2021 April

China has a very negative reputation for its local companies freely infringing on the Intellectual Property (“IP”) Rights of the foreign companies that conduct business in China as either buyers or sellers of products.  To a large degree, this negative reputation is deserved based on past practices in the country. China also has a negative...

Definition of Fulfillment- Fulfillment is also known as order fulfillment or product fulfillment, it is a process whereby people or companies fulfill an obligation to send goods to those who have ordered. Fulfillment typically refers to services provided by a company that offers to stock, receive the orders, package, and ship ordered item to customers.  Many fulfillment centers...

From my observation, the IPO (International Purchasing Office) center has been changing to other major cities of China from Hong Kong over the past decades. You’re no doubt outdated if you’re still looking for sourcing partner from Hong Kong. Over a decade ago, I visited HK a lot when I started working in the international...

More and more individuals and companies are involved in international business with easy internet access and transportation nowadays. How does cultural understanding influence your business? International business negotiation is a cross-cultural activity. Adequate cultural understanding brings efficient negotiation results; while bad cultural understanding could easily lead to prejudice and misunderstanding. Cross-cultural problems are always obstacles...

The Chinese word for “crisis” 危机 is often seen as the individual characters for “danger” and “opportunity”. The novel coronavirus has certainly become a crisis for us as International Buyers. The danger that we are experiencing is wide ranging from: China visit cancellations, shipment delays, customer orders cancelled, our businesses completely closed, loss of millions of...

Due to the pandemic, supply chains around the world have been impacted by an unprecedented number of factors that include labor restrictions, national lock downs, factory closures, raw material shortages and changes in consumer buying trends. While the world starts to open back up, businesses will continue to feel the effects of the pandemic due...

So you’ve found a supplier you’d like to work with. What are your next steps? How do you ensure their facility is up to par? What are things to look out for? What does IFA encompass or include? Don’t worry – we will go over the answers to all your questions! Who performs a factory...

What is a quality inspection report? A quality inspection report is the checking and monitoring of the product (while in various stages of production) to review the quality in comparison with the preset conditions and requirements. Who does the quality inspecting do? Depending on the relationship with your vendor, you can often visit the facility...