When it comes to sourcing products for any type of store there are several factors that must be put into consideration. Among those are price, minimum order quantities, quality, and lead time. The price that you will pay for the product will ultimately become your “cost”. This might be lowered or raised depending on the quantity that is ordered at any given time. Since many of these kinds of manufacturers are now overseas it is very important to see a sample before ordering any significant quantities. If the quality of this sample is not what you are looking for you might be able to make changes with the manufacturer or continue to shop around.
Being able to quantify and compare those options is also very important as doing this takes what could be a very subjective decision and tries to bring some order to it. In doing this it can be possible to make a more logical decision.