If you ask any Amazon sellers about their experience of finding a Chinese supplier, then he will definitely say that chances of getting a dishonest supplier is pretty high. There can be a lot of quality issues in almost every shipment.
The scenario is almost the same whether you find China suppliers online or choose after visiting any tradeshow or even from wholesale market. Therefore, you need to exercise a great caution so that you can easily eliminate those bad suppliers.
Here in this post, we will share a few tips to find a supplier in China with whom you can have a long-term business relationship and get quality supplies.
Know the difference between trading company and a manufacturer
There is a high chance that you may often come across a certain trader, who may represent himself as a manufacturer.
You can easily identify in the following ways:
- A manufacturer will only supply a single type of item and only talk about any specific manufacturing process. While a trader will be ready to supply you any kind of products.
- Traders will have their business name that sounds great to any foreign buyers, while a manufacturer will include the name of town or city along with company name.
- Closely look at the business card of the supplier’s representative, and if you find his address is in 20th floor of a building in down time, he is likely to be a trader. Manufacturer will provide factory address and sales office address.
- The website of a trading company will be in well-written English to attract foreign buyers, while a small manufacturer’s website will be mostly in Chinese language with a poor translation. However, a big manufacturer may have a well- written website.
- If you request for the quality certificate then only a manufacturer will respond with CE, UL, and other certifications. The trader will more likely avoid your question.
When you try to find China suppliers online you can use these tips to distinguish between a trader and a manufacturer.
Always negotiate prices
In the western countries while dealing with any supplier, commonly people may not bargain about price, however, in China it is a must.
Chinese suppliers will deliberately quote a higher price and expect the buyers to bargain and if you don’t bargain then you will end up paying more for your product.
A few tips to bargain for lower price can be done in the following ways:
- Try to project yourself as a long-term buyer
- Increase your volumes of order
- Offer to help your supplier by providing more client referrals
- Pay your suppliers by using their local currency.
Take help of a sourcing agent
A reliable and trustworthy sourcing agent can be very useful for you to find China suppliers online.
A sourcing agent is a person who is well aware about Chinese market. He can communicate well both in English as well as the local language of China.
A sourcing agent can be useful to you in the following ways:
- He can help you to identify the right supplier
- Help you to monitor quality during production
- Help you to do a better negotiation with Chinese supplier
- Can warn you about supply delays well in advance
- Ensure the delivery schedule.
Use your own business network
These days most of the businesses are importing their supplies from China. Therefore, your business colleagues can also refer to you a few good suppliers based on their own experiences.
Final word
To find China suppliers online can always be a little tricky process, if you are not fully aware about the Chinese ways of doing business.
Hiring a suitable sourcing agent can be very useful for you to smoothen out this process.
