Sourcing Goods and suppliers in China
Although the relative cost of manufacturing in China has risen in recent years, but the country is still often the cheapest location for retailers and wholesales from world source goods or parts.
So when you are the company which cannot afford to establish overseas offices or manufacturing operations, but you want effectively and efficiently source suppliers in China, then you have exploring suppliers from below method
Internet Search
You will easily to start a search for suppliers in China via search enginers such as Google, Bing and other B2B sourcing platforms like Alibaba, Made-in-China.com, Globalsources.com, thousand of suppliers are listed on these sites, and you can find lots of tips for search reliable suppliers in Alibaba.
Social Media Identify
Sometimes social media is an ideal platform to identify suppliers, some suppliers may have social media presence, but they could be a good source for feedback or reviews of potential suppliers, but we have to say, you will have to do your own decision, sometimes the positive reviews or comments are often unverified,
Anyway there are lots of groups in facebook, linkedin,, also forums such as Alibaba Forum, smart China Sourcing for your to identify suppliers, and you can also check complaint experience from site www.ripoffreport.com.
Trade Shows/ Fairs
So you must heard Canton Fair, the biggest Trade fair in China, Trade shows are another way to find legitimate suppliers. By attending trade shows, you have the opportunity to talk to potential suppliers face to face about their companies, products, production capacity, quality-control procedures, and other key business areas. Such direct interaction can help you evaluate suppliers and verify their abilities.
How to identify suppliers? Auditing the supplier’s quality control system.
We all know the only reliable way to verify a supplier’s production capabilities is visit the supplier, then you can know if the supplier are suitable for your. If they are your best supplier?
Anyway here are 10 tips for you to verify the supplier’s capacity before you go check with them on field. But we have to say the tips are not absolute.
Tip 1.
A good supplier should be better over 5 year’s history and have export/import business at east 3 years. Based on your products, you decide to choose manufacturer or trading company to work with.
Tip 2.
Employee in the factory should be better than 50-100, if you doubt the numbers from supplier, you can ask them how many people in different department including R&D, Sales, Purchasing, QC, production line, then you can know their probable company size.
Tip 3.
We know a lot of suppliers in Hebei, Henan, Guangxi, Tianjin etc. are doing great export business, and the services are great too, we guess factory owner been working at Eastern China before and now he/she back hometown to set up a new factory.but we would like to say that find suppliers from Eastern China will be better. such as Guangdong, Fujian, Zhengjiang, Jiangsu, Shandong etc. Those provinces are more developed and understand what customers needs better. And you will get more supporting in creative products and popular information from suppliers.
Tip 4.
Search the factory on Google and visit its website-how they describe the company or factory, how they describe the products or services, before start cooperating, websites are for to show their products and help clients find the required information at the easiest way.
Tip 5.
Check the factory is private or state-owned, cooperate with private factories will be get quicker response.
Tip 6.
Send the factory samples and ask them produce accordingly, find as many problems as possible after receiving samples-NEVER say “your sample is great!” at the very beginning.
Tip 7.
If possible and you are willing to visit the factory and see the workshop, dining room and washing room. You will get how a good factory treats their workers, these things may effective to your products quality but you will not know.
Tip 8.
While you visit the factory, talk with the one speak English from factory and ask he/she several questions: how many employees, how many equipments, anual turnover and so on. If
he/she can reply immediately, this person can help on export handling, if you have no experiece with these, find third party inspection company to help with this.
More about product inspections in China
Tip 9.
Prepare your detail inspection checklist , set the quality level and tell the supplier what you need in details,
Chinese suppliers can supply products at any prices-if you want good quality, you must tell directly, and let factory know that third party inspection company will contact them to schedule Pre-shipment Inspection,
During production when the goods finished about 30-50%, arrange third party inspectors to do check if factory are doing right thing, before loading the first container-you should do final inspection by your own person, find problems with products and reject, then you would not need fly to China everytime before shipping date, later you can move your requirements to agency or third party inspection company.
Tip 10.
As we said in tip 9, it’s important to find a local representative or third party inspectors to help you, if you are not plan to open WFOE(Wholly Foreign-Owned Enterprise) or other kind of offices in China, To double insure products can finish before cancel date and quality, better find a local representative help you.
Anyway, find and select a good supplier is not easy, lot’s of companies has a team in supply chain department working on it. But we also have a lot of options available in these years to look for suppliers and manufacture your products,
So choose the right supplier almost as important as choosing a business life partner. A wrong supplier choosed will let you face alone in shipping delays, poor quality and products return, even serious market claims. So please take your time to think about what’s a good supplier? ,
