#579 – How to Source Amazon Products in India, Turkey, and Vietnam

Meghla Bhardwaj, the globe’s leading expert on sourcing from India, joins us for an illuminating discussion on the current and emerging trends in India’s e-commerce landscape. Discover how giants like Amazon and Flipkart are transforming the market and how tier-two cities are becoming key players. Meghla also gives a heartfelt account of her personal journey of moving back to India from Singapore, shedding light on the adjustments and opportunities she encountered along the way.

We take a deep dive into the quick commerce revolution in India, where mobile apps deliver groceries to your door in mere minutes. From specialty e-commerce websites focused on categories like apparel and electronics to the impressive success stories of Indian sellers on Amazon.com, this episode covers it all. Learn how individual entrepreneurs and niche manufacturers in sectors like bedsheets and jewelry are thriving, and how Indian factories are evolving to meet the needs of Amazon sellers with improved packaging and labeling capabilities.

Beyond India, Meghla shares insights on sourcing opportunities in Turkey, emphasizing the high-quality textiles and unique designs that set Turkish products apart. She also discusses the growing electronics manufacturing industry in India and the increasing competitiveness of Indian sectors like organic cotton babywear and wooden toys. With a focus on the booming handmade sector and the importance of India sourcing trips, this episode is packed with valuable tips and personal stories for anyone interested in the dynamic world of e-commerce and global sourcing.

In episode 579 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Bradley and Meghla discuss:

• 00:00 – State Of E-Commerce in India
• 03:34 – Rising Trends in Indian E-Commerce
• 06:14 – Success in Cross-Border E-Commerce
• 11:51 – Finding Suppliers in India – Tips
• 14:32 – Sourcing and Differentiation in E-Commerce
• 20:38 – Changing Sourcing Trends in India
• 20:48 – Growth of Electronics Manufacturing in China
• 25:04 – Utilizing Meghla’s India Sourcing Services
• 31:58 – Exploring Turkey’s Unique Products and Opportunities

Transcript

Bradley Sutton:

Today we’ve got the world’s foremost expert on sourcing products from India, Meghla, back on the show and she’s going to talk about a variety of topics, not just sourcing in India, but also e-commerce in India and even sourcing in other countries like Turkey. How cool is that? Pretty cool, I think. Helium 10’s got over 40 tools for e-commerce entrepreneurs. I know how overwhelming it might seem to try and figure out how you’re going to learn how to use everything, or maybe even to know which ones you want to get started with, so for a completely free course that’s going to guide you through learning everything you need in order to become a Helium 10 expert, visit the Helium 10 Academy that is h10.me forward slash academy. Hello everybody and welcome to another episode of the Serious Sellers Podcast by Helium 10. I’m your host, Bradley Sutton, and this is the show that’s completely BS-free, unscripted and unrehearsed organic conversation about serious strategies for serious sellers of any level in the e-commerce world, and we’re going back on the opposite side of the world again. For the fourth time, Meghla ‘s here on the show. Meghla, welcome, welcome.

Meghla:

Thank you so much, Bradley. So excited to be here for the first time, yeah, but it’s been quite a while. I think the last time I was on was a couple of years ago, wasn’t it?

Bradley Sutton:

Yes, yeah, so just you know, if anybody wants to get Meghla’s full backstory, I got a list here of all the episodes she’s been on, so you guys can, you know, pause this one and go back if you guys want to, but she’s been on the show since 2019. All right, that was her first time on the show, was episode all the way back in episode 84, then two, 10, then three, 31. And now we’re in the 500. So, every couple hundred episodes she joins us here like clockwork, and so it’s been a couple of years. I guess the last time was right towards the end of COVID there early 2022. First of all, what are you up to these days? Where do you live? Where are you calling in from today?

Meghla:

Well, I’m calling in from India. So, as you know, I was previously based in Singapore and two years ago I moved back to India. To, you know, focus a lot more on the India sourcing business, India sourcing trip. So now I’m permanently based in India and it’s been

Bradley Sutton:

Whereabouts?

Meghla:

in Delhi.

Bradley Sutton:

How is it being back home?

Meghla:

well, it’s amazing, I mean, I really like it. My son had a bit of a problem adjusting.

Bradley Sutton:

I was about to say like your son, never lived in India before or when he was little. Maybe or no, his whole life was in other countries.

Meghla:

Yeah, his whole life was in other countries China and Singapore and so it was a bit of an adjustment for him as well. He couldn’t even speak the language very fluently, but now he’s like totally Desi. Desi is like a local person, that’s the word that we use. So, yeah, he’s, he’s adjusted. I’m really glad I moved back because there’s so much opportunity, you know, so much happening in terms of the economy, manufacturing, exports, so I think I made the right decision to move back.

Bradley Sutton:

Okay, nice, nice. Now let’s talk a little bit about, you know, the economy over there and I know, like you know, social commerce is big, and but what about just the traditional? You know that’s been one of the larger Amazon marketplaces. How is Amazon doing, you know, versus Flipkart, etc. What’s the e-commerce situation in a nutshell that’s going on in India the last couple of years?

Meghla:

Yeah, the e-commerce situation is very rosy. I mean, e-commerce is booming. There’s, you know, increasingly the tier two cities are also getting on the e-commerce bandwagon and there are more sales from, you know, the smaller cities as well. It started with mostly the Metropolitans but now it’s sort of you know, the tier two cities are also. A lot of people are shopping online over there.

What’s really moving very fast is quick commerce. So that’s something that is, you know, like for your groceries, for example, or daily use products. There are these apps and they’re totally mobile based, right, there’s no website that they have no browsers are only apps and you can basically order your groceries and they’re delivered in minutes, like 10 minutes, 15 minutes, seven minutes. You know there’s a race to like how fast the groceries can be delivered, so it’s very convenient. Like since the time I’ve moved here, I’ve probably gone to the grocery store, maybe like twice or so. So, everything is ordered online by these websites or these apps basically.

Meghla:

So, I think that’s really booming, that whole quick commerce sector. Apart from that, there are a lot of these specialty e commerce websites that are coming up that. So, for example, you know, for apparel, there are specific websites only for women’s apparel, for electronics, for toys, for all of these kinds of things. So that’s another trend that’s happening. But Amazon is still sort of the everything store, so if you can’t find anything anywhere else, you’ll definitely find it on Amazon. And then Flipkart as well is sort of number two, you know, to Amazon, but it is. I mean, both Amazon and Flipkart are sort of neck to neck and they’re still dominating the domestic e-commerce sector over here.

Bradley Sutton:

Are there more successful Amazon India sellers? You know, I remember when we first started like or around then, like in 2019, you know I was like, hey, I need some help with finding some, like, really successful sellers. And then you did come up with one, but that was about it. In those days there was, like you know, one main guy who was doing really well but uh, are you seeing more people have a lot of success over there, or is it still pretty kind of like just even like everybody’s just doing okay and not many people have really made it big?

Meghla:

No, so there are some people that have made it really big and you know, they’re doing like seven figures, eight figures in terms of cross border e-commerce, in terms of, you know, like selling on amazon.com mostly amazon.com at Amazon Europe as well. So that is definitely happening. A lot of the larger manufacturers, you know, they have established their own brands and they have, you know, started selling on e-commerce directly. So that’s a trend that’s happening. But, by and large, most manufacturers prefer not to sell directly on e-commerce platforms, even though Amazon themselves have been encouraging manufacturers to sell directly. But typically, the small, mid-sized manufacturers they want to focus on their core strength, which is manufacturing. They want to do large orders. That’s where they really make their money and a lot of manufacturers have tried selling cross water but they have not been successful because, you know, of course shipping rates are high and there are a lot of returns and things like that. So not able to manage it.

Meghla:

But the people that are being really successful are entrepreneurs and individual sellers, you know, because they are good at marketing. So, they source products from different manufacturers and they sell those products cross-border. So, there are quite a few niches that are seeing a lot of successful sellers. So, for example, bedsheets. I know one manufacturer that’s doing really well in terms of bedsheets being exported. They have their own factory and they’re doing that. Then there’s also things like marble products and jewelry. So, a lot of sellers, resellers and manufacturers doing jewelry from the city of Jaipur. So, there are niches where people have been successful.

Bradley Sutton:

Now, you know, speaking of sourcing in India, you know that was something we’ve been talking about every time you’ve been on the show. Now, in the early days, you know, like before 2020, it could have been said that, hey, a lot of the manufacturers I believe we even talked about this a lot of the manufacturers, you know some of them didn’t have that much experience, as far as sourcing or supplying. I should say Amazon sellers you know the new ones is that go on with that, like the manufacturing time and the quantities, and interfacing sending stuff directly to Amazon. Like you know, a lot of the Chinese factories are ones who have been doing this for 10, 15 years and they know all the ins and outs and the requirements of Amazon and it’s like clockwork. But, you know, in the early days, you know, I remember you had said that, hey, you know, some of the factories might be a little bit green when it comes to that, but now I think you know I hear more and more sellers manufacturing, or even ones who were manufacturing in China, you know, moving their manufacturing to India. You know, due to tariffs or whatever the case is. What’s the situation now? Do you find more and more factories are almost like on par with the Chinese ones as far as experience now with dealing directly with Amazon sellers?

Meghla:

Yes, definitely. There are increasingly more factories that are familiar with the packaging requirements, the labeling and all of those things. In fact, I was visiting a couple of factories just last week in the city of Moradabad, where there’s a lot of metal production that happens there metal and wooden production. So, I was visiting this factory that makes urns and they have a ton of Amazon sellers as their clients, and what they have started doing now like they’re adapting to Amazon sellers’ requirements. So, for example

Bradley Sutton:

urns would be something good for my spooky coffin shelf friend, perhaps. Maybe you should think about adding that.

Meghla:

Absolutely yeah, and they’re beautiful, gorgeous urns, right. And so, they cater to Amazon sellers. And what they have started doing is because Amazon sellers require inventory very fast, very quickly. So, they have started keeping stock of just blanks, you know, because the basic shape of the urn is the same, it’s just it comes in different sizes and it’s basically the patterns, the designs and the finish that differentiates one earn from the other. So, they just keep blanks ready in stock and so whenever you know Amazon sellers have sort of an order, they’re like okay, quickly send it into production. So, they save a lot of time. And they specifically told me this is for our Amazon sellers because they require, you know, products to be shipped really fast. So that’s happening. A lot of small midsize companies, because more Amazon sellers are sourcing from India now, they are definitely getting more familiar. The one thing that I’m seeing is that there aren’t too many still like freight forwarders that are familiar. Not everybody is familiar with how to ship to Amazon. So just a couple of days ago I was talking to a freight forwarder and they were like we have no idea how to ship to FBA, but the one that we work with, for example, they understand how to do it very, very well. So, I think for shipping you just have to be a little careful. But increasingly suppliers sort of understand Amazon.

Bradley Sutton:

When sellers who are sourcing from China experience increases in shipping costs, kind of like. Now what’s going on? Is it pretty much the same across the board for India, or sometimes they’re kind of immune to those, or pretty much just hey, anybody who’s going that direction over the Pacific Ocean is going to have the same changes.

Meghla:

So, it depends. In some situations, India does face increases, just like China. So, for example, during COVID, both India and China, that was sort of a global phenomenon overall. So, even though, I mean, China’s cost increased significantly they were up to, I think, like $25,000 per container at one point, but India’s cost did not increase that much. I think they were maximum $12,000 or so. So currently India’s costs are increasing, but for different reasons, because it’s mostly because of the whole situation in the Suez Canal and you know, because of which the ships have to sort of take a longer route to the US. So that’s what’s mostly affecting, you know, the shipping costs from India currently, whereas in China, I think it’s a different situation, where, you know, there is sort of increased demand for certain products as such. So, yeah, it’s not always the same trend, but it can be.

Bradley Sutton:

Obviously, you know, we’ll talk a little bit about it later. You know, I think you know, one of the best ways to find factories is getting help from you and also, you know, maybe even visiting the factories on one of your sourcing trips or taking, you know, source. You know, maybe somebody can go on their own to visit certain factories. But what are you know, outside of that, what are some other ways that people can find the factories? Like, obviously, Indian factories have always been on Alibaba. Is that still a good way also, at least just to see what’s out there? Or are there other websites that have emerged, maybe I don’t know about, in the last few years?

Meghla:

yeah, so Alibaba and global sources, those are the two key global marketplaces. There are some suppliers from India and other countries, so you’ve got to use the supplier location filter to find factories from India. Plus, you can also just do a google search. A lot of the websites are now ranked on Google because Google is not blocked in India as it is in China. So, you’ll find, you know, suppliers have websites, but of course, they don’t keep their websites up to date. Sometimes they don’t reply to emails that are sent to. You know email addresses on the website. So, you know, that’s something you just have to keep in mind. Avoid the website India Mart, because that’s going to come up very often, but that website is very domestic focused, and so there are a lot of companies that you know might not have export licenses, for example. So, yeah, I mean, there’s also export promotion councils that you can go to, so visit their websites. You can download the list of their members, all of whom are exporters, but again, you have to like call them or email them to actually find out what their capabilities are.

Meghla:

In terms of other websites, I mean, I don’t think there are any other supplier directories that have come up recently. There are some websites that have started, you know, selling products from India. For example, there’s this website called expobazaar.com, which is basically they have stock in the US, which is basically they have stock in the US and so if you want to drop ship, for example, or if you want to buy very small quantities, like five, 10, 15 pieces, you can buy it from that website and then they can ship it directly. So, they have a lot of stock in the US and what they don’t have in the US they can ship from India. So that concept is sort of picking up. Drop shipping is picking up for certain categories as well. Yeah, concept is sort of picking up Drop shipping is picking up for certain categories as well, and we have started offering sourcing services now like a sourcing agency. Previously we were just sort of connecting suppliers and buyers, but now we are managing the entire process because we found that a lot of people just stumble a lot. India is not easy to navigate, suppliers are not easy to manage sometimes, so we’ve started offering sort of end-to-end sourcing solutions  as well.

Bradley Sutton:

Okay, all right. Yeah, speaking of that, you know, like a couple of years ago we were working on what was going to be kind of like a version of Project X, and then most of it we kind of just postponed, like we filmed a whole bunch of stuff, but then, you know, with COVID and different things going on, like we kind of paused it. But the one thing that we actually, or the only thing in that project that we saw all the way to the end, was something that we sourced. I remember, you know, I I told you about it. I was like all right, you know, we obviously know in project X how to source products. Uh, you know, from China, let’s try to do a product, that would be, that would be good for India, and then it was this macrame, product, and so, um, conversations and stuff. You know, I believe Shivali went directly to you but, walk us through, kind of like what happened? Like she, she maybe, contacted you and told you kind of like the, the, the kind of product it was, and then, first of all, you had to make the decision is this good to source in India or not? And we’ll talk a little bit about that. You know what is good and maybe what isn’t good to do in India. But then then, how did you go about finding and vetting factories, like, did you have one exactly that went to mind, or did you, maybe you know, shop around a little bit, get some samples? Walk us through the process a little bit.

Meghla:

Yeah. So, Shivali basically sent us a link and, I think, a couple of photos, and she had specific requirements. So, then what we did was we looked through our database, because we have a database of vetted suppliers and we do have quite a few suppliers that do macrame, because macrame is one of India’s strong points. Like anything that is handmade, handcrafted, you’ll find it is you know better in India, because labor is, of course, cheaper over here. So, what we did was we spoke to I don’t remember the exact number of suppliers, but maybe like four or five suppliers we sent out the product to, we got quotes from them and then we basically went with the supplier that had the most competitive quote and also that had a good experience in macrame products, because a lot of the macrame products actually are done in homes by women, they’re not done in factories and they’re outsourced. So, it’s very important for the supplier to be able to manage quality for such kind of products.

Meghla:

So, you want to make sure that the supplier has control. So, we spoke to quite a few suppliers and with this supplier we’ve done some other products in the past and we know that he’s got good control over the quality of products and he has somebody to go around and check what’s happening in each of the households or the communities wherever these products are being manufactured. And I personally have visited his facility over here in Delhi, so I know that he has the you know facilities to process and he has a process of you know like a checking and cleaning and packing and processing the entire product after it comes in as well. So, then we decided to go with this supplier and we got a coat and the coat was very competitive. So, you know, we negotiated a little bit with this supplier and we went to Shivali with the coat and she was pretty happy with it. So, we didn’t have to negotiate that further and the only issue that we had was for the hook. So, Shivali, wanted a specific kind of hook,

Bradley Sutton:

That was me. I was the one who told her about that.

Meghla:

yeah, you’re the one causing all the trouble.

Bradley Sutton:

Yep, yep, I remember that part of it.

Yeah, I’m always thinking about how to differentiate, and the reason why was, you know, like already. But you know, by the time we started working on this, it started getting saturated. I was like, well that’s fine, I want to show what happens when you do launch in a saturated niche. But I’m always thinking about how to differentiate. And one thing I learned about, you know, from my experience with the coffin shelves and things and I do a lot of other home decor products and I do a lot of other home decor products was that something that differentiates is how much you know how heavy you can, you know put something that’s hanging on a wall and there’s two, two factors there it’s  not just how heavy, but how easy it is to install.

Bradley Sutton:

You know, like me personally, I hate something you know that requires like a drill to use or you have that plastic piece and you put a screw through and through and it leaves like a humungous hole you know, I might have to have a drill in my house, which I know a lot of people don’t have. So, and then, plus those just screws that go straight in. You know, those always aren’t the strongest, you know, unless you’re going directly into a stud or something, and then I think they’re called, like, monkey hooks, but that was what we started using a while back for coffin shelves, and it just like you can just put it in with your hand and then, because of gravity and physics and everything, the way it works is like the strongest, and so I was like, no, we have to have this special hook because we’d be the only, we’d be the only macrame holder that has that, and so I think, if I’m not mistaken, we ended up actually sending it from China to India right?

Meghla:

Yes, exactly. So, we tried sourcing those over here, but we couldn’t find them. We could find all of the other types of hooks, but you know there are certain products that are just not made over here. Oh, there we go, that hook right here, yeah.

Bradley Sutton:

So, yeah, here’s one of the listings. Like I’m using this, you know skipping to the end, you know to the end, you know we ended up getting this product from India and then I’m using it for a couple of my launching case studies, where I’m just analyzing the different effects and it’ll be it’ll be like a permanent product on Amazon too, but already we’ve been using this whole product, and then there’s those, those hooks and nice little bag here that they came up with.

Meghla:

so, yeah, this is a real product, guys, that we are talking about here yeah, so the hooks came from China and that was a smooth process as well. We didn’t have any issues. I mean our supplier over here. It was sent directly to his factory, so he was the importer. There were no duties or anything. It was very smooth process. So, yeah, that worked really well, and then the bag as well. So, the bag was also sourced from the same supplier, because he also does, cotton bags and things like that. So that was also one reason why we chose him, because he could do the bags too.

Bradley Sutton:

Now, did Shivali organize the shipping, or did, did? did you also find the shipper for it?

Meghla:

yeah, so we organized the shipping too and, because we used our shipper that you know, we’re we’ve been using for a long time and they, they know how to ship out of India and also we used our shipper. Yeah, there was no issues with the shipping as far as I.

Bradley Sutton:

Now that product in particular, you know, like I just happen to know, probably from previous conversations we’ve had, and then sometimes I’ll watch your live streams on LinkedIn and stuff so I knew that you know that was a good one to source in India. But what are some other do’s and dont’s Like? In the past I believe you had said, hey, you know electronics, you know like consumer electronics maybe stick to China, you know they’re very good at that, but you know textiles and things like that in India. What about nowadays? What would you say are the top three or top five to do in the top three or so that maybe another country is better?

Meghla:

So, electronics, I would say, still China is better, especially if you want to do OEM of things like Bluetooth headsets and if you want small quantities. But that’s changing. I think maybe when I’m on the podcast, like in episode nine or so, I’ll probably have a different story in the next couple of years, but that’s changing too. There are a lot of electronics manufacturers that are being set up over here and, in fact, a lot of the bigger brands like Apple, Xiaomi. They have set up their factories and the supply chain is growing. So, there are a lot of like Bluetooth headsets and those kinds of companies that are setting up that are supplying to the domestic market and gradually these companies are going to export as well. So, the situation is definitely changing very fast. For example, there’s this brand called Boat. They make a lot of Bluetooth headsets and you know, headphones, a lot of the small accessories, and now they have started exporting under their own brand and, of course, they will start doing OEM as well and they have, like I don’t know, like 10 000 or so employees and across you know, various factories. It’s a really big setup that they have and the government has been promoting electronics, but anyway. So, unless you are a big large, many you know brand electronics is still in China.

Meghla:

And then I would also say in terms of dont’s, a lot of the very low value products. You know something like for example, recently somebody came to us with the you know these curtains, polyester curtains that are blackout curtains and they’re selling for I don’t know like ten dollars or something or $15 online and we were not getting them in India at a good price. So, something like that that is very mass produced and suppliers and manufacturers in China can sort of get you know scale by producing in high volumes. Those sorts of products are still better in China. A lot of the plastic type of products as well, I would say China is still better, although again, there is more manufacturing of plastic items happening here, bigger factories being set up, but still, by and large, China is better for plastic items as well. In terms of the items that are good, of course, textiles, any kind of fabric, especially cotton and organic cotton. So organic cotton is really a really high quality over here. We’re seeing a lot of growth in baby wear, very high quality, organic cotton, kids and baby wear. That’s a very fast-growing category. Also, toys so there’s a lot of focus on the toy industry in India. Because what happened a couple of years ago, Bradley, that there was a bit of a tension between India and China at the border I’m sure you must have heard of it. It was probably around COVID times and so you know. China did a couple of things to you know, sort of in defense, and then India sort of retaliated and one of the things that India did at that time was impose very high import duties on toys being imported from China.

Bradley Sutton:

A toy Cold War.

Meghla:

Yes, a toy Cold War exactly, and so because there were these cheap toys that were flooding the market over here and of course, that was, you know, affecting the toy industry. But what that has done is that it’s given a boost to the toy manufacturing. You know industry in India. So now, for example, a lot of wooden toys are coming up, and not only in, you know, like the traditional mango acacia wood, but like steam beach wood and pine wood, and very high quality and prices are very competitive. In many cases we’ve actually been able to beat China prices as well for you know wooden toys. Then there are a lot of factories being set up for you know regular like dolls and action figures and you know guns and sort of those types of things. Well, so that’s a fast-growing category and a lot of local brands are also coming up and they are in fact exporting. So, there are a couple of local brands that do STEM toys, like India is really good with engineering and mathematics and all of those things. So, STEM toys is another huge category. There are some brands that in fact, we are helping launch them in the US and other markets, so that’s another good category. Then I would also say, of course, all the entire handmade sector. So, there’s wooden products, metal, ceramic, glass, all of those home decor items. That is still a very big category, especially for Amazon sellers and most sellers we know are finding a lot of success in those categories. Then there’s leather, so a lot of beautiful, different types of leather. There are equestrian products, you know garments, shoes, accessories, bags, all of those things. And then I would also say, to add one more, eco-friendly products. So, if you’re looking for anything that’s made out of maybe cotton or jute or a lot of R&D is being done in alternative materials. So, for example, cactus material or banana fibers. Those are being converted to fabrics and they are used in bags and other kind of accessories, but of course they’re not mass materials yet because there are niche and the prices are much higher than a normal material, but still that’s an emerging category.

Bradley Sutton:

Okay, interesting. Now, guys if you guys want to you know reach out to Megla to you know, perhaps you know, utilize her sourcing services, just like we did with success, as you saw. You know, one of the easy ways to remember is go to hubhelium10.com and then just type in India and then it’ll come up right there, India sourcing network, and you could, you could connect her with her right from this page, right inside of Helium 10. Now I noticed also here on your Helium 10 hub page, it talks about India sourcing trips. So, are you still, have you still been doing, or did you start doing those again after COVID? Like what’s the? What’s the? You know? Like the cadence, is it once a year, twice a year, once every other year?

Meghla:

Yes, we’re still doing the trips there twice a year, and we started after restarted the trips after COVID, and the one that we did after COVID we had 70 people on the trip, so that was amazing, and since then we’ve continued to do. The next trip is coming up in October. So, you know for people who don’t know much about the trip, it’s basically an eight-day tour to India where we teach you all about sourcing from India. We take you to a trade show that has almost 4,000 export-focused manufacturers, and then we also do some cultural activities and, of course, there’s a lot of networking. You get to meet all the different service providers. You can also do factory visits. We can customize the trip so that you are able to find the products that you’re specifically looking for, and it’s just a very fun experience. And, Bradley, what are you.

Bradley Sutton:

What are some of the fun things that you that you do, because I still have been saying for a long time I’m going to go. What do I have in store for me the first time I go on one of these? For the fun side. Obviously, I know the work side, what’s going to happen, but what about on the fun side and the food side that’s very important to me, as you know.

Meghla:

Yes, the food side is amazing because we choose the menus and the restaurants very carefully because India has so much variety in terms of you know, the different food, um sort of flavors and items, like each state of India has a different type of cuisine, so we try to mix and make sure that you get a flavor of all different types of Indian cuisines, we do a Bollywood night. I would say that’s the most fun night on the trip. You can basically wear an Indian dress. For men it’s the Kurta, which is like a long shirt. Women wear Saris. We buy Saris for everybody. We have a live dance troupe. They’re singing and dancing on Bhangra tunes. Bhangra is a very fast-paced band.

Bradley Sutton:

I love Bhangra. I have some Zumba routines for some Bhangra songs. Yes, indeed.

Meghla:

Yes, amazing. So, we have that, and then we’re just, yeah, dancing and singing and drinking and eating, so that’s a very, very fun night. And then we also go to Taj Mahal. So, I think that’s also very special, because that’s one of the seven wonders of the world, and especially if you come with your partner, like your better half, or your spouse, then you can get a picture in front of the Taj Mahal, which is basically a monument that’s dedicated to love and romance. So that’s also very special.

Bradley Sutton:

Okay, all right, interesting So, the next one, is in October, you said.

Meghla:

Yes, October 14^th to the 21^st.

Bradley Sutton:

Okay, excellent, excellent. I’ll see there’s a chance you know I might be going, or I am going, to Maldives, as they do every year, you know, to film one of my every 100 episodes of this podcast, and then this year, I’m actually going to be going from Turkey. I’m speaking at Turkey and I think I want to ask you a couple questions about that it’s Segue, but I found one flight that potentially has like a like a set, like a seven-hour layover or something, on my way to the Maldives from Turkey, in India, I think, Mumbai, and so I had never even set foot on soil in India. So, I’m like, all right, maybe that’ll be my, my first dip and then next step would be going on the India sourcing trip. So, speaking of Turkey, I believe you said you just spoke at an event there and actually you’ve expanded some of your sourcing to there. And, like I know, you know Carrie, who works with us here at Helium 10, she was telling me you know she went like on a sourcing trip to Turkey on her own, like last year, for her own Amazon and Walmart brands, and she actually moved some of her manufacturing from I’m not sure if it was in China or Korea, but to Turkey, and has had good success. What, what can you? How did you get you know? Linked with sourcing in Turkey?

Meghla:

Yeah, so I was invited to this conference. I mean, we have been thinking about sourcing in Turkey. In fact, I got the domain name turkeysourcingtrip.com last year because we were, you know, sort of exploring that and that’s the first thing you do, right, when you have an idea. So, you know, because Turkey is definitely coming up as an important production hub and in fact, somebody told me when I was there that Turkey is the China of Europe. So, if you’re based in Europe, if you’re sourcing in Europe, then Turkey is like the perfect destination for you. So, I was speaking there at the World Deaf Conference and, you know, I thought that, you know, while I’m going there, I would meet manufacturers and we already had had been having discussions with some sourcing agencies and some sourcing partners over there. So, yeah, I mean, in terms of the products, Turkey makes a very wide variety of products.

Meghla:

So, first of all, textiles, like any type of towels, bedsheets, like Turkish cotton is very, very famous and I was, you know, some of the towels that I saw over there at the factories. They were so unique. I’ve never seen any towels like that. They had beautiful embroidery, some of them had like beads, embellishments, like very, very unique designs. Even the bedsheets were like very different from what you’d find in China or India. Then another thing is that they do a lot of cosmetics. So, there’s in terms of cosmetics, it’s also like skincare, or maybe shampoos, or you know, soaps, for example, things like that. So, there’s a lot of R&D happening at that front as well. There are a lot of brands that I met that were doing vegan and organic. You know, like creams and body. You know body products as well. So that was another category.

Meghla:

And then, of course, apparel. So, Turkey does a lot of different types of apparel, whether it’s women’s apparel, kids or even men’s apparel. There are men’s suits. They do a lot of linen fabric as well. That’s very popular linen and cotton. Then they do things like carpets. In fact, Turkish carpets are very popular. Then there’s some handicraft items as well metal and ceramic and those types of things. But I mean exports of those are very minimal. There are also some very good packaging companies that we found so like very high-quality boxes. If you are sourcing some kind of product from there, then you can get the packaging and all done in Turkey as well. Also, the domestic market in Turkey for e-commerce is pretty strong. It’s growing pretty fast and in fact Amazon is one of the marketplaces there, but it’s not very popular. The popular marketplace is called Trendyol. So that’s a local domestic marketplace and you know there is an opportunity for you to also sell in the domestic market on Trendyol if you are sourcing in Turkey.

Meghla:

I also saw quite a few like wooden products and very unique designs. I mean that’s one thing that sort of differentiated you know Turkey from China or India. The designs are very unique. And then some toys, some very basic kind of toys, like puzzles, some, you know, board games and things like that. So, I mean at first, not a huge variety of products like China or maybe Vietnam, but very niche, very unique, very differentiated. And I mean, if you’re in Europe you should definitely, definitely explore Turkey, because it’s just in your backyard and you can save on logistics costs and of course, the deliveries can be faster and you can order in smaller quantities as well.

Bradley Sutton:

Okay, cool, cool. So, another you know alternative place that not a lot of people yet are sourcing from. That I think sellers should, should look into and I’ll be looking forward to when you actually launch that website, because it means you’re going to have some events and I love Turkish food too and I so many places I want to visit in in in Turkey, you know Bible history, a lot of Bible history there in a lot of cities and a lot of like Maldives-ish kind of places even that people don’t realize on some parts of Turkey. So, I know you’ll arrange something good. Just to prove, I wasn’t making it up, but I found one of my old videos here of some Bhangra dancing here. Look at the skinny me going and doing some fitness right there. That’s me, that’s me from like 10 years ago. and even you can see my kids in that in that video leading a fitness class doing some Bhangra dancing there. But, anyways how you know, I already gave you know I told people how they can find you from the Helium 10 hub, but if they want to find you, you elsewhere out there on the interwebs. What are some good ways that they can? They can reach you.

Meghla:

Well, I’m on all of the social media platforms, so just search for me on either LinkedIn or Facebook and or Instagram and message me. You can also go to our website, Indiasourcingtrip.com or IndiaSourcing.net, and then Vietnamsourcingtrip.com as well.

Bradley Sutton:

Vietnam sourcing too. Yeah, I know that’s another hot place. I see a lot of people moving to. Maybe there was just a couple of kind of products, a specialty, but I know a lot of people who are not only moving sourcing there, but even some of their operations moving to Vietnam. I spent about a week last year there and the last couple of years really nice, really nice place to visit. So maybe next time we can talk a little bit more about that. Do you have like a 30 second tip or 60 second tip you can share with the audience? Could be about sourcing, could be about travel, could be about moving to a country your son has never been to. Whatever kind of tip you want to give, go ahead and hit us with it.

Meghla:

Yeah, I would say be adventurous in your business. You have to explore different markets. China is not the only place where you can source products. Sometimes we get too comfortable sourcing in China and like, oh, we’re sort of scared to go to these other markets. But there’s a whole world out there, like whole different world, and people who are more adventurous and who are willing to take that risk will definitely reap rewards, because there are tons of unique products to be discovered in these alternative production hubs.

Bradley Sutton:

Alright. Well, Meghla thank you so much for coming on here for the fourth time, we’ll look forward next year for the fifth time and hopefully maybe by then we can say that I’ve been on one of your sourcing trips, like I’ve been planning for years to do So hopefully that happens within the next year or so. But thanks for joining us and we’ll see you back here for sure.

Meghla:

Thank you so much, Bradley Bye.

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