2 Biggest Mistakes Sellers Make 80 replies,19774 views
Hi Guys,
As a purchasing agent and procurement co-ordinator for Canadian and U.S. companies, I wanted to share some very frustrating issues we as buyers face.
I will primarily discuss dealing with sellers who advertise their services and goods on Alibaba and specifically China.
Here are the issues that will absolutely derail your sale and potential wholesale accounts with some of the larger retailer and wholesalers in North America.
1. Your item price on your listing on Alibaba does not match what you offer after contact.
a. After finding the right product for our clients, the very next thing we look at is price.
If we like your advertised price we initiate contact, expecting a formal quote that is the SAME price and not higher. THIS APPLIES TO SAMPLES AS WELL. If on the quote we all of a sudden see double the price or even 10% higher, I throw the quote to the garbage.
2. You expect an FCL order before the product is evaluated through a sample purchase.
a. We all want to sell quantity. However, you will find it very hard to convince anyone to purchase an FCL before they physically inspect your products. Therefore, you need to be prepared to send out a LOT of samples. Don’t even suggest a Full Container Load to the client before offering samples. Imagine going to a new car dealer which you have never worked with and buying the first car on the lot from a catalog the sales man gives you, without seeing it, test driving it, etc. etc. It will not happen. W
b. Whether you ask for payment for the samples or not is up to you, but in our eyes if you claim to be a manufacturer, we expect that you will have samples on hand. This applies to everything from furniture, electronics, food ANYTHING.
c. Price the samples fairly. Don’t double the price or triple the price if you charge for samples. In North America it is very very common for large manufacturers to send samples at no charge to wholesalers. It is part of their marketing and promotion budget.
If you do offer free samples, make sure you research the company you are sending them to, so you do not waste your money and product to some random person asking for them. Ask for their website, any professional associations they are part of etc. etc. If they do not have any of that charge them regular price for samples.
These two above problems can be solved very easily by sellers. DISCLOSE ALL TERMS ON YOUR LISTING. In your listing details specify your terms. If you have quantity pricing say it; If you do not offer samples, say it; If you don’t take escrow for sample orders, say it; If you charge for crating product (which you should not by the way), say it etc etc.
Guys, what all of the above says, is be truthful from the very beginning, don’t try to sneak extra charges or terms just prior to signing the agreement, expect to send or sell a lot of samples before a big fish shows up.
Till next time,
Jack
Therefore I would like to make some comments in response to some of the issues you have raised.
1.I agree with you to a point, that if suppliers include a price for their products on Alibaba then it should reflect the actual product price. Having said that I personally don’t think they should include a price at all. Reasons being:-
- Any price indication can only reflect the base unit price. Quite often there will be add-ons such as printing, packaging, possibly testing etc
- Different quantities will often dictate different pricing. It is not unusual for a buyer to say they want 10,000 pcs to get the price, then come time to order they only want 1,000 pcs. But of course they still expect the better pricing.
- A good example of a reason not to include a price on any Alibaba listing is an item like a USB flash disk. The price can change within a few days and sometimes even daily, soit is just not a practical option in this case.
You mention that the second thing you look at after finding a product is price. Quite honestly, I see this all the time and I actually think it is a crazy way to look at buying products. It brings to mind the old ‘I want the best quality at the cheapest price”
In other words, if you main criteria is price, and if that infers you are looking for the cheapest price, then you will invariably have problems, especially as it relates to quality. If I was to be completely honest I would say that many buyers from North America like to screw the price lower and lower and lower, then complain when they get shafted with quality.
For me, it should be a matter of getting the balance right between price and quality. You can always find a factory that can supply cheaper, but normally you pay for it in terms of reduced quality of materials, components, workmanship etc. So I think it is better to look at the balance between cost and quality rather than focusing on just price.
2. In relation to the samples, I will even go one step further and suggest that even receiving and testing a sample does not automatically mean that the mass produced product will be of the same standard. Countless times you can receive a sample and find the end product mass produced is not the same quality. At the very least you need to get post production samples, but it is also worth considering to pay an inspection company to look at this issue.
But I also think when you talk about receiving samples you are only looking at that from the perspective of the buyer without taking into consideration what occurs at the factory.
Factories get asked for samples non stop, and quite often buyers are not only asking for free samples but also free courier as well.
Some factories that make popular items do spend enormous amounts on sending samples. Some have got to the point where they have to put some restrictions in place otherwise it ends up costing too much.
When you complain about sample costs etc., do you know why these factories charge for samples, sometimes much more than they are worth. It is because there are people out there who:-
- are not real buyers and just ask for free samples in order to sell them
- buyers may contact numerous suppliers looking for samples. They will only select one
supplier in the end, but that doesn’t deter them from just asking for them. And because
they ask for so many they don’t want to pay all the costs associated with the sample and
courier fee so they expect to get them for nothing.
So although I feel the same frustration as you when a factory requests a ridiculous amount for a sample, you should bear in mind that this problem is mostly the result of buyer actions. So I am sorry, sure complain about the factory, but whoever suggests to the buyer to pull their head in and act in a responsible way, which may make life easier for others???
Finally, yes I agree with you, there is so much deception and lack of what would seem to be professional standards. I go through hassles with suppliers nearly every day for some reason or another.
BUT, you should also consider that some of the traits shown by these suppliers are a direct result of the actions of buyers.
I am afraid I am not one who subscribes to the saying “ the buyer is always right”. I feel that this business requires give and take form both sides and both should work with each other as equals. Unfortunately that just doesn’t happen a lot of the time.
![[em19]](http://img.alibaba.com/images/eng/style/icon/emoticons_great.gif){kind=icon}
Dongguan Xinyi Industry Co., Ltd.
We are one of the leading manufacturers of paper packing products in Guangdong Province of China. Our main products include handicraft boxes, watch boxes, gift boxes, cardboard boxes, printed boxes, office statio...
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It's one thing to charge more for samples. But when asking 10 times the retail price for a single sample like it's happened to me recently, that's when I throw away the proposal.
Yes I agree. Just recently I was asked to pay USD 100.00 for a sample of a product which costs less than USD 2.00, after this particular factory advised I can have it for free. Needless to say I told them where to shove their sample.
My point is that, one of the reasons that some factories ask these unrealistic amounts for samples is because there are so many people just shopping for samples that they feel they need to charge a fee the deter these "shoppers"
Whether it is right or not, well thats not for me to say as we all have the choice to walk away. But it is the result of buyer behaviour.
If buyers were more responsible then maybe suppliers would not feel the need to jack up the price.
Seems it results in a bad outcome for everyone.
the seller should have a process voting the sincerity and credit of the customers.
If good, we don't charge any more than normal products or even totally free.
so, the mutual communication is vital I think.
Can you help us tolocate a company who has recieved money
from us and wont give us the products.
The company has been introduces by Alibaba,but as we fil out the complain form
by Alibaba,it says the company is not Listed
I have all sort of proofs document also some ID pic. from the person in Chian
.Regards
A.Azimi
azimi@update24.com
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