
Part 2: Alibaba Unofficial Guide, Contacting and Negotiating with Suppliers
Contacting Suppliers on Alibaba: The Dating Game
Possibly the biggest mistake I see new importers making when contacting Chinese Suppliers, especially on Alibaba, is to believe every Chinese Supplier is dying to do business with them. This isn’t always true.- Do you know exactly what products you’re looking for? Or are you fishing for an entire catalog and price list?
- Are you clear, concise, and to the point? Or does your Supplier have to put a lot of thought into answering your email, which is especially hard for a non-native English speaker?
- What country are you from? Certain countries are more desirable for a Supplier to do business in such as countries the Supplier doesn’t currently do business in. Your Supplier can see what country you are emailing from via Alibaba.
- Are you a big buyer with brick and mortar stores?
Your First Email
Therefore, I recommend importers first contact to be straight forward and to the point, such as: Dear Shanghai Saddlery Co., Ltd., I am from Chinese Importing Products Inc. We are based in Vancouver, Canada and we are a retailer/wholesaler of Horse Saddles. We are very interested in the Horse Saddles your company offers. Can you please tell me the price on your Adjustable Leather English Horse Saddles, Mode SA138, as shown here: http://shanghaisaddlery.en.alibaba.com/product/736255569-214759027/adjustable_gullet_english_leather_saddle.html Sincerely, David Bryant Our goal is just to get a response. I avoid mentioning MOQs which may scare off a Supplier. It’s easy for a Supplier to simply ignore an initial email. But once a Supplier has actually responded to you, it’s difficult to ignore future emails.Doing Price Anaylsis
Unless you know your product extremely well and the cost to manufacture it (VERY few people know this) your absolute only way to know the fair price of your product is to receiving competing offers which is why we’ve contacted several Suppliers. You should at this point start to receive prices from your Suppliers. If they ask you how much you will be importing let them know your ideal annual order amount (be an optimist but don’t promise the moon) rather than individual order amount.- Shipment terms are EXW opposed to FOB (much more expensive)
- The material is of a much lower quality, i.e. 150denier fabric instead of 600 denier Fabric
- They only accept extremely large orders
Dealing with MOQs
MOQs are one of the most important issue you’re going to face when first dealing with Suppliers. I’ll give you some general tips here on how to get low MOQs and I go into even more detail in my Importing Course. Every Supplier wants you to order like Walmart but at the same time, you don’t want to import 50 Horse Saddles if you’ve never sold one and risk getting stuck with a bedroom full of unsellable inventory. You have to ask yourself, why does you Supplier have a MOQ?- They mass produce the product, and keep stock of it, but it’s not worth their expense to ship a small number of products
- They only produce the product on demand therefore they need a big enough order to warrant a production run
Your First Sample Trial Order
Many books and websites say that you should always order a single sample from a Supplier and inspect it for quality et al. There’s some problems with doing it this way:
- Your first sample is guaranteed to be of good quality. i.e. you will get the “Golden Sample”
- The freight costs to get a single sample is outrageously high
- One sample gives you no chance to try and sell the item on eBay, Amazon, etc.
Making Your First Order: How to Pay For It
Once you’ve picked a Supplier and they’ve agreed to send your desired quantity you’re ready to pay for and ship your order. Keep in mind that some Suppliers may not charge you for the cost of one sample but they will almost certainly get you to pay the cost of freight. They will almost certainly charge you for any samples beyond 1 and freight. Do not try to negotiate this- it makes you look really small. Most Suppliers will send you something called a pro-forma invoice which is just a fancy word for an invoice. Most Suppliers prefer wire transfer but some will accept PayPal if you pay their fees (anywhere from 2.5-4%). Remember, everything in China is in USD as the Yuan is pegged to the Dollar. If you’ve never done an overseas wire transfer, take the banking information into your bank and they will be happy to help you make the transfer, normally for $20-40. Paying via Wire Transfer gives some very revealing information about your Supplier, mostly in regards to whoever the beneficiary is. If the beneficiary is a the company name that you’re familiar with, i.e. “Shanghai Saddlery Co. Ltd.” then everything is hunky dorey. If the beneficiary is a personal name, i.e. “Deng Xiaoping” then you know you’re most likely dealing with a very small middle man. Fraud is also a lot more prevalent if going to a personal name (although still very rare) so make sure there’s no other red flags. If you’re being asked to send money to an African bank, run.Making Your First Order: How to Ship It
If this is your first time ordering from China (or even if you’re experienced) it’s often best just to ask your Supplier to arrange for shipping and to add the charges to the invoice. If everything is being shipped via air, then there’s really no surprises. Simply tell your Supplier your address. They will likely ship it via DHL, FedEx, or UPS. The chances are they will also declare the products to be of very low value (whether you asked them to or not) so you will pay very little duty, but expect to pay some duty. If your shipment is so large it needs to be shipped via air, read the article on Sea Freight here. Keep in mind, shipping air from China is expensive. To ship 20 lbs is going to cost you no less than $100 and may exceed $300. Will Williams from Freighteo gives some great advice on shipping items via air here.Special Requests? Forget It (on this order)
If you have any special requests, like certain packaging requirements, forget it on this order. Wait until you’ve received a few samples, and then give feedback accordingly. Again, you’re trying to come across as a maintenance free Buyer, albeit a small one.Receiving and Reviewing Your Shipment
If you’ve had your order shipped via air, then it should arrive in anywhere from 3-10 business days. If via sea, this will be more like 30-45 days. When your shipment arrives, here are some things to inspect, which may be talking points for future orders:- Quality. Is the product the quality you expect? Use and abuse the product for a bit of time. Does it hold up how it should? If not, remember that you’ve likely received their best quality samples and quality is only expected to be the same or decrease on future orders.
- Packaging: Is the packaging sufficient to ship to your customer? Or was everything lumped into one box and you need to purchase all new shipping boxes? (if so, request your items to be boxed on future orders)
- Instructions. Did it come with instructions (if applicable)? If not, does your supplier have instructions? If not, you should start creating or borrowing some and include them with your product.
- Made in China? Does your item have “Made in China” marked somewhere on the box? If not, you should request this on the next order
Making Future Orders
After 2 or 3 weeks of having your product listed on various channels, you should have hopefully received at least a couple of sales and you’ll be prepared to make a larger order. If you’re prepared to make an order big enough to meet your Supplier’s MOQ, great. If not, your Supplier will now likely be willing to accept any order 25-50% of their stated MOQ. The temptation of an order from a real, serious Buyer, no matter what size, is too strong for most Suppliers to resist. At this point, you can also start negotiating with your Supplier. Getting a 5-20% cost concession should be reasonable, assuming your Supplier was competitive with the other Suppliers you received price quoted from. Start at a 10-20%. Keep in mind that asking for a shipping concession is often more appetizing for your Supplier than asking for a cost concession. For example, if you are ordering $3000 worth of saddles that will cost $300 in sea freight, it is better to ask for your Supplier to pay for the cost of freight rather than ask for a 10% discount.alibaba, contacting, guide, negotiating, suppliers, unofficial