Verify Chinese supplier or manufacturer
As we told you before, in the process of importing from China, the search for suppliers is crucial. The idea was to find out as much as possible about the candidate companies before investing more money in contacting and visiting them. In any case, at this point, we should have between one and three suppliers in mind that we want to get to know more closely. It is time to conduct an audit in each factory.
Why verify my supplier? There are four fundamental reasons:
- To know if the company is really a manufacturer or just an intermediary. This happens a lot when we search for suppliers through sites like Alibaba. Be suspicious of generic names such as “Shenzhen Electronic Appliances Co. Ltd.” or “Guangzhou food and beverage Co. Ltd.”
- Check the manufacturing processes and the condition of the factory. This gives us an idea of the actual manufacturing capacity of our supplier, as well as the approximate quality of the products.
- Know the contact person. Our supplier is going to be as suspicious of us as we are of him, so it is best to have a relationship beyond the exchange of emails. You can either use an intermediary to do it for you, or travel to the factory and your investment capacity allows you to do so.
- Get an idea of the company’s strategy. The supplier can be a state-owned company, a small company with internationalization intentions, a manufacturer oriented to the Chinese market, a supplier specialized in selling to foreign companies… These issues are very important in the medium term, so we must choose a supplier whose interests are compatible with ours when importing from China.
Once we have verified the supplier, we are ready for the next step in our import process: price negotiation. We look forward to seeing you in the next post!
Other entries in the Handbook for Importing from China:
– How much does it cost to import from China? (A practical example)
If you want to import from China, do not hesitate to contact us without obligation.
