How to Find China Supplier

Suppose you come up with a product idea or think you have market channels for certain products, and you want to find a supplier in China because of the low product development cost and low production cost there, then read on. If you google the product name or concept, you will find tons of China suppliers / manufacturers. However, you still think you have not got one, because you want to find a capable and reliable one that would satisfy your specific needs and have good desire to do business with you. Many people get frustrated because they have been communicating with suppliers in China for months, but finally feel difficult to move forward. The reason, most likely, is that they did not find the suitable one at the beginning. To successfully find a suitable China supplier, you need a strategy - understand what you need, what are available, what are the steps, and what to expect. This strategy will consist of awareness, knowledge and a good amount of homework. Below are some practical steps to find a suitable China suppliers of yours.

Steps

1. To understand what you need, you need to first know what are available, and categorize and analyze those available. Here are some important category concerns for you to think about suppliers specific to China's business practices: manufacturer vs. 3rd-party supplier; Big corporation vs. small family owned; 3rd-party supplier with in-house product development capability vs. 3rd-party supplier just buy-in and sell-out; vertically integrated manufacturer vs. assembly-based manufacturer; company with export license vs. company without export license, coastal location vs. inland location, etc. Proper categorizing and analyzing of the types of the suppliers will help you understand what you need. For example, if you just need to import products in a narrow range, you may choose a manufacturer other than a 3rd-party supplier. If you are a small business and need dedicated attention, you may want to develop good relationship with a small family owned business.
2. When you have the awareness of the categories of the suppliers, you can set out to search for them, meanwhile further developed your category system. Then you do not loss your judgment in the massive searching, and act efficiently and effectively. More importantly, understanding the types of suppliers will help the way you approach them tactically and strategically. You are better aware of what to expect and how to get it.
3. Now comes the search job. Internet is always the best place to start with. Don't do it yet. You want to know what you will be doing, and do it efficiently and effectively. Before go online, make a table for recording data like company name, contact information, business scale and scope, category check boxes (important), and notes. Then go on.
4. There are two good ways to do the search, google is always the best to start with. And it is powerful. Generally, if you search by a product name, the first 100 results shows the most relevant suppliers' websites that are serious in that product. Not always though. By googling, you can also find your competitors' information and develop your better sense of market segment and marketing channels. You may also want to try Yahoo, MNS and AltaVista.
5. Another way is to visit famous business directory websites. Alibaba.com and Made-in-China.com could be the best for finding vast China suppliers, with very structured company information, pictures of products and contact information. The directory websites are also excellent resource of industrial knowledge. Some people use Alibaba for the purpose of getting industrial information and price list by contacting the listed suppliers. Some people developed real business through Alibaba.
   Now you are well informed about the business you intend to do. With the categories analysis, and the help of the data table, you are systematically informed and ready to process the data.
6. At this stage, you may like to have an experienced person to help you in analyzing the information. In your strategy, you will also need to include the consideration of the future contracting and operation. You may seek advice from a Chinese who understands Chinese mentality, culture and business practice. You may get the incorrect interpretation even you are visiting the supplier's English website or, you may also omit data that contains key information.
7. Now you may have narrowed down the potential suppliers you want to work with in a manageable amount. You can go ahead to develop relationship with them. Finally, you will find the ONE. The process can be fun and friend-making experience. Good luck.

Tips

• Analyzing the types of suppliers has strategic importance. It will help you to understand where you are what kind of result to expect, what are things you need to take care of in the mutual cooperation.
• If you send out inquiries through Alibaba.com or Made-in-China.com, you will get tons of replies from suppliers of all kinds. Some guys would continuously send you products info for years, and are able to pass through all sorts spam protection. So you may not use your primary email account to register with Alibaba.com or Made-in-China.com.
• Not always the higher google listed website indicate more serious business of the searching products, some good China suppliers are not good in having their website listed high, while some other internet guy can have their website listed very high. Use your industrial judgment.
• Be aware that the decision-maker may not speak any English, while establishing good relationship (guanxi) with the top management is crucial for long term success.
• Email is good for exchange products specification, catalogue and price list. To establish deeper relationship, phone call is 10 times better than email. Personal meeting is 100 times better than phone call. Every people want to star a business, so you have to show you are more serious in some way. Phone call and meeting surely help. As long as your contact person uses English, you can just go ahead to give that person a phone call. It does not matter how much you and that person could understand each other, you can always follow up with an email. If so, you might be the only 10% potential customers that leave the voice (more physical message than email) with the supplier.