“I want to begin sourcing products from China, but I don’t know where to start. How do I make sure the supplier I decide upon is reputable and won’t leave me high and dry with poor quality products?”

Online B2B marketplaces and directories that connect Western businesses with the East, like Alibaba, are a good place to start. It’s worth conducting due diligence from the comfort of your desk in the UK as “trusted” status on some marketplaces can be “purchased” for the price of a fixed subscription fee, so it isn’t necessarily indicative of the past or future performance of the supplier. To help, Alibaba has a Trade Assurance scheme to protect your order if you’ve paid through Alibaba.com. 

Once you’ve done your initial marketplace research (and perhaps even ordered a few samples), the next step is to reach out to your peer network to see if there are any suppliers they’ve done business with that they would personally recommend.

Unfortunately, many online sellers’ competitive advantages lie in their supplier network, so asking them to divulge their secrets might not land you with the word of mouth recommendations you were hoping for, but it doesn’t hurt to ask. Finally, a trip to the Canton Fair or visiting select manufacturers and warehouses on the ground in China (perhaps those that you originally found on online B2B marketplaces) is the most sure-fire way to establish productive working relationships and build trust on both sides.

Exporting was probably summed up best by Will Butler Adams, CEO of Brompton Bikes. He told us businesses just need to “Get out there, have a laugh, meet some funny people, eat weird food, drink funny whisky. Exporting is a good laugh. It’s a such a no-brainer.”

In short, there are no guaranteed cheap and/or quick ways to find a supplier in China – there are very few shortcuts that don’t result in lots of trial and error for online sellers.