Drop ship directory reviews - Hienote and Worldwide Brands
Hienote Directory and Worldwide Brands—which drop ship directory is best for you?
If you're looking for a reputable drop ship directory (namely, one that gives you legitimate suppliers who will ship their products directly to their customers for you), two names stand out, Hienote Drop Ship Directory and Worldwide Brands OneSource Wholesale Product Directory.
Both are big names in the business. Both deliver up-to-date, top quality suppliers in their directories. Either of them is a reliable choice. Which of them is best for you, though?
That depends on what you're looking for. I've dealt with both companies, both as a consultant seeking to get manufacturer clients listed in these directories, and as a reseller, setting up drop ship arrangements for my own sites.
First things first—research
Before we compare these two giants of the drop ship directory world, let's make sure you're ready to make the best use of them. By that I mean, have you found a niche yet where people are having trouble finding the products they need?
Sure, it makes you feel like a big shot selling high profile products like electronics. But it's no good arranging to sell drop ship products in markets that are so glutted with competition that you're virtually guaranteed of watching your email eagerly for sales that never come.
Two ironclad rules of choosing products to sell:
- Never decide on a product without first doing research to find out if people are looking for it and not finding it
- Always research what people are looking for and not finding before you decide on a product
It's that simple. Research is essential—unless you want to put a lot of work into promoting products that don't sell.
IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY DONE YOUR RESEARCH, check out the following articles (articles will open in a new window):
Really, the research is essential. Most people go to the drop ship directories first, fall in love with products, and invest a lot of energy trying to sell them without even knowing where to find the buyers who are looking for them.
The comparison
OK, disclaimers out of the way, let's compare these two directories.
Size and selectivity
Both directories give you quality drop ship suppliers. Worldwide Brands OneSource Wholesale Products Directory claims 3,000,000 products by 4,000 suppliers. And they provide you with much more than just drop ship suppliers. They put you in contact also with:
- Light bulk wholesale suppliers who sell to you in small quantities for a discount
- Bulk wholesale suppliers who sell you large quantities at deep discounts
- Importers who sell you products from low overhead countries, such as China
- Liquidators who sell you discontinued products from major companies
Hienote Drop Ship Directory works strictly with drop ship suppliers. Hienote doesn't publish how many suppliers they work with, but, looking at their database, they have considerably less, maybe 5-10% the size of Worldwide Brands.
Hienote looks at their smaller size as a sign that they are far more selective in adding suppliers to their database. They select suppliers primarily by going to trade shows and meeting with suppliers face to face and physically examining their products before adding them.
Worldwide Brands buys lists of verified suppliers from information services such as Dun and Bradstreet as well as visiting all of the major trade shows.
And, as the most widely known drop ship directory, Worldwide Brands receives numerous inquiries from suppliers who have found them through the Internet. Worldwide Brands is well-known through their partnerships with eBay as an eBay Certified Solution Provider and and with Entrepreneur.com, because Worldwide Brands owner, Chris Malta, hosts one of Entrepreneur's radio shows on product sourcing.
Additional features
As I said before, Worldwide Brands goes beyond just the 3,000 dropship suppliers they list. When you sign up for their OneSource product search database, you also get access to their extensive list of:
- Bulk wholesalers
- Liquidators
- Importers
That alone gives Worldwide Brands the most complete and up-to-date database of wholesale suppliers anywhere. Whatever type of wholesale supplier you want, they have it.
And Worldwide Brands has built a handy market research tool right into their database. Want to check how profitable the product you've found is likely to be for you? Just click a button in the database and it will search the Internet and eBay to find out how much demand there is for that product and how much competition you'll face.
Granted, it can take a couple of minutes to complete its search, but I think a couple of minutes is well worth it to let you know right up front whether your product is oversaturated in the marketplace or ripe for the picking.
What suppliers go through to be included
Having gotten clients included in both directories, I was impressed with the care both took in verifying that my clients were legitimate manufacturers and not just middlemen who run up your costs by taking a needless cut out of your profits.
Worldwide Brands Drop Ship Directory received our application and took a couple of days studying our site, studying our policies, trying to find any sign that we were not the manufacturer of our products. Then they called us and talked to people in all departments, asking tough questions about our manufacturing, our inventory, our shipping, to ensure that we were not just posing as the original source of our drop ship products.
Hienote Drop Ship Directory took our application online and didn't contact us again for months. But during that time, they went undercover, testing us out. They posed as a company that wanted to drop ship our products. They tested us, seeing exactly how responsive and helpful we were to our drop ship customers.
Only after they informed us that they had added us to their directory did we have any idea that they were testing us so thoroughly.
The results of the kind of testing both companies do shows up in the satisfaction that customers for both companies display. As a reseller, setting up drop ship arrangements for my own businesses, I have never found a drop ship supplier that I had any trouble with in either directory.
Cost
The Hienote Drop Ship Directory lets you subscribe either on a yearly basis or a lifetime basis. A yearly subscription to Hienote is pretty cheap, especially when you consider what you're getting. Worldwide Brands doesn't offer a yearly subscription.
Both offer lifetime memberships to their directories. Here again, Hienote is less expensive, but Worldwide Brands offers far more with the larger database, access to other types of wholesale sources, and market research tool.
Ease of use
I've found the Hienote Drop Ship Directory to break down products based on broad categories. Worldwide Brands allows you to go deeper in your search with much more detailed categories.
Both companies have built in search engines that you can use to search products. Worldwide Brands also has a very useful addition to its search engine that allows eBay sellers to narrow their searches to fit specifically in eBay categories. And it has the market research tool that I described before.
Worldwide Brands' superior volume of wholesalers means that you may spend more time searching for products in their directory, both because of the larger number of drop shippers and the greater variety of product categories.
As a matter of fact, the biggest trouble I've found with Worldwide Brands is the fact that you need to go into a product search with a clear plan of what you want to find and the self-discipline needed to keep from wandering off among the huge selection of products.
Free previews
Both directories offer a free preview of their database. I encourage you to check them out and see which drop ship directory has the ease of use and scope of products that suit you best. Both previews let you browse their database just as a regular member would. The only things you can't see are company names and contact information.
Final thoughts
In all, the choice between Hienote Drop Ship Directory and Worldwide Brands OneSource Wholesale Product Directory comes down to a matter of preference.
If you're just testing the waters of reselling drop ship products, Hienote offers a quick and easy way to get your feet wet with their inexpensive one-year membership.
But if you're looking for the most comprehensive directory available with build-in market research information and are willing to invest the time it takes to mine its riches, go for Worldwide Brands.
In my opinion, you won't go wrong either way.
Helping you become the successful business owner you want to be.
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