I would like to start an online business to sell computer hardware. Since I dont have much capital, I would like to know how can I start the business by pay only to the supplier when I got orders? And how to get the supplier to ship the product for me? So I will not need to buy the stocks and pay before I got orders?Thanks!
      Answer1:Manufacturers, such as Intel, will ship you chips by the container (or pallet) load ..If you dont want to order 20,000+ processors at a time, you have to find a middleman known as a Distributor .... and this is where your profit evaporates ..You will learn very soon find that the cost of buying individual parts from Distributors adds up to MORE than the cost of buying a complete PC direct from the likes of DELL ...So, as many on eBay have done, instead of trying to buy parts (Hard disks, CUs Power Suppliers etc) from Distributors, you buy complete PCs (eg. returns, end of line etc etc) from Dell etc. and break them down to get the parts ....Even if you throw away the bits you cant sell (eg custom cases, motherboards & fan moldings) you can still end up making a lot more profit than even the Distributors can ..There IS something known as drop shipment (a lot of Chinese manufacturers offer this) - this is where you make the sale and then pay the Manufacturer to ship direct to your customer .. however its a massive risk to you (there are a lot of con-merchants and scams going around and if the Manufacturer ships a duff product, its YOUR feedback rating on the line) ..
      Answer2:You need to find an IT distributor, depending on where you are in the world and where in the world your target markets are. I think Techdata http://www.techdata.com/ might be a good choice for you, they offer some good integration tools for websites and operate through most of the world.BUT an extra bit of advice..I am in the UK and been an IT consultant for many years, the margin in hardware is very small, unless you have some magical edge, you are entering into a very competitive market where you will find it really hard to make a living.I can make a margin on product, but I just dont bother any more. The time and hassle involved in returns and problems, just makes it easier for me to send people to other suppliers who are experts in dealing with returns and doing customer service. If customers want cheap they can get cheap and have all the hassle of bad customer service, if customers are prepared to pay for service then they can have service. Either way I dont get tarred with selling rubbish or ripping people off, and am happy to loose the tiny margin I would have made in order to retain my reputation.