Home -> Law Blog Directory -> International Law Blogs -> China Law Blog

International Law

: China Law Blog

Ultimate China Sourcing Guide, Part I. AND Part II.

By Dan Harris and Steve Dickinson

Bizcult just did a very good post setting forth the basics of how to find a China supplier. The post, entitled, "Ultimate China Sourcing Guide, Part I," very nicely analyzes the pros and cons of finding suppliers through trade fairs, online, search engines, and trade associations. All good. Where it falls down however, is on what it does not say. Nowhere does it say that it is critical to visit any supplier before signing on the dotted line. I suspect that advice will be in part II of the series, but not mentioning it at all in Part I is rather dangerous. A real world example is in order here. I had lunch with a long-time client/friend yesterday, who had just returned from China looking for a supplier of ultra high end boxes for a luxury product. My client gave the following explanation as to how he had found the right company to make the boxes: I started out focusing on Shenzhen because I have been there many times before and because it is close to Hong Kong, where I sometimes need to go on other business. Also, and maybe most importantly, I have a good friend there who is fluent in Mandarin and who I can trust. Using the internet, I quickly realized there were plenty of potential manufacturers in Shenzhen so my task would be to narrow them down. I picked those that looked good and started communicating with them by email. From that I got it down to about fifteen and then went to see them. Of these fifteen, I was able to determine instantly that about half were inadequate. These guys were either middlemen or their factory consisted of little more than people in a basement. I then got the list down to three and started negotiating. I ended up going with the one I thought would be the most reliable. Now for my client's money quote: "I cannot even imagine choosing a China supplier without checking them out first." That's part II.

Full post as published by China Law Blog on September 06, 2008 (boomark / email).