Preparing for the Canton Fair Re-opening with Michael Michelini

As one of the biggest trade shows in the world, the Canton Fair has been a crucial platform for businesses to showcase their products and connect with potential clients. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the fair has been closed for more than a year, leaving many businesses uncertain about how to navigate the upcoming re-opening. Michael offers practical advice on how to make the most out of this opportunity, from logistics and planning to building relationships and generating sales. Let’s tune in!

Are you ready to take your business to the next level? Are you looking for the perfect opportunity to network with experts, grow your knowledge, and source the latest and greatest products on the market? Then you won’t want to miss the Canton Fair 2023!

We’re excited to offer you an all-inclusive package that includes everything you need for a successful trip to the Canton Fair. This year, we’re offering a more premium package that will allow you to stay in a luxury hotel within walking distance of the fair. This will simplify logistics, offer more bonding time together, and allow you to experience a more upscale atmosphere.

√ Mike’s VIP Page
√ Download Mike’s slides
√ Visit our GFA partner – Mercury – for US banking solutons for your ecommerce businesss
√ Visit our GFA partner – Casia Cross Better Logistics – for your logistics needs

We hope you found this presentation enjoyable. Our team runs several successful Amazon and ecommerce brands, in addition to hosting podcasts and organizing events like this one.

Please mark your calendars for November 16-17, 2023: Cross Border Summit in Chiang Mai, Thailand, where we will be hosting a two-day conference on cross-border trade, with a focus on Amazon FBA and Western marketplaces in B2C. While tickets are not yet available, joining our GFAVIP membership will give you exclusive early access.

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[00:00:00] Episode 396 of Global from Asia, doing our intro from Singapore right now. But today’s show is about the Canton Fair in China, which we did in Thailand. The really interesting stuff happening right now. Let’s tune in. Welcome to the Global from Asia podcast, where the daunting process of running an international business is broken down into straight up actionable advice.

And now your host, Michael Michelini. [00:00:30] Thank you for choosing to watch or listen to. I still think most of the three people are listening to the shows, but I got the video camera on me. I’m walking around Asia Square Tower one. I will be speaking here at the Amazon Headquarters in Singapore on the 23rd floor upstairs.

Don’t worry. They said I can record it, so I’ll make it a podcast for you. That’ll be episode 400. We’re at episode 396. Four shows away from 400 [00:01:00] episodes. It’s amazing. It’s really amazing. 10 years. 10 years almost. So I hope you’ve been enjoying all these shows. And today we’re talking about Canton. The last few shows have been just me.

I, I have a podcast schedule and usually there’s a guest name, and the guest name’s been just Mike. But cuz I’m doing a lot of speaking at different events and conferences and I figured, hey, why not record it? Why not let some of you check it out? But we’ll be doing some interview style in, in person events [00:01:30] soon.

I think Ian, hopefully, he’s a, he’s a e-commerce seller of lingerie. Expert in Thailand from the uk. I’m hoping to get him on soon, but for now it’s just me at at a meetup we did in Ang Mai about preparing for the Canton Fair. What do you need to know? What do you need to do? And of course, we have a Canton Fair trip.

Some of the top sellers in Singapore will be going with us as well as a few people from global selling team of [00:02:00] Amazon in in Singapore and Thailand. So we’re gonna bring a really cool group of, of Southeast Asia Amazon sellers to Cheng Ma no to a Canton Fair in China. April 21st to the 23rd. 2023. You can join as well.

It’ll be a link in the show notes. And that’s, that’s it. Let’s go into the show. Are you looking for. Border logistics company from Asia to the east and the west then look no further. Cross better [00:02:30] logistics is a solution for you. From ocean shipping to air freight, from factory to three PL warehouse, Amazon, F B A, and Walmart Cross Better Logistics is an experienced service provider.

Free camera sellers and B2B traders on t p s Trade as a G FFA partner level sponsor. Let them know we sent you and they’ll take care of you. Check them out@www.crossbetter.com. Today [00:03:00] I just wanna kind of plug some of our normal sponsors. I’m trying to figure, we’re trying to build this event into a monthly, like, kind of platform almost, but I have sponsors, so I figured.

Share, share. They’re for our podcast, but I thought I would also bring them up at our meetup. So Mercury, they’ve been sponsoring us. I interviewed their e-commerce team member Travis, but Mercury’s a great US banking solution. I use ’em, I, I like to use the services and I sponsor, I don’t, of course they do support our show.

But I also [00:03:30] like to, you know, promote what I use. So Mercury is great, it’s totally free. It opens a virtual US bank account that can connect your Stripe, your PayPal, your Amazon for a US company so that I could talk more about it. This mercury.com. I have a podcast@globalinformation.com slash mercury with Travis.

And then our second sponsor is cross Better. They’re a logistics provider mostly from China to the US or China to Canada. They can’t help in Thailand. Actually, I was hoping some others were [00:04:00] coming. But I also interviewed their ceo, mark, and we talk about some strategies that we learned from, I learned from Chinese sellers.

You know, I think they used to learn from me , you know, but now Chinese sellers have gotten so much more Ava in certain ways than Western sellers that I learned a lot. So I’ve learned, and he shares some strategies that Chinese sellers use in their logistic. To save money and increase sales. And we talk about that in the show.

And of course I can introduce you to them [00:04:30] if you’re shipping from China to the US and they, they do all kinds of services and they’ve helped me in a lot of tight situations in my own logistics. So, like I said, I use them myself. So and then we are gonna have a cross border. It’s gonna be our fifth annual.

We did four of ’em in China. This year will be in Chiang Mai, November 16th and 17th. So it’s still like, what is that, nine months away. But we already have a few speakers confirmed to fly in from overseas. Never been to Thailand before. [00:05:00] And it’s my favorite highlight of the year. It’s where we take good people from all around the world, perform in one spot, talk about e-commerce trading.

So we’re gonna do it in Che Mai. And that’s, So today I tried to get some of you to interview, but I didn’t get a confirmed guest. So if people maybe, hopefully well maybe double confirm, but next week, next month, I would love to have it where I have two chairs here and I hope to interview somebody here talking about their story.

I didn’t get that confirmed this time, so I made another [00:05:30] presentation. Actually, I made this for today, . I’ve worked on it yesterday. Canton Fair tips and strategies, which I’m sure you’ve heard of. Can Canton. people know you’ve heard of it, right? Has anybody, one time you’ve been there too. Anybody else been there?

Oh, Tatiana. You’ve been there too? Yeah. Pooky? Yes. Pooky. Okay. So three. Anybody else? I’m just curious to know who’s three. Okay. Eric, do you wanna scroll? [00:06:00] So this is a, this maybe should two finger roll. So I’m trying most. This is just pictures of our commu community events. Keep scrolling. So we’ve done, I’ve been doing this for years, you know, this is in China.

Keep scrolling. It’s more like introduction. We’ve done workshops and masterminds. This is in China too. Keep going. This some just, I’m just showing pictures of our com of community. So I’m trying to help build that up here in. Also, if you like what you saw [00:06:30] today, we’re gonna do a workshop tomorrow on Zoom for two hours about Amazon FBA setup and structure.

I’m always gonna do it here, but they, it didn’t work out. So I’m gonna do it on Zoom two to 4:00 PM tie time. There is a fee, it’s a pretty reasonable fee. I don’t wanna say the price right now, but I, you know, it’s mostly just to give, just to start to see if people here want some training. It’s more like I say beginner.

So if you’re already selling, it might not be beneficial, but you might learn some strategies. But it’s more about setup and [00:07:00] launch on Amazon. It’s kinda like a 1 0 1 that I finish in two hours. I’ve done this about four or five times. I’ve gotten great testimonials. I’ve helped a lot of people do it, so it’s kind of my first try to do a little bit of a paid workshop.

This will still be free, but if you’re interested talk to snooker me after the seminar. And we’re gonna start to build on a bootcamp. Keep scrolling

or maybe Snook can do it. Yeah, it’s her laptop. She might, [00:07:30] and it’s gonna be it’s built out on bootcamp.global from asia.com. So if you wanna see all of our different sessions that I’ve built I’ve had a lot of courses and other. Keep going. We’re also putting together a Canton Fair trip. I have a lot of different announcements.

There’s actually, seems like Covid is gone and good, good Riddens. Sorry. So we’re gonna have lots of stuff going on. I’m gonna be traveling all over Asia. I’m gonna, there’s so much happening right now. So Canton [00:08:00] Fair phase two, April 23rd of 27th, I’ll be coming. I’ll be going from Chang Mai if some people wanna join me.

we’re having people from Singapore. We’re gonna have, of course, people from China. It’s just getting finalized. I’m working with Amazon Singapore on putting some sellers from Singapore there. You’re welcome to join. There is a fee, but it’s including hotels and everything. Keep scrolling. I’m also gonna do a webinar with Amazon Global Selling next Friday, March 3rd.

It’s more for their community, [00:08:30] but I thought I would let you know, I think if you want to join the webinar, you can. I’m gonna be sharing about similar content to today, but it’ll be online for mostly the Singapore community. I’m working closely with them. Actually, Shane, from that dinner, I’ve been talking a lot to the Amazon global selling.

Keep going. Lots of announcements. So I’m also going to Japan April 4th and fifth. Wendy, let me go. Leaving the wife and kids here, it’s in Tokyo. My friend Gary Huang is putting together the first ever Amazon Japan conference in, [00:09:00] in any language, not even in Japan. They’ve had an event. Amazon’s now the top seller, top marketplace in Japan.

They overtook Rocket Tuen and the others. So they’re the biggest market and Japan’s a huge market. And I interviewed Gary. Sorry it doesn’t look so clear here, but Basically it’s gonna be, if you wanna sell in Japan, of course you don’t need to go to this event, but you’re gonna meet everybody. You need to meet logistics, importer, record people.

You’re gonna meet Amazon experts, Amazon themselves will be [00:09:30] there. It’s two full days. And I’m gonna actually figure out how to launch. I’ve never sold in Japan. So my goal, I’m, I’m, you know, I’m investing into this too, is to, to, to launch in Japan. So if you wanna join me and others, . I don’t have links and stuff, but I’m just kind of letting you know what I’m doing.

Keep going. And then next month, we already have the date. It’s not gonna be Saturday or we might have two next month, but Amazon is back in town. I don’t know if she’s talk, talked to them. They’re having a big [00:10:00] conference on Saturday, March 18th. That’s pr. I don’t know if I can. Everyone here, but I hope you should be able to join this.

I’m, they’re invited me to speak on Friday, March 17th. That’s actually St. Patrick’s Day, 6:00 PM You gotta register through the global selling platform, Google Link, but we will be doing it there. I’m gonna, I’m gonna speak about external traffic to Amazon, another workshop I have, this will be free as well.

Keep. And [00:10:30] then Singapore, I’m gonna be in Singapore March 23rd, 3:00 PM to 5:00 PM talking about supply chain. So it’ll be at Amazon’s offices in Asia Tower, one near Raffles Center, raffles Plaza. So if anybody wants to go to Singapore, it’s a free event and it’ll be some v i p dinner after. Okay. And I added all that this morning.

I was like, man, there’s so much going on. I gotta kind of maybe just announce it. So that’s kind of my announcements. If any of that was interesting, we can talk [00:11:00] about it. But for me, actually, I’ve been doing this, like I said started waking up. I guess we survived Covid and you know, we we’re survivors.

We’re survivors, we’re growing. But yeah, I mean, I’ve been known as a connector. I, I love connecting people. You know, I’ve been selling an eBay since oh four and I came to China oh seven you know, built and sold multiple brands, work with aggregators done conferences. But I’m, I love sharing and creating content is [00:11:30] my favorite parts.

So today we did some intros already. I’m gonna go through a series of questions. I kind of keep this visual, but we’re gonna talk about Canton Fair. Maybe Eric or others that have been, can add to it as, and these are some of my products too, if you wanna take a look. One of my brands, Exco brothers. Mm.

Keep going. So three people went. How was, how was your trip, Eric? [00:12:00] It was unbelievable. I mean, it’s like, it’s endless, endless, endless products. , it’s, I think, One day was one huge niche. Another day was another huge niche. Another day was another huge niche, and it’s just all these, so keep going. It’s like, I like this picture.

I took, I have video blogs and oh, Dom made it great. [00:12:30] What’s up buddy? I have a bunch of pictures from the, from here and my, my kind of personal. So to speak. So anybody wants me to send some stuff? Buddhist statues. Great. Did you, so you shift Bud Statues outta China? No, this is just my personal Oh, okay.

But I didn’t, yeah, I have tons of pictures too, but you can buy every That’s true. Like, I think maybe next [00:13:00] slide, but that’s me with the guard just for. . But the way the Canton Fair is broken down like is, there’s three phases. So this is the dates, sorry, it’s not so clear, but of course you can look it up online and I’m gonna show that.

But there’s basically three phases. First phase is normally electronics. I don’t usually go to phase one that’s more electronics, so consumer electronics, lighting Phase two is the one we’re doing a trip for, and that’s kind of the more popular, that’s home and decor and. So that kind of [00:13:30] covers a lot. And then phase three, I don’t think many go to, but it’s like textiles, medical products and they’re, I think four days each.

And then there’s like a two day break. But it’s actually even some in Hong Kong, like global sources, there’s HK tdc. So some crazy people and used be Me too, would go to, you can go back to back fairs for like over a month if you want. Right? And so they have it in the spring and the. So the spring is coming up and it starts [00:14:00] at the middle of March, April.

I think the phase one is April 15th to the like 19th. Phase two is the 23rd to the 27th, which is where we’re going. And then phase three is usually the very end of April until May 3rd or fourth. So it’s basically like mid-April till early May. And then the fall, like I went for the first time in 2007.

What was the fall? Which is in October, usually I think mid-October till early November. And same format, phase one, electronics, [00:14:30] phase two, home, phase three, kind of, I don’t sports like large pro oversized products, medical stuff. I, I, it’s kinda like I’m not so familiar with phase three, honestly. So registration, actually, I have my badge, so I’m kind, people laugh at me, but I, when I travel, you’ll see me with this around my neck.

And I’m like a little kid or something, but I wear this around my neck when I’m traveling. And then I have my old passport, my new passport, my vaccine [00:15:00] documents. Hopefully I don’t drop dead. And my Canon Fair badge, and also a lot of expired cards sometimes I use for problems at borders and proof expired cards.

Yeah, it saved me to get back into China. I had to bullshit my way into China with the expired work permit. Doesn’t show expiration dates. So I had to show the Philippines customs that I had a work permit to enter China during Covid. Cuz they said you can’t enter in a business visa. I said, oh, I have this work permit.

You can do it through this horrible [00:15:30] website, , right? I don’t know, Don, you, you’ve been to the Campton fair, right? I can’t remember how I even got, I registered, I got this first online, but normally you get it. You can go to canton fair.org c. That’s the official website. And you can try to figure out how to do it that way, but scroll show up.

Yeah, exactly. There’s a picture of showing up. You can see the url. Yeah, I did. So you can still see it. You did show up. Is it more or No? I mean, [00:16:00] the, the only trick is you should bring passport photos. Well, or they just charge you like it’s more than normal, but you can pay and they take a picture of you and print it and stick it.

So if you bring passport photo, it might save you a little bit of time or money, but I guess just pay for the pay for it. Cost for, I mean, it just depends on which booth or, I mean, it’s not even probably worth don’t, I mean, it’s like 10 bucks, maybe 10 or 15. If you’re Chinese, it’s hella hard to get Sexually [00:16:30] expensive.

Yeah. They don’t want Chinese to go. Because they want Chinese. Yeah, that’s a good point. They don’t want Chinese there because they want them to register as a vendor. They don’t want them to go as a buyer for free and then try to sell their products to the foreigners. They want them to be a seller, which means they gotta get a booth.

So it’s really funny actually. Yeah, you have to even you have like a Chinese translator or somebody, you gotta pay [00:17:00] a fee to get them in. I. or there might be some smart way where you could get them, you gotta prove they’re not local Chinese. If you could show that they have like a overseas company that they work for keep going.

I, I have better stuff here. And so that’s me. So you can actually, I, I, I did this just yesterday. It’s still in the system. I, I put my badge number and I had reset my password and I logged in and. It says Overseas buyer, United States of America, . [00:17:30] So you can say what country you’re from, right? And is that good?

Again, it’s a, it’s a, it’s subjective, but I mean, of course if you say you’re a USA buyer, you probably look more attractive to the factory. There’s two ways to look at it. Option one is you look like a stupid person that’s gonna overpay cuz you’re American and rich. But the other. You look more attractive cuz they wanna sell to [00:18:00] America.

So it’s, it’s kind of like a yin and yang. One is they’ll maybe give you a higher price cuz you’re American, but two is, they’ll maybe pay more attention to you at the show. But I think it’s better than not. So even some of my Chinese friends, they’ll use their US company to look like a us. Because you just register how you wanna register.

You gotta have a company. I have a US company, so I just use my US company, put my US company address, and I register as a US buyer. I haven’t been to the US [00:18:30] since you know, for so many years. I did this one. I was living in China when I first went and no, sorry, second time I went. But I kept this so you can just register as a US buyer.

Even I think like, you know, somebody that’s not, not American. If you have a US company, you use your US. And US company address. Keep going, but yeah, like Don says, you can go to like a five star hotel. I think that’s this 30 r and b person for a photo. And I think there is a small [00:19:00] feed to print the card, but yeah, it’s like 15 or $20.

But the dangerous part is this line can be really long, so the, and you can even do it at the event, but that’s even longer at the show. . So it’s not just about money, it’s also time. Hey, yeah, this is my badge and yeah, this is me. Some, some people we, we, we travel together, but yeah, you’ll have this anywhere it around your neck the whole time.

And then they scan it. I blurt it out, [00:19:30] but they scan it and it like gives your profile information to the vendor. You look like a teenager, man. They never changed a picture. I lost the card and I reregistered and they, they still, yeah. Yeah. Honestly, I had, I had to deal with the white background that was like I was 24 I think or something.

Like they never changed the picture. Even I lost the card. I reregistered, they still put the old picture. [00:20:00] I don’t know. Go back or, anyway, so yeah, of course. getting to the fair. So there’s hotel choices. I’m looking for hotels right now for the trip. I’m going the hotel, of course, next to the fair is expensive, so you can go downtown.

But then if you’re trying to get a cab, like this is like a picture. I, I went through my old pictures to make this yesterday, but of course it might be hard to get a taxi. They rip you off, right? Like there’s metros too, [00:20:30] Metro also. Yeah, that’s true. The subway’s good now, but the only thing about the subway is I think of just getting jam packed into the

You’re getting jammed, you’re squeezed in sometimes, right? It’s like one doesn’t get squeezed . But, but yeah, so the morning of especially, it’s only three or four days. He sometimes you just gotta be prepared and you know, plan in advance. But yeah, this is what it looks like from the [00:21:00] outside. It’s, it’s Pk, pk.

Pk. It’s it’s year round like this, but it’s empty most of the time. I don’t know what it’s used for the rest of the year, right? It’s just there for two times a year, but it’s, it’s so big. So I try to show you how big you take. You can get wait in line to take a cart from one side to the other . So there’s these lines and you’re waiting to get on this cart, and then it dumps people off on one side and it drives you to the.

Of course you could walk and have also the escalator, not the escalator. [00:21:30] Those moving walkways. Hmm. Moving walkway. Moving walkway. There we go. Moving walkways. But it’s just so huge. So wear sneakers or wear shoes like Tatiana. Do you have your high heels? Do you wear no heels? don’t wear heels. Or even guys, you know sneakers.

It’s a lot, a lot of walking. Like you, we, my friends and I with this, we see our steps just shoot through [00:22:00] the roof. So you’re gonna be like walking all the time there. It’s just huge. Keep scrolling. I’m trying. It’s hard to show, like I have videos, but it’s like each one has a room, right? And then it’s just massive booths.

keep going. And yeah, you’re just walking through these booths and they group them by product. So rows and rows, a product, same type of category. And then they have a booth set up and then they have their hot selling products [00:22:30] and you walk in and they have their sales people. They mostly speak English cuz they’re hoping to work with foreign.

but I’d still like to have somebody speak Chinese personally, cuz sometimes you can get into more detail or sometimes the way it works is they bring their English speaking sales assist team, which are not as knowledgeable of the product as the factory boss. And so you’re talking through their translator.

So of course the best is if you speak Chinese, but sometimes if you have somebody on your side that speaks Chinese, [00:23:00] it’s better because if they’re using their transla, It’s just sometimes better if you have your own interpreter. And I could dig into that if you want. And you’re gonna meet lots of people.

Like there’s, there’s networking. Keep going. Yeah. So on the fly, like that’s Rico down those Rico, I think, and some others. you’re just doing the on the fly like masterminds and, and round tables and talking about products and there’s meetups. And there are lots of stuff happening. Of course, right now with [00:23:30] Covid, this will be the first time it’s reopening since Covid, I think 2019 was the last time.

But the big one is if you go there to browse for products and not share what you want, don’t expect to get much results. Like even when the first time I went in 2007, I was already buying from some factories and they would tell me that they’re going to the Canton Fair, and they would say, I’m at. 185 B Q three nine, like it’s this complicated number system , and [00:24:00] I actually, I guess I’m kind of a geek, but I would map it out and I would, I would just pin where each one was and I would know, cuz it’s so big.

But normally you’ll, you’ll notice the cluster, so you’ll see that if you’re buying from similar factories, you’ll see where they are. And usually they’re near each. . But basically if you, a lot of sellers go and you’re like, I just want to get pro, of course I want to get product ideas too. But if you have not even an idea of a category and you just go, you’re, you’re gonna pr yeah, it’s [00:24:30] an experience, but you’re not gonna probably get results.

If you want results, you gotta do your homework first. You gotta kind of know even better is a lot of times you go to even meet your current factories cuz they’re there and you can see them all at the same time rather than fly all over. And meet ’em cuz they’re all in this, this one area. So basically you need to make a plan and we can talk about that more, but keep going.

But yeah, like I said, researching in advance. So this [00:25:00] website, again, I did, I just made this yesterday. Keep going down. The website’s gotten really upgraded since 2007 when I first signed up, but I. You can find the factories already. It’s not like it’s even, not even Alibaba. It’s Canton Fair. So they even have all the factories inside this Canton Fair website.

And you can prepare now. It’s there already, but it’s really about knowing your product. So I wouldn’t recommend [00:25:30] maybe bringing your, your branded product. Some of my hack. I guess I’m kind of shady, or maybe I think it’s smart, but I have multiple company names and I don’t, I don’t go around giving my name card.

It has my, my brand. I, I really, I’ve haven’t really registered friends companies for a while, but when I set up companies for people, I told mostly, don’t use your brand name as your company name. Use your company name as like kind of umbrella. one because you [00:26:00] can have multiple brands or multiple businesses.

Usually when you sell something, you don’t sell the company, you sell the brand. But also you can kind of protect yourself from people knowing your brand by your company. And there’s even more way more advanced stuff into this cuz I don’t want to, I have different exporter names. I import records cuz it’s all public and US customs.

So sometimes I actually purposely export different companies. I’m kind of going more. What I’m saying is I don’t, I wouldn’t walk into the trade [00:26:30] Canton Fair with my branded product like this and showing all of the factories one by one my product. I would maybe find one that doesn’t have my branding on it, but I would still bringing in my bag.

If I really wanted to dig into this flask and find a new supplier, I would try to find an unbranded one, or I would have multiple products in my bag. And other friends are like this too. You know, you have, maybe you have your finished product, but you also have like a p. And then I would sh more easily show people my prototype, [00:27:00] not branded and get some prices.

But when I was really hunting hard for one of my product lines, one year I went every single booth and I would write down all their prices, name cards. I would, sometimes you bring a stapler with a notebook and you staple the, the business card on the page, and you write the quote next. And break it down by page with photos.

Sometimes I would even, it would be funny, but I would, I’d, I’d take the name card with the girl’s face and I’d take a [00:27:30] picture with the product, with the car, with the girl. It’s usually women, but men or with that person. And then I would just be synced in my phone to Google Photos. And then later I’d go back to my hotel and I would break it down into a Google Doc.

But basically, you know, your, it’s your job to know your product. So many buyers or seller, I think it’s the factory to know the product, but that’s bullshit. Apple knows their products. Foxconn makes a product, but you give the specification to the factory to what you wanna [00:28:00] make factory. You know, you need to know your, or somebody on your team needs to know your product.

It’s really a cop out to say the factory makes it, you are in charge of making it. But basically I would bring samples in my bag and I’d have ’em. . I wrap ’em and I hide ’em, and then I open my bag cuz they’re really, they’re also there to try to get ideas of products to add to their, to their catalog.

So you don’t, could go around showing everybody your products, right? And another trick [00:28:30] is if you have a product at that factory that you tell ’em that you don’t want to sell, you send your friend to that booth and ask for your product. and see if they show it to them. . It’s kind of dirty, but I feel like this is stuff that you, you know, is part of what you need to do.

Yeah, , I think, I don’t know. I don’t call their people out, but Yeah. And these are other factories do this. They ask me as a favor to go to that booth as a buyer and ask them [00:29:00] questions for that, for that. . But

yes, it’s, I mean, the, the name cards are important though. For whatever reason, Chinese are still very analog. And, and so even when I think you sign up for Canton Fair, they ask for business card to attach to the application. Yeah, the physical, physical business card. Yeah. So if you’re gonna, if you’re gonna have your main company, you know, you don’t wanna give it out to any, every seller, you’re gonna get spammed.

I still get emails from five, six years ago of, of, you know, people sending me [00:29:30] stuff. It’s like, can’t get off their list. You can’t, he’s no unsubscribed. It’s somebody physically sending this stupid email. So of course there’s plenty of print shops in China, printing’s cheap, just like out here, but have have like shit ton of fake cards or cards that maybe go to a junk email.

Exactly. Your main card you’d give to somebody. Exactly. So it sounds like Shells, you know, every. The longer you do this, like I’ve, I’ve burned Skype accounts, man, I can’t even log into Skype cuz I used to give [00:30:00] everybody my Skype and it’s full of factories just spamming you with their latest offer of their new product.

It’s like I log in, but I still get like light, you know? But yeah, so just be aware that these name cards and anything you sign up for on Canton Fair is gonna get into these factory databases. But what another strategy is, I would, we would set up a shared Gmail or a email for [00:30:30] our team and we would just log in and that would be our sourcing mailbox.

So in a way it could be somewhat helpful cuz you’re just getting in this product constantly, but at least it separates it from your other email. Another note too is as you’re talking about products, it’s very common in China to. Almost like manufacturers that will have like trade companies that come in.

Yeah. And they represent them. So you’ll see the exact same product on different, at different booths. And then of course, [00:31:00] these are the question like, who’s, who’s the manufacturer, right? So if the every company’s gonna say they’re the one manufacturing it, it’s, it’s good to, if they are local, like, or in Guangdong, which majority of the factories are having, if you do have the time to actually make a trip to see the factory, Verify that they’re the, the actual manufacturer, that’s useful.

Cause otherwise you’re gonna be paying, you know, a higher margin off the product and less control of the, the factory. Yeah. Yeah. They can take you to their factory. Sometimes there’s some of ’em that will take you to the factory at the [00:31:30] fair during the fair or after dinner. You can also, you know, I don’t wanna say if you, you know, you can I don’t wanna, you know, I don’t want to like, you can get like, yeah, they’ll take you out, they’ll take you to dinner.

They’ll of course, see if you’re, hopefully you’re a real serious buyer, but they, that’s how they do business. So if they feel like you’re a real buyer, they’ll take you out. You know, they’ll, they’ll whine and dine you. And it can be fun or it can be, it could hurt your liver too sometimes. But but some questions that they ask you maybe stick to that.[00:32:00]

So some questions is, you know, what market, right? They’ll say, where is this? Where are you selling it? and when I was taking around my product once, trying to drive the price as low as possible, they started to tell me they could make it cheaper. Right? They can drive the price as low as you want, but it’s more like the reason they ask you what market you think.

At least I used to think like they’re trying to charge me more. Cause if I say E us, they’re gonna charge me more, which is true, but usually it costs more. Like a lot of Filipinos or [00:32:30] Thai people are upset with made in China because usually they sell to Southeast Asia or Africa. Lower quality, leftover, rejected quality control American products or European products.

So what happens is they fail QC in America, throw it in a pile for Thailand, throw it in a pile for Africa, and they sell the failed stuff to Africa or the, maybe it’s not to, it didn’t pass qc. Maybe it’s lower quality [00:33:00] material, lower quality plastic, lower quality leather. Fabric. So the reason I ask you what market is, because they’re trying to think what level of quality standard that those consumers require, because if Africa doesn’t, can’t pay a lot, then they make a cheaper version that can sell to that market.

So it’s, it’s, it’s a tricky one. So usually you should tell them what market you’re trying to sell to. Also because of certifications, they’ll usually know US needs this kind of a [00:33:30] certification, whereas Africa or Thailand doesn’t need that Certifi. Or Europe, right? It needs different certifications. So there are reasons they ask you.

I used to think that was just a scam for them to give me a higher quote. But it’s back to knowing your product. You need to know what material you’ll, you want in your product, so that that’s a common one. And of course, quantity. Like I, I know Indian buyers are notorious to say they want like a million pieces, right?

Tatiana’s like, no. [00:34:00] They’re, they negotiate hard cuz they say they want a huge amount and then they get the best, the high, the cheapest price. And then they say, oh, I only need a thousand . So they do that to get the lowest, to understand the lowest price. And then they try to get the factory to sell them at that price at a lower quantity, which of course that is.

That’s kind of, cuz of course the price should. cheaper if you buy more, right? But if you buy less, it should be more because the qu you [00:34:30] know, the, the, there’s a a lot of reasons for that. But they’ll ask you to look market in quantity. And also you wanna look like an experienced buyer. If you look, you don’t know what you’re doing, they’re gonna probably also charge you more.

And honestly, I’ve been doing this so long, I kind of understand why, because it, they need to teach you and it’s more hassle. And there’s more mistakes and there’s more miscommunications. So I do understand Now, I used to not understand, but now I do understand why keep going. But yeah, you’re trying to make deals.

You can actually, you know, there’s not usually [00:35:00] stock on site, but you can you can make some, get some quotes. You can get some prototypes. You can bring your samples. They can give you quotes. I usually, sometimes I go back to the same booth the next day, you know, cuz it’s like a three or four day. . So sometimes I’ll just think I’ll, I’m, I love sleeping on stuff now.

I really believe that you, you, you process things in your, in your sleep, you know, you’re, you’re processing your thoughts and you just need a little bit of break. So as sometimes you can go back to the same booth the next day, the, the next day you [00:35:30] can start to really build a relationship with them.

Extra slide. And then after the fair, you know, Like you said, you’re gonna get your, probably gonna get spam forever from them because you’re on their list. in that email. And, but just like anything, you know know what you want and try to be ready. You know, have a clear spec sheet and spec doc. Hit your, hit your asset [00:36:00] and keep going.

I think. So we feel like we squeeze a lot of tips. and we’re about at time. Cause I wanna do networking. Is there questions at this point or is this helpful?

Helpful. Okay. And keep going then. So like I said at the beginning, I’m doing a workshop tomorrow on Zoom from two to four. Here’s a small fee you can ask snooker me [00:36:30] after if you’re interested. It’s a little bit of a. It’s at bootcamp.global from asia.com. And then if you really want to join us, keep going.

It’s mostly gonna be for Singapore, where I’m working closely with Amazon Singapore to go to Canton Fair for phase two, but I figured I’m talking to you here and this is on a recording, so if you want to join us, Canton fair.global from asia.com it’s a, it’s all, it’s a package. It’ll come with the hotels and we’ll help you with the badges and we’ll help you with everything Visa.

Hopefully won’t be smooth , [00:37:00] but you can check that out and join us. Keep going. But yeah, make the product real. You know, you got time. It’s still early end of February, so, you know, I think you can really get your homework done now and not just go there blind, but if you start preparing what you’re looking for, you can make it happen.

And then we’ve got a webinar this Friday, 11:00 AM. Singapore time. So that’s 10:00 AM Thailand. It’s mostly for the Singapore Amazon community. [00:37:30] I’ll be mostly doing his talk actually. And then, like I said, I’m going, I just confirmed Tokyo. Do you know Gary Hong? Gary Hong, yeah. He’s in Tokyo now. So we’re gonna do Amazon.

He’s doing Amazon Japan event. And I’ll be attending to the, with the goal of, of launching in. . So I’m kind of deciding. I don’t know if it’s gonna be which brand, but I’m gonna try to launch one of my brands in Japan from this event. And then next month, I’m just repeating, I actually notice, [00:38:00] I’m just repeating this next month, Feb, Friday night, February 17th.

It’s actually St. Patrick’s Day. I’m gonna be speaking when Amazon’s in town about external traffic to Amazon, another free event. The 18th will be an Amazon. I don’t know exactly how it works. Actually I’m just going through, I’m gonna be an approved s p n provider, so I’m gonna be a service provider, network partner through global from Asia.

So this is kind of like, I guess my first kickoff for that next [00:38:30] month.

So the way this works is there’s a go. I don’t , we have thePage@events.global form asia.com/cm three. I’m trying to keep the CM two, CM three. This is number three, and I’m not doing registration. They are. So there’s a link to their Google form and then they, they will vet who can go, is the seating limit or like why would they, they seem like if someone’s interested in.

I’m [00:39:00] not really, I mean, first they probably want the email addresses of people to register, so I think they’ll most likely let you go. But I, I’m not in charge of the registration. It’s, this is, I’m a speaker, but it’s not, I’m not the organizer. Where is it? I think they’re still finding a place to be honest.

Okay. And then if you want to go to Singapore I’m gonna go there on Thursday, March 23rd, 3:00 PM to five. Supply chain management is the topic, [00:39:30] and it’ll be at Amazon’s office. And again, I’m kind of, I don’t know, the last, actually the last few months, I’ve been really deep with working with Amazon internal about training and workshops.

So I’ll be working with their Singapore. All right. Hope you enjoyed that little session of me sharing some knowledge and insights from Canton Fair. And if you wanna join us, it’s, it’s a ticket. If you’re a member in G F A V I P, you’ll always get special. [00:40:00] Special rates, special access. There’s some crows over here, and I’m still here in Singapore.

Waiting to go to speak at the Amazon event at 23rd floor. But a lot, a lot has been happening. If you’re in a newsletter, we have a newsletter. And in the newsletter we’ve been talking about all these events. We’re going to Japan as well for uh, Gary Wong, seven figure. Japan mastermind event. April 4th and fifth, actually flying out on my birthday from Thailand.

So a lot, a [00:40:30] lot of stuff going on, these birds are following me in the trees, but you know, we just keep on taking action, keep on learning. It’s honestly, I’m, I haven’t spoken yet at this event. I’m a little bit nervous. You know, it’s gonna be a lot of people. It’s in the official office and we are, we all need to just put ourselves out there, try our best.

And if you don’t take a risk, you don’t take a chance, you don’t take action, you’ll never make anything, you know, never make anything. [00:41:00] You’ll just be in your comfort zone. You gotta push outta your comfort zone. You gotta do it. Grow every single day. Try something new every single day. You know, even if you know, even if you’re, if you’re scared, this probably means you’re doing something right.

You know, it means you’re actually pushing your limits, pushing your boundaries. That, that’s when you know you are growing, if you’re scared, if you’re nervous. So that’s it for today. Check it out. We have the show notes as always. Transcriptions full, [00:41:30] blog links to maybe you can even meet you at the Canton Fair.

These crows are seriously following me. They’re jumping from tree to tree as I move. Is that a good thing? Really? All right. Thank you. Thank you. And let’s just keep on taking action. That’s my main thing. See you later. To get more info about running an international business, please visit our. At Triple w.global from asia.com.

That’s Triple [00:42:00] w.global from asia.com. Also, be sure to subscribe to our iTunes feed. Thanks for tuning in.