ImportYeti searches the Freedom of Information Act for public bills of ladings. This information is used by every large eCom seller or FBA Seller, but was previously too expensive, difficult to find and difficult for the average person to use.
According to the founder David Applegate
ImportYeti is the combination of some downtime created by the Corona Virus and my desire to give back to the eCom community that has given me so much.
Bill of ladings are public information that every large eCom owner or FBA seller I know uses but they are too cost prohibitive, challenging to obtain and difficult to use for the average joe. ImportYeti’s goal is to solve that problem.
I only want to create things that people really love. If you enjoyed this tool, have any ideas for how to improve it, or can think of other ways we can help the eCom community, I want to hear from you.
What is Importyeti?
Importyeti searches through bills of lading, the documents that suppliers attach to shipments to their customers, to tell you where a retailer is getting its goods. ImportYeti searches 70,000,000 public bill of ladings to help you find the right supplier.
Source selection is the biggest challenge in building a product. Sources for many big brands are the same, so if you’re trying to break into a market with a small company or startup (yoga mats), knowing where your competitors source their products can make a huge difference. You can be competitive if you can get the same products at a lower price.
Many brands outsource production to Asia, as they don’t produce their products. ImportYeti’s information allows competitors to know where to find similar products if they are looking to buy them in bulk.
How DoesImportyeti gets it’s Data?
Importyeti gets it’s dats from US Customs records. These records are public information through a Freedom information Act Request and cost thousands of dollars. It is literally sent on CDs and could be the size of 40GB and very messy.
These data can be a struggle to get and as such only available to be used as a secret weapon by big ecommerce stores and Fortune 500 companies. What Imporyeti has done is to simplify the whole process and make this useful data available to the average person who run an ecommerce business for free.
The data pages offer a wealth of interesting information. We find out from the above-mentioned suppliers of yoga mats Mandukaas advertised in its Marketing, imports from Germany, among others, while Gaiam Sources mainly from Asia. Meanwhile a search for Apple shows us the technology monster Imports from Hon Hai, Quanta and Foxconn affiliates.
The system searches over 70 million bills of lading to understand which suppliers to choose based on data rather than than empty claims and seemingly endless options
