Blog

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 You’re no doubt outdated if you’re still looking for sourcing partner from Hong Kong.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...

Working with suppliers is an ongoing relationship that needs time, investment and consideration. Since you’ve clicked this article, you might start having concerns within your supply chain. When working with a supplier, it is a partnership so you a lot of planning should go into setting up the contract & expectations. If any steps are...

Your approach to finding a new vendor or supplier should be optimistic and you should be looking forward to partnering with an organization that aligns with your organizational values, product goals and process. While issues will arise, mindset and approach will set that tone for the success of your relationships and business. Start the relationship...

These days, it seems relatively easy to be able to setup, manage, and achieve success with an e-commerce business based on selling products to consumers. There are many “platforms” that allow you to establish an online “storefront” with very little upfront investment, and there are also multiple online wholesale “marketplaces” where you can find many...

A professional associate of mine in the United States recently spent some time online browsing through the “Alibaba.com” website, and he was positively impressed by what he saw. In fact, he was so impressed that he asked me: “Why Do I Need a China-Sourcing Company When I Can Use Alibaba?” His perception after reviewing their website...