Many businesses seek to work with Chinese suppliers, but there are quite a few barriers along the way. In this article, we will list the top 6 difficulties when working with China.
China is a country famous for its centuries-old culture, traditions and complex, unique language. The mentality of the Chinese is very different from the peoples of other countries, including Russia and the CIS countries. Even with modern means of communication - instant messengers with built-in translators from Chinese to English or Russian, without knowledge of the mentality of the Chinese and the peculiarities of the Chinese language, foreigners experience a language barrier, which leads to misunderstandings of the terms of cooperation and production details. This can ultimately lead to errors and unpleasant consequences at the final stage of cooperation. For example: the wrong size, material, color, quantity, packaging of products. To avoid troubles, a third independent party is required that will clearly understand both the customer's side and the factory's side so that the entire cooperation process goes without misunderstandings. This is the function performed by the specialists of our company.
China is rightfully considered a world factory. Chinese companies produce products for the whole world. Since the requirements for quality, packaging, and materials for each market can be radically different, factories in the "Celestial Empire" do not produce products in stock. Most medium and small factories work only on order. It is for this reason that only part of the products are presented in the catalogs, and there are no price lists at all. Each order is calculated individually and factories make different markups. We approach each request individually and select the most favorable price-quality ratio. We also already have proven factories that provide stable quality and give discounts for the volume of orders.
China is a country of diversity, both the highest quality goods and "consumer goods" can be produced here. It all depends on your preferences and what market the manufacturing companies are focused on. Large well-known brands have very developed quality control departments, but at the same time the prices of these companies' goods are high and these goods will be in demand only in certain markets. Inexpensive goods produced in lesser-known local factories may not pass quality control at all. That is why additional inspections by independent specialists are required. Our company always carries out quality control at the final stage of production, which eliminates possible defects, as well as negligence of factories during production. Knowing that there will be an inspection before shipping, manufacturers work more carefully.
As a rule, the Chinese, when planning production, calculate the minimum terms in order to have the maximum competitive advantage. But, in fact, in most cases, the actual terms do not correspond to the promised ones. Our company often faces this and we try to adjust the terms, based on our experience and give our partners more realistic terms. In addition, in the absence of proper control and legal force of the contract (a local Chinese contract has greater legal weight than an international contract), a Chinese manufacturer can increase the production period in favor of other orders, this is eliminated by a more competent contract and constant control of production terms on our part.
In any foreign economic activity with China, it is always important not only to produce the goods, but also to deliver them. The final cost of the goods depends on the choice of the delivery method, the correct choice of the HS code, filling out the documents, correct labeling - all this determines the final cost of the goods. We always offer a white delivery scheme as a priority, since this type has minimal chances of losing the cargo, minimal discrepancy in the cost of planned and actual logistics costs. Our specialists will competently prepare documents for customs clearance and even in the case of the Customs Customs Union, we already have extensive experience in proving the Customs value of the goods we export.
If you have been purchasing goods from China for a long time and you work stably with a number of different factories, then when purchasing a complex product, cooperation with a trading company has a number of advantages: 1) consolidation of goods in one delivery - will reduce logistics costs 2) one contact with one counterparty - will centralize responsibility for the execution of the purchase 3) payment to one supplier, not many factories - reduce costs when paying for a contract 4) one invoice - one customs clearance.
