Elksourcing

There is a belief in the West that Chinese companies are competing very hard for your business and you’ve just got to send a mass email out to get a dozen competing responses, fighting to make your product. The reality is very different. Chinese companies are often overwhelmed with emails from importers who (most of the time) are not serious buyers and will never place an order. Why spend hours dealing with impersonal emails that in most cases are just for price comparison? 99% of emails to Chinese companies are just that, and they know it. The best way to make first contact is with a detailed and targeted email to the company. Then make a follow up call within a few days to confirm that they have received it and are dealing with it. Here are eight tips to make sure that they pay attention to you when you make…

No business is completely self-sufficient. All companies require solutions and products from other vendors to better service their own customers. Outsourcing enables businesses to focus on developing its core competencies, while still benefiting from greater efficiencies and conveniences provided by their outsourced partners.  For example, a premium brand online selling business should spend more of its time developing new designs, working on promotions, or training customer service staff, while outsourcing production from China. There are many suppliers that provide specialised solutions, and this can cause a huge headache for procurement departments. Furthermore, the range of options is getting more complex, with the availability of traditional services firms, freelancers found via word of mouth or from online platforms, purchased software with an upfront cost, cloud-based solutions on subscription basis and many more! Unfortunately, for most companies, procurement policies are still stuck on a lowest cost bias. One might wonder why this…

When your business entails importing products from China, it’s vital to incorporate a quality control process at the factory you work with. Even the best managed factory might not always produce a perfect batch, so a robust quality control plan should be used to ensure your specifications and quality expectations are met within every order. What is Quality Control? Quality control can focus on both product specifications and manufacturing process specifications for any type of goods and is especially important for importing from China. The goal is to identify any problems, defects, and non-conformities in the product that doesn’t follow required specifications from the buyer, or from general international standards. When caught early enough, these issues can easily be solved to fix the initial batch and avoid any future problems. Challenges for Importing from China Import business owners face several specific challenges that can affect their return on investment as…

Nowadays, there’re so many B2B websites like Alibaba, Global Sources, Made-In-China, etc, it’s so easy to find factories for your sourcing needs. In fact, it’s TOO EASY! So, you will find dozens or even hundreds of factories, so you will be puzzled, who is the best factory to work with? It’s very difficult to verify them, quite often, you end up with working with a lousy factory, and suffer in quality, time, even money! Therefore, lots of sourcing veterans recommend working with a verified China Sourcing Company, what’re the benefits? 1. Trust. This is the most important thing in business, especially when dealing with suppliers in ten thousand miles away. It’s safe to work with a China sourcing company which has been officially verified. 2. Better communication. Factories are strong in producing goods, but usually they are not strong in communications, as they lack of English speaking talents and the experience of dealing with…

You found a Chinese supplier at a trade show or online, which looks good and professional, you placed an order, sent the payment and now wait to receive the products. However, after a couple of months when your inventory is running out, the products are still not delivered, why? I often receive emails from frustrated buyers, asking me to assist them to speed up delivery from their suppliers. To solve this issue, first we need to understand what caused the delay. There are four main reasons why shipments are late. 1) The order is too small for the supplier. Many buyers try to find big and established suppliers, despite their own business and orders being small. They do not realize that big suppliers are busy and often do not give importance to small orders. One of my clients from Dubai has been buying car mats from a decent-sized supplier in Zhejiang province….

When your business of importing from china grows, you need to find a buying agent to help you, but it is not easy. You do not know how and where to find an agent. There are questions such as should you sign a contract with them? If yes, what clauses to put on the contract? How can you tell if they are trustworthy? To use a buying office or a buying agent? Here are 6 things you should keep in mind when selecting an agent: 1. Trust is everything I think you would agree with me that to work with an agent, trust is important. Ideally, you need someone who is competent and reliable. How can you tell if your agent or representative in China is trustworthy? In many cases, first impressions can misguide you. You can do some online research to see if there are any comments and feedback about…

If you have done regular business with Chinese suppliers, you have certainly noticed how eager they are to push prices up. And you probably felt like you got cheated sometimes. In this article, I am going to focus on cases where the supplier increases the price of an order they already accepted — a very upsetting situation for the buyer. 1. How they raise prices I think it works out this way most of the time: The boss looks at the prices negotiated for current productions. He says to the salesperson “we will not make money on this order. We need to increase the price.” It is always better to invoke an external fact, upon which their company has — supposedly — no control. So, the boss chooses an excuse of this type. In the email from the salesperson to the customer, it often sounds unconvincing. The customer generally cannot check…

Some importers try to optimize their freight costs. They always make sure they will fill a container up. Most buyers, however, simply buy what they need. They don’t want to carry extra inventory that might not get sold. If they have, say, 22 cubic meters it is not a problem — it will nearly fill a 20′ container up. So, they book an FCL (Full Container Load). Now, what to do if you only have 12 cubic meters of products to ship? Most freight forwarders offer to consolidate your shipment with those from their other clients. Each client books LCL (Less than Container Load), and then the forwarder arranges to put it all together in one container. What is the cut-off point between LCL and FCL? If you have less than 14-15 cubic meters (half the volume of a full 20′ container), it is more interesting to book LCL. What are…