Finding suppliers shouldn’t happen as a clichéd practice of trading. Some importers do not apply ideas to find the reliable suppliers due to many reasons. Lack of information is one of them. The guiding tips in this piece of writing will prove helpful in several ways.
Most of the importers deduce to an idea of buying only at Alibaba.com, which is world’s largest online B2B trading platform. However, to let you know, there are similar popular B2B online marketplaces as well, which include Global Sources, Made-in-China, everychina and China.cn.
For each product category in these websites, you will find numerous suppliers, which could be a rare combination of problem and opportunity altogether. Opportunity, because you will have a thousand of suppliers to choose from. And the problem is because you are confused to find the suitable supplier for yourself.
That’s why here comes the blog to help you pick the top-grade supplier for your business. Follow on to know the useful tips and tricks for the same.
- Research & collate relevant information about the products
- Right keywords & related searches – key to getting clear results
Are you using the right keywords for searches? For example, you might be searching “Vacuum Bottles” on an online trading platform, and the results would show products with same or similar tags. It may happen that you are unable to find more products because of using a limited phrase or wrong phrase. For instance, the “vacuum bottles” may have been a word associated with particular suppliers, and on the other hand, there may be an availability of “Sport Bottles”, “Outdoor Bottles”, and so on. Therefore, you must explore for such keyword phrases that direct you to a number of suppliers. As a result, you can scan through more products to find the desirable ones.
- Reduce the supplier list by identifying the product manufacturing locations
In Zhejiang, you can find a massive number of suppliers as compared to those in Jiangsu. Practically, there are more trading companies in Jiangsu that buy products from Zhejiang and sell them at 10-20% higher rates. Though Jiangsu traders may claim of providing higher quality products, that isn’t true at all! The cost of materials and labor in Zhejiang is far cheaper. Not just that, you would find only excellent quality products at cheaper rates from Zhejiang suppliers. So, if you are given an option to choose between Jiangsu and Zhejiang, go for the latter.
- Know your requirements and choose the manufacturer/trading company accordingly
- Stronger communication for effective trading/sourcing
You already know how important it is to understand a product, its features and other details before you place an order. Since you will be making an investment, the scale and scope are much higher than buying a grocery product at a departmental store. Thus, you should ask variable questions to the supplier to verify if they’re qualified enough or inexperienced traders or suppliers.
No matter you choose manufacturer or trader, you need to order samples to check the quality and do testing before placing large orders. Check the product quality and check the certificate of the products such as CE, ETL, UL, REACH, ROHS, CA65 etc.
Hope these guiding tips prove beneficial in choosing the right supplier for your business.