Price negotiation is one of the most tricky parts in international sourcing. But meanwhile it isn’t that difficult if you do enough homework, research and follow some basic principles.

Some misconceptions:
I have visited China, people seem to bargain for everything, oftentimes we can cut down the price from 100RMB/pc to 10RMB/pc, so it is really hard to figure…

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Easy to follow quality control guidelines for people purchasing from Chinese manufacturers.

Ok, so quality control is never easy. But, there are some basic guidelines that, if you follow them like the law, will make your life a lot easier. Most large companies outsourcing with Chinese suppliers have systems in place, and I’ve found them all to be remarkably similar. These concepts go beyond…

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Poor quality product from China continues to be a major issue for both importers and factories. As a buyer, you can protect yourself and also educate your clients with some simple on-line research on product safety and performance standards. With the right documentation you can then clearly communicate these standards to your Chinese factory, and this way often prevent a major QC lapse.

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By Diana Wang

• Exhibitors

If the exhibition has an official website, you may be able to examine a list of exhibitors who will attend the exhibition or who attended the exhibition in previous years. From this you will be able to judge whether the exhibition is suitable for you to find proper Chinese suppliers, and you can especially look out for the following:

1. Well-known international suppliers attending the exhibition: Nowadays, good Chinese exhibitions attract international exhibitors. Normally these exhibitions are in industries where China is relatively more advanced.
2. Chinese suppliers’ names: You may need to count how many Chinese suppliers are on the list. If you are familiar with China’s province or city names, you may be able to get a rough idea if the suppliers are local or from different provinces. As China is geographically large, it will cost suppliers from other provinces a lot of time and money to attend exhibitions in Beijing, Shanghai or Guangdong. So if one exhibition in Beijing attracted many good suppliers from southern China, it is likely to be a good one as the suppliers consider it worthwhile to attend.
3. Key Chinese suppliers: If you already know several big Chinese suppliers in the related industry, you can judge if the exhibition is worthwhile or not by checking whether these suppliers are attending.

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By Andrew Reich

It’s lead paint on a children’s giveaway toy. It’s a computer mouse that can seriously shock the user. It seems that every new day brings a wave of product recalls and safety alerts in regard to product coming from China. Promotional product importers and distributers are just as susceptible as retailers to the disastrous effect on business and reputation that distributing a dangerous product will bring. As more of us in the promotional product industry deal with China suppliers on a daily basis, the following strategies can serve as a guide to ensuring you receive only the highest quality product from overseas.

10. Know Who You’re Working With
When you’re buying product from China it’s often hard to tell if you are working with a factory, a trading company, or something in between. When it comes to product and quality issues it is key that you know exactly who you’re working with, and that the relationship is transparent to all parties. If you are not working with the factory directly and the supplier can not provide you satisfactory answers about the product, then they are inhibiting the sourcing process for you and you should reconsider the relationship. Read the rest of “Top 10 Tips for Quality when working with Chinese Factories” or post a comment