How do you identify ‘trading companies’ who may pose as full-fledged manufacturers?It appears that not every booth at a trade show is a factory. When you place orders, they turn out to be a trading company. How do you identify the difference?That’s a good question. To be honest, you can never know for sure. When you walk around these factories, you will never know for sure. You’re really skillful if you can do that. But you can do a few background checks. First off, you can... Read More

Why Canadian buyer is so mad at Alibaba and made-in-China.comDebora in Canada writes:Please help to refer me and my associate to legitimate suppliers for USB flash drives. We have used other suppliers before but they closed down and the last each of our company used (2 different suppliers) both scammed us. And we were diligent too! Checked the Blacklist, Googled, talked on the phone etc.. So both our companies are out money and product and we have one month to go before we have to... Read More

How to Engage Chinese Suppliers to improve their Productivity? Five Questions to Ask!What I am facing is that when I, in a labor-intensive industry, go to the supplier and talk to them about creating productivity, it’s a two-fold situation. They either say “Yes. No problem, let’s go to work in China, even though I am not sure though what that could do for productivity”, or the second answer is that “Yes we have done it, we have been improving our productivity, lean... Read More

How do you identify the right supplier in the Global Sources website? An example of textile/fabric suppliers.I have previously written about how to finding the right supplier in China on the China Sourcing Academy blog.Today I want to share with you three approaches that you can take when looking through the Global Sources Website. Before starting the search, I would set the search filter on the global sources web site on (i) 3rd party verified suppliers and (ii) 6-star supplier... Read More

Supplier didn’t ship the order and kept our deposit. What to do?Rajvansh in Dubai asks:    We have placed an order to a Chinese supplier for Paper Bags. The supplier is located near Qingdao.    We have made the advance payment to them as per the agreed terms. We even paid the balance for the first shipment they sent us. But, they had forged the documents and shipped less quantity.    To explain in brief – we placed an order... Read More

Is it legit for the factory to request buyer pays agency fee?Mohamed in Egypt writes:    I’m import artificial grass from a China company and they offer me agency for product in Egypt and declare all products will be covered. They ask for 10,000$ for agency insurance/fee. Should I pay it?  Importer as exclusive agent of the factory?Importer as exclusive agent of the factory?I don’t know the details of your case, but here is my initial... Read More