Kind regards,
Adam

The reply sections and posts are also a great resource.

I’m trained as a Product Designer, but designed packaging for 15yrs and now find myself living in China, but with an idea that I want to take to market, and finding your post has given me the belief to give it a go!

I hope to keep you posted & hopefully can put back some of the generosity of knowledge that you & others have posted.

Look forward to reading more articles.

Best regards, Matt.

Thanks for the kinds words. For a new product with modest quantity you are going to need to arrange discreet productions that you import in one shot and warehouse local to your customers (i.e. in Australia). There are some sophisticated operations that drop-ship from China directly but this is only practical for small, high-value (and possibly customized) products. You will want to find what is a called a “freight forwarder” to handle your importing, deal with customs and logistics on both ends, etc. This is largely a “black box” process for you. If the terms of your order are “ex-factory” then your forwarder will arrange pick-up from the factory door and take over from there. More frequently the terms of your order will be “FOB China” in which case it is the responsibility (and expense) of your supplier to get the goods to the port (Yantian or Hong Long, for example) where the hand-off takes place.

In terms of initial quantity. For your first run, do as few pieces as you can. This will allow you to shake out any initial problems with minimal exposure. Depending on the size/cost of your item, 2-5k units is probably a reasonable expectation.

Hope this helps!

I’m about to go down this road with a idea for a widget. I am going to do the design (virtual prototyping) locally (I’m in Australia) before going to China to do the chicken feet shuffle with a few factories. Your advice and tips are invaluable and will be put to good use – in fact, I feel like flying you over there to be my consultant/advisor….hmmmm.

Anyway, what I’d like to know is the shipping and stock side of things. Do you manufacture a set amount of products and have it delivered to your local (US) warehouse then ship as ordered? Can the manufacturers arrange shipping direct of your products? Do you have the products delivered to a separate facility in China where they ship direct as orders come in?

Having stock balance so you don’t have too much capital ‘out there’ or not enough so you are telling your customers ‘sorry the item you want won’t be available for 6 weeks’ is an old issue with many management books written about it.

Can you provide your take on how you deal with these issues?

Cheers
Andrew

The short answer I usually give to this question (disclaimer: this is not advice – you have to make this decision based on what you know about your product/market) is that Chinese factories are good at manufacturing things, not selling things. Know what your target market is and ask yourself if (a) the factory you’re going to reveal your idea to really has the capability/desire to compete against you in that market and (b) if you really care (for now) if they put that product in some other market that you probably don’t have access to anyway.

Factories knock off really successful products once they’ve been proven in the market, not new boutique ideas. Furthermore, you probably don’t have an alternative. Generally speaking, if you’re looking to Asia to manufacture then you probably don’t have a business model that supports using US-based firms.

Visit the factory you plan to work with. It will give both parties more comfort and set the tone for establishing a trusted, long-term relationship. Good luck!

Adam

I cam across your article in crunch magazine while researching factories in China. It seems I am in the same position, and age, as you were when you started your company. We have a lot in common as I am also a ME and coincidentally an e36 enthusiast (your blog came up when I googled you), and I was hoping you could provide some insight in regards to choosing a manufacturer in China.

Specifically, how the hell do I keep them from competing against me? The product I want to make already exists, however my design will be used for a different purpose and market (a lot like your alarm clock). Do you think it is worth it to take a risk, and show them my idea? I have sent NDAs but I don’t have much faith in their effectiveness.

I sincerely hope you have a chance to read this and respond.

Thanks for your time.

Best,
Max Neu

Thanks for the guidance on coroflot. This blog has really pushed me into action (have a design in hand) and I’m already looking into suppliers in China. I am just curious what the total costs are in getting a shipment of product over to the US. Besides the FOB price per unit, does the buyer (myself) pay for the ocean freight and the freight from port to my office? Is there a handy website or rule of thumb on the additional cost? In the end, I’m just trying to get a rough estimate of the total cost of making + procuring the product that is ready to sell.

Thanks!

First I wanted to say I love the blog (especially this entire series about China) and find it extremely useful and inspiring.

I was wondering how you went about finding a designer at coroflot, and what was the total cost of doing business with them (posting cost + design cost)? Any insights here would be great.

Thanks!