Anyone traveled to China to buy products?

Headed to China in a couple months to visit family and I plan to do some buying in Yiwu...wonder if anyone here has any helpful tips/advice/stories that can shed some light on the experience. It doesn't matter if you bought in another city, I'm just interested in the process, perhaps things you would do differently, etc. (My Mandarin is at a 2yr old's level, but my wife is fluent, so no need to tell me that people in China don't speak English.) ;-)

Do you start out at 50% less than asking price? Do you have to go through the theatrics of walking away, shaking your head, only to wait for them to chase after you? Just trying to figure out how much psychological energy I'll need to put into it.

Even though lots of people told me to be careful with Chinese, I found them honest and committed. Just make sure that you are buying directly from manufacturer. Because its very difficult to differentiate between manufacturer and suppliers(middle agents). I visited a fair related to my business and it helped me find direct manufacturers and then I came to know that before my visit I always purchased from suppliers.
I don't believe in start bargaining with 50% (unless they are suppliers) because once you ask at least three vendors, you get the idea of best prices.
I went to China last year and did business with three companies. It was great experience.

Just tell them you are going to one of thier competitors and they are 50% of the price.

Yeah, buying products in China is very demoralizing.

i buy products from China using alibaba.com or dhgate.com

I have been to Beijing for holidays and we did buy a fair amount of products. Everything was for own use though. For some products, for example watches, you need to ask for the real good stuff. Not the stuff you see in front of you. Sometimes they ask you to follow them or wait a while and then they come with quality rep watches.

As far as prices go. I am really a pain in the ass with bargaining. I never mention a price, I let them give me their best price. And when they give any price I will act shocked and tell them to not play any games. Just give me your best price. You can even walk away when he give a price 2nd time.

But you should know that some sellers will let you walk away and just wait for the next customer. The same product will be offered multiple times.

But this is just for buying stuff for your own use.

China sellers are very good ones dont let them confuse you by some nice smile or talking or "misunderstanding" stuff.
they love to get turest and drive them crazy and also take ther money.
if you want to buy some stuff in there you need to keep in mind you cannot bileave anyone becide yours self !
search for loyal chinese guy to talk with your name and ask him to translate you every thing up.
use "google voice tool" for iphone or andorid to record the conversation and then Automaticaly translated them to see if some one told you a lie
CHECK THE PRODUCT EVERY WHERE! - if you buy 1000 pc`s of Shirts check one by one
DONT BUY WHOSALE collections! they usually offer you to buy Bunch of "all togther" stuff and they say "we will not able to know the products condition so we sell it cheap by wight"

if you have any more questions so pm me ill help you i was living there since 1993 to 2001 and bought alot of stuff.

Lots of good advice here, I appreciate the feedback. The place I'm visiting, fyi, is here...it looks amazing!

Im in the importing business. I have been to the Canton fair but never the Yiwu one. The fairs are ok but in all honestly it's pretty over whelming.

Your better of working out what it is you want to import when your at home and then going directly to the factory for a visit when you work out who and what it is you want. Visiting the fairs doesn't give you a very good indication of what the capabilities of the company really is.

Bargaining with them can be difficult in my experience, again, your best of getting prices before you go and then see what you can do when you get there. Word of warning, watch out for them, they can be a bit tricky when it comes to pricing and QA.

If you need to know anything else im happy to help.

I live in shanghai.. my business is import/export. If you wanna meet up and/or tips or advice let me know!

about bargaining.. start a 15% of price shown. I once bought a suit advertised at 1650 RMB.. I said to the seller "ok.. 350 RMB" and she was like "OK! pay". very good quality btw. and yes, you have to go through the theatrics of walking away, shaking your head.. its really like a game.

flx89 said:

i buy products from China using alibaba.com or dhgate.com

Click to expand...

Thought about that, and even talked with a couple manufacturers, but when I got photos, they didn't match up with the product as pictured in their ad. I also didn't like that 99% of them were demanding Western Union or wire transfers...I wasn't born yesterday. I take it though that you've found someone legit?

GiorgioB said:

I live in shanghai.. my business is import/export. If you wanna meet up and/or tips or advice let me know!

about bargaining.. start a 15% of price shown. I once bought a suit advertised at 1650 RMB.. I said to the seller "ok.. 350 RMB" and she was like "OK! pay". very good quality btw. and yes, you have to go through the theatrics of walking away, shaking your head.. its really like a game.

Click to expand...

Thanks man...I'm actually going to be staying in Shanghai when I'm there, so perhaps we can grab a coffee if things work out.

I've done some int'l trading in China and I've found Alibaba to be a huge waste
of time, mostly you are dealing with brokers / intermediaries. I had much better
outcomes using Panjiva, cuts through a lot of crap and wasted time.

I also agree that it's a good idea to know what you want, then focus on
manufacturing capacity, quality control, and pricing. Trade fairs can be
mind numbing, unless you are just interested in random shopping or
discovering the next big widget. Your wife being fluent in Chinese should
make things a lot less risky for you.

Good luck and have a safe trip.
CJ

christianbed said:

Thanks man...I'm actually going to be staying in Shanghai when I'm there, so perhaps we can grab a coffee if things work out.

Click to expand...

for sure.. i'll send you a pm

Been to Yiwu 3 times and never came away with anything interesting...... it might be the place to go for OEM, (meaning you want to find a factory to make something specifically for you). but other than that.. everything on display is pretty low value, low quality stuff..

I find much better (niche) products and suppliers attending industry tradeshows biztradeshows.com/china/ will often find suppliers at these tradeshows who have great products but nothing online