HomeFAQIs it hard to buy small qty from China vendors?
Is it hard to buy small qty from China vendors?
2015/01/29 16:22:13
Most customers have problems buying from China if the orders are small, or to modify the existing vendor's standard models. The following article from Globalsources.com list the reasons about why.
However, our expertise personnel is good at studying your specific requests and customized models are frequently generated from our factories.
Well, talk to us and you will know it! Seven reasons why it is hard to start small when buying from China
By Adam Gilbourne at Globalsources
Limited factory cooperation
If your order is small, the factory will never give you its full attention, time and resources. Quite simply, you are more of an afterthought and the factory usually does the bare minimum to get the order done.
The factory will not give you priority
It is very common for factories to take on business knowing they cannot get it out in the stated lead time. When the factory is busy, you will be pushed to the back of the queue. The bigger the percentage of business you are, the more priority you will get.
Factories’ subsuppliers have MOQs too
The supplier has to buy raw materials from its providers and these may not be small. While the factory may be willing to run your order, if the raw material supplier requires a higher volume than your production run allows, it cannot.
Your logistics costs will be high
Doing part-container loads is expensive. You might end up paying 5 to 10 times the landed price doing a part-container load instead of a full-container load.
Small buyers usually cannot afford to spend as much to do things properly
Small buyers do not have the resources to locate the right factories and manage them throughout production. As a result, secifications are not clear. The factory will make mistakes and the client would not know until it is too late. Ironically, smaller buyers will have to use smaller factories, which require the most hands on management.
Factories will not do any customization, or minimal at best
China manufacturers do production in large volumes. They prefer products that do not require them to make changes to their normal way of doing things. While they will make changes for large orders, they simply will not bother for anything small.
Small online sellers in a high-volume product cannot compete without differentiation
Online sales can be very competitive. The biggest sellers with the most order volume usually get the best pricing. Some sellers work off low margins and can get lower pricing than you. Their established logistics network lower costs further. This means small buyers sometimes cannot even land the goods in your country at the price they are selling.
Adam Gilbourne is the founder of Easy Imex Ltd and helps importers to source product & manage their supply chain in China. He writes advice for importers on the Easy Imex blog. He lives full time in Shanghai, China. You can contact him at adam@easyimex.com.
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