With the continuous acceleration of the process of internationalization, China’s economic position in the world is becoming more and more important. In terms of supply capacity, China is already the number one supply factory in the world, and buyers from all over the world will try to purchase from China. This has also accelerated the process of globalization, however, in this process, there will also be some obstacles, such as the occurrence of fraud from time to time. The buyer could not contact the supplier after payment and was deceived by the supplier, resulting in losses. So, how can we avoid this phenomenon?
Before we start to talk about how to avoid such fraud happening when purchasing from China, we need to understand some common ways how to find suppliers from China.
There are highly popular trade shows located in China each year: the Canton Fair,The Canton Fair is the largest trade fair in China and is held twice a year in Guangzhou (near Hong Kong in southern China). This fair attracts thousands of attendees with a large variety of products.
Also, you could attend professional industry exhibitions related to your products, no matter hold in China or your local areas, like the USA and EU, there are many professional exhibitions for different industries.
Normally you can find many suppliers during the exhibition.
How to find suppliers in China?
OK, you’ve got your ideal product in mind. Next task? Finding a Chinese supplier for your product. The first step is the most difficult of all. Most are because you would like to find a good and trustworthy Chinese supplier.
Choosing a supplier for your business is one of the most important decisions you make. If your supplier fails, it’s your responsibility to make it up to your customer, not theirs. You want to make sure you choose someone who will have your back and support you all the time.
When it comes to finding suppliers from China, you need some strategies that consist of awareness, knowledge, communication, and a decent amount of homework.
Let’s go over some of the most common ways to find a supplier from China.
Google
Whenever or whatever you would like to buy or search online, you can always try with google. Just type what you want to search such as “product name + supplier from China”, Google is a fast way to find such companies, then you could check some as your wish.
Chinese marketplaces or B2B marketplaces
There are many such B2B from China, the most popular are as below:
Alibaba
Made-in-China
Globalsources
Also some others you could search by google
Attend trade shows/exhibition
When you attend an exhibition, you’re able to talk face to face with potential suppliers about the specific products you are looking for, also could find more details such as
Their products
Their production capacity
Their quality-control procedures
Their service
Direct interactions with potential suppliers will allow you to see their abilities up-close and personal.
Outsource to a sourcing agency
Find a sourcing agency from China is also an option, they are professional and could help from the beginning till the very end.
Introduction from your friends
A lot of suppliers are introduced by friends to new buyers, this is also another common way to find new suppliers, many buyers work well in this way.
Still many other ways to find Chinese suppliers, All roads are ok, just work for you.
How to move on to the next step since I know these several ways? Which one is best?
Since you know how to find Chinese suppliers above, you may want to know who to find the most efficient way. Of course, the best way is the introduction from your friends.They already cooperate with such suppliers for a while and know the product quality, price, delivery, service of the supplier, if this is the right supplier recommended by your friend, you could go ahead with more trust, if any questions unclear, you could check with your friends. Also, such suppliers will treasure chances to new customers, this way will work the best as I can tell.
For the rest, let us check one by one. You can find the right supplier from each way for sure, no matter from google, B2B marketplaces, attend an exhibition, there are always the right and trustful suppliers on it, however, we need to be careful and know some tips during the searching.
How to verify suppliers from China?
Google their company details online and try to find as much information as you can.
If they attend some exhibitions, we could trust in most cases.
Once they are paid members on kinds of B2B marketplaces, normally no big problem.But not saying there are zero risks. Below is a true story.
A Vietnam importer searched” peanut” on one B2B marketplace, then found a paid member called” B”, then everything went well, finally, they started the first trial order, the importer arranged the 20% advanced payment roughly around$4,000 as deposit, B told the cargo could deliver on time, but B delay the shipment several times due to kinds of reasons, the importer is very concerned and contacted with a supplier every day, but one day, the supplier could not be connected again, no matter the email, telephone, cellphone, or other contact ways, B just got disappear, the importer tried many ways but still hopeless. The cost will be more even the importer fly to China and call the police to the problem. This is a sad but true story from one friend, that’s why I write this article. I do not want to see such things happen again.
How to avoid cheating during finding and communicating with China suppliers?
Checking them through their website, if this supplier’s homepage still is: en.alibaba.com Or another type B2B website, then you should be a little bit careful. A good supplier should have its website, like, www..com. A good supplier will also have a good website, there are details of their company, products, team, service, contact information, also the website should have an SSL certificate to show it’s a safe website.
Ask a Chinese friend to check it, after all, Chinese people can easily distinguish it from a foreigner, he can check the registered license and other licenses and also take a visit there. If you do not have any Chinese friends, you could hire someone on outsourcing marketplaces, such as Fiverr, Upwork, etc. You could just spend several dollars to find someone to help you doing this task for you.
Business license
Company or factory location
Ownership status
Photos of the suppliers
Contact information
Certifications
Also, you should know more details about the products you are looking for, for example, one product normal price should 1200USD/MT, But the clever cheater will give price is 900-960USD/MT once you order their goods, they will give you very poor quality goods, such as PVC resin,850usd/mt is pure resin, but the goods they give you only 12% PVC resin and 88% caco3.
Another simple way is you could request what you would like to get like you could request a sample for quality test, specifications, photos, certifications of the supplier and factories, normally if they could provide such all docs, you could go ahead with them.
There is an import thing you need to know is working with the right people, most suppliers are no problem, even better, is you could find the right person, the right person could provide you full details of your products, service all the time, and may support you all the time no matter what they do. This happens a lot in China, many Soho started with the trust of their customers, in that way, not only the product, also the excellent moral character of this person, he or she will help you and enlarge your business together.
For the payment terms, you could follow the international business rules, few advanced payments, pay the rest after the shipment, or you could negotiate with suppliers for what kind of payment you could reach, but please be aware that, for a huge amount, please be careful about the full advanced payment. Anyway, this is one of the most important parts of your purchasing, careful is always good for you.
A Few Words
Finding suppliers from China isn’t exactly easy. At least not without the right tools and the right way to move on.
But this is also en-joyful when you find a great supplier and get high-quality products at cheap prices. You will get lots of profits.
In this article, we taught you something you need to know to work with Chinese suppliers. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us!
Besides, as an experienced food ingredients producer and supplier, please feel free to check our product lines and contact us.
