Is it Good Deal – 8 Questions to Ask Yourself While Importing from China

Recently updated on October 8th, 2017 at 07:05 pm

China has long enjoyed a great fame as the factory of the world, and there isn’t anything that can’t be made in China. For this reason, people around the world come and have their wholesale or retail goods manufactured in China. But this doesn’t mean every customer travelling to China returns home a happy customer.

There are many importers there claiming about items manufactured to wrong specifications, items that arrived broken or any other fraudulent behaviors. Here are 8 critical questions that you can ask yourself before deciding to import from the supplier.

1. Are the products of good quality?

Look at the wholesale products through the eyes’ of consumers as it would help you to decide whether or not to add the item in your store, and it is better to get all the testing, checking done at the factory since there would be little opportunity after you leave China.

Ask the supplier questions to have a clear idea about the quality of the products you are going to import:

• What’s the material of the products?
• Does the product pass any tests to be sold in your market?
• What’s the real capacity of the battery and how long does it last?
• What’s the weight and dimension of the product?
• Is the product noisy to run? What kind of noise does it make when it is in operation?

2.  What about the packaging of the products?

Some factories do produce very good quality stuff, but when it comes to packaging, it can be a totally different story.

The packaging usually refers to the trademark-breaching markings and the dimensions of the box.

•  Can the factory change the packaging if its original box is not suitable for you?
• What material is used in packaging? Be careful not to use materials like lead paint.

3. What’s their lead time?

Usually customers wish to get the items immediately when they place orders. For some special products designed for certain period of time such as holiday, season, etc. it is vital to confirm the lead time as it is a deciding factor as price.

 4. Is the price incentive?

Price is usually at par with quality. Never accept the first price as it worth to shop around. You should do market research beforehand and have a rough idea of the value of the product after checking it.

 5. Do they have minimum order quantity?

Usually wholesale products or ordering directly from factories would require a minimum order quantity.

If the supplier has minimum order quantity, it is better to confirm how big it is so as not to waste time. For instance, it the MOQ is three times larger than what you can handle you will probably have to opt for another supplier. You have to ask yourself some questions before placing large orders”

•  Is it ok if you have a large part of your money tied up in inventory?
•  How fast will you sell the products in stock and get the money back?

 6. Is the factory honest with you?

The Chinese supplier should be honest and open-minded with you. They should understand you business needs, lead time, price and MOQ, however, the reality is the suppliers and customers always have their own secrets.

Judge whether they answer your questions directly or just talk around the question.

 7. Are you fair to each other?

Being fair and build good rapport with your supplier will surely nurture good relationship as it helps get better price, more favorable MOQs, faster lead time and other treatments. People like to be treated fairly in life and business, and it is not hard to understand factory would not give you what you want on unfriendly terms.

 8. What’s their production capability/Organization structure?

A good importer should know well whom they are buying from. If the factory says they can manufacture the quantity you want, but they only have a handful of workers, then you have to start question their production capabilities.

Make sure to take a thorough walk in the factory when you are visiting a potential supplier.

Take a look at the working environment? Is the workspace clean and safe enough? What about the machines?

Ask them how many employees they have and their capacity. Also, ask about where they get the package and store the products after manufacturing.