Whether for the beginners or for experienced merchants, finding good China Wholesale Toy Suppliers is always the most important part. A good supplier, can help save import costs, control goods quality and meet the delivery date without any delay. Conversely, a bad supplier would bring you countless problems and you will be continuously anxious during the whole process.
It seems quite difficult to find trustworthy China Wholesale Toy Suppliers. But from my perspective, things would be simple if you have a good knowledge of China supplier system. In this article, I would share detailed information on the basis of my years experiences on China toys industry. Continue reading and use the links below to jump to a specific section.
- Where To Find China Wholesale Toy Suppliers?
- Three Types of Toy Suppliers
- How To Evaluate If a Supplier Is Reliable?
- How To Better Communicate With Suppliers?
1# Where To Find China Wholesale Toy Suppliers?
Generally, there are 5 main ways to connect with toy suppliers,
1.1 Visit China Toys Wholesale Markets
1.2 Attend China Toys Expo
1.3 Use China Wholesale Websites
1.4 Google Search
1.5 Social Platforms
For point 1.1 to 1.3, I already wrote a blog to explain. kindly learn how to buy wholesale toys from China in this blog. Today let’s see point 1.4 & 1.5.
1.4 Google Search
Currently, the sellers on wholesale websites, like Alibaba, are facing fiercer competition than past years. In order to acquire more traffic, they have to pour lots of money on products ads, which could be a huge budget! Though with high input, a large part of sellers don’t get good performance as they expect. Therefore, more and more suppliers start to set up their websites and use Google SEO & Google Ads to get traffic. Especially for companies who have their own brands, it’s a helpful way to build worldwide reputation.
Search “toy keywords + China/Supplier/Manufacturer” or “buy/purchase/import/wholesale + toy keywords + from China” on Google, you would find a great number of results turned up. Send inquiries on their websites or directly contact them through email and WhatsApp, commonly, you will get feedback within 6 hours.
1.5 Social Platform
Nowadays, social platforms have been an integral part in people’s life. We share daily life on Facebook & Instagram, seek jobs on LinkedIn and watch videos on Youtube. Apart from entertainment, people find its potential in establishing business relationship. Thus, large number of China suppliers settle in and try to connect with their potential clients.
Alike, search “toy keywords + China/Supplier/Manufacturer” or “buy/purchase/import/wholesale + toy keywords + from China” on social platforms. There are not as many results as Google. However, it won’t be a problem since you can still find some suppliers based on your needs.
2# Three Types Of China Wholesale Toy Suppliers
2.1 Factory Or Manufacturer
Toy manufacturers are the base of the supply chain and offer the lowest prices in the market. Due to the restriction of production lines, small factory can only produce one toy category with a few styles. And because of the low English level, small factories do not contact overseas importers directly. As we all know, toy moulds are very expensive so some small factories can only afford several moulds and produce related toys. They usually display their toy samples in the exhibition rooms of big manufacturers or trading companies to get orders.
Normally, medium-to-large manufacturers would set up an independent apartment to deal with overseas business. They organize a sales team to develop overseas markets based on their own toy categories. Some of them are powerful enough to attend toy fairs at home and abroad. Plus, they invest a lot on the promotion of their B2B sites. Meanwhile, most of them have their own toy booths in China toys wholesale market. Therefore, although they only focus on one or two toy categories, orders are pouring in. When they get small orders and there’s not enough labor&time to manufacture, they will pass them to small factories to produce.
Generally, large manufacturers would ask high MOQ above $2000. They like custom-made orders, accept OEM and ODM. If you are looking for certain toy category and require toys development, manufactures could be good options. Their abundant knowledge in the specific toy area would greatly help you develop your own products and save import costs.
2.2 Trading Company
Unlike manufacturers, the trading companies are under much less pressure because they don’t need to spend tons of money buying facilities, making toy moulds and feeding hundreds of workers. Most of them register on China B2B websites and gain customer traffic through online advertising. Big trading companies usually have their own booths in toys wholesale markets and are able to attend yearly toy trade shows. Mainly, there are 3 types of trading companies,
2.2.1 Toys Trading Company
This kind of companies are common seen on Alibaba.com. They usually identify themselves as manufacturers cause they have close cooperative relationship with various real factories. Therefore, do not be surprised if you find their price even lower than a manufacturer. Some of them focus on several toy categories and some cover all. Compare to manufacturers, they offer lower MOQ, about $500, and rational prices. Moreover, if you want to buy different types of toys, their strong resource integration ability on toy factories can significantly help you save time and costs.
2.2.2 Sourcing Agent
Different from toys trading companies, sourcing agents are making profits on commissions. In general, they charge a low commission rate from 3% to 10%. Large part of them have their own websites and obtain customers traffic based on Google SEO & Ads tactic. And it’s not hard to find that some sourcing companies are actually operated by one person. They can source everything not just toys and mostly, the prices offered are not strictly same with what factories provide. However, they have no MOQ restriction and accept wide range of categories sourcing.
2.2.3 Stock Wholesaler
DHgate.com and AliExpress.com are famous for its low MOQ & Prices. Behind them, there are great number of China stock wholesalers. They buy toys stock from manufacturers at competitive prices and put in their warehouse, then sell on wholesale websites. I would recommend you to buy from such suppliers if you only need very small quantity for each style. Nevertheless, besides prices, you should pay more attention to the toys quality cause the wholesalers would change suppliers from time to time. No one would guarantee that you can buy the toys with same quality all the time.
2.3 Brand Manufacturer
To a certain degree, brand manufacturers could be regard as one kind of trading companies cause big part of them don’t have their own factories. Then how about those who have factories? Normally, the factories owned by themselves can only manufacture a few styles toys with the limit of production lines. Therefore, almost all of them have to work with other factories to expand their toy catalogs. Mostly, they establish own websites on Google and have beautiful booths in toys wholesale markets. Meanwhile, they also own shops on B2B wholesale websites. Thus you have different ways to connect with them.
Undoubtedly, a brand needs strong product research and development capacity to support its products updates, which would generate huge company costs. This is why the prices of brand toys are higher than the average market level. All toys in stock is another feature of brand manufacturers, thereby they have low MOQ at $500. Usually, their toys are nice looking and match current trends. So if you are desired to buy up-to-date toys, kindly advise a request to brand manufacturers, they will provide what you want.
3# How To Evaluate If a Supplier Is Reliable?
3.1 Suppliers From China Toys Wholesale Markets
If you buy stock toys from booths directly, you are able to see and touch the samples, in this way, it’s unlikely to be cheated. However, if you demand customization, be careful, especially buying from Yiwu toys market. Make sure that your translator or agent has clearly conveyed specific requirements to the supplier. And the most important, ask prices from at least 5 suppliers and make full comparison. Do not believe the price 20% below average. Pick the reasonable and acceptable one. In addition, double check with the supplier and ensure that the bulk production should be exactly same with the sample.
3.2 Suppliers From China Toys Expo
Take canton fair as an example, over $20000 should be prepared if a company want to participate. Thus the suppliers you met in the expo usually have powerful background. They are reliable enough to support your business.
3.3 Suppliers From China Wholesale Websites
Under the influence of COVID-19, China B2B trade sites would be the first choice for buyers. Alibaba is very popular owing to its trade assurance payment method which can protect buyer’s interest to the most extent. Kindly learn how to buy wholesale toys from China B2B websites in this blog.
3.4 Suppliers From Google Search & Social Platforms
After you find a toy supplier through Google search, firstly go to the whois site, “https://who.is/” , and check its domain service life. Longer life, more business years and more trustworthy. Then review its website to see if there are any team members or company photos. In the meantime, toward the contact page to see its exact address and check if it has company email. Lastly, visit its social platforms, like Facebook, LinkedIn to see if there are regular updates.
When you stumble on a toy supplier on social platforms, check the introduction page to see if it has its own website and update the moments frequently.
Moreover, how will the salesman you are contacting deal with the problems when facing difficulties? Will the supplier seek excuses to delay the delivery time? In short, whereever you find the suppliers, besides prices, the product quality, goods leading time and the responsibility of sales are also should be taken into consideration.
4# How To Better Communicate With Suppliers?
4.1 Hire a Translator or Agent
It could be a necessary step if you buy from wholesale markets. Suppliers in the market can only speak basic English about prices, MOQ and packing data. When it comes to toys customization or sample development, they cannot understand.
An agent not only can provide translate service, but also help deal with different suppliers if you have multiple toys to buy. Commonly, they have warehouse to store your goods and cooperate with some shipping agents who would offer you affordable prices. A professional agent can greatly save your time& costs and provide quick solutions to your problems.
4.2 Pay Deposit For New Suppliers
Some buyers tend to not to pay deposit even if it’s the first cooperation. Honestly, in such a way, for suppliers, it’s unreasonable and unfair cause big risk exists on their part. You could ask a longtime supplier not to claim deposit and negotiate a payment method that both sides agree. However, for the supplier you first contact, I would recommend wire transfer, pay 30% deposit before production and 70% balance payment before shipment or against BL. Certainly, you can use trade assurance if the supplier have Alibaba site.
4.3 Convey Requirements Specifically
Before buying, make sure your requirements clearly delivered to the suppliers. Suppose you are asking high quality, then be prudent if the price is very low cause cheap price brings low quality. After sample customization, don’t forget to double confirm with the suppliers that the bulk production should be strictly same with samples. Apart from toy prices & quality, tell the suppliers your expected leading time and other services. In addition, for important details, frequently reminding are required.
4.4 Change The Supplier If Not Professional
Some buyers would become upset when they meet suppliers who are not expert at all. It would be a headache if the suppliers even cannot tell right information about their own products. Also, constant mistakes and uncooperative attitude would be annoying. To increase efficiency, do not hesitate to inquiry another supplier once you find the salesman difficult to communicate. If the toys you need are only manufactured by that supplier, then try to access another salesman or the boss in that company to proceed.
The End
Thanks for coming with me here. Hope this article can help you find right China Wholesale Toy Suppliers. Feel free to ask if there is any question. Kindly leave a comment below or send an inquiry, we will get in touch as soon as possible.
