China is one of the most talked about topic in the American business circles. It is the buzz word among small entrepreneurs and large corporate and they have a reason for that. The 21st century saw the rise of China as an undisputed king of low-cost industrialization. It has intelligently and strategically utilized its human and natural resources to achieve absolute competitive advantage and dump its products across the globe. Initially, many Chinese products were discredited as cheap low quality. However, with more technological progress and skilled labor, even giants such as Apple look up to China for low-cost productions. This has allowed converting competitive threats into strategical partnerships.
The successful American-Chinese business strategic alliances paved way for small-scale entrepreneurs to tap the opportunity. Online platforms such as Amazon offered to sell space and logistical facilitation with facilities such as FBA, while online platforms made it easy to look for suppliers in China that could make and deliver low-cost products for sale at higher profits in America. While a huge number of sellers jumped on the bandwagon, many of them failed because they failed to save themselves from the potholes on the route.
Dealing with Chinese suppliers is not easy and one can easily get conned by a supplier that seemed genuine online. Besides that, there are a number of other ground issues such as language barriers and failure to understand FBA regulations that make matters difficult for sellers. Most successful sellers avoid any direct routes and involve a sourcing company to handle the matters. There are a number of ways how sourcing company can help you.
Finding a Supplier
It is true that Alibaba looks magical. You can simply log in, set your filters and find a list of suppliers. Unfortunately, things are not as simple as they look. Alibaba is in essence, an electronic B2B middleman and does little to filter out con artists and scammers. Anyone who knows how to use the internet and has an access, can make an account and enlist himself as a supplier. It is very difficult for newcomers to future out if the supplier is genuine or a professional scammer unless you pay a third party auditing company to make verification on your behalf. A sourcing company can take this burden off you by helping you find the right supplier. If you are looking for a supplier in China, you can easily get free sourcing now.
Inventory Management and Quality Control
Even if you somehow become successful in finding the right supplier, it will be difficult for you to monitor and manage inventory and inspect it for quality before you send it to an FBA facility. FBA has its own complex prepping rules and Chinese suppliers seldom understand those rules. Moreover, you cannot have the goods inspected before dispatch from a remote location. Fortunately, sourcing companies can not only help you handle or inventory management, prepping and logistical support, but can also facilitate you by inspecting goods on your behalf.
