Elksourcing

During my experience of helping business people sourcing from China, I’ve seen many mistakes that importers made when sourcing from China. Below are 8 most common mistakes: 1. Using PayPal Almost all beginner guides will tell you, only choose suppliers who accept PayPal. We say otherwise. There are a couple issues when it comes to using PayPal. You’re required to pay service fees. This can end up costing a ton and ruining your profit margins.  A lot of guides will explain, PayPal is great for that added piece of insurance. The problem with this, if you’re using PayPal as a piece of mind to know your supplier can’t run away with your money, then you have not been vigilant enough with your sourcing. You should never choose a supplier unless you are absolutely confident they are capable of performing to your qualifications. International Trade is an industry that is older than…

Unlike a regular importer who only deal in a few products, a promotional product importer has to deal with various products. Because of the wide product range, promotional product importers usually aren’t experts on production processes, but they have to frequently work on a wide range of products at aggressive time frames. Those importers who successfully import promotional products, have habits that set them apart from the regular importers. 1.)  They prepare The successful promotional product distributor who treads offshore, doesn’t treat the process the same as if they’re buying domestically. Successful importers spend time in preparing their inquiries. Whether it’s clearly laid out specs or detailed mockups, they’re ready to use visuals and measurements to show the supplier exactly what they need. Successful importing, regardless of the industry, avoids as much guess work as possible from the supplier. 2.)  They communicate A successful importer, especially in the fast-paced world of…

To test the market and limit the risks, for new projects, usually buyers will try to purchase a small QTY. However, Chinese suppliers will always require MOQ – usually it’s a QTY larger than importers are comfortable to start with. So, how to get lower MOQ from Chinese suppliers? The easiest way to get low MOQ is to buy the supplier’s existing design. However, buyers taking this strategy will then face packaging as the key issue. There are three main choices: 1. Plain box: MOQ is low (around 100 pcs). The buyer uses a plain brown box at supplier’s same die cut, and put stickers with brand name, model, product description and barcodes on the box. Should be fine if products are sold online (Amazon, eBay, etc.), but unacceptable for retail. 2. Supplier’s non-branded packaging: MOQ usually is medium (around 500 pcs). Should be fine if products are sold online (Amazon, eBay,…

It happens often, you, as a buyer, after hours or days searching on Alibaba, has found a promising Chinese supplier, and sent out a RFQ (Request For Quotation). The next day, and next few days, you check your mailbox but nothing happens, you have not heard back from the Chinese supplier at all. Why Chinese suppliers ignore your RFQ? When sending the RFQ, do you fall in below bad situations which quenching the fire of the supplier motivation? 1-  Wide-open RFQ shows you do not know what exactly you look for. These broad inquiries are heavy on generalities and low on specifics. If the supplier is responsible and not too busy, they may come back and ask the buyer questions, in hopes to nail down some specifications. Otherwise, the supplier simply puts your RFQ in low quality category and ignores it. 2- No indication of time frame. An indication of time frame…

Using customer testimonials in your marketing efforts can be very effective. They help to build your reputation, credibility and sales. Don’t be afraid to ask your satisfied customers to give you a testimonial. Most will be happy to offer their opinions. Be sure to ask their permission to use the testimonials in your marketing campaign. Be sure to use the more detailed testimonials. Generic lines such as “Your product is great” are not as effective as one such as: “I’ve only been using your product for one week and already I have more energy than ever before!” You want the testimonial to highlight the benefits of your products or services – the more detail the better! You can also use small snippets from a long testimonial when appropriate. For example: When advertising a diet supplement, you could use a snippet such as “I lost over 50 pounds!” Below are ten…

Those who cherish all-round success believe that success is a journey and not a destination. That is, if you are a very strongly-ambitious person, you must continue to set fresh goals for yourself to achieve success in other areas as soon as you have achieved success in one or some areas. Just like any journalist reporting can be called a “reporter” in some instances, irrespective of his or her official designation as an editor or otherwise, so can anybody that does one form of business or another be referred to as a “seller”. So even if your job description is not officially that of a salesperson in your organization, you are indirectly a salesperson and need to learn the fundamentals of selling. That is why we are examining another critical area that you need to target success in this article. 1). Interpretation        Selling is basically about persuasion. That…

I’m constantly thinking about how few sales people really understand what their customers are buying. They know what they are selling, but they can’t explain what they are selling it for-that is why the customer is considering buying the solution and the value it creates for them. There are a few fundamental questions the sales person must be able to answer if they want to present their offerings in a way that is compelling and connects with customers: 1) How does it help them grow their business? That is how will they increase revenues/sales, how will it help them enter new markets, regions or acquire new customers? 2) How will it help them increase their profitability? Growing revenues or cutting expenses or both increase profitability, if the sales person can’t demonstrate this, then there is no justification for the solution-why should the customer buy it, how will they get their…

During the daily practice of importing from China, I’ve learned 12 common mistakes from various clients I dealt with. Here are the details: 1. Looking for the lowest price If you purchase something below market price, you are taking very high risks. Either quality will not be up to your standard, or you are about to get scammed. 2. Letting the supplier ship without checking product quality Once a production batch is on a boat, it’s too late. Verify quality yourself, or pay for quality inspection services. And do it systematically, at least for the first 5 shipments (after that, you can do random skip-lot QC). 3. Failing to realize that pre-production samples are selling tools Many buyers who are surprised that samples are not representative of bulk production. But getting an order and a cash deposit is one thing, and manufacturing the goods is another thing! Your job is…