When starting a business relationship, particularly when you do it remotely, you cannot completely trust what your supplier tells you. Many suppliers and factories, to close orders, may exaggerate their production capacities, their lines of business, or their expertise in the production of certain products.
It is common that the suppliers we meet online tend to say that they are direct factories or manufacturing companies. They display on their websites photographs of their production lines and warehouses when, in fact, they are trading companies reselling the products of the real manufacturers. Think about it, when you look for a product on a platform such as Alibaba, you will notice that several companies will always use the same pictures.
Now, buying through an intermediary (trading company) is not a bad thing. Sometimes it is convenient to buy through an intermediary since they consolidate several purchase orders from different clients and with a higher volume, they can negotiate and get prices that we as a single customer with a low volume would not be able to obtain directly from the factory. But we will leave that for another post.
During the supplier inspections (factory audits) we verify the information on the legal status of your supplier as a company in China. We visit their facilities, review their documentation, certifications, and their production line so that you have the certainty that your supplier can manufacture your order.
If you are looking for a supplier for a long and successful business relationship it is essential to make an inspection before working together, by doing this, you will avoid surprises and unexpected situations that otherwise will be difficult and costly to take actions to change them. Contact us for more information.
