My Chinese Manufacturer
I found the manufacturer for my company’s product through the very popular business-to-business website http://www.alibaba.com/
Alibaba has won the, “Top Website for Entrepreneurs” award given by Entrepreneur magazine, it was the most popular B2B website by readers of the Far Easter Economic Review, a financial magazine published by Down Jones in Asia, and www.alexa.com ranked Alibaba as the worlds most popular site in the categories of Import-Export and International Business and Trade. If you go to google and type in practically any product name, along with the word, “manufacturer,” you’ll probably get results from Alibaba.
I actually recently watched a documentary that I found On Demand about the man that started this website. He seemed very down to earth despite being one of the richest individuals in all of China. Interestingly enough he is now developing a website that will compete with eBay. Despite my belief that eBay is undoubtedly one of the greatest businesses in the world, with great marketers (I love their, “Whatever IT is” campaign) they better watch out for this guy.
Anyways, I found my manufacturer without actually being a member of Alibaba. I was simply reviewing the hundreds of different products and companies that matched my search. One company stuck out to me, so I contacted them via email and asked if I could get some samples.
They responded within a day or two in broken English and assured me that they could make me whatever samples I needed, I just needed to tell them what materials I wanted to use for each part of my slipper and what design I wanted. I am not a shoe expert so I was a little disappointed that they couldn’t help me out more with design and so forth, but I figured it couldn’t be too hard to pick out some materials. So that’s what I did.
I ended up ordering 10 samples for a price of $400. I was told that when it comes to ordering samples from a manufacturer you shouldn’t be paying, but I figured that if I were a manufacturer I wouldn’t want to be making free samples all the time, so I paid the money and sat back and waited.
The first 10 samples were quite a disappointment. It seemed like they didn’t follow my directions at all. I was down $400 and only semi-pleased with one of the ten pairs. So I sent them a rather harsh email specifically detailing all of the mistakes they made, I gave them more thorough instructions on how to improve what they sent me, and I also assured them that I believed their company was capable of producing the product that I was looking for, but that it was going to take some more work.
They immediately responded and said they would fix the problems. To make a long story short, this process has continued for a couple months now. They’ve sent me 4 (I think) shipments in total; each shipment getting closer and closer to the product I had envisioned.
So after the first shipment things have progressed very nicely, and I am very pleased. I am now about to approve the final version and make my first major order. It is important to note that they have not charged me for any of the samples I’ve ordered after the first shipment. Moreover, the company that I am working with always responds to my emails within a day (we correspond solely via email), and I feel that their customer service is far superior to any that I would be receiving from an American company.
I think the major lessons learned here are that 1) you can’t expect a foreign manufacturer to get things perfect the first couple of times, assuming they are producing a new product, 2) unless you specify, they will use a low quality version of what you order (this is specifically the case in China since many Americans go there for cheap products), 3) be as specific as possible in giving directions (even if you think something is obvious, include it in the directions; this is primarily a requirement because your intention will often seem obvious from the perspective of an American citizen, but you must remember that their culture is very different from ours), 4) dealing with the language barrier is often difficult but it’s certainly worth it because of the significantly cheaper prices of foreign manufacturers, 5) you will be able to negotiate their price down so long as you are offering a fair deal, 6) be careful using a foreign manufacturer if you are trying to achieve an extremely high quality/high value product, and 7) don’t be afraid to start doing business with someone you’ve never met and know nothing about.
Chinese Manufacturing
Chinese Manufacturer
B2B
Alibaba
Entrepreneurship
Alibaba has won the, “Top Website for Entrepreneurs” award given by Entrepreneur magazine, it was the most popular B2B website by readers of the Far Easter Economic Review, a financial magazine published by Down Jones in Asia, and www.alexa.com ranked Alibaba as the worlds most popular site in the categories of Import-Export and International Business and Trade. If you go to google and type in practically any product name, along with the word, “manufacturer,” you’ll probably get results from Alibaba.
I actually recently watched a documentary that I found On Demand about the man that started this website. He seemed very down to earth despite being one of the richest individuals in all of China. Interestingly enough he is now developing a website that will compete with eBay. Despite my belief that eBay is undoubtedly one of the greatest businesses in the world, with great marketers (I love their, “Whatever IT is” campaign) they better watch out for this guy.
Anyways, I found my manufacturer without actually being a member of Alibaba. I was simply reviewing the hundreds of different products and companies that matched my search. One company stuck out to me, so I contacted them via email and asked if I could get some samples.
They responded within a day or two in broken English and assured me that they could make me whatever samples I needed, I just needed to tell them what materials I wanted to use for each part of my slipper and what design I wanted. I am not a shoe expert so I was a little disappointed that they couldn’t help me out more with design and so forth, but I figured it couldn’t be too hard to pick out some materials. So that’s what I did.
I ended up ordering 10 samples for a price of $400. I was told that when it comes to ordering samples from a manufacturer you shouldn’t be paying, but I figured that if I were a manufacturer I wouldn’t want to be making free samples all the time, so I paid the money and sat back and waited.
The first 10 samples were quite a disappointment. It seemed like they didn’t follow my directions at all. I was down $400 and only semi-pleased with one of the ten pairs. So I sent them a rather harsh email specifically detailing all of the mistakes they made, I gave them more thorough instructions on how to improve what they sent me, and I also assured them that I believed their company was capable of producing the product that I was looking for, but that it was going to take some more work.
They immediately responded and said they would fix the problems. To make a long story short, this process has continued for a couple months now. They’ve sent me 4 (I think) shipments in total; each shipment getting closer and closer to the product I had envisioned.
So after the first shipment things have progressed very nicely, and I am very pleased. I am now about to approve the final version and make my first major order. It is important to note that they have not charged me for any of the samples I’ve ordered after the first shipment. Moreover, the company that I am working with always responds to my emails within a day (we correspond solely via email), and I feel that their customer service is far superior to any that I would be receiving from an American company.
I think the major lessons learned here are that 1) you can’t expect a foreign manufacturer to get things perfect the first couple of times, assuming they are producing a new product, 2) unless you specify, they will use a low quality version of what you order (this is specifically the case in China since many Americans go there for cheap products), 3) be as specific as possible in giving directions (even if you think something is obvious, include it in the directions; this is primarily a requirement because your intention will often seem obvious from the perspective of an American citizen, but you must remember that their culture is very different from ours), 4) dealing with the language barrier is often difficult but it’s certainly worth it because of the significantly cheaper prices of foreign manufacturers, 5) you will be able to negotiate their price down so long as you are offering a fair deal, 6) be careful using a foreign manufacturer if you are trying to achieve an extremely high quality/high value product, and 7) don’t be afraid to start doing business with someone you’ve never met and know nothing about.
Chinese Manufacturing
Chinese Manufacturer
B2B
Alibaba
Entrepreneurship
posted by Greg Runco at 12:45 AM
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