To put it simply, dropshipping entails buying a product from a supplier and then having it sent straight to the customer.
Use the product price differential to your advantage to turn a dropshipper into a moneymaker.
Therefore, it is only natural to seek out a dependable supplier simultaneously. An inadvertent miscalculation could cost you a lot of money.
We have gleaned eight items you might want to know before partnering with a Chinese supplier. Then let’s not waste any more time and get down to business.
Store Reputation
The first thing you should do if you want to find a supplier on Alibaba is to look at their profile.
The length of time they’ve been in operation, their legitimacy, and other credentials are all things to look into. Stores with poor reputations rarely survive for more than two years in this market.
A good reputation is often associated with a name or product that has been verified by the website.
The advertised prices on the goods are known to be false. This is a common marketing strategy used by manufacturers. What you saw was the price they offered for orders with a high minimum order quantity. The processing time may also be extremely long.
If you want to narrow down your options, it’s best to have case-by-case price talks with manufacturers.
Catalog Investigation
You can learn more about the provider by looking into their background, history, and products offered.
To begin, a company’s name always includes its registration state, name, primary product, and partnership status.
One such company is Changzhou Lamjo Household Technology Co., Ltd. Information such as the business’s name, hours of operation, manufacturer, or sole intermediary is provided.
business label
Take a look at the image I’ve included. This organization’s name suggests it produces goods for sale. It has a specialized catalog of slippers for business use, and it ships worldwide. The name alone suggests it’s a respectable supply option.
Second, have a look at the store’s brochure. It’s likely that a shop selling a wide variety of seemingly unrelated goods is actually a retailer rather than a producer.
The aim of many vendors is to cash in on this sector and reap rewards with minimal effort on their part. Find them, and do your best to work with them incognito.
Comparison between Platforms
Alibaba, Taobao, and 1688 are just a few of the major online marketplaces where you can find potential suppliers.
Products from Alibaba’s suppliers can be sent directly to any country in the world. In order to qualify for bulk discounts, however, you must meet their minimum order quantity requirements.
The Chinese domestic supplier platform is called 1688. The year 1688 seems to be the year of origin for the vast majority of Taobao’s wares. Consider it the most reasonably priced platform for making purchases of any kind.
However, only a minority of the 1688 suppliers are capable of conducting business on a global scale. The business relies in part on the output of a modest workshop, which lacks the infrastructure to produce on a global scale and ship its wares anywhere in the world.
I’ve already mentioned that the marked prices are often incorrect, and that the stock shown on 1688 and Taobao is often inaccurate as well.
Despite what the product page indicates, there may only be a few dozen available, or the item may be sold out entirely.
As a result, you should share the precise stock count with the support team.
Some international vendors even go so far as to source goods independently. Because of this, there are a great deal of miscommunications.
Most Chinese vendors only speak broken English, but they expect to communicate in Mandarin. It’s safer to go through an intermediary like an agent in order to avoid any miscommunication that could lead to a loss of money.
Tradeshow Experience
It is important to check out a vendor before doing business with them.
You should verify that they can consistently provide you with high-quality goods to resell.
A reliable supplier can be established in a number of ways. When considering a dropshipper, many businesses will look into their tradeshow experience.
Having the financial wherewithal and organizational stability to exhibit at a tradeshow is essential. And more so if the trade show they attended was the Canton fair. Yet, the fact that the vast majority of suppliers have never attended a Tradeshow does not necessarily cast doubt on their reliability.
the Canton Fair
In that case, you can ask them questions about their experiences, the cost, and the quality of the product. As a marketing tool, the trade show is not a deal breaker.
Quality Inspection
Manufacturer-provided imagery always looks inflated and staged. It gets even worse because some of these businesses may be selling goods depicted in photos that are protected by copyright laws. Consequently, this complicates our ability to select the best product. You should request photos and videos of the product from the vendor so that you can examine it from all angles.
When you’ve settled on a handful of go-to producers, it’s time to get to work. It’s the most risk-free option when looking to check the quality of something. If you’re a retailer interested in learning more about the quality of a product, you should buy three or four samples to evaluate side by side before settling on the best option. Get the exact shade you saw in the photo to be safe.
Within TWO to THREE days, if you choose us as your sourcing agent, we can obtain product samples and deliver a sample inspection video.
Choose Products with Multiple Manufactures
Avoid selecting products that were only produced by a few manufacturers. I would not suggest doing so, and the reason is that once the supplier goes out of business or stops working with you, there is no backup plan for that product.
As you can imagine, if orders were placed under these conditions and you are unable to fulfill them in this time of crisis, you will suffer a catastrophic loss.
Plus, choosing a product produced by various suppliers puts you in a more favorable scenario, whereas you can eliminate those suppliers with a higher price or worse quality.
Sign Your Contract Circumspectly
It’s not fair for me to be the one to mumble about the significance of signing a contract, whether it’s a legal or business-related contract, or whether it’s large or small.
Agreements are signed
For the most part, Chinese vendors will expect payment in full before shipping any goods. It is recommended that you conduct business with 1688, Alibaba, or a third-party payment processor like PayPal when shopping online.
Dropshippers may find themselves in a rocky spot if even a small number of their suppliers propose using E-Wire transfer. An E-Wire transaction cannot be reversed once it has been completed. Even if the products don’t meet your standards, it’s hard to get money back from suppliers.
Conclusion
It’s not easy to locate the best provider to meet your requirements.
To succeed, you’ll need to devote a great deal of time and energy. When you find the one that works best for your company, though, it will be time well spent.
