Pick products your supply chain can survive
The best-selling product you cannot restock is worse than a decent one you can. Before you commit, check the MOQ, the lead time, and whether the factory will still take your order at the size you can afford in month three.
Small, light, non-fragile products with a stable specification are the beginner's friend: cheap to ship by air when you are out of stock, cheap to replace when one arrives broken.
Price from landed cost, never from factory price
Take the factory price, add freight, duties, packaging, payment fees and your returns rate, then apply your multiple. Stores that price off the factory quote discover their real margin at the exact moment they run out of cash.
Make it yours before you scale it
- Your logo on the product and the box, not just the invoice
- Packaging that survives a courier, not only a container
- Your own photos: the factory's images are on a hundred other stores
- An insert card that turns a buyer into a repeat customer
Build the restock calendar on day one
Production plus sea freight is commonly two to three months door to door. That means your reorder has to leave when you still have stock on the shelf. Work backwards from your sales rate, mark the reorder date in a calendar, and treat it as a deadline rather than a reminder.