Situations when you prefer to deal with resellers in China

People always tell you to find the real manufacturers instead of resellers or distributors while importing from China. Well, it could be the opposite way sometimes. Here are some situations you may prefer to deal with resellers instead of manufacturers in China.

1.Your potential supplier cannot speak English while some resellers can

The figure of people who can speak English in China is growing rapidly recent years but we still have to face the reality that a lot of people there cannot speak English at all, especially the slightly older generation who did not have the chance to learn English in school at their younger age. And those people are the owners of factories or employed engineers that you may come across and communicate with while sourcing from China.

The situation is, there are many employees like sales representatives in big companies/factories can speak English well but the product price in big companies is relatively higher. It is understandable consider they have to employ higher educated people with higher wage rate. While small factories have price advantage yet the communication could be an issue when you dealing with them and both parties cannot speak each other’s language.

If you can find resellers that providing the desirable products and they speak reasonable good English, it is not a bad thing purchase from them. You say the price is higher? Well, the price is always negotiable and it’s normally cheaper than hiring a translator or bilingual assistant.

2. You cannot meet The factories minimum order quantity

Of course, you can also choose to work with big factories that have sales representatives speak English. But, it is common big factories/companies have minimum order quantity that you can’t meet or you don’t want to meet. For instance, you are placing a trial order to see how the quality is in mass production, or you just started your small business importing from China and want to see how it goes in practice.

It is very rare that a reseller would have such requirement, even if they do; the minimum quantity would be acceptable.

3.Your potential supplier is hard to deal with

Sometimes the Chinese businessmen can be very difficult to deal with when it comes to “changes”. They are not comfortable with things they less familiar with or have never done before, especially when dealing with a foreign customer in a foreign language. They may refuse to do any changes you asked while probably more willing to try if the requirements are raised by a Chinese reseller.

Some Chinese businessmen are not used to using emails and can be very impatient or inconsistent occasionally.

In comparison, resellers are more likely to be patient and willing to understand your needs, special requirements and help to communicate with factories.

4.Your potential supplier has a narrow range of product

If you prefer to deal with small factories you may find that they have very limited variety in product compare to resellers or big factories. The nature of factories is mass production and it could be very costly when it comes to new tooling and equipment as well as machine maintenance. So if you are providing your clients a wide range of products you may consider working with resellers who have many sources and suppliers which can save you a lot of time and efforts looking for each product’s manufacturer and verify their legitimacy.

5.You want to change supplier while you are facing low stock

You have some issues with the current supplier, maybe the quality is not as good as before/they promised, maybe the factory is too difficult to deal with, maybe you do not like their way operating business, maybe you lost trust because of their dishonesty…anyway, you want to change supplier ASAP, but you are facing low stock! And we both know looking for another supplier and build up a long-term relationship and trust takes time… You might as well work with some resellers at this moment to keep the consistency of your product and business.

6. Your supplier cannot receive payment in a foreign currency/from a foreign company

Before you make a payment to your supplier, you need to make sure they can receive payment from you. Some factory who does not have an export license would not be able to receive a foreign currency bank transfer or, cannot receive payment from a foreign company. And most trading companies can. They can receive USD currency from a foreign company account.

But, all those situations are based on the fact that it doesn’t matter where you getting the products from and the price are acceptable from resellers. You may want to take time looking for a factory to work with directly without any third party involved if it’s below cases.

• If the price from resellers is ridiculously high;
• Resellers are not cooperating;
• You need to customize/redesign products and want to keep the design confidential;
• You want to sign disclose agreement/exclusive agreement with the manufacturer
• …

Last but not least, if you decided to deal with a reseller, you still have to verify their legitimacy. There are many ways to verify a Chinese company; check their registration information which indicates their licensed business range, registered capital and paid-up capital etc. We also provide verification service if you have trouble verifying your potential suppliers. Click here  to direct to our service page.