Have you just started selling products on Amazon? Need help choosing a reliable supplier for your product? We are here to help you!
We are Italian but we speak perfect English.
To earn more money and faster on Amazon, you must avoid quality problems, packaging, labeling and packaging. Especially when the merchandise has already arrived in Amazon warehouses.
It is very important, indeed essential, to know how to manage the quality of your product portfolio.
Sending low quality or defective products to Amazon inevitably leads to heavy consequences.
Too many bad reviews or too many returns will cause serious problems for your sales.
How do you avoid troubles? We need a simple prevention strategy:
- Choose a reliable Chinese partner
- Do quality checks before shipping to Europe or US or Australia
Where to find the best Chinese supplier for your Amazon product?
Here are the 5 main platforms we use to find Chinese manufacturers:
#1 www.Alibaba.com
#2 www.Made-in-China.com
#3 www.GlobalSources.com
#4 www.DHGate.com
#5 Chinese magazines & blogs specific for certain product category
How to select the best reliable Chinese supplier for your Amazon product?
As explained above it is essential to avoid quality problems. That’s why you don’t want to buy from any supplier you can find. You must choose a factory that makes a consistent good quality product and ship your goods on time.
Of course, you need a supplier that gives you a good price. But you also need your shipment to have as few defects as possible.
How do you do it?
I state that the procedure is not unique and very simple and does not apply to all products. We therefore see a general guideline for dealing with this research process.
If this is the first time you are looking for products or suppliers in China, I advise you to rely on companies that do sourcing, better if there are Italian companies on site. American or British companies are also good, the important thing they have offices in China. This will allow you to reduce search time, product set-up times, and have more solid results: more reliable suppliers. Not always but often they will search for producers for free, in return they offer you a factory inspection service (factory auditing) and then a quality inspection of the product before shipment: indispensable.
I personally advise against paying these sourcing agencies with a fee or percentage on the product, you would reduce your margin not only on the first order, but on all subsequent reorders. Economically not worth it.
Don’t want to delegate the search to third parties? Have you already found your ideal supplier? Before passing the first purchase order and paying the deposit, make further checks. Always choose your suppliers for Amazon FBA very carefully and scrupulously.
Below is a small part of tips and controls that you might find useful.
Is it a supplier specialized in the product you are buying? Or is it a retailer of a thousand types of products with different types of production? Example: you are buying glass cups. If your supplier also sells metal bathroom accessories and cotton rugs better to move on. It is probably a trading company!
If there is no factory address on their site, please provide an exact address in Chinese and a telephone number. Check on Biadu map if a factory or a shopping center comes out of that address in Chinese.
If you use Alibaba.com it checks not only that it is a Gold Supplier, but that it is verified as a “Manufacturer” and not as a “Trading Company”. See example below: Shenzhen Bright Glassware. Company name relevant to what they sell, is Gold supplier, 6 years of activity on Alibaba.com, Verified, Trade Assurance, excellent Response Time but then looking good is not verified as Manufacturer, in the presentation video does not show any production plant but only the showroom. It could be a trading company and therefore you are likely to be paying at least a 10-15% extra. A site visit could tell you with certainty who you are buying from. Also rate this in your choice of supplier.
Company name on Alibaba 
Chinese supplier in Alibaba: ‘Manufacturer’ or ‘Trading Company’? Have MOQ (Minimum Order Quantity) confirmed in advance for subsequent reorders. Both for single product and color, and any minimum purchase totals for future shipments. Sometimes suppliers in China require an extra fee for LCL shipments under a certain amount. Better to know it sooner than later.
Have the payment terms confirmed in writing on the Pro-form Invoice (or Sales Confirmation). Never accept balance before shipping. Maximum 30% deposit on the order. Obviously, if the amount of the order is low, you will probably have to accept the conditions imposed by the supplier. For low amounts I mean order value around Eur. 1,000. Contact at least 5 or 6 Chinese suppliers on the same product, it will give you an idea of the market price. Don’t just consider the price in your choice, but also those who give you more confidence.
Ask for confirmation of production times, and notify your supplier that you will perform quality inspection before shipment.
If you can, try to avoid producers far from the main Chinese ports: Shenzhen, Xiamen, Ningbo, Shanghai, Qingdao, Tianjin. China is the third country in the world as a geographical extension, after Russia and Canada therefore also considers the geographical location of the factory in the choice. Very often it is not worthwhile to go to produce too far from the coast: 1000km or more! What you save on the purchase price, you lose it in the longest shipping times to the port, and to do on-site inspections.
Search the company name in Google by adding the keyword ‘scam’. Example search in Google ‘Shenzhen XYZ Glassware Co., Ltd. + scam’ to find out if there are any negative reviews about a particular company.