Your Point of Contact in China

If you are not sure of your business in China, if you just want to develop some relationships with the manufacturers or customers, if you can’t come to China very often, if you don’t want to send a full-time employee to China, we can help you!

Here are some freelancers who can help you with your business development in Shenzhen China.  We are not just interpreters, we are helping you not just because of the language barrier.

We can do some preparation jobs for you before you come to China, sometimes you might not be able to get all the responds from the inquiries you sent, we search online and find more contact information and we can make phone calls on your behalf, they will feel very confortable speaking to a local guy in their native language, so that you will get the most responds, and we will translate what the conversation for you.

With a point of contact in China, your business partners will feel very confident in doing business with you, some bad businessmen in China will need to hesitate if they want to play games with you, they will have to provide true information for you because you have someone in China.

With a contact point in Shenzhen, you will be able to arrange your shipments very easy, you can ask all your suppliers to ship samples to your point of contact who will then consolidate and ship them to you, or you can ship all the samples to your point of contact, and then your point of contact will distribute them to your business partners.

There are more reasons why you need a point of contact in China…

 

Is it possible to get original parts for Iphone and Ipad

What if your Iphone or Ipad not working functionally, will you need to replace the original mother board?

What if your earphone doesn’t work, will you be able to replace the original earphone.

How about camera not working?

What if you drop your Iphone or Ipad and it damages so badly. Will you be able to check and see if it functions? If yes, you are luck, you will just need to replace the “glass”.

Do you want to send your broken Iphones and fixed in China?

If you go to a local Apple store and repair your phone, you would probablly like to get a new one because it is too costly. However, if you send it to China, and they put a high-copy parts for you, it will function the same, and it is hard to see the difference between orginal and copy, but the cost is much different. That is why you want to ship your broken phone to China. However, you need to be aware that Not all the broken phones are repairable, only 80% of them are possible to be repaired.

Do you know that purchasing an Iphone or Ipad without 2 or 3 year subscription at a local service carrier is not affordable to everyone in China? It is also a good idea to ship the used Iphones or Ipads to China because local Chinese people are tired of copy Iphones. Second hand Iphones or Ipads are still welcome in China if you are selling them in a very reasonal price, but don’t give it to them as a gift, because of an old Chinese saying which is that if it is not something you like, do not give it to others.

 

Here are some technical terms that you might want to learn when you are searching for a good and reliable suppliers to fix your Iphones.

FPC (flexible printed circuit) 柔性线路板

ACF (Anisotropic Conductive Film) 异方性导电胶膜, You need an ACF tacking machine to attach this film to the glass/LCD before lamination.

How do you remove your touch panel from your Iphone? As you know, when you laminate your touch panel on the LCD, you need a film called ACF. so as a reverse engineering technology, you need to head this film up and use a small steel wire (smaller than this file) to remove it, of course, this is done by a touch panel removal machine ( Iphone LCD disassembly machine).

OCA (Optical Clear Adhedive) 光学胶 it is used in between cover len and sensor glass.

Cover len 盖板 is usually the top layer of your Iphone.

Polarizer is on top of the LCD glass, it is the top part of LCD module.

ITO (tin-doped indium oxide), it is an transparent layer for capacitive sensing of screen.

Business coordinator/guide/consultant/agent in Shenzhen China

If you have a very good project in Shenzhen China, you might want to hire someone who can take care of it. I can act as your interpreter/guide/agent/consultant/coordinator/translator/representative/...

I can also provide engineering and technical support, conduct product Quality Control inspection, that means that I can also be your engineer/technician/inspector.

As an interpreter/translator, I just help you overcome the language barrier.

As an agent, we help you source and purchase the items you like.

As a consultant, I provide some good information for you, because I am experienced in international trade and electronics technology, as well as manufacturing process.

As a coordinator, I help you find a good hotel and make appointment with the suppliers or customers that you are going to visit.

As a representative, your suppliers or customers will feel much comfortable if you have a local guy who helps you.

What are the business models in China?

We, as interpreters and consultants, in a very important position of your business model, will help you achieve your target in a very effecient way.
Here are some information provided by a local consultant who is very experienced in international trade.
There are many suppliers on Alibaba, however you don’t know whether there are manufacturers or not, maybe they are traders, you just don’t know, how do you tell a manufacturer from a trader?
Here is a simple tip, look at their address, if it is located in the city area such as Futian, Luohu and Nanshan district, and they don’t have any other detailed address, most of the time, they are just traders, as the factories can’t be located in the urban area, sometimes some suppliers claim that they are manufacturers and even put both their office and factory address on the website, however their factory addresses are either not detailed, or do not exist at all, you can’t find it at all.
So you might want to tell your friends that they are liars, you can do that, however, I would say this is a very popular business model in China, as you know it is quite expensive to run a factory with those production lines, SMT machines, injection machines and employment of so many people, and it is not so easy to fulfill the capability of a factory unless you can give them some very big orders such as 30K to 100K sets per month. Because of reasons listed, the factories will try to get orders from different sources, such as the local traders. And the traders need to partnership with these factories too, in fact, they act as the factories’ sales departments.
Some people want to be self-employed, because they don’t want to work in any company, so they set up a company with a HSBC bank account, and they pay to be a member on Alibaba, from where they can get a lot of inquiries, and they claim that they are the manufacturers which they are not but partnership with them.

How do you do business with the suppliers in China？

How do you do business with the suppliers in China, how do you negotiate with them, how do you set up a good relationship with them?

Here I would like to take an example of LCD/LED TV to explain to you.

 

1. 1. How do you find the suppliers for LCD/LED TVs?
   1. you can find them through Alibaba.com or Globalsources.com, but big suppliers don’t do ads. on these kinds of websites.
   2. Canton Fair or Hong Kong Fair. Big and serious suppliers spend money on the trade shows, because they think that serious.
   3. You can find the suppliers through an interpreter like me, I have visited more than 15 LCD/LED TV suppliers in Shenzhen.

 

1. 2. What are the trade terms with the manufacturers in Shenzhen China.

1. Payment: Almost all the suppliers in China want at least 30% deposit when you place the 1st and 2nd order, and 70% before loading the containers, and then they can accept L/C at sight later on, so please don’t waste your time trying to negotiate with your desirable terms, they prefer not to do any business if you don’t follow their terms. Some big companies are willing to give you 4% discount for T/T, 2% for L/C at sight, they are willing to give you better price rather than give you better payment terms.
2. Deliver lead: Most of the TV suppliers have a 30 day delivery time, and 35 to 40 days for the first order, because they need to get your logo graphic and confirmation of all the information they need to complete your order. This is negotiable, it depends on how busy their production lines are, how many components are in stock, and how busy their people are. However, as for TV, they need to purchase TV panel, electronics parts, and cabinet, this will take some time depending on how close they are with their suppliers.
3. C. Quality: Most of the suppliers are buying A grade panel, which is usually 70% or 80% no bright dots, 20% to 30% 3,3,5 which means that no more than 3 dots on the A zone, no more than 3 dots on the B zone, in total no more than 5 dots on the whole screen.
4. D: Warranty: most of the TV vendors provide 1 year warranty or 1% spare parts (no including panel and cabinet, only electronics boards, remote control and cables.)
5. E: Price: most of the suppliers are very honest on the prices, some Indian customers are trying to negotiate and get a better price, sometimes you will just insult them and will only make the relationship worse if you are trying so hard on the price negotiate. If you really don’t trust their prices, you can just find more suppliers to compare the prices. If the suppliers are really willing to do business with you, they will offer 2 to 4% discount, maximum 5%, but their services and the following-up of orders might be worse if they find more better customers later on.
6. F: Quantity: most of the electronics suppliers will request a MOQ of 1000pieces. or a 20’ container, some good suppliers are willing to do it with 500pieces. They can’t accept 100pieces to 300pieces. the reason is very simple, the cost to deliver your order include marketing, sales, purchasing of parts, set up production line, labor operation time and materials, and the only difference between small order and big order are basically labor time and materials which don’t cost that much. And the most important reason is that their suppliers are not willing to accept less than 500piece order. If you are willing to pay much more for 300pieces, say 30% or 40% more, they are still not willing to do it, however this is a simple math, 300*(1+40%)=420, then why don’t you buy 500pieces. For your information, most of the suppliers don’t have any electronics product in stock, they might have some samples though. If you need to know exactly why, you will need to know the manufacture process, more information on http://www.interpretershenzhen.com/electronics-product-manufacture-process

 

1. 3. What are the LCD/LED factories like?

Most of these factories only have one or two production lines (assembly lines), only some big companies can make their own electronics boards (The main chipsets are mostly from Mstar the models are usually MST6M181 and MST6M182), very few suppliers have their injection machine to produce the plastic cabinets, only a few big companies have open cell technology for the panel, the panels are mainly from Chimei, some companies are using LG/Samsung/AUO/BOE

This assembly line can produce 100set per hour, medium and big companies can produce 200 thousands set per month.

 

As the LED TV are getting cheaper and cheaper, most of the companies are only now producing LED TVs instead of LCD TVs, CRT TVs are now out date.

 

 

1. 4. How much do the LED TVs cost at Shenzhen Manufacturers?

 

A good price lists from a big LED TV suppliers based on a 40’ container:

15.6” 69USD

18.5” 88USD

21.6” 110USD

23.6“ 129USD

26“  162USD

32“  189USD

42“  349USD

One 20’ container can take 700set of 22” LED TV.

 

1. 5. How do you build up good relationships with the manufacturers in China?

 

If you have very good relationship with the suppliers in China, you will get very good price at the very beginning, and your will get good product/ good deliver lead as well as services after you place the order. Here are some tips to build good relationships:

1. Hire someone who speaks good English to be your interpreter and a private driver when you visit them, when the suppliers see this, they will understand that you are visiting many suppliers and you really want to do business, if you are a serious customers, you will get the best price at the beginning.
2. Hire someone to be your business guide and consultant who is very experienced in the electronics and international business. This person can act as your eyes and ears after you place the orders. The suppliers have to deliver your order as soon as they can because you have someone who is chasing them to do things for you, at least they don’t forget your order.

Hire an inspector to check your product before shipping. Sometimes it is not because that the suppliers want to deliver your bad quality product, but because the sales persons are too busy or their quality people are careless, so they might forget this or that, or just make a small mistake like this or that, so to be sure of your order, double check is always go

Why do you have to find the manufacturers?

Some overseas buyers always want to find the manufacturers, they don't want to go through those trading companies, they think if they deal with the manufacturers directly, they can save money. However,  in some cases, you will lose money and get worse services if you deal with the manufacturers directly. If you really want to deal with the manufacturers, and you also don't want to go through the trading companies, why don't you hire a trading agent who know your language and manufacturing process. This is a good website for you to find a trading agent as most of the freelance interpreters here speak good English, and they know the international trading process, they can be your business guides and consultants.

1. Some big manufacturers will have their marketing and sales team, they attend all the big trade shows, they don't advertise so much online, because they think the serious and big buyers will attend the trade shows as well,  the customers that they get from the internet are mostly small "fishes", and they don't treat these small fishes very well, sometimes they just ignore their emails, if you are a small fish, when you place the orders to them, the delivery time can be very long.

2, Small to Medium size of factories and the trading companies like to advertise a lot online, they spend 2 to 10 thousands USD on Alibaba, Made-in-China and Global Sources, just to be members, and spend time and human resource to update their product and answer inquiries.

 

3.  Some small manufacturers can't afford to be a member on these international website, they spend 400USD to 1000USD on the local Alibaba, and they can't afford to hire someone who speak English, they do not have an export license, so they have problem in selling product overseas directly, they have to reply on the trading companies.

You might remember the German philosopher Hegel's saying, trading companies have their reasons to exist, and sometimes they are very professional, they provide very good services, they are good for certain types of customers, they get paid just because they add value to your transation.

A group of blogs for translators

Here are some groups of blogs created by the freelance translators in China.
If you are a freelance translator, please register here and your information will be published and easily be found by your potential customers, and it is free to get a blog here.
http://blogs.51889988.com (English)
http://boke.51889988.com (Chinese)