How to Do Business with Chinese Companies? How to Buy Products from China and Make the Payment?

As the global manufacturing base, China is attracting more and more attention from the world. Although she’s losing her charm among some international buyers who begin to invest in or purchase from some Southeast countries due to the increasing labor cost and material cost in China, while with her strong management, well trained workers, disciplined factories, most developed express network and transportation system, stable economic and political environment, China can not be easily replaced, at least not in the future 10 years. 

About how to purchase the product you need from China

First you decide what kind of products and what's the quantity you need. And there are 3 steps after that.

1. How to Find A Supplier
For large quantities, the most direct way is visiting trade fairs, the most famous trade fair here in China is Canton Fair, which takes place twice a year, in April and October, it is most comprehensive trade fair, covering all trades. 

Besides the Canton Fair, there are thousands of different trade fair take place in different cities every year, do a research online and choose the best trade fairs of your industry to visit.

Visiting trade fairs is also the most costly option, you need to plan your trip in advance, book your flight ticket and hotel room several months ahead or else there won’t be any left for you, the hotel fee is always at its peak when the trade fair takes place. You may also need a translator who can help you with communication with the factories in the Canton Fair. This isn’t quite necessary as almost all the sales in the factory can speak English, although might not very well. And there are many freelancers and college students standing out of the convention and exhibition center seeking for a translator job, you can always find one there. 

The most cost-saving way might be searching online.You may google the manufacturer of the products you need, or explore the sea of Chinese manufacturers in B2B marketplaces, like www.alibaba.com , www.made-in-china.com , www.globalsources.com , www.ecplaza.net ,etc.  

Finding a supplier online might not be the safest way for you, as there are scams. Be careful and following the instructions stated in our another article, you won’t get trapped.

For small purchases, you may go to the B2C websites,like www.ebay.com , 
www.aliexpress.com , www.dhgate.com ,etc. You will find good deal there.

2. Get in Contact with the Supplier, and Get to Know the Product and Shipping
Now that you have chosen the suppliers, contact them, ask them to give you a detailed quote, usually the quote includes the price model number, the picture of the product, the technical specifications, certificates obtained, the unit price for your required quantity, the delivery time, product warranty and the detailed packing information etc.

After the above information about the product are gathered, it comes the Shipping.
The shipping cost : it depends on how soon you need the products, and which way of shipping you choose, for large and heavy products, it’s usually shipped by sea, as for small and light products, you may choose to ship by air or express. Usually your suppliers would quote the possible ways for your reference.

3.Import Tax
There might be import taxes charged by your custom when you import the products, you may check with your custom and see what's the tax percentage of your products, you should be able to find it on your custom's website.?For very small quantities and low amount, there might be no import taxes.

About Payment

About payment, your supplier will suggest the ways of payment they prefer, usually it's 100% T/T in advance, esp for the customers they cooperate with for the first time. The way of payment includes: bank transfer, Paypal, Western Union, etc. Which is largely up to your supplier, and your negotiation.

We are not a professional consultancy, we are just one of the millions of manufacturers in China. Hope this could help.

If you have further questions, please contact us any time, we shall be pleased to help.

Why Is It So Hard to Find the Right Supplier? 6 Tips to Quickly Establish Business Relationship with The Right Supplier

Suppliers are essential to almost every business, no matter you are a manufacturer , wholesaler or retailer. Without raw materials to make what you sell or manufacturers to provide what you resell, you will have a tough time growing.

The right supplier for your business is the one who is able to deliver your products and services on time, at the right price, and in compliance with your quality standards.

So the moment you are in demand of certain products, the first question came to your mind will be : how to find them?

Finding suppliers

Trade shows, advertisements, online B2B marketplaces, search engines, there are so many ways available for us to explore the sea of suppliers right now. Whenever you type the product name in the search engine, there are thousands of suppliers came up for your choice. Then you might wonder, how can I know which one of them is the right one for my company?

Choosing the right supplier

This is a hard one, sometimes even when you found the one you think is good for you, and you sent the inquiries to them with all the excitement, while received no response after all. Here is how to get their attention and prompt response?

• 1. To send an inquiry. Use your work email instead of a personal email, this will make your inquiry professional, and catch the suppliers’attention immediately. 
• 2. Specific Inquiry. The supplier will pay more attention to the inquiries with their company name or model number in them. Send the inquiries to one client at a time. You might as well send your inquiry to your targeted suppliers one by one instead of sending the inquiry to all and letting them know that they are just one of a thousand suppliers in your plate. A targeted inquiry will be the supplier's priority.
• 3. Give a brief introduction of your company. You must have got the information about the supplier wherever you found them, it’s now their time to get to know you. Briefly talking about the history and scope of your product line allows the suppliers to get to know you and thus provide a better service.
• 4. Detailed requirements. List your requirements about the product as well as your criteria which the supplier has to fulfill. Such as product specifications, the quantity you demand, branding on the product or packaging(if there is any), if you need the products urgently, better put down a deadline. Most suppliers would prefer 100% T/T in advance , so if your company could not accept such way of payment, leave your designated way of payment will help to avoid many unnecessary efforts. Mentioning your annual quantity in the first place will help the supplier to evaluate if their production capacity can meet your requirements. 

Take the switches and sockets for example, some customers will send us the type of switches or sockets they demand, and let us know quantity for each of them, then it will be much easier for us to quote the best prices for them at the soonest manner.

• 5. Immediate contact. Grab your phone and make a call if you don’t receive any response from your preferred supplier, then you may find out what the reason is that they are not replying. Maybe it is the payment terms, maybe it’s the delivery time, then you both can find a way to make the deal.
• 6. Price is not everything. A lot of companies focus on one trait of their suppliers: price. And price certainly is important when you are selecting suppliers to accompany you as you grow your business. But when you receive a price much lower than that offered by the majority of the suppliers, don’t be thrilled and place a purchase order with them immediately, you get what you pay, sometimes you will get nothing at all after payment, it’s a scram. There are honest suppliers, and there are cheaters, that’s how the market works, doesn’t it? It’s often the case that people choose the supplier who offered incredibly low price turned out to receive rubbishes in the end. Don’t complain if you are trapped in this situation, there are plenty of reliable suppliers out there, you just didn’t care to get to know them better.

Remember, too, that suppliers are in business to make money. If you go to the mat with them on every bill, ask them to shave prices on everything they sell to you, or always fail to pay your bills promptly, don't be surprised if they stop responding.

A great partner will help your business grow, they would try to help in every way they can, they will negotiate with other customers and manage to schedule your order first when you need your products urgently, they will push the factory work extra hours or hire more hands for a prompt delivery, they will take the responsibility when problem occurs and come up with solutions right away to save you troubles and time.

The right supplier will be one of the most valuable assets to your company. We wish everyone of you find such a good supplier and help your business take off.

How to Solve the “Not Enough Wall Sockets” Problem

Living in some old houses,or not well planned new house, you might come across such problem, no enough wall socket to charge your phone, or using other electrical appliances while charging your mobile devices, you might think of below ways to solve the problem

• Installing a new wall socket. This will be troublesome, you will have to dig a whole in the wall, which will be inevitably messy with brick shatters or paint powders, you will have to spend half a day to dig the whole, and the other half day to clean all the mess. It doesn’t really worth the effort. Moreover, if you are a renter, watch out for your landlord.

the first step of installing a new USB charger power socket on the wall

• Using an extension power socket. This seems to be a better idea,we don’t have to be all over with dusts and sweats,but the wire is everywhere,and you will have to find a table to hold the extension socket,or else there is no good place to place it except the floor,which will easily trip the passengers over.

A USB Wall Socket is All You Need

Then how can we perfectly solve this “no enough wall sockets” problem?A USB wall socket is what you need.It is integrated with a USB charger in a ordinary wall socket,replacing your old wall socket with a USB wall socket will save you lots of trouble,and it will meet your every needs.

UK standard 110V-250V/13A electrical switched socket with dual 5V/2A USB charger

Easy and quick to install

Although it seems a little bit different from an ordinary wall socket,you might wonder if the wiring is very different.No need to worry about that at all,the installation is exactly the same as the ordinary one,isn’t it easy?

installation of British standard USB wall socket

Features built-in surge protection to keep your devices free from damage
Complete with built-in surge protection, the has been specifically designed to filter out high voltage surges and spikes from the mains supply, thereby preventing potential damage caused to computers and sensitive?electronic equipment.

built-in protection function on the PCB of the USB charger

This below universal USB wall socket can work with 4 devices at a time,and it can work with all kind of plugs in the world,it is a must-buy for international hotels,the hotel guest will love it for sure.

universal USB wall socket with 2 port 5V/2A USB charger for cellphone mobile phone smartphone charging

While if you are in oceania area,the below USB power point is what you are looking for,it is mainly for Australian and New Zealand market,it is double standard GPO with a built-in USB adapter,the output of the USB adapter is 5V/3A,which is able to charge Iphone and Ipad at the same time,it also means that it can charge any mobile phone and any tablet simultaneously.It is SAA approved,completely compliant with Australian and New Zealand standards.

Australian and New Zealand standard electrical power socket with double 5V/3000mA USB charging ports

If you are in demand of any USB wall socket,please contact us any time for more information.If you can’t find what you are looking for with us,we are happy to design and develop it for you.Just tell us your idea,and we will make it happen.