Sourcing and buying from China involve making various plans and decisions, and one of the best choices you can make is to visit one of the huge China trade fairs, which is fit for your business region and your products.
Visit a trade show which can help you meet a wide range of suppliers as many as possible, discussing requirements face-to-face and building the beginnings of a successful business relationship.
For business starters with little experience, some might just come to China with empty hands. This is not a good way to attend trade fairs. So what exactly is necessary to prepare before coming.
Here we list 7 steps.
1. Get Visa and Register in Advance to Attend China Trade Fairs
Visiting China trade fairs is busy and tiring. The first step, do yourself a favor to get China Visa from your local China Embassy and register online in advance. All large scale trading fairs have their own official websites for register and buyer badges.
For instance, online registration for the Canton Fair is free, but registering in person at the fair can cost up to 300 RMB per person and also takes an hr for badges queue. Anything is not clear on Visa and register, contact us freely, and we will help u to get visa and registration at free cost!
It’s hot, busy, and you need to get there and seek out potential suppliers, so being prepared will save you some stress.
2. Hotels Booking and Fairs Traffic During The China Trade Fairs
A good hotel in an unfamiliar place is necessary for new visitors. It not only ensures the security of your belongings but also brings you with cozy night and helps you get vigorous and well prepared for the day time work. You can start booking a hotel before you really set off. It would be better than the hotel is close to the fair complex. All Hotels up to 3 stars hotels are safe and comfortable, you can check the traffic details from fairs website and download maps around.
If you need a hotel reservation service in China, please feel free to contact us. AsianDavinci has business cooperation with all levels of hotels, and we can book hotels according to your requirements and get you negotiated the price at a better rate.
3. Decide What kind of Products You’re Sourcing When Attending China Trade Fairs
Not every importer visiting trade fairs in China will have product design in mind that they need to find an ODM manufacturer for their products. Maybe you’re looking for an OEM factory that has products ready for you to rebrand and sell to your market. Before finding the proper manufacturer, it would be better to do some research for some basic info on your interested suppliers and make a rough meeting schedule with them in their fair booths, and prepare some necessary questions to talk more.
Even if you’re attending china trade fairs to source products rather than manufacturers, and if you haven’t made a final decision yet, you should at least be aware of some sourcing notes on a few product types from your schedule.
Your prior research, which can be helped by visiting websites like Alibaba and Global Sources, also helps you gain an idea of the market price so you can see whether quotations you gain later from Fair on are reasonable.
4. Plan Your Day/s at The Fair
The fair online websites always provide a map which you can download in advance. This is a good idea because you can locate your current suppliers and those that you want to meet and make a route plan.
You should take time to meet the big names in your schedule priority, getting to know market trends, and comparing products, prices, and services. You can also research online in advance to see who is new, innovative, and long-standing, and try to see these companies as well, as they may be worth getting to know. When finishing with those, you can explore the rest of the fair in a more leisurely way.
5. Collect as Much Information as Possible
Your goal at the trade fair should be collecting business cards, brochures, and any other literature that helps you make a decision. In addition, you also need to question potential suppliers to make sure that they’re right for you.
You can use post-it’s to write your own notes during sales consultations and stick them to brochures. Information such as prices will be useful to come back to later (and in the case of prices may not be the same as you receive in a subsequent quotation email!). You can take a small backpack or even wheeled case to store all of these paper resources, and don’t forget to pack a plentiful supply of your own business cards, too.
Useful Tip 1 – Use a smartphone or tablet to take pictures of business cards so you have a digital backup. You can even send a follow-up email to sales reps that you’ve met live from the fair.
Useful Tip 2 – Many Chinese sales reps’ cards have WeChat QR codes on them, so scan the code and add them on WeChat for immediate connection. This will be an invaluable tool for non-official communication with suppliers and is China’s main messaging app (WhatsApp and others are blocked by the Great firewalls, and need VPN to access, which not very stable to use)
6. Prepare Your Questions
After you know what product types you are targeting and have a good idea about the suppliers that you want to visit, you also need to plan the kinds of questions to ask in advance too. Many importers have them saved on their tablet, or even written down as a list in a notebook.
The most important questions are like:
Pricing – What is the MOQ and unit price? Is there a sample and tooling cost? Write down the answers to your negotiations and questions in your supplier lists, because these will need to be rechecked against any follow-up proposal that you receive later. Don’t be surprised if sales reps ‘forget’ the price discussed at the fair and go for a higher price later on.
Packing –What kind of supplier packings are provided and how do they influence the final price? Can the supplier provide a different type of packing method as you required?
Shipping – What is the estimated delivery time? How are goods typically shipped and from where? Can I ship through my own shipping forwarder?
Payment terms – The ‘standard’ payment term is 30% advanced payment and 70% after shipment against docs. This should be agreed upon and confirmed as early as possible. Anything is not like this, later on, it should be rejected.
For some more detailed questions to ask, try this list :
Where is the factory and can you go to visit (this week while you’re in the country)?
Will the person that you’re speaking with at the show be in the factory when you go to visit (so you don’t have to repeat everything you’ve gone through today)?
Do they have business documents including correct export documentation that they’ll let you see?
Will they allow third-party QC agents to do Inspections?
Can they give you referrals? Will they sign (and keep) NDA’s, NNN’s, and other agreements?
Have they exported to your country/region in the world before?
How do they deal with the defective product after u receive the products?
Has the factory been audited, and can you see the report/s?
Does the factory have experience with certifications and regulations for your market?
Can you see their certifications? Have you worked on similar projects before? Proof?
You may not be able to ask all of these questions above to each of potential supplier that you meet, but if you’re able to ask a lot of them and get decent responses, then you will get a good foundation to go away or assess if they’re a good fit for your demand.
Also read on: 5 Things You Shall Know When Attending Chinese Fairs
7. Go to China Trade Fairs
After the above preparations, then wearing comfortable clothes and shoes, taking your passport with visa, buyer badges, notebook, self-paste sticker, tablet, and your business card in a backpack or small luggage, go to fairs and find what you need.
If you follow all our instructions step by step, we believe that you would definitely achieve a fruitful result from the fairs. Should you have any questions or need a buying service, please feel free to contact us. AsianDavinci is always ready to provide you with free consultation and assistance.
Also read: Everything you need to know about freight collect
