Search for a suitable manufacturer in China

After the product idea has been developed, we can start looking for a suitable manufacturer. Our main markets are China, India, Taiwan and Vietnam. For this purpose, we create a data sheet in order to receive offers that are as comparable as possible. With a qualified letter of inquiry, we search for potential manufacturers, ask for offers for your product idea and evaluate the offers received.

Purchasing via Chinese B2B markets such as alibaba or made-in-china

If you are not in China yourself, it is a good idea to search for suppliers and products from China online. When researching online, sooner or later you will come across the larger Chinese B2B portals such as Alibaba.com or made-in-china.com. However, one should know that these platforms are not just used by dealers, but by 95% of agents and intermediaries, who are usually indistinguishable from the manufacturers and usually pretend to be manufacturers or factories. In addition, it is not uncommon for special trademarks that serve to build trust to be forged. The same applies to certificates and test reports. Therefore, even after an initially great relationship with a Chinese company, it is not uncommon for the shock to be great after delivery. The wrong product was delivered, the quality is abysmal or, in the worst case, the goods are confiscated due to a violation of laws or import regulations (e.g. trademark law, design protection, CE regulations).

Minimizing your risks when shopping through Alibaba

Agentur Frisch specializes in fully organizing imports from China and minimizing the risks involved in purchasing. This starts with the evaluation of suppliers, continues with advice on payment arrangements, the agreement of international trade contracts that cover all pitfalls to the support of the supplier in the production in China, the final acceptance (quality assurance) in China, to the logistics to the delivery in Germany without any nasty surprises. As a rule, our costs for processing are below the costs that are saved by us when importing.

We would be happy to assist you with your purchase via the Chinese B2B platforms, please contact us viaEmailinfo@ag-frisch.de.

or TEL: 0 30 32 89 68 83.

B2B markets from China using Alibaba as an example

Anyone wishing to import goods from China as a merchant needs to have sufficient contacts in the Asian region. Successful companies in the West in particular keep their contact secret if possible in order to protect any unique selling points from Me – Too products. In order to find cheap and, above all, reliable dealers, many buyers go to Asian trade fairs, above all to the trade fair in Guangzhou. The Canton Fair takes place twice a year and is considered the largest export fair in the world. Many well-known producers and exporters from China and Asia exhibit their goods there and look for new contacts. These days are very valuable for importers to look for new trends and close business relationships on site. But there is an easier way.

Supplier search online
So far, some B2B markets from China have been able to establish themselves on the Internet, through which goods can be purchased directly from the Far East and shipped to Europe or the rest of the world.
The undisputed pioneer among B2B markets in China is definitely the Alibaba Group empire. But the company is not only ahead of its Asian competitors, the giant Amazon is also increasingly overshadowed by Alibaba. Amazon and Alibaba are taking different paths in e-commerce:
Amazon maintains its own logistics center, stores goods like a wholesaler and sells its own brands. Alibaba, on the other hand, is more of a virtual marketplace where independent retailers from Asia offer their goods. With almost 60 million customers from around 250 countries, Alibaba is now one of the largest online platforms in the world.
The Chinese operators have recognized the sales potential that arises on the European market.

In order to win even more business partners from the west, Alibaba has entered into a cooperation with the payment provider Ppro. This strategy is based on a partnership between Ppro from London and the leading payment provider Alipay from China. As a result, common payment options were implemented in this country, which are the order of the day on the European market. These include Giropay, iDeal and Sofortüberweisung. These have established themselves in the past as simple, fast and secure payment methods and have grown into a real alternative to credit and debit cards.

How the order process works on Alibaba.com
If the importer already knows which goods might be of interest to him, he can use a product search function to search for suitable offers. After entering a suitable term, between 500 and 50,000 results are displayed. It is also possible to search for specific products using a supplier search. Searches are made using the term specific goods, and as a result the searcher is shown a list of manufacturers of the products. The advantages are apparent:
The more matching products a supplier offers, the higher the probability that it is a trustworthy and professional dealer from Asia.

A retailer that focuses on certain products is likely to offer lower prices, better quality, better service, and more expertise. Importers must pay attention to product certificates and seals of approval when purchasing, which is extremely important for the European and US market. Therefore, if you pay attention to the product offers of the dealers, you will not take a great risk of getting counterfeits, which can also be found on the Alibaba platforms. If a retailer offers few suitable products, it is not a question of a specialist in its branch. This increases the risk. In addition, importers have the opportunity to submit their own purchase request on the platform. If Alibaba is given information about the desired product, asking price, shipping details and suitable payment methods, Alibaba forwards the request to thousands of gold suppliers. Suitable dealers have the opportunity to respond and make a non-binding offer to the interested party.

In further communication with the suppliers, it is recommended to provide precise information on the product properties, e.g

– Product characteristics
– Minimum Order Quantity
– Prices
– Incoterms
– Export packaging
– Delivery time

Suppliers from China are usually very busy and usually only reply to a qualified inquiry in order to be able to distinguish interesting business partners from hobby importers in advance, according to the motto: time is money.

In a next step, different samples should be requested from several suppliers in order to be able to better assess the quality. As soon as the samples have arrived at the importer’s company, they have been examined and a decision has been made, an order can be placed via the Alibaba platform will. The conditions must be agreed with the respective suppliers.

Counterfeit brands and scammers on Alibaba
China’s State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) blames Alibaba for trademark abuse by some suppliers. This could cause major problems for the importer if German customs discovers the counterfeit products. These would be confiscated and the money would likely be gone. Not to mention the violations of trademark protection and the associated risk of warnings from the trademark owner.

Before importing larger quantities, the merchant should do some research on the supplier from China. For example, you can use the integrated forum on Alibaba to exchange experiences with other importers.

This is how we select our international suppliers

Your supplier – agent

As an importer it is important to have contacts abroad and we already have them. Our professional staff endeavors to find the suppliers who can deliver the product you require, with the details you require and at the price-performance ratio you want.

Our criteria

We evaluate suppliers according to the following criteria, among others: environmental protection, product licenses, product development, quality management and assurance, occupational safety and working conditions and local requirements. We do not support child labor and attach great importance to compliance with social regulations, working time regulations and occupational safety regulations.

We do not support cheap labor and make sure that the workers of our suppliers can maintain a reasonable standard of living with their earnings.

local contacts

The most important thing when looking for the right manufacturer is our local contacts. Regionally we already have agents and traders with whom we work. This enables us to find suppliers for you in many regions of the world through local agents who are already known to the respective agent and can be rated as reliable. In this way, you not only save yourself the trip to the relevant regions, but also have a much greater advantage because even with your own trip abroad, you cannot quickly build up a circle of suppliers in the region who meet your expectations. Another advantage: You receive the goods at the purchase price because we charge our success commission and, unlike other import brokers or import agents, we do not charge any commission from the supplier. This makes our work transparent, open and fair to our customers

fairs and exhibitions

You can find reliable contacts at trade fairs and exhibitions in particular. We regularly visit trade fairs for you in Germany, but we do not necessarily find the suppliers who also deliver the goods with the best performance and price ratio. The suppliers who already attend trade fairs in Europe are often much more expensive than factories, the cheaper distribution channels, such as foreign trade companies abroad walk. Of course, you can still accommodate those suppliers who don’t make their way to Europe and get to know them at trade fairs or exhibitions in their respective home countries. These trade fairs and exhibitions are also regularly visited by our traders in order to get to know reliable suppliers for you. We have had the most reliable and the most successful deliveries in terms of the quality of the goods so far from suppliers that we have been able to research through trade fairs and exhibitions

Internet research

In order to find new contacts for you in a cost-saving manner, we also resort to internet research in advance. There are numerous B2B markets in Internet. The disadvantage is that there are also numerous dubious or even dubious providers in these markets. But how do we find the right supplier in advance on the Internet despite this large range and a large number of dubious suppliers? First and foremost it is our knowledge of the respective country, although we have already developed a certain intuition. It is often the details of the website that let us rule out the provider directly. At first glance, we often recognize incomplete address or company details or unregistered telephone numbers and email addresses, which often indicates dubiousness. In addition, we research in the respective country’s search engine in the local language, because that’s how we get information about the supplier through records in the local language, which can convince us of the reliability of the supplier. A phone call with the potential manufacturer in the mother tongue is often just as informative about the confidentiality of the supplier. The suppliers should be visited in all cases. Unfortunately, the information provided by Chinese suppliers in preliminary research often deviates far from the actual situation.

Trade journals and daily newspapers

By regularly evaluating trade journals and daily newspapers in China, we are always informed about the current situation in China, about new offers and suppliers in China.

contact maintenance

The Frisch agency maintains regular contact with countless suppliers abroad, mainly in China. We will find everything for you. We choose our suppliers carefully and we don’t know anything negative about our suppliers up to now

All our services for the China import

We organize the complete import for our customers. The following images will take you to the areas of our main services.

Shipping from China Quality Assurance in China Special Services China