What Manufacturer Do We Use?
The thing I struggle with the most and still am, is manufacturing. The question I get the most is who do you use for manufacturing. I want to share with you what I have learned when it comes to Alibaba so if you’re thinking about using it, you can get a big head start.
I currently use Alibaba for Opinion. Now a lot of you will think that Alibaba is associated with cheap and low quality, but that is not entirely true. Alibaba connects people with some manufacturers that make clothes and apparel for some of the biggest name brands in the world, you just have to find the right one, and I’m going to explain to you how you can narrow it down so it can be made a little easier.
The first mistake that I learned was to not look for individual products but to look for suppliers. If you know what piece of clothing you want, go into the search bar, type that in, and on the left side of the search bar, you can choose products, wholesalers, or suppliers. Choose suppliers.
You will now see a list of suppliers that provide the product you entered in the search bar. Before you do anything, you want to check off the two boxes that say
1.) Trade Assurance
2.) Verified.
Trade Assurance covers Alibaba.com buyers with 100% payment protection from their selected Trade Assurance suppliers. The verified box means is a verified supplier. A Verified Supplier is a supplier for whom certain aspects of its company profile, management system, production capabilities, and product and process controls have been assessed, certified, and/or inspected by independent third party institutions via online and offline means.
Now that you have narrowed the suppliers down, you want to look at how many years the supplier has been in business. The longer the better. I will say, that you can find some hidden gems that are on the lower side of being in business, but it’s always safer to go with the longer time in business.
When it comes to price range, if the price is too good to be true, it probably is, and that leads me to my next point.
ORDER A SAMPLE. When you know what you want, and from what manufacture, always get a sample. Yes, the sample price may be steep, but it’s better than ordering bulk and finding out it wasn’t the design or quality you wanted.
When ordering a sample, you want to make sure you double and triple-check that you have given them the exact logo, placement, color, and measurements that you want. There is somewhat of a language barrier, so double and triple-checking is always key.
I’ve heard also that you can talk down the prices, but I have tried that and it never has worked, so if you get success in that, teach me your ways.
Alibaba can be a gold mine for a clothing brand and it can also be a death trap, but it’s all in the amount of time you put into it. Not saying you can’t find your manufacture first try, but don’t get down if you go through multiple manufactures before you find a good one. Like I said, I’m still searching.
I hope this helps anyone who is trying to use Alibaba or is wanting to just know more about how we go about making our clothes.