SaleHoo Review -- A Solid Choice To Begin Your Wholesale Product Search

About five years ago I thought I wanted to open an online store. I researched several markets, poked around for drop ship and wholesale sources and decided it just wasn't for me.

But at the time, there weren't too many options available in terms of directories to find places to source products. The internet has grown by leaps and bounds since then. So when I was asked to review SaleHoo.com, I thought it would be a good opportunity to take a small peek at one site that does just that.

SaleHoo bills itself as a global product sourcing directory. The website was first registered in April 2005 and is currently shown as being owned by SaleHoo Group Limited of New Zealand.

Their services include:

• A comprehensive directory of manufacturers, wholesalers and drop shippers
• Quality information, frequently screened and updated
• Support when you need it from the customer service team
• A huge community of over 35,000 registered users with an active and informative forum 

Inside the site, you'll find suppliers -- drop ship, wholesale, liquidators -- plus you'll have an opportunity to educate yourself at the learning and training center, get help with research about a potential market and best of all, participate in the almost 38k member strong online community.

If you want to take a quick tour, go to SaleHoo Video Tour.

There's a lot to like about this directory. If I was pursuing an online store, it would definitely be one of my first stops. Some of the greatest value from this directory comes from:

• You can search the SaleHoo database for community forum entries about every supplier from the supplier page. The supplier page also gives you an option to go directly to the whois database for further details and provides options to register a supplier complaint or report an error in that supplier's listing. Plus, every member can rate the supplier and write a review about their experience.
• If you're not sure about pursuing a market, the product research option  is a real plus. You just enter in a product brand and send the info to the research lab. They provide a report, available to all members, of the potential success of that market, eBay prices, eBay advertisement and demand based on keywords. This is a good starting point for your research and could save you some time.
• But the very best of all is the user forum. It's an active forum that includes SaleHoo team members, eBay power sellers, suppliers and newbies. For the forums I visited, the discussion was both frank and helpful. There really is nothing better than asking someone else about their experience with something prior to trying it yourself.

The only real drawback I see is that a lot of the discussion on the forum focuses on eBay selling. If you're not planning that option and are just looking to source products for your online store, it's still a good choice. Just make sure you use the forum to get help with your questions from people who have "been there, done that." Regular price is posted as $147, but it was selling for half that at the time of this writing. The sale processor is ClickBank, so if you do decide after joining that it just doesn't fit the bill for you, you are protected by their money back guarantee.

Have you used this service? How did you like it? Leave me a comment.

This has been a sponsored post.