Visiting Suppliers in China


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Liran is with us visiting suppliers in China

  • Wanted to go visit his two suppliers he’s had since 2016
  • Hadn’t met them in person yet so decided now was a good time to go meet
  • Needed 10 days there and dates worked

15hrs Flights

  • From Australia to China was about the same as flying from US to China
  • 15hrs direct flight on Business class (and well worth it)
  • Used points to help pay for it – through Delta and China Eastern
  • China Eastern was really good
  • Slept 10 out of the 18 hours

Into Shanghai visiting Suppliers in China

  • Flew into Shanghai to go visiting suppliers in China
  • Felt better going with another person to China
  • Took a taxi to the Hotel on Monday night
  • Tuesday morning went to meet his translator for travel and translation
  • Recommend you get a translator when visiting suppliers in China
  • Supplier came and picked Liran up
  • Hour and a half drive to the factory (Liran trades direct with this Factory)

Trading Companies work

  • The 2nd Supplier is a Trading Company and President Xi was in the area so Liran couldn’t go and visit the Factory
  • Some Trading companies are brilliant and worth paying a little more for
  • Factories don’t always want to deal in English and prefer a trading company to go through
  • Also, Trading companies can bring in components from multiple factories and get you a product you would struggle to make yourself

Dinner with Supplier

  • Benefits to going to China nad meeting your supplier is helpful
  • In the factory they go to the back room and show you samples of other customers that didn’t make it to order
  • These could be new ideas and potential new products that you don’t get across the Skype call
  • Did research direct with the Factory in there and looked through products on amazon for Q4
  • Liran positions himself as an Amazon expert and helps him negotiate great terms
  • No substitute for meeting the Supplier nad having dinner and drinks with them – it’s a really good experience

Chinese not English

  • China is huge
  • Hardly anyone speaks English
  • Danny spent 3hrs trying to wave down a taxi
  • The food – to make a booking is hard
  • You are reliant on the supplier to help with logistics too
  • Liran downloaded an app that you can talk to and it translated to Chinese for him – iTranslate Pro is invaluable!
  • Worth its weight for the taxi that needed to turn on his aircon

Canton Fair – English Hotel

  • Stay in an English speaking hotel in Canton Fair – don’t go off the grid when visiting suppliers in China
  • Going in April and October is a good time to make the trip as you can take in the Trade Shows and catch a load of Suppliers all in one place – check out the ‘phases’ of the Trade shows
  • You could source new products and go see the factories

Negotiating

  • Chinese people often also choose and use an English name
  • One factory gave amazing terms and now Liran wanted to get better terms with his other supplier
  • Put 30% down and pay remainder 90 days after goods arrive at port
  • Pay 30% upfront and remainder when the goods arrive in USA
  • Wanted a better deal and so raised that Q4 is coming up
  • Could do 5 new products or with some help from the Supplier could do 15 new products
  • They are receptive and looking at 30% deposit, next 30% when it gets to Port and the remainder maybe 40 days after
  • Not sure this would be considered if Liran hadn’t met the Owner of the factory in person
  • Helped the owner do a US bank wire transfer on his own computer
  • Went and did lunch, dinner nad karaoke with him too
  • Much easier to talk a deal when you’ve built a bond with them

Factory Quality

  • Andy with the Amazing Freedom group went over
  • He met some suppliers on Alibaba
  • They planned to get some samples ready for him while he was visiting suppliers in China
  • One factory had great samples but the factory was a nightmare and not high quality
  • If he’d not gone and checked he might have had a great pre-production sample but a nightmare mass production
  • Doing a pre-production inspection audit will highlight these issues before you get into a production run
  • Important to check them out beforehand
  • People like to do business with people they like and trust

Trade Shows

  • In 2016 Danny went and saw a Trade show
  • He found some floors that had different countries and the quality was visibly different
  • In Canton Fair you might have 50 stands all selling the same product and very hard to tell the quality difference
  • Hong Kong stand costs are higher which makes it harder to cut good deals

Boost

  • Liran went to Boost straight after flying in from China
  • Is content pretty dry?
  • Meeting all the other Sellers and Amazon employees is the value from going to Boost
  • Content is not going to be as good as among Sellers who share content
  • Networking is pretty good
  • Amazon had 15-20 different booths with medium to senior level managers in these depts
  • Some give you out their business cards and some even respond to emails too

Amazon Socialising

  • Was an opportunity to socialise for a beer later too
  • Had a prepared bar-crawl that you can go on as well

Contact

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