Supplier Directory Overview

Inventory Source Supplier Directory Overview

This article will teach you the ins and outs of our wholesale/dropship Supplier Directory

Our Supplier Directory video tutorial below.

What is the purpose of the Supplier Directory?

The Inventory Source Supplier Directory was created for the sole purpose of connecting online resellers to wholesale distributors and vise versa. We are the leading directory on the internet due to 3 main things...

1. We have over 4,000 suppliers listed on our directory and growing every day of business that provides wholesale and/or dropship services for online retailers.
2. We are one of the only directories that incorporate product data into our directory for each supplier that provides their catalog data to us, which helps online sellers make the best decision for picking a distributor to fulfill products. You can either Search by Supplier or Search by Products across our millions of stored products in our database.
3. The main suppliers in our directory that can Dropship are integrated with us, which means you can purchase one of our automation services to integrate their products to your site or marketplace.

Searching by Products

You have the option to search our directory based on the types of products you are looking to sell. Here are some of the ways you can search by products.

Search by Keyword, Brand, UPC, MPN, and just about anything else!

Once you find a collection of products you can then filter the products based on different data points. See more details below on how to navigate the product search.

#1 - Product Search filters: On the left-hand side of the product search, you can filter on Shipping From, Shipping To, Supplier Type (learn more about Supplier Type on next section), and Supplier Categories.

#2 - Advanced Product Search: Get more specific with the products you are trying to find such as the cost, MSRP, UPC, and more. 

#3 -  Sort: You can sort the product results by cost, newest, oldest, and more. 

#4 - Supplier Total & Exclusion: You can see all of the suppliers that correlate products to that search on the right-hand side as well as exclude out certain suppliers from that product search.

#5 - Supplier Page link: On each of the product cards, we link out the supplier that you can source that product from. When you click on this link you will get redirected to that supplier's page on the Supplier Directory.

#6 - Product Card: See the product details such as title, cost, MSRP, and brand. When you click on the product card, a pop up will appear of the product with all of the information that was obtained by the supplier's catalog such as MAP, weight, attributes, description, UPC, and more. 

Searching by Suppliers

You also have the option to search by suppliers. When on the directory home page you can also search by suppliers under the Browse Supplier Directory buttons. You have the option to view all of the suppliers in our directory or just the ones that we are integrated with. Scroll further to learn more about the difference between our Integrated and Non-Integrated Suppliers.

Here is the main supplier search once you start browsing the directory for suppliers. Follow the screenshot below to learn more.

#1 - Supplier Type: We now have the concept of Integrated Suppliers and Non-Integrated Suppliers. What this means is that suppliers that are integrated with us are dropship suppliers that provide their real-time feeds to us to set up the integration for you as their potential retailer to purchase an integration and automation plan for them as the supplier to your sales channel (IMPORTANT - For all of our suppliers you must be an approved retailer first with them before purchasing an integration with us. The only special case here is our sister company US Direct). Our non-integrated suppliers are suppliers that merely want to be listed in our directory. They are listed as a means to gain more resellers to sell their products.

#2 - Supplier Catalog: We have suppliers that provide products via their feed or a static public catalog for resellers to see what products they have to offer. Some are unable to provide a catalog of products to showcase in our directory. Use this filter to sort on suppliers with a public catalog or not.

#3 - Supplier Attributes: The Supplier Attributes consist of Featured Suppliers, My Integrated Suppliers, and Favorite Suppliers. Featured Suppliers are suppliers that the Inventory Source team is featuring for this month. My Integrated Suppliers are suppliers that you have active integrations with on your Inventory Source account. Favorite Suppliers are saved suppliers that you would like to keep a list of. You can "favorite" suppliers by hitting the star in the top right of the card (#9).

#4 - Supplier Categories: You can filter suppliers by the product niche or vertical that the suppliers provide in their catalog. You can sort and filter by more than one.

#5 - Search bar: Search by the supplier's name

#6 - Sync Icon: This sync icon is in regards to the integration for this supplier. If the sync icon is high lighted in blue then they are integrated with us. If the sync icon is grey then it is a non-integrated supplier. Also, if you hover over the icon, it will show how the supplier is integrated. For example, if the "Inventory Sync" and "Product Data Upload" is high lighted in Blue then the supplier is compatible for our Inventory Automation plans, if the "Inventory Sync", "Product Data Upload", "Order Routing", and "Shipment Tracking" is high lighted in Blue then the supplier is compatible for BOTH our Inventory Automation plans and our Full Automation plans.

#7 - Verified Icon: This icon will appear on a supplier's card and page as a verified supplier. A Verified Supplier for us is where we were able to confirm with the supplier that they are a registered business and they offer wholesale and/or dropship.

#8 - Sort: Sort the supplier list by various data such as product count, name, popularity (based on # of integrations), oldest, and newest.

#9 - Star Icon: This icon is to "Favorite" a supplier and have this supplier saved on a list of "Favorite Suppliers" list which you can access by the Supplier Attributes filter on the left-hand side.

Supplier Pages

More info on our Integrated Supplier page below.

#1 -  Minimum Order: Some suppliers (wholesale or dropship) need a minimum order before proceeding with getting an account set up for retailers. This is normal for most wholesale suppliers, however, some dropship suppliers will do the same to vet if the retailer will do volume with them.

#2 -  Integrate button: If the supplier is an Integrated Supplier, this button will redirect you to our Add Integration page to purchase an automation plan with us for this supplier specifically. 

#3 -  More Info button: This is a pop up with more information about the supplier such as contact, ordering, and policy information

#4 -  Brand search: You will be able to search the supplier's catalog off of brand with this section by clicking on the brand name, OR you can view all of the brands offered by the supplier according to their integrated feed. 

#5 -  Categories search: You can search the supplier's catalog feed off of the categories that they provide in their feed. 

#6 -  Search bar: Seach the supplier's catalog off of keyword, SKU, UPC, MPN, and more. You can also refine your search by clicking the "Adv Search" button to get more specific such as images, cost, MSRP, and more.

More info on our Non-Integrated Supplier page below.

#1 -  Catalog Type: Since this supplier is NOT integrated with us, and they do NOT provide us a catalog file to display in our directory they will have the Catalog Type as No Catalog. The pop up on the button part of their page will give a quick explanation of why this supplier does not have a public catalog.

#2 -  Sync Icon: Since this icon is grey, the supplier is not currently integrated with us so they are no compatible for our automation services.

#3 -  Integrate button: This is another indicator that this supplier is a Non-Integrated Supplier. The Integrate button will turn Red once on a suppliers page that is not currently integrated with us.

#4 -  Vote Up button: NEW! This button is for retailers to Vote on suppliers that they would like to be integrated for our services. This is a great feature to tell the Inventory Source team that they would like us to work with the supplier to have them integrated and compatible for our automation services. Note: We only integrate suppliers that are able to dropship products, aka Allows Dropship: Yes.

Important Notes & FAQ's

Switching between searching by products and searching by suppliers.

You can switch between searching by suppliers or searching by products in the top left-hand section of the Supplier Directory once you navigate past the home page of the directory. Screenshot below.

There are certain products and brands that you have on a supplier page but the supplier says they don't provide these products.

One very important thing to note is that you should NOT use this directory as the record of truth for accurate product data for the supplier. We pride ourselves on maintaining the directory as up to date as possible, however, with millions of products in our database and hundreds of different feeds integrated we sometimes are not updated from the supplier about products that have been discontinued. You should always work with the supplier directly for the most up to data catalog. IF you by an automation plan, then yes, you will get very accurate data integration functionality vs our free supplier directory.

Why do certain suppliers have products shown on their page but I can not integrate with them? Why do certain suppliers say they are integrated but I can't view their products?

Here is a breakdown of the different types of suppliers that you will see in the directory...

#1 - Integrated Supplier w/ a Public Catalog. This is a common supplier page where the supplier is integrated into our app and they are okay with having their catalog public in the supplier directory.

#2 - Integrated Supplier w/ a Private Catalog. Some suppliers like to be integrated with us, however, since the supplier directory is free, they do not like to display their catalog with us, and due to this request, we make their catalog private in our directory.

#3 - Non-Integrated Supplier w/ a Public Catalog. Some suppliers do not have a feed to integrate to or their do not offer dropshipping BUT they want to display their product catalog to our supplier directory users.

#4 - Non-Integration Supplier w/ No Catalog. These suppliers are listed in our directory, they do not have a feed to integrate to, and/or we are unable to get a catalog from them as well. Which can be a common use case in for wholesale supplier directories.

Here is a short video explaining why certain suppliers don't have products on their page:

So I need to have an account with the supplier first before purchasing an integration plan?

Yes, for all suppliers you need to reach out to them directly to get an approved account with them first, and then you can purchase an automation plan with us. If you cannot get an approved account, consider working with our sister company US Direct. US Direct is a dropship aggregator that holds a reseller account with some of the top suppliers and provides their products to resellers that purchase an integration with US Direct. US Direct has no approval process for you to get access tot he products, all you have to do is purchase an Inventory Source integration to start selling.

Why do certain suppliers not have pricing information being shown in the directory? Why are products cost presented in a range?

Most (if not all) wholesale suppliers do not like their product costs to be public-facing, and that is why some pricing is hidden or their whole catalog is private. Also, we do present the costs in a wholesale range due to the fact that most resellers can negotiate their pricing structure at the time of getting a reseller account set up.