Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Buying LED Bulb Lights from Chinese Manufacturers: A Complete Guide



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LED lighting China

Planning to import LED Bulb Lights from China? Keep reading, and learn more about buying Private label LED bulbs, assessing suppliers and technical specifications. In addition, we also explain what you need to know about mandatory product regulations, documents and labeling requirements – and, why ensuring compliance in the LED bulb industry can be really challenging for small buyers.

Buying ODM (Private Label) or OEM (Custom) LED Bulb Lights

Most LED Bulb light manufacturers can offer a range of ODM products. These products are, to a varying degree, made according to a fixed product specification. Buying ODM products is often sufficient, especially for small buyers. That being said, the supplier still expects you to request a draft of their ODM specification. For LED bulb lights, this includes the following:
  • Bill of Materials
  • Circuit Drawings
Even though ODM products are supposed to be made according to a fixed set of specifications (i.e., made using the same components on each batch), this is not really the case in China. ODM Bulb Lights can be customised to a certain degree, and this is even expected, by the supplier.

Buying OEM LED Bulb lights is also an option. However, this requires that you have the technical expertise to create a Circuit diagram (fairly simple for an LED bulb, if you have the training) and list all components.

What differs LED suppliers?

LED bulb light manufacturers are assembly suppliers. As such, they procure virtually all components from subcontractors in, and outside, of Mainland China, only to assemble, test and pack the produce. While this is a major challenged that should not be underestimated, it does come with implications in your business:
a. Product quality depends on the components the supplier procures. In turn, this depends on your product specification (i.e., they buy the components they are instructed to purchase).
b. Equally, the pricing is based on the components you choose, not the supplier (even though there are exceptions).
Instead, what makes, or breaks, a supplier is the following:
1. Product Compliance: Is the supplier experienced in manufacturing LED bulb lights according to EU and US product standards? (i.e., FCC Part 15,UL 8750 and Low Voltage Directive).
2. Quality Management System: Is the supplier ISO 9001 certified? If yes, do they really apply the principles in their day to day operations?
3. Social Compliance: Has the supplier passed any social compliance audits (i.e., SA 8000), or are they part of any CSR organisations?
4. Subcontractors: Which subcontractors do they work with? Can they supply the components you need?

Product Specifications

Even if you intend to buy an ODM product, you should not count on the supplier to provide you with a ready-made spec sheet. To be sure that you don’t leave gaps in your spec sheet, you must request the supplier to confirm as many relevant specifications as possible. Below follows an example for what an E14 LED bulb light specification might look like:
  • Lamp Luminous Flux (lm): 560
  • Color Temperature (CCT): Cool White
  • Lamp Body Material: Aluminum
  • LED Chip: Epistar (Taiwan)
  • Input Voltage: AC85-265V
  • Lamp Luminous Efficiency: 80 lm/w
  • Working Temperature: -20 – 50 ℃
  • CRI: 80%
  • Dimension(cm): D6*H13.8cm
  • Net Weight: 120 g
  • CRI (Ra>): 80
  • Working Lifetime: 50,000 hours
  • Base Type: E14
  • Work Frequency: 50-60Hz
  • CCT: 2700-6500k
  • Certification: Low Voltage Directive, EMC Directive, RoHS
While all specifications are not explained in this article, some to need additional exposition:

LED Chip

The LED chip is the core component in the bulb light. There are various brands in usage. While some suppliers allow the customer to choose between a range of manufacturers, most are exclusively using Epistar (Taiwan) for their export produce. Other famous LED manufacturers are Cree (USA), Osram (Germany) and LG (South Korea).

Working Lifetime & Warranty

LED bulb lights may have a working lifetime anywhere between 5,000 to 30,000 hours (or even more). That translates into years of daily usage. Some suppliers also claim to offer a warranty, based on the working lifetime. While this is a good sign, there’s no universal definition of what a warranty is. In general, this warranty is not much more than a vague promise of a future replacement of defective units.


Input Voltage & Frequency

Different countries have different standards for electricity distribution. While most Chinese manufacturers can deliver products that are compatible with the voltage and frequency of any country, you should specify in which you plan to sell your product. Below is a list of countries and markets, and their respective electrical standard:
  • United States: 120 V, 60 Hz
  • European Union: 230 V, 50 Hz
  • Canada: 120 V, 60 Hz
  • Australia: 230 V, 50 Hz
  • New Zealand: 230 V, 50 Hz
  • Nigeria: 240 V, 50 Hz
  • Russia: 220 V, 50 Hz
  • Japan: 100 V, 50 & 60 Hz

Base Type

Most LED bulb lights are made with standard light bulb base connections (i.e. the Edison screw base). Click here for an overview of common base types.

Product Regulations, Document Requirements and Labelling Requirements

Like other electronic products, LED bulb lights are regulated by various safety and technical standards. In short, electrical product compliance is based on three legs:
  1. Technical Compliance: Adherence to specific technical standards (i.e., IEC and UL standards)
  2. Documentation: Test Reports, Circuit Diagrams and other Product Documentation
  3. Labelling Requirements: Compliance marks and other labels (that may or may not apply specifically to LED bulb lights and other electronics)
Ensuring compliance is the responsibility of the importer, not the manufacturer. This is also the most complex aspect of buying LED bulb lights from China. Let me explain why:

a. Not every LED bulb light manufacturer has the expertise and experience required to ensure compliance with overseas product standards. As such, this is a critical qualification requirement. If you choose a supplier without a previous compliance track record, chances are they cannot manufacture compliant products. Hence, you’d end up importing illegal products. As explained in this article, non-compliant LED lighting is a serious problem.

b. Ensuring compliance requires more than just obtaining a test report. For example, when importing LED lighting to the EU, buyers need to create a technical file. This technical file is a set of documents, which must include both the circuit diagram and the component list. Sounds simple?

Well, there’s a catch. Many suppliers simply refuse to provide such documents before an order is placed… which in turn expose you to serious risk, as you cannot assess whether they can provide compliant goods, until after you’ve paid them. This is not an issue if you own the factory, but it does become complex when buying from China.

Established buyers can solve this problem by creating their own documentation – either by reverse engineering an ODM product or developing their own OEM product. However, small buyers who lack the resources and expertise to do this are stuck in between. There are ways to solve this, and we are working on methods to regulate this procedure.

Ensuring compliance with labeling requirements is, luckily, not nearly as complicated. Basically, it’s just a matter of knowing how the product shall be labelled. Below follows a checklist:
  • Compliance Marks: CE Mark, FCC Mark, Energy Star, UL Mark
  • Seller Identification
  • Technical Specifications: Power, Base Type
  • User Instructions
  • Warning Labels
  • Country of Origin: Made in China
An unfortunate fact is that many importers, especially smaller sized businesses, decide to not even bother with these things. They tend to motivate their decision using any of the following argument:
  1. This is the supplier’s responsibility, not ours.
  2. Our competition doesn’t really care either, why should we?
  3. It’s too expensive and time-consuming.
Remember, if anyone is injured, or if the property is damaged, by your products – you will be held liable. Placing cheap and substandard products on the market is not only extremely dangerous to your customers, but also your future finances. Mandatory safety standards have been put in place for good reasons.

Relevant Trade Fairs in China

Hong Kong International Lighting Fair (HKTDC)

Relevant Products

  • LED Bulb Lights
  • LED Tubes
  • LED Stripes
  • LED Flood Lights
  • LED Automobile Lighting
  • Lighting Fixtures & Fittings

Canton Fair (Phase 1)

  • Location: Guangzhou, Guangdong
  • Website: Click here

Relevant Products

  • Security Lighting
  • Industry Lighting
  • Decorative Lighting
  • Outdoor Lighting
  • Exhibition Lighting

Guangzhou International Lighting Exhibition

  • Location: Guangzhou, Guangdong
  • Website: Click here

Relevant Products

  • LED Chips and other components
  • LED drivers and controllers
  • LED displays and signs
  • Decorative lighting
  • Professional lights
  • Technical lighting
 

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Monday, March 21, 2016

Electronic Products Quality Control in China: By Renaud Anjoran

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Renaud Anjoran

Renaud Anjoran is a leading quality assurance expert, based in Shenzhen. Renaud, a regular contributor to the ChinaImportal Knowledge Base, is the co-founder of two companies; Sofeast Ltd – a leading quality inspection agency, and China Manufacturing Consultants (CMC) – a company specialized in improving internal manufacturing and quality assurance procedures from top to bottom. In this article, he explains what you must know about Electronic product quality control when buying from China. Keep reading, and learn more about common quality issues, and how these can be prevented.

Based on your experience, what are the most common quality issues, that Buyers of Electronic products must be aware of?

There are a number of aspects that come to mind when it comes to quality issues with electronic products, maybe the most common being poor workmanship. The effect of poor workmanship could be a premature product failure, intermittent faults with the functionality of the product, decreased performance levels, and even making the product dangerous for users to use (with the potential of electrical shock).

There are different causes for poor workmanship, one of which could be a result of pressure to deliver the goods to a deadline set by the buyer. In that case, the factory would rush the order through consequently making mistakes during production.

Another common quality issue to look out for would be the use of substandard components, which is generally a result of the factory trying to reduce its costs in order to increase profits, all of which is carried out behind the buyer’s back.

Other elements to take into consideration would be:
  • Poor or inadequate design
  • Material quality issues, substandard quality, sub-contracted production, cheaper second-grade components
  • Lack of manufacturing specification
  • Poor product specification
  • Lack of understanding of safety regulations
  • Fake certification
  • Lack of full functionality

What do you think are the main causes of these quality issues?

The main cause of quality issues is the fact that the buyer does not work with the manufacturer closely enough throughout the new product development process. If there is early engagement with suppliers, they are able to act as the buyer’s manufacturing expert. They would be able to provide input during the design and development stages, thus allowing a product that has been designed for manufacture right from the start, as opposed to designing a product in isolation from any suppliers and then expecting perfect products to be produced from day 1. In reality, this will not happen.
Another key success factor is generating a detailed product specification and technical design file for the supplier to work to. This should include product, component and material specifications, technical drawings and instructions, as well as all the test procedures required to test the product either during manufacture or as a final test before shipping.

What sort of tests and quality checks are essential in Electronics manufacturing?

There are a number of key tests that should be carried out on electronic products. They include functionality checks, reliability testing, safety tests and verification (certification may be required depending upon the product and the country that product will be sold in).

a. Functional checks: it is essential that the product manufactured meets the product specification in order to satisfy the customer’s expectations. The functional checks should be carried out against the product specification document.

b. Reliability testing: this is generally carried out on random samples taken from the production line and subjected to various tests. A common method of testing electronic products is HASS (Highly Accelerated Stress Screening). HASS is implemented at the production stage – production samples are subjected to stress testing beyond the product specification limits.

Early product failures on a new product are often attributed to variability within a manufacturing process. Therefore, identifying these potential production failure modes as early as possible is paramount to the success of a product launch and this is where HASS comes into play.

c. Safety Tests and Certification: different countries have different regulations that must be met in order to sell a product within that country. For most consumer electronic products there would be a minimum requirement from a safety testing point of view. A few examples of the other regulations you should consider are:UL Certification for the US market – Product Safety Testing.
  • UL Certification for the US market – Product Safety Testing.
  • FCC for the US market – All commercial electronic devices (unintentional radio-frequency radiators) are regulated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). This includes almost every product that contains a microprocessor.
  • CE Mark for the European Union – The CE-marking is the manufacturer’s statement that his product complies with all relevant CE-marking directives. (And make sure not to put this mark on products to which it does not apply.)
  • C-Tick for Australia – The Australian Communications Authority introduced an EMC protection framework requiring EMC compliance for electronic products.


Should Buyers draft Quality Inspection protocols on their own, or rely on their Inspection partner to do so for them?

It depends on the level of technical knowledge and experience the buyer has. If they have completed a number of product development projects in the past and have experience in drafting out their QC protocols then that would be fine. However, many buyers do not have that depth of knowledge.
In this case, it would be best to work in conjunction with their inspection partner in order to get the correct level of detail into a QC inspection plan. We touched on this in a previous article.

What sort of product information must the Buyer provide to the Inspection company?

I explain the basics below.
  • Product functionality (I assume there is a user manual that can be used by the inspector on a few samples, but what are the few critical functions beyond on/off that need to be checked on many samples?)
  • Safety issues – a quality assurance agency should know this, but you should already have researched it and communicated it to the supplier so you might as well let inspectors know about it.
  • Product appearance (e.g. color, how the components need to fit together…)
  • Labeling on the product and on its packing (including barcodes, shipping marks…)
  • Unit packing (artwork if any, type of material…), inner packing, export packing.

What kind of equipment is needed to carry out the inspection?

I will have to go with the “it depends” answer here. A few basics such as a hi-pot tester (which allows checking if there is current leakage that might hurt the user somewhere on the product) are required in most inspections of electrical products. This type of equipment is usually provided by the factory since it is a bit heavy to carry around. It is shocking that many Chinese manufacturers don’t have the basic safety testing equipment in their premises, but this is the reality here… and it means the buyer needs to confirm what equipment they have in advance.
Let’s take another example. When checking a smartphone, obviously we need the right type of SIM card with a data plan and we are often unable to reproduce the final user’s environment in a Chinese factory. In some cases, the purchaser is better off getting a few samples picked from production during the inspection for performing his own tests.

Is a Pre-Shipment Inspection enough when importing Electronics, or should buyers also consider one or more inspections during production?

I will assume your tolerance to risk and your quality standard are about average compared to European and American importers. I will also assume you import electronics from a new supplier (with whom you have no prior business relationship). Then NO, it is not enough! Let me list a few other services that will get the risk down.

a. Technical process audit (before you issue the order): identifies risks in process controls and quality systems. Suitable for relatively large and professional buyers.

b. Technical quality audit (before you issue the order): identifies risks inquality systems. Suitable for average orders (above 10,000 USD) and most buyers.

c. Inspection before production starts – to check the components before they are embedded in the product. Suitable if there is a substantial risk of cheating on the part of the supplier, or if there is no visibility on who the sub-suppliers are.

d. Inspection during production – before the whole order is finished, try to find issues before it is too late. The problem with a final (pre-production) inspection is that any serious issue means the whole batch needs to be sorted, reworked, and repacked… and this is costly to both sides (in money and in time).

How can Sofeast help importers prevent quality issues when buying Electronics from China?

Since we try to fit the buyer’s needs when it comes to quality assurance, we provide all the services I listed above. With the exception of the technical process audits of EMS (Electronics Manufacturing Services) suppliers, this offer is quite common across all inspection agencies.



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Monday, March 14, 2016

6 Common Mistakes Importers Make With Asian Suppliers

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common-mistakes

Being in between suppliers in Asia and overseas buyers, we often see the same common mistakes made over and over by both sides. While many issues are caused by the vendor side, importers themselves aren’t entirely blameless either. As such, we thought it is about time to clarify what sort of mistakes importers tend to make and how they can be prevented. Keep reading and learn how you can prevent severe quality issues,misunderstandings and delays when buying from Asian manufacturers.

1. Don’t treat your supplier as a price database

Responding to quotation requests from buyers is part of a sales rep’s job. However, calculating production costs take time, and may require multiple subcontractors. If you keep submitting RFQs or changing the specifications, without ever placing an order, the supplier will eventually lose interest and stop talking to you. Don’t treat your suppliers as free researchers, or a price database, and don’t bother them more than what is necessary.

2. Always provide swift feedback and status updates

Buyers are often quick to complain about excessive lead times, long holidays and prototype development spanning several months. However, it’s common that buyers wait several days, or even weeks, to provide basic feedback to the supplier. This may relate to feedback on quotations, quality options or even product samples. While I understand that you may have other things to attend to, this is a major time killer. If not the biggest of all. Always respond to emails within 24 hours, and keep the supplier informed, if you absolutely must go off the grid for a while.

3. Provide overly clear instructions. Not written paragraphs.


There are few things that are more frustrating to an engineer than a product specification that is written like a novel. Yet, it’s common that importers write long, and often vague, paragraphs, describing the product’s design, quality and functions. Below follows an example:
We want a Stainless steel watch case, with IP rose gold plating. The logo shall be printed on the face, in a centered position. The movement must be a high-quality Japanese movement, with three hands. Please see the attached AutoCAD file and logo file. If possible, we’d like to start with 1000 pcs, but please also quote a price for 2000 pcs.

This leaves the sales person interpreting what your product is supposed to be, which is extremely likely to cause misunderstanding, which in turn may result in disastrous quality issues. Instead, a product specification must be on point, and crystal clear. Below follows a more precise take on the paragraph written above:

Please provide a quotation for both 1000 pcs and 2000 pcs, based on the specification below:
  • Case Design File: case-design.dxf
  • Logo File: logo.eps
  • Material: 316L Stainless Steel
  • Coating: IP Rose Gold
  • Logo: Print
  • Logo Position: Centered
PS: Please see the file attachments

4. Don’t be too aggressive in your price negotiations

While price negotiation is part of the game, and even expected, many buyers go way too far in their attempts to cut pricing. There are two problems that stem from overly aggressive price haggling:

a. Contract manufacturers need to make money too

Promises of larger orders in the future is not going to make a supplier accept short-term losses. By pushing your supplier too far, you remove their incentive to work with you, and they may decide that your business is not worth the effort.

b. You’ll always end up getting what you pay for

While a supplier may eventually give into price pressure from their buyers, this comes at a cost for the latter. Forcing a supplier to cut unit pricing may leave them with only one option: To reduce production costs. As explained below, there are several methods the supplier can apply to achieve that:
  • Procure cheap raw materials and components of a lower quality.
  • Procure cheap raw materials and components that are non-compliant with overseas substance restrictions.
  • Cut corners during mass production.
What may be perceived as a victory for the buyer, can therefore quickly result in a total loss. While I don’t say that you should accept any figure the supplier throws at your way, you’re wise to apply the following lessons when negotiating prices:
  • A price is of little relevance if you don’t know which specification it’s based on. As such, you shall not even consider sending out a singleRequest for quotation (RFQ), until you have a complete spec sheet. This holds true even for ODM (Private Label) products, which aren’t based on your own design and specification.
  • Never base your target price on an assumption. Request quotations from at least four to five manufacturers to find out where the market price is.

5. Don’t overreact to minor delays and complications

Don’t get emotional over minor misunderstandings, delays and quality issues. There are so many moving parts, processes and stakeholders in manufacturing, that it’s utterly unpredictable by nature. This is in turn amplified by supply chains that stretch halfway around the world, and with the supplier and buyer in different time zones.

What this means to you, is that you need to be ready for complications, and focus your time energy on solving them, as they come. And, you can be sure that they will come.

Always be pragmatic when dealing with suppliers, and understand that issues are often manufacturing and logistics related, rather than exclusively ‘China-related’.

6. Manufacturers are not service providers

Wondering why your supplier don’t consult you on applicable safety standards and labelling requirements in your market? Expecting creative input on your latest designs? Don’t. Manufacturers only do what they are supposed to do, which usually don’t stretch far beyond assembly and packaging. They are not one-stop-shops, offering an all in one solution for your every need related to procurement. Everything else from compliance and IP consulting, to quality control and freight forwarding – is up to you to arrange.


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Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Buying Bulk Stock Products (Off Shelf) from China

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off shelf bulk products

Planning to buy bulk stock products from wholesalers in China? Depending on your industry, and target market, buying off shelf goods may be a dead end. ‘Make to order’ is the standard mode of operations when outsourcing production to manufacturers in Asia. Manufacturing is a risky and time consuming process, so wouldn’t it just be a lot easier to buy goods that are already available in stock?
The answer is sometimes yes, but mostly, no. Whether or not off-shelf procurement is a viable strategy, depends on various factors, including the type of product, and your market. This, and much more, is explained by Zhu Jing, Co-founder of Jingsourcing.com. But first, I’ll get you updated on the basics.

Part 1: What Importers Must Know About Buying Bulk Products

Manufacturers in China, and most other places in Asia, operate according to a ‘make to order’ principle. This means that the supplier doesn’t keep products in stock. In fact, most suppliers don’t even keep raw materials and components in stock. Instead, they procure the necessary raw materials, from their subcontractors, as it’s needed to produce goods for their own customers. At least, this is how it works for goods made for export markets.

But what about all those online wholesalers and traders, selling bulk stock products? Yes, they exist. However, they are primarily selling goods made or the domestic Chinese market. This is problematic, for the reasons explained below:

1. Off shelf products, made for the domestic market, normally don’t comply with overseas labelling requirements. In the United States, for example, all products must be marked with the Country of Origin (i.e., Made in China). There are other labelling requirements that apply to specific categories. For instance, apparel importers must ensure that care labels, sizes and the fiber descriptions are compliant with local labelling requirements.
2. Products, made for the domestic market, are not made to comply with overseas safety standards. While China has it’s own product compliance marks (i.e., CCC mark) and standards, these are not interchangeable withforeign compliance marks (i.e., FCC and CE) and safety standards.

Part 2: Interview with Jing Zhu of Jingsourcing.com

Zhu Jing

You are working with small buyers worldwide. Are they normally interested in buying custom made products, or ‘off shelf’ goods?

People have different definitions for what a “small business” really is, so I’d like to start out with clarifying what we consider being a small business. Here it comes: We define “Small volume buyers” as a business with a total order value of less than US$2,000. That includes different SKUs. Thus, different products, not just one.
For these buyers, they normally have no other option but to buy, what you now call, bulk products. That’s because customization results in a higher Minimum Order Quantity (MOQ), not only for the product itself, but also for the packaging. There are also tooling costs. If you need your own design for, say, plastic products, you’ll need to invest thousands of dollars in an injection mold.

So, what is the ‘breaking point’ for when you should consider buying ‘newly produced’ goods?

Other small businesses that buy more than just US$2,000 per SKU (not mixed orders), tend to at least procure custom printed packaging, with their company information and artwork. Sometimes, they may also buy custom designed product. These products are “newly” made to order, which is how it usually works.

How common is it that Chinese factories actually keep a stock of products?

In my honest experience, and I am born and raised in the factory landscape in Zhejiang province, factories don’t keep more than goods worth a thousand US dollars. However, say that it’s a really low value product (like $1 per pc), most suppliers will not have 1000 units ($1000 worth of goods) in stock. There are, however, two exceptions to this rule:

1. The supplier may have ‘over produce’ from previous orders. Thus, they may want to sell this to other buyers.
2. There are defect products in stock, that has been refused by previous buyers.
Editor’s note: There are some exceptions, with suppliers that are to a certain degree specialize in offering “off shelf goods”. However, tread carefully, as I certainly agree that the vast majority of off shelf goods belong to the two categories above.

But, aren’t most off shelf products made for the domestic Chinese market?

There are “stock” products, made for both the domestic Chinese market, and overseas markets. Off the shelf products are often daily usage commodities, that aren’t subject to much development. These are products that stay the same. Hence, the produce can in some cases be used for both the domestic market in China, and export.

Are importers in some countries more prone to avoid “Off shelf” products, than others?

Yes, there are trends. For example, Importers from the United States and Europe are more likely to order custom designed products. At the very least, US and EU importers design their own packaging, with their own artwork, logo and company information. It’s also common that they brand the product, even if it’s not their own design. It’s called private labelling, as you might already know. This is the case even for small businesses.

Buyers from Asia, South America and Africa might be a bit less focused on branding. In my experience, mass produced products are mainly exported to developing markets. Maybe because it’s still possible to run a good import business in these countries, selling generic goods, without branding or customisation. But, I think in the years to come, more and more businesses from these emerging markets will realize the benefits of customisation and branding. They will start thinking in the same terms.

Now, take a ‘ready made’ toy for example. Children’s products and other toys are regulated, for example, by CPSIA in the US and EN 71 in the EU. Toys ‘made for China’ are not manufactured according to these regulations. Hence, this makes it practically impossible to buy, for example, off shelf toys from China?

Yes, that is correct. Please let me develop this further. Product safety standards and procedures exist in China, but it’s an area that is still developing, and moving quite fast. It can be hard to keep track sometimes. So, what this means is that toys, for example, are not always reaching the substance and safety requirements in the EU and USA.

I can tell of an example. Inflatable rubber horses. Those that kids like to ride on in the pool. The very same design, ‘newly produced’ for the EU or US market, is 35% more expensive than a unit made for the Chinese market. It’s not that the quality, in terms of what it looks or feels like, is different. The difference is that US and European importers cannot buy products made of materials that is, for example, phthalate free. Or, heavy metals free.

As of now, EU and US safety standards are higher than domestic ones. This is important, because a lot of off shelf products out there are made for the domestic Chinese market.

So, when is it right to buy Off shelf products, and when should buyers consider other options?

Products that are not as strictly regulated, like packaging, gifts, crafts, household goods. These are far “easier options”. Products that are strictly regulated, like electronics and toys are very hard to buy in small volumes. There is a risk that importing these products can result in the shipment being seized by customs in the buyer’s country, if they don’t have the valid compliance documents, like certificates and test reports.

You are the co-founder of Jing Sourcing, based in Yiwu. What can your company do for businesses looking to buy Off the shelf products?

From our office in Yiwu, we help buyers, from the whole world, to source products from both manufacturers and the local market. As some of you may know, Yiwu is famous for its wholesalers and ‘off the shelf’ bulk product traders. As such, we can serve the needs of many types of buyers, including those that are looking to buy for less than US$1,000 per SKU.
However, our methods are of course very different when it comes to products that are more regulated, for example Toys and Electronics. In these cases, we assess the supplier’s capability to ensure compliance with relevant safety standards and regulations. We can also manage other procedures, for example administering samples and compliance testing.





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