Category: Importing Guides

Tired of endless Skype conversations with pig headed suppliers at 4AM in the morning? You’re not alone. Luckily, someone else can manage the more tiresome parts of your Ecommerce business for you – leaving you with more time to spend on making money.

In this article, you will learn how a sourcing freelancer can free up hours from daily schedule – for a price that anyone can afford. That said, things will go wrong, if you don’t manage your sourcing freelancer the right way.

What can a freelance sourcing agent do for my business?

A sourcing freelancer can act as your extended hand in China. They can do background checks on suppliers, gather quotations and other time consuming tasks that you rather leave to someone else.

They can also break down language barriers, and deal with suppliers in their own time zone.

Managed the right way, a sourcing freelancer can help you save countless hours on a weekly basis, for a fairly low cost.

However, sourcing freelancers are ‘everything experts’ that can help you with everything from product safety, to NDAs or patents. Yet, that is exactly what many Importers assume. Continue reading Freelance Sourcing Agents in China: A Complete Guide

An interpreter can be an indispensable partner while visiting manufacturers in China, if managed the right way. Managed the wrong way, they might communicate incorrect and conflicting information about your expected order terms, and product specifications – something that can result in disastrous quality issues further down the line.

In this article, you will learn how to prepare your interpreter, whether you should work with a freelancer or agency, and how much you should expect to pay.

What can Interpretation Service providers offer?

The role of an interpreter is to provide oral translation between two parties, for example during a negotiation. Translators, on the other hand, only deal with texts.

Importers often make use of Interpreters as representatives and assistants during factory visits and negotiations.

While most export focused factories have English speaking staff, an experienced interpreter can help buyer’s get their points across to the (often non-English speaking) factory boss, negotiate prices and prevent misunderstandings.

In addition, interpreters also tend to help their customers with booking hotels, trains and other transportation between factories – something that can be hard if you don’t speak a word of Mandarin Chinese.

As such, interpreters often work as all round assistants for people coming to China. Continue reading Interpreter Services Providers & Freelancers in China: A Complete Guide

I’ve spent the last few years, covering every angle of manufacturing in China, from a buyer point of view. Today, I turn things upside down, by seeing things from the supplier’s perspective.

After all, China is a top 10 country in terms of readers here on Chinaimportal.com, so it was about time.

I’ve spent almost 8 years in Mainland China, and ever since my first factory visit, I’ve seen suppliers make the same mistakes over and over.

Truth be told, not much have changed since I first set foot in Shanghai back in 2009. Most suppliers are still highly secretive, and believe transparency to be a weakness.

Their mentality also highly focuses on price competition, resulting in very low profit margins.

This may have worked for a while, but something that has changed, is the fact that Chinese factories are no longer as cheap as 10 years ago.

What worked in the past will not work forever.

Luckily, most tips I am sharing in this article are ridiculously easy to implement for most suppliers.

Suppliers that implement these methods can not only acquire (and keep) more customers – but also raise the unit prices above those of the competition, without losing business.

Trust me, I’ve tried this myself.

1. Standardize your product specification sheets

When buyer’s contact a new supplier for the first time, it can take weeks to to understand what the supplier can and cannot do.

Assuming that I’m looking for a watch manufacturer, I need to know the following:

• Can you make 316L stainless steel watches?
• Can you offer sapphire glass?
• Can you provide Ronda movements?

In other words, basic information about the suppliers’ capabilities.

Still, most sales reps have a standard answer to every question. ‘Yes, can make’.

A few weeks later, the buyer will eventually find out the hard way, that their samples are not even close to matching their requirements. Continue reading 6 Ways Chinese Suppliers Can Win Customers & Increase Profit Margins

Suggestion: Watch the 10 minutes video tutorial before reading this article

You just received a new batch. You did everything right, including clear product spec sheets and a pre-shipment inspection. And still, the supplier manages to mess up your order.

Sometimes, quality issues slip through, and you need to know how to deal with situations that involve returning defective items to your supplier.

In this article, you will learn how the entire process works:

• How to report defective products to your supplier
• Why you should not even ask for a refund
• How to write a ‘product remake action plan’
• How to incentive your supplier to remake or repair the defective items

1. Check your products and report defects immediately

Defective or damaged products must be reported immediately. Preferably within 48 hours of receiving the shipment. The longer you delay, the harder it will be to support a claim that the supplier is responsible.

You don’t need to do a visual check on every single unit, but check at least 10% of the quantity.

If you find any quality issues, that are not in line with the pre-shipment inspection result, you must provide the following:

• List of defects
• List of defective units
• Value of defective units
• Images
• Video

This must be sent by email to the supplier immediately.

Now, keep in mind that I always assume that you have ordered a pre-shipment inspection, and yet discover additional quality issues. An inventory check-up is not a substitute for a quality check. Continue reading How to Return Goods to Your Chinese Factory