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Manuel Becvar on how to verify supplier certifications
- ImportDojo from Manuel was Danny’s go-to import bible when he was starting out
- It’s a 135 page ebook that explains the real basics of importing from China
- In the retail industry for 17 years
How to verify supplier certifications
- It takes a long time and is resource heavy
- Building a team in Serbia and Switzerland and legal team
- Building the platform libellum.io and partnering with testing laboratories
- Getting 3rd parties to upload all test certificates, test reports and audits to the platform powered by blockchain
- Get these entries onto the blockchain and no-one can change it
- Only way to upload is via the 3rd parties that issued the certificates
- When an audit or certificate is uploaded a QR code is generated which the 3rd party gives to the supplier that paid for the test
Horror Stories
- In 2012 in the buying office, had a large order of fans for a big German client
- They had already started selling the fans and a couple of months into sales a fan burned and the whole house was burned down
- Checked the certificate of the manufacturer and it turned out the certificate was fake
- It cost a lot of money to re-imburse the client
- Put new processes in place to ensure this does not happen again
- There are still supplier that slip through the net, even with Global Sources and Alibaba
New Seller
- New Sellers see a REACH or CE certificate and just accept it as real
- Not using Alibaba or Global Sources you can get stung
- Trying to close the net on these loopholes
Ask the right questions
- Don’t want to overwhelm the supplier but…
- If it’s a fan then a CE and a REACH certificate – find out what sort of certificates you need first before you speak to them
- What markets do they work with, you want someone who has worked with your market
- Who are his customers, does he have big retailers in his portfolio – a good sign as will know the regulations
- How long has he been in business? 2yrs or 25yrs
- Vendor Profile Report – send to supplier after 2nd/3rd email
- His business licence, how many machines, how many engineers, turnover per year
- See if he responds well, is it good communication
- Eventually you can ask for certificates
- They may not send the whole certificate if for another customer – they can black that out which is fine
- You can then go to the issuing laboratory or 3rd party and verify it was issued
- Sometimes they only have a Chinese testing authority in the provinces that are more difficult to reach
