Product Sourcing Guide

For any new design companies, design studio or individual designers in the sector of gift or home decor, the first thing would probably be having a killer product idea or at least somewhat innovative or outstanding products to differentiate from the crowd. Now let’s assume that you have already done the design and the market research, you are feeling pretty confident about how your product might do on the market. So the next step is “simply” to make these product ideas and designs into production and turn them into salable products and get them into your home office or warehouse. I would also leave out the part where you need to promote your product and find distributors and retailers… etc, since it’s a totally different chapter from what this current post is about.

The process certainly sounds simple and straight forward; however, the actual tasks need to be performed in order to do everything right is usually not as simple as counting 1-2-3. I will talk about the overall process later on, but to get started on this subject, I would like to point you to the right direction first since that I won’t be able to cover everything in a short time. And you might already have the need to get something produced urgently. If you have the need to urgently find a good supplier, I might be able to help you and give you some suggestion. Please feel free to contact me. You can find my contact in the about page.

Even if you do not know much about other details yet, if you can find a good supplier that’s customer-driven, experienced and willing to help you develop your business, they might also be able to fill you in on many essential subjects about OEM product manufacturing and sourcing. So finding the right supplier is definitely an important first step to successful product sourcing. Simply because your supplier is also your partner in your business, and we can’t stress enough the need of finding a reliable, trustworthy, responsible business partner.

I am glad that I was lucky enough to be in a company that had the culture of building strong customer relationship and satisfaction. Many clients are also very good friends that have been with the company for more than 10 or 20 years and the relationship and cooperation is still going strong. I also had the chance to see some of the undesirable cases through the dealing with transfered clients (new customers which gave up on their previous suppliers and come to us), or factories. It almost amazed me how many suppliers actually do not care enough about their customers, from how they behave and deal with problems you can quickly tell that they don’t really care about how poor quality might effect their customers and the partnership. Perhaps it’s simply because “what you paid is what you get”, you pay cheaply for cheap quality. Price might be the reason in some instance, but I can only said that a good supplier never lower their standard as a mean to be competitive on price. Fortunately, knowing your supplier well beforehand would usually prevent most of the hassles of dealing with the wrong one. I would also give you some pointers as to how to evaluate a good supplier in the future.

Enough on how a supplier is important to the business, we shall begin on learning about what are the suppliers available and how to decide which is the better choice for new designers. This article is meant to be a reference for new designers that just started out and do not know much about product sourcing. For seasoned designers, buyers or importers and alike, you probably have experienced it all and known it all. However, if you have any input or opinions on anything, please feel free to join the discussion to help people new to this area. What I say certainly doesn’t represent the absolute facts or rules about all the things and I am welcome to suggestions, since that as much as I would like to share my experiences, I am also eager to learn from others.

There are several choices of suppliers to go to for new designers. They would generally be manufacturers, trading companies or buying agents. I will introduce about them first and show you how they might be good or bad choices in different circumstances.

Manufacturers

Manufacturers basically are factories who produce products, and many of them also have their own sales team and capability to handle oversea clients. They are usually specialized in a specific manufacturing area and product type, some of them do provide a wider range of products through their own group of factories or affiliated factories. Some of them may also outsource part of the manufacturing process to other specialized suppliers. It is important to know what’s the primary competency of a manufacturer when you are considering cooperate with one. Just like you won’t find a dentist to help you with optical, finding the right manufacturer with the right core competency to produce what you need is nevertheless the key to get satisfactory results. The sales department in manufacturers actually has similar role as a trading company. They are responsible for your satisfaction and need to ensure that their production team work together to fulfill your needs.

It is important to know the manufacturer well before you start working with them on your products. Word-of-Mouth might be what leads you to them in the first place, and you are probably less risky to deal with them if someone dealt with them previously actually recommends them to you. If it is a completely new manufacturer that you just meet, for example, on a trade show or picked up from a business directory… etc. Then I have to say that visit the factory is usually very important, but I understand that it might not usually be feasible for you to visit all of them let alone any of them when you just got started. Despite whether a visit is feasible for you, the main idea here I am trying to convey is that you should do your homework first, try to find out as much information about the manufacturer. For example, you can ask for several existing customer referral contacts, or product samples… etc. Existing Customer Referral is a good place to start since that if you are able to check with their existing customers, you are most likely to find out the truth about them and whether they are doing a satisfactory job with their existing customers.

Manufacturers come in various sizes and quality, find one that suits you can a headache. They might look all very similar and all present themselves very nicely especially with the help of the Internet, even a tiny and incapable factory can look stunning with the help of a well structured website. So know them by the facts is important! as you want to know whether they are capable of serving you sooner than later.

Given all the choices, you have to know that not only you choose manufacturers, manufacturers also choose their clients. A big problem faced by many new designers are the problem of MOQ (minimum order quantity). If you can buy enough volume from them, they simply won’t talk to you any further. So you need to remember that manufacturers also have the choice of whether they want to work with you or not. But knowing what you need is a good place to start. Then you can filter out most of what’s not suitable first.

… to be continued on Part 2.