Many customers actually prefer to find the factory direct supply, so they can save a large amount of expenditure, the factory can be the lowest price to the customer, encountered problems, the factory as the production side, the ability to deal with problems and feedback problems are stronger than the trading company.
It is reasonable to say, this eliminates the intermediate link of the trade form should be more popular with buyers, and there is no need to go back to work with the trading company. Then why the trading company will survive so well? Often a trading company with a dozen of staff can receive a large order? What advantages does it have to attract customers to place orders?
Trade process, price is indeed an important selection factor, but not all, many buyers for the price control is only a rough, more important is the company’s development strategy, and even value the cost of time are higher than the price, then, what factors have attracted the trading company buyers?
Summarized, also the following aspects.
1、Various product category
A trading company, will not sell only one factory product but will choose many factories to form a class or more products for sale or even a product it will choose a number of factories a variety of specifications, so that the combination of sales, then it for the buyer customer, there are many choices, will not be limited to a factory a product above.
For example, a foreigner procurement, needs a variety of fabrics, cotton, linen, silk, velvet, chiffon, woven, knitted, etc., but your factory can only provide cotton, he will have to go all the way to find other factories to buy goods, the time spent in the middle, labor costs are more than your extra profit so that the trading company’s prices are not so high as you might think.
If you do not deal with intermediaries trading companies, foreign buyers will have to send their own people to China and are to send enough people to deal with different places and different factories to meet their procurement needs, even to attend the exhibition to find may not be able to find the right products, such a way of operation is far from finding a full range of products to cooperate with the trading company to come true.
2、Fast delivery time and Lower MOQ
The trading company is not an agent of the factory, but an independent company, after the trading company gets the goods from the factory, generally has its own warehouse storage, and then slowly digests the inventory. Generally looking for factory customers are not to buy the goods you have produced, but to produce the products he requires, and the factory is generally waiting for customers to place orders before producing goods, rather than producing goods waiting for customers to buy ready-made.
Some small customers of certain product order will not be too high, but the category will be very mixed, often failing to meet the factory’s minimum requirements, from production to transportation costs are not cost-effective, so there is often a small number of customers can not negotiate, so customers will choose to cooperate with trading companies, after all, trading companies are certainly more than one product sold to customers, often two or three or even a dozen together, the number of less, but more types, they are as good as the customer can buy ready-made. But the variety of more, they can make money as well.
Another is the problem of time costs, many trading companies are looking for cooperation to buy spot, they need to quickly buy the product, rather than waiting for your factory slow production, time for them is money, is the revenue.
3、Buyers buy products and also services
Now we know that the price is not the deciding factor for buyers to place orders, so what else is important to buyers? Service! Yes, buyers prefer their partners are a good service company, communication will be a lot smoother.
Trading companies between customers and factories, their survival code is an important one is a service, excellent trading companies can handle the relationship between factories and customers, factories are a place to survive only the product, the service is not very important, there are many factories should also lose customers because of the service attitude and conflicts.
Trading companies, however, are not the kind of suppliers who only consider the benefits and are not willing to pay more, for example, the factory is to see the order will start production, but if the customer wants to hurry, production can not come to the blind, but the trading company is different, they are often cooperation with customers who need to produce, will let the factory produce part of the goods in advance, and so the customer urgently needs to place an order for goods only need to prepare another part of the goods On the line, only part of the risk transferred to their own body, but to maintain good long-term customers.
Sometimes even if the profit is very small, the trading company will take the customer to find the factory one by one until the customer is satisfied, but the factory is rarely willing to be very patient to receive the customer below the minimum order quantity.
4、Trading company will reduce the risk for customers
We all know that the factory production products, not always very and the customer’s mind, sometimes the quality is not able to meet the customer’s requirements, you need to spend time and labor costs to adjust, even if the adjustment is not always able to achieve the degree of customer satisfaction. At this time, the buyer will face the problem of finding a replacement, which will seriously slow down his trade process.
However, the trading company’s handling is much more flexible, generally, the trading company will not only cooperate with a factory but also cooperate with more factories that have a high degree of selectivity, if there are problems or unsuitable, can completely change a factory, generally a factory what problems will not fatally affect the business of the trading company.
Another point is that the trading company is not an agent of the factory, but can become an agent of the buyer, the buyer to find what kind of products in the Chinese region, what kind of factory, can be done through the trading company, equivalent to an office in China, long-term cooperation is both convenient and labor-saving.
5、Delivery and quantity guarantee
Trading companies are not agents of factories but are independent corporate organizations. After the trading company receives the goods from the factory, it usually has its own warehouse in stock and then slowly digests this stock. If an overseas buyer works directly with a factory, the factory will only start production after reaching an order agreement with the buyer, making it difficult to guarantee delivery dates. If a large number of products are needed but in a very short time, the factory cannot deliver in time.
In addition, some customers’ orders for a certain product are not too high, but the categories are very mixed, which often cannot meet the order requirements of factories, and the costing from production to transportation is not economical, resulting in many factories not willing to accept orders. But foreign trade companies can, even if the number of various goods is small, the variety of more will have a part of the profit margin.
6、Business communication skills more professional
It does not mean that know the product must be a professional business, now the factory also likes to participate in a variety of exhibitions, but also in a variety of websites sales, as if they do not need to do business through the trading company, but in fact, know the product factory is not necessarily good sales.
Communication is a big problem, the factory is not a professional sales staff, there is a big flaw in language communication, many foreigners are not all English, they may also operate a half-baked English and you the half-baked communication, it is more difficult.
And trade companies equipped with talent, not only from the service attitude, or foreign language professionalism, will be far better than the factory staff, foreign trade companies equipped with sales staff, small languages still account for a relatively large proportion of the buyers, to hear their native language, or easier to produce a sense of closeness.
7, Facing the terminal customer manufacturers is not mature
Do not look at the current society B2B website sales are becoming more and more normalized, but manufacturers directly facing the terminal to sell this form is not mature, from the beginning of trade, the middleman has been a constant presence, and is not so easy to be replaced, the concept, the existence of the middleman is also still deep-rooted.
For example, traders in Hong Kong and Taiwan do not have the cost and resource advantages of mainland Chinese factories, but they do very well in trade. Their quick response, strong language ability, strong customer maintenance consciousness, keen market, from the advantages of service to beat many factories.
Conclusion
Therefore, the trading company is superior to the factory in many aspects and has become an irreplaceable role. In the process of international trade transactions, price is indeed an important selection factor, but it is not the whole story.
Many overseas buyers pay more attention to the company’s growth strategy or even pay more attention to the cost of time rather than price. Especially when you have a wide variety of sourcing needs want to buy the lower quantity, or if you are a startup, working with a trading company is the best choice.
A trading company is somewhere between a customer and a factory, and one of their living principles is service. A good trading company can deal with the relationship between factory and customer. A factory is a place where only products are made, not paying enough attention to service. Many factories should also lose customers due to contradictions in service attitudes.
