As a retailer, drop-shipper, or online merchant, you are probably going to be sourcing at least some of your goods either directly or indirectly from China. As such, it’s important first of all to dispel a few myths. China is indeed the source of many inexpensive plastic goo-gaws and doo-dads of marginal quality, but let’s not associate China with nothing but cheap dollar-store goods. Indeed, there are two broad types of products you’ll be able to source from China. First, there are mass-produced commodity items made in the many factories throughout the country, and these are indeed quite inexpensive. China is a good source for ordinary household items, plastics, and other manufactured goods that are the stuff of discount outlets and flea markets. But, as they say on the television commercials, “there’s more!”
Once you get more familiar with China, its culture, its products, and the people who produce them, you’ll find a whole lot more. If you’re looking to create a retail organization that goes beyond the ordinary and offers some truly unique items, then you need to go down to a deeper layer of Chinese sourcing, beyond the huge factories, and into the bazaars, into the world of craftspeople, small family shops, and the remote countryside. The products you can source from the remote mountains of Yunnan province are, for example, quite different from those you would source from a factory in Shanghai. Look deeper beyond the mass produced plastics, and you’ll find beautiful calligraphy paintings, silks, and hand-woven textiles; exquisite pottery, knick-knacks, vases, and mystical Eastern religious artifacts that will make your store stand out from the crowd.
As always, a personal trip is the best (and most fun) way to find these items, but you can also find them through common wholesale outlets. The trick is to keep an eye out for the unusual, and avoid the ordinary. If you’re fortunate enough to be able to make a trip, there are a few very good trade shows to attend, including the China Import and Export Fair held in October in Guangzhou–but even if you can’t attend, you can participate online for this or any one of several other Chinese trade fairs. Another particularly interesting source is to explore the hill tribe communities of Yunnan province. These hill tribe residents of these communities still practice a lifestyle from hundreds of years ago, and many of them hand-make beautiful clothing and jewelry. Of course, since these are all hand-made, you can’t get them from a factory, and hill tribe residents don’t tend to have web sites. But again, short of going there yourself, if you are diligent you can find middlemen who deal in hill tribe products that can make your store shine.
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