After you have found your product, you need to find the manufacturer. Your choice of manufacturer determines the purchase price and product quality. That’s why this step is extremely important in order to run a successful Amazon FBA business in the long term.
When searching for a manufacturer, there are many points that need to be taken into account. In addition to the quality and the price, the most important thing is your own gut feeling. A long-term business relationship is only possible if you trust your manufacturer and you can communicate well.
Find manufacturers in Germany, EU or China?
Often the first thought goes to importing from China or Thailand. But you can also find a good manufacturer in Europe. You should compare in advance what advantages and disadvantages the different countries have.
The best way is probably to shop directly in Germany. Here you save shipping fees and import duties. In addition, you no longer import the product from a third country and are therefore no longer considered a manufacturer. This reduces your liability risk enormously. However, purchasing prices in Germany are often significantly higher and, even with expensive shipping, manufacturing abroad is cheaper. However, this is not always the case and you should look for German manufacturers. Unfortunately, finding a manufacturer in Germany is also difficult due to the other conditions. Communication with small retailers like you is often poor and the minimum purchase quantities are too high. However, if you find a suitable manufacturer in Germany, you can count yourself lucky.
A solution somewhere between abroad and Germany is to find manufacturers in the EU. Here you usually get low prices and have lower shipping costs than if you import from Asia. Just like in Germany, the offering is smaller than in Asia and harder to find. The search is still worth it because of the same advantages.
You will find the largest selection in Asia. This is where most FBA traders will find a manufacturer. You often achieve low prices that are unfortunately ruined by the very high import costs. In many cases, importing is easier because you have an extremely large selection and can quickly find a suitable supplier. The world’s best-known platform with countless offers is alibaba.com. If you don’t find anything suitable here, you can also search on Paul Sourcing.
Find a good manufacturer – this is how you do it
Since you will find tons of potential manufacturers, especially in Asia, it is important to be able to sort them out well. Of course, all communication takes place in English. Even if you don’t speak English well, you shouldn’t have any problems finding the manufacturer. You can translate unfamiliar words and gradually get to know all the terms. In order to really find a good manufacturer, it is recommended to contact at least 10-20 companies at the beginning. You’ll quickly pick some favorites from these.
The product presentation
When you roughly skim through the offers, you can first sort them out based on the pictures and the product description. A manufacturer that doesn’t make an effort to present the product well may also be second-rate in communication and product quality. Find all offers and send all companies the same message.
The communication
Your first request should include a few questions. You can assign numbers to your questions for a better overview. The following questions are important for the first impression:
- Minimum Order Quantity
- price per unit
- Possible variants (color, size, etc.)
- shipping fee to Germany
- Weight
- Manufacturing time
- Accepted payment methods
- Sample costs
You send your questions identically to each manufacturer so that you can compare perfectly later. From the answers you can easily filter out which companies will make it to the next round. You should eliminate all manufacturers who don’t respond within 48 hours, because if you have urgent questions later, you can’t wait for days. You will quickly recognize who is making an effort to answer and who is just sending back quick bullet points. So you will soon find some good manufacturers, at least when it comes to communication. Because this is an important aspect in later transactions. Be sure to follow your gut feeling here.
The price, MOQ etc.
Last but not least, you should also go by the price and the services offered. Once you have received around 10-20 offers, you can assess which price is appropriate and who wants to offer you a price that is too high. Here you have to go by your own calculations and sort out in order to find a good manufacturer. In addition, not all manufacturers have low MOQs (minimum quantity order), which you need as a beginner. You can now order samples (i.e. product samples) of your final favorites.
Order a sample
Since sending a sample via express shipping is often not cheap, you should try to get as many variants as possible. For example, you can have different packaging or colors sent to you. Once you have tested and compared the samples from the different manufacturers, you can choose your favorite. Finding a manufacturer is not easy, but it ultimately determines to a large extent whether your product will be successful or not. Just like when you find a product, you should also take a lot of time to find the manufacturer.