marketing maybe
21:15
they're going to contribute towards your
21:17
Google AdWords spend or you may be your
21:19
Facebook marketing whatever it is could
21:22
they help you with marketing do they do
21:25
drop shipping would be a good question
21:27
especially if you're just starting out
21:29
and you're only working with sort of one
21:30
or two suppliers and you don't want to
21:32
build your own warehouse facility could
21:34
they do the drop shipping for you and
21:37
number four what sort of extra
21:39
incentives do they have which is going
21:41
to help you build their business and
21:43
work hard to sell their product okay so
21:46
what else can they give you and the
21:50
fourth thing that I would say to you I'm
21:51
going to bring it back to the callin
21:52
thing and have regular conversations and
21:55
reviews with them right again something
21:57
I didn't really do with Beauty King we'd
21:59
just everybody just made the assumption
22:01
that everything was okay what I should
22:03
have done was picked up the phone once a
22:05
month gun hey listen this is what we're
22:06
doing this is how it's working let's
22:08
have a review what do you think how you
22:10
feeling and is there something that we
22:13
can do to improve our relationship is
22:15
that Jimmy what offers have you got
22:16
coming up what you want me to promote
22:17
all that sort of stuff you know just
22:19
having that kind of conversation is
22:22
important so have regular conversation
22:24
and reviews with your suppliers okay so
22:28
they're my top tips for having great
22:32
supplier relationships don't like I say
22:36
do what I do
22:37
has literally cost millions and millions
22:39
in lost sales I don't want to add up how
22:41
much money we've lost in sales because
22:44
of bad supplier relationships but it is
22:47
multiple millions so don't do what I did
22:50
and build some great great supplier
22:53
relationships for you for your business
22:55
for them
22:56
in terms of working together driving
22:59
their brand forward and bringing great
23:01
value to the customers okay so hope you
23:04
found that helpful
23:05
I hope you've actually enjoyed this
23:06
whole little mini series on how to find
23:09
great high demand products to sell on
23:11
your website as I said earlier it is
23:14
connected to a course that I'm just
23:17
launching called the jam jar product
23:19
funnel and so if you would like to know
23:20
more if you would like to see what I do
23:23
as I walk you through and video
23:24
step-by-step on how I do my research how
23:27
I decide on what supply is to use and
23:30
how I figure out pricing how I do my
23:33
research I'll show you how I found
23:35
actually recently some great products
23:37
where where we talked about it actually
23:40
in the previous podcast you know where
23:42
I've had products which have sold
23:44
absolutely nothing but products where
23:45
I've sold about a hundred grands worth
23:47
of stuff recently and I'm going to show
23:49
you in the course how I did that and how
23:51
I found them so you know if you are in
23:54
that staging you are struggling to sell
23:56
on lining your products on shifting then
23:58
maybe that course is for you so do check
24:01
it out the jam jar product funnel all
24:03
the information is going to be at Matt
24:05
Edmondson com the course isn't live at
24:08
the time of recording but it is going to
24:10
be live real real soon so if you want to
24:12
know more when the course is live and
24:14
you're on the website it's not live yet
24:15
if that makes sense just leave your name
24:18
and email in the forum there and I'll
24:20
just let you know when the course is
24:22
launched so make sure you subscribe to
24:25
the show wherever you get your podcasts
24:27
it is free and the show I am hoping and
24:31
trusting it's full of some great stuff
24:33
about how to set up run and grow your
24:36
own e-commerce business so do make sure
24:39
you subscribe wherever you get your
24:40
podcasts to stay up to date okay and of
24:44
course we can connect on social media my
24:47
particular thing at the moment as you
24:48
will know if you've been
24:50
into these shows is Instagram and but
24:52
I'm on Twitter I'm on LinkedIn I'm on
24:54
YouTube I'm on facebook just search Matt
24:58
Edmondson and you should find me
25:01
relatively quickly of course she can
25:03
head on over to Matt Edmondson common
25:05
all the links to all the social media
25:07
places are there do get in touch to
25:09
connect would love to hear your story
25:11
and if there's anything you'd like to
25:13
cover in the podcast or even if you'd
25:16
like to be on the podcast we're starting
25:18
to do these coaching calls where I
25:20
record them and we put them on the
25:22
podcast I really really am enjoying
25:24
knows as some more of those coming up if
25:26
you would like to be featured as a guest
25:28
on the show and coached then there's
25:30
more information at the website Matt
25:32
Edmondson comm fill in the information
25:33
form there and we will definitely get
25:36
back in touch with you okay
25:39
wherever you are in the world I wish you
25:41
all the success online thanks for
25:43
listening
25:44
I'll be back next week where I get to
25:47
talk to Sam Morgan and we're going to
25:49
have a conversation about his cycle
25:52
clothing website prior he's a great guy
25:55
actually I really enjoy this and if you
25:56
are definitely gonna want to hear that
25:59
so until next time
26:03
you've been listening to the curiosity
26:05
podcast with Matt Edmondson subscribe
26:08
and join us next time as we carry on
26:10
conversations about all things ecommerce
26:12
and digital business
26:13
[Music]
26:23
you

Suppliers Can Make or Break Your Business