For the new importers, choosing a supplier from China is one of the most difficult challenges that you may face. The reason is you need to go through many things to find finally the right supplier for your company. First, you need to verify and confirm whether your prospective supplier is a legitimate business and not a devious fly-by-night operator. Next is, you don’t have the absolute way to verify and confirm all the information that is provided to you by your prospective supplier. Once you have placed the order, you will not get any chance to determine the quality of the finished product or the entire manufacturing process. There is no assurance that the supplier you are dealing with is creditworthy and reliable.
Define the sourcing value of the company
Whether is high quality, good technology, high-quality, size of the company, you need to refer to the new global procurement strategy to determine your sourcing target for the industry. All the requirements are important but you need to ensure the sourcing value of the company. It will help you more to select a suitable supplier easily.
Determine the best area for your source
Good suppliers are scattered all over the world. But you need to have a choice. You should have a global procurement strategy and focus on one area to fulfill all your procurement requirements. This will minimize your sourcing efforts and also will reduce your logistics cost.
Search with the complete list
Once you have defined the location, you need to make a long list of suppliers. Some of the most common methods are word of mouth, the internet, trade publications or word of mouth etc. You can solicit also from the existing suppliers to get information on overseas suppliers. You can make a list of the suppliers who have an excellent reputation. You can employ also a quality control company to Verify China Company first.
First pass evaluation
Match the pool of the suppliers against the sourcing value of the suppliers. This can be done by using online surveys, phone interviews, sales presentations, site visits. The goal of the first pass evaluation is to narrow down the name of the suppliers to a manageable group. It may depend on the size of your sourcing project and the additional monetary value. You need to narrow down at least 5 to 20 suppliers.
Check the suppliers
Before finalizing the name, you need to call up the sales officers or the head of your suppliers. It is the best way to ensure the reliability of the supplier.
If it is not possible, it is better to appoint a good QC company for the background check of the company. These companies have a complete team, who can visit the company or can check whether it is authentic and reliable to continue further work. They can check all the details and documentation of the company also.
As you are done with the process, you need to select the best from the bunch.
