How to Find a Manufacturer in China – The Proven Guide (2021)

Finding a manufacturer in China can seem like quite a daunting task, especially if you are doing it for the first time. Business owners who are intimidated by the enormous task at hand can take heart from (yes!) a Chinese proverb:

This is good advice. If you break up your task into little steps and focus on each one of them at a time, you will be importing your first shipment home from China before you know it.

So where do you start? This read will walk you through how to find a manufacturer in China.

You first need to build a shortlist of Chinese suppliers who manufacture the product you are looking for.

Step 1: How to find a manufacturer in China

The internet: The internet is the default option for many people seeking to source products from China. More than a general Google, Bing or Yahoo search, hitting B2B platforms may be more helpful. These are online sourcing platforms such as Alibaba, Global Sources and Made in China, which connect buyers to Chinese manufacturers. Finding a supplier on these sites is as easy as typing in your requirements in the search bar. It helps if you are specific here. For instance, instead of “brass locks”, you could search specifically for “brass die cast drawer and cabinet locks”.

Since there are thousands of suppliers in China, you could filter them depending on reviews, and the platform’s rating process before shortlisting them.

Alibaba, for instance, gives its suppliers “gold” ratings, which purchasers see as a sign of trustworthiness. Similarly, Global Sources has a “verified supplier” category.

‍While these resources are useful to draw up a shortlist, it is important to remember that many businesses thrown up by search engines and sourcing platforms may be resellers, not manufacturers. While sourcing from such middlemen may be ok if you are buying products to retail such as beauty products, toys, clothes, or cheap electronics, when you require products that must meet specific technical requirements such as die casting, metal stamping and plastic molding manufacturing it is best to identify a manufacturer and source from them directly. Most importantly, this also reduces costs. You can weed out resellers while verifying suppliers (more on that later).

“Gold” or “verified ratings” are not the last word on trustworthiness. What you also need to remember is that any supplier who pays Alibaba an annual fee for premium membership can get gold supplier status, which increases the vendor’s visibility on the site.

Similarly, tags like “verified supplier” could simply mean that the supplier has been verified by a third party and the company physically exists. It does not necessarily mean that the B2B platform has checked if the company is what it is claiming to be – a manufacturer as opposed to a trader or reseller. It also does not mean that their stated manufacturing capabilities and production capacity have been verified.

These terms are therefore useful in filtering your search results but should not be taken as the last word on the trustworthiness of the companies you find on these platforms.