Target the items to promote for your small business, and your profit margins will be higher if you can source items at a cheaper price. Alternatively, you can gain market share by lowering the final price for your customers with affordable prices. Because manufacturing costs in Asia are an order of magnitude lower, China is one of the first places small companies look when looking for bargains for their stores.
Go to Chinese Trade Fairs
If you have information on traveling to China, attending a trade show is the best way to find established suppliers. You'll find that there are two main fairs to consider:
Canton Fair. Held twice a year in Guangzhou, usually in April/May and November, for details and dates, please visit the English version of the Canton Fair website. Maybe you can find the Top China sourcing agents.
Global Resources Trade Show. Just like the Canton Fair, with many of the exact same exhibitors, GST takes place in Hong Kong every year. This reasonable trend to focus on specific product categories so if you're planning to shop for electronics or fashion accessories, this might be the best show.
Even though you will have to budget for flights, hotels, interpreters, etc., both shows are free to attend. This can be a modest investment for the relationship you may have with a reliable local manufacturer.
Buy From China Through Wholesale Markets
In China, it is well worth looking at the Top Chinese sourcing agent market, where you can browse a large number of items at a very low cost. For example, Yiwu Market will become the largest wholesale market in the world. Compared to a fair, it's a real store where you can inspect items and take them away and ask for them to be delivered to your US warehouse.
The general market is open year-round (except Chinese holidays), which means you don't have to wait for trade shows to find suppliers.
Find Chinese Suppliers Online For small companies that don't have information on flying to China, a website will be the next best way to buy general items directly from China.
Negotiate Payment Terms
Make sure your purchases pay special attention to the payment terms. When managing a Chinese company, there is often room for cost negotiation, but make sure you have a written history of the last price tag.
Most suppliers expect you to pay some cash up front, usually around 30%, with the balance due if the product is ready for delivery. Most suppliers don't actually look at your purchases until the down payment is deposited into their bank account. This is risky: if the seller doesn't deliver the goods, you have no chance of getting your money back.
Look at Trade Assurance
Alibaba provides a transaction security service called "Transaction Assurance". This guarantees your cash back if you do not receive the quantity or quality of the product you ordered, or if the goods do not arrive.
Consider hiring a customs agent The biggest tip here is to hire a customs agent who can handle each of these methods for you. You can spend a lot of time poring over the ITC Harmonized Tariff Schedule to determine which customs duties might be assessed for the goods you're buying, although it may be simpler to get a professional to manage it for you.
As long as suppliers are located overseas, it is difficult to control quality. If the order is large, please hire a third-party inspection company to check the service quality. For around $300, you can buy an excellent guaranteed check before the item actually leaves the factory (and the transaction actually leaves your bank account).
East Supplier Platform is a cross-border full-category product platform under the EastDigi Group, covering B2B / B2C / Sourcing multiple innovative business models. It provides traditional foreign trade and cross-border e-commerce users with a full range of product drainage and direct access to inquiry services and provides a high-quality channel for global individual merchants and business owners to connect with high-quality factories in mainland China.
