Every trip to China for my clients, it doesn’t matter if they come for a business, or expo, or quality control, is always connected with product search. It may be search for a new item as well as for the same item but with better quality or price. While exporting, I also regularly analyze my product market, see competitor’s prices for better understating the source price of the item. Actually all of us who work with China need to do this in order to know the prices of the goods and realizing the market needs.
So, what does the product search start with?
1. Firstly, I strongly recommend to figure out what exactly you need and learn more information about that product. In some products weight and density are important, in others it is the material, which is the most significant, and so on. The more information you have the better results you get. I often get such orders where the customers don’t pay attention on important details, which then influence on the final price and quality.
2. Be ready to answer the questions about your purchase quantity. How much you plan to order at once, how many orders a year. This will speed up price discussion with suppliers. Do not hesitate to double your real quantity, it’s a common practice here in China.
3. Now you have your product specification and the quantity you need. What’s next?
Attending expos
You can find what you need at the specialized expos. More information about is in the “expos attending” category.
Searching via websites in the Internet
Here I mean searching on the Chinese websites where you can find the following information:
- manufacturer’s location. It’s very important as normally lots of manufacturers of the same products are located at the same area so you have a chace to compare quality and prices.
- Supplier’s registration certificates, which is good for customers who want to work directly with manufacturers without agents.
- Manufacturer’s catalogue. You can see his production ability thoughout the items they post on their websites.
- Manufacturer’s contacts.
How to get the maximum profut from the product search service?
A person who provides manufacturer or product search services must speak fluent Chinese, understand all the specification of the item, know the geographical location of different kinds of production in China, be able to differ the agent from a real manufacturer.
It’s good for him to make a call to the supplier or even better to pay him a visit.
Then to get a couple of samples of the product you need.
If working in such order the chances to find the right supplier are way higher so customer’s requirements can be fully satisfied.
My prices
I have a huge experience in searching products. The basic cost is 110$ and it depends on the specification’s difficulty.