A good agent search is a great asset to any company importing from China. However, hiring an agent searching products in China is often too expensive for small companies and entrepreneurs. In this article, we explain how you can begin searching products in China. Let's start by taking a look why this approach makes sense for many small businesses.
Why A Focus On "Do It Yourself" Makes Sense For Small Businesses”
A bad search agent is not active, but a risk. Many search agents receive commissions by the supplier for each customer who chooses. This gives the search agent a strong incentive to choose the provider that pays the highest commission - not the supplier who is best qualified to make the product the customer.
Do not misunderstand, there are many highly respectable companies search. However, many of them are beyond the scope of importing small volumes. Let me explain why. There are many risks involved when looking for products in China and those risks should be managed. Product Search is a complicated process that sometimes takes more than 100 hours of work - counting from the initial planting project to final delivery.
Search companies have bills to pay too, and that is why their service charges amounted to thousands of dollars. For more complicated projects, sometimes has reached tens of thousands. This simply unattainable for young buyers. No sense paying a search company more than the total cost of the order! However, good service is rarely cheap, and cheap service is rarely good.
As a small buyer, your only option is to get your hands dirty. It's not as bad as it sounds. You will need a little work, but it is much better to hire an agent disorganized search. Below you will find our best tips on searching products in China, for small businesses.
Tip # 1: Start With Searching Products In China
Before you start sending requests to providers need to know to ask. A product is the sum of its parts. This means you must define the quality, performance and function of your product. In other words, you need to write understandable product specifications.
If you are located in the United States, Europe, Australia or New Zealand, chances are required to comply with one or more product certification standards. Note that only a minority of providers in China is able to meet Western standards certification - and certainly they will not do any research for you. First of all, you need to confirm which rules or guidelines applicable to the product are trying to import. Second, you need to verify that the provider is now able to manufacture products meeting. The only way to determine if a provider is trained to do is to check compliance certificates and previous laboratory tests issued by third parties.
You might also want to know more about providers as such. When you import certain products, such as electronics, a system of quality management is critical . No one defective units may go unnoticed, and end up in the hands of its customers. A system of quality assurance is set to prevent this through a strict process that at least involves the following steps:
- Inspection / testing of materials and components incoming
- Product testing during production.
- Product testing after production.
A system of quality assurance also specified as a given defective parts (each unit that does not meet product specifications) provider. Manufacture is not a science, and defects occur - to varying degrees. There are many established systems; ISO 9001 is the best known. However, what really matters is that the supplier is able to communicate clearly how their system of quality management works - and back it up with files that show the system currently implemented.
Tip # 2: Make The Provider Answer All Your Questions
You send a question, wait a few days - and gets nothing. Get the care provider is a major obstacle for small buyers. However, many providers have valid reasons for not bothering to answer many of your questions reasons. Providers who appear in lists of B2B sites like Globalsources.com receive a large number of daily questions. Usually, these applications involve a request for quotation (Request for Quotation, RFQ) for a certain product.
Make a contribution is not as easy as it sounds. To do so, the supplier needs to be in touch with subcontractors and get your latest price list. Once they have that, they can begin to calculate their own production costs. Considering the work involved in making a quote, a supplier is forced to prioritize serious buyers against the opportunists. The problem here is that most small buyers give the impression of belonging to the latter category.
The next question is, how stand as a serious buyer for the supplier bother paying attention? During my years in this industry, I have spoken with hundreds of Chinese sales agents and this is what they say:
- Many small buyers do not provide enough product information. It is not possible to provide a quote without clear product specifications. After all, that's what builds a quote. A provider cannot quote a "wristwatch" but they can quote a wristwatch with stainless steel, machinery Citizen IL and rose gold plated. In order not to appear amateur who knows nothing about the product, you need to research before you start sending requests for quotation (RFQs).
- Many questions are dead ends. There are many opportunists who only send out RFQs for fun. Unfortunately that does not pay the bills, and that is why providers are forced to be quite demanding. Always introduce yourself to you, and your company, to send an RFQ to a Chinese supplier. In fact, you should even consider being seen a little bigger than it is now, to alert the provider.
Tip # 3: Manage Your Search Process
Working with a large number of suppliers is critical. As we have explained, get the care provider should not be taken for granted. Consider yourself lucky if half providers who contacted him respond. Among these, only a few will be able to meet their product specifications and certification requirements. In the end, only have a handful of qualified suppliers - and that's before taking into consideration the price!
Connect four or five suppliers simply not enough. Many search agents include up to 50 providers in your selection process. It is a lot of information to track. To make the search process manageable product, you need to keep important information in a database. At a minimum, the file must include the following information:
- Compliance Certification
- Compliance with product specifications
- Price
- Cost of product sample
- Production time
- Process quality assurance system
You should also keep all important documents, such as reports of previous test, in separate folders. It is very easy to make an informed choice of provider if you have a complete view of what they offer.
Tip # 4: Tell Your Provider For Any Future Quality Inspection And Product Testing
Do not hide the fact that you intend to send an inspector to verify your articles. Instead, tell your provider from the beginning that intends to verify that their products meet specifications and quality requirements. This also applies to product testing, make your knowledge that you intend to verify compliance with certification standards for product to your country.
Do not be surprised if more than a provider fails to answer your emails. But that's not bad! These suppliers were unqualified from the beginning - consider yourself lucky that found before making any commitment.
Tip # 5: Do Not Waste Time On Unqualified Providers
Never assume that all Chinese suppliers of certain industry are capable of making your product the way you want. What makes things a little more complicated, is that many Chinese sales managers tend to promise more than they can deliver - in terms of price, product quality and compliance certification.
Still, many importers make the (big) mistake of making a choice of provider too early - based on vague commitments by the supplier. The result is usually that the importer forget the other providers, and enters a long process with only one supplier. Time passes and the time of ordering is reached. This serves as a perfect opportunity for the provider to increase the price or simply refuse to meet one of your requirements.
What happens next may surprise you - the importer usually ends up making your order. Why? Because they are desperate to get their products and start selling! It makes sense. After months of negotiations and money spent on product samples - the importer cannot afford to reject the transaction. This is the reason why the vendor selection should never be done until the last minute. Always make sure you have a handful of suppliers to fall back on if you have in mind starts wanting too clever.
Tip # 6: Many Chinese Suppliers Prefer To Deal Directly With The Buyer
There are occasions where Chinese suppliers choose not to cooperate because the communicator is a search company. While this could be because they prefer to deal with an amateur, instead of negotiating with a professional who has knowledge of the field, that's not always the case.
For various reasons, some Chinese suppliers simply prefer to work directly with the buyer. If you are well prepared and follow our advice, you will do the job for less money - and a better product as a result.
Tip # 4: Tell Your Provider For Any Future Quality Inspection And Product Testing
Do not hide the fact that you intend to send an inspector to verify your articles. Instead, tell your provider from the beginning that intends to verify that their products meet specifications and quality requirements. This also applies to product testing, make your knowledge that you intend to verify compliance with certification standards for product to your country.
Do not be surprised if more than a provider fails to answer your emails. But that's not bad! These suppliers were unqualified from the beginning - consider yourself lucky that found before making any commitment.
Tip # 5: Do Not Waste Time On Unqualified Providers
Never assume that all Chinese suppliers of certain industry are capable of making your product the way you want. What makes things a little more complicated, is that many Chinese sales managers tend to promise more than they can deliver - in terms of price, product quality and compliance certification.
Still, many importers make the (big) mistake of making a choice of provider too early - based on vague commitments by the supplier. The result is usually that the importer forget the other providers, and enters a long process with only one supplier. Time passes and the time of ordering is reached. This serves as a perfect opportunity for the provider to increase the price or simply refuse to meet one of your requirements.
What happens next may surprise you - the importer usually ends up making your order. Why? Because they are desperate to get their products and start selling! It makes sense. After months of negotiations and money spent on product samples - the importer cannot afford to reject the transaction. This is the reason why the vendor selection should never be done until the last minute. Always make sure you have a handful of suppliers to fall back on if you have in mind starts wanting too clever.
Tip # 6: Many Chinese Suppliers Prefer To Deal Directly With The Buyer
There are occasions where Chinese suppliers choose not to cooperate because the communicator is a search company. While this could be because they prefer to deal with an amateur, instead of negotiating with a professional who has knowledge of the field, that's not always the case.
For various reasons, some Chinese suppliers simply prefer to work directly with the buyer. If you are well prepared and follow our advice, you will do the job for less money - and a better product as a result.
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