Finding China Clothes Suppliers – Why You Should Avoid China Clothes Wholesale Markets

Recently updated on November 15th, 2019 at 10:08 pm

Are you thinking about to venture out and start your own clothing line but stuck at finding a good China clothes manufacturer? With a vast ocean of China clothes suppliers to choose from, China clothing wholesale markets have a lot to offer. Even though, it’s not suggested to buy from Chinese clothes wholesale markets and here are the reasons why you should avoid China fashion suppliers from the markets.

1. At least 80% are middlemen

Most China garment suppliers in the wholesale markets are just wholesalers partnering with factories. From our past experience dealing with China wholesale clothing stores in the markets, usually they had to call the factory to confirm some details even in front of us, when something wrong happened, they would blame the factories, the most common one is frequent delays in delivery time, “Sorry, we’re been pushing the factories but the factories are not happy to do it coz the orders are too small and too troublesome, they arranged big orders first”.

2. Language Barrier

It’s very rare for China cloth suppliers in the wholesale markets to speak passable English. If you are buying several pieces or retail that are ready in the shops there isn’t any problem as you can also communicate just pointing to the clothes or use calculator.

Some suppliers do speak limited English but be careful when it comes to some complicated orders or processes. In Chinese culture, sometimes people tend to say “yes”, which means with respect I’m listening to you, they might not understand at all.

It happened to one of my friends Patrick from Barbados, he ordered some clothes from a clothing supplier in China. The lady speaking limited English seemed to understand and said ok to everything, so he placed the order and went back Caribbean. In one month his shipping agent picked up the goods from the lady. He was happily waiting for his clothes. However, after another month, the clothes haven’t arrived. He was told by his shipping agent that they couldn’t proceed with custom declaration as the handbag lady didn’t give them the packing list, commercial invoice, etc..documents needed for custom declaration in China.

Then Patrick contacted the clothing lady via whatsapp, first she said ok then later ignoring all the messages. Another two weeks have past then Patrick called me urgently for help. I contacted the clothes supplier later, only to find that she had no clue about all the processes for export, the tags were also misplaced.

3. Lack of understanding of international business

Most China wholesale fashion clothes suppliers in the markets have never been outside of China. Since mainland China is quite conservative, dictatory, most average people would never adapt to international business practices or understand where the customers come from, their culture, etc. Instead, they only see money in their eyes and expect you to adapt to their way of doing business.

4. Most stocks are Asian sizes

If you are not targeting at Asian countries these can be great problems. Even some suppliers claim that they can make according to your sizes, however, they don’t have EU size charts and MOQ is not small.

5. Complicated processes

All the hassles dealing with Chinese clothes suppliers from wholesale markets can be great headache. Some suppliers are so sneaky. For example: Once we ordered a dress 20 pieces each for size S, M and L in two colors black and white. When they arrived we found that some black dress 18 pieces in size M, 22 pieces in size L, size S has 16 pieces in white and 24 pieces in black. Few items even had small problems. But they never told us about it!

6. Not able to put on your logo tag

For ultimate branding purpose, logo is vital if you do not want to sell under other’s brand name. Printing your logo directly onto the clothes, or woven around the neck or with swing tag can easily push your brand name into public eyes. However, most clothing shops in China clothes markets do not offer the service unless you buy a huge quantity.

7. Not able to convert Chinese sizes into the sizes in your country

Most size tags as attached to the clothes are marked in Chinese ways. The sizing system in Asia and Europe varies a lot. Check our another article of China T-shirts manufacturers on how to convert from Asia sizes to EU sizes.

8. Stocks run out fast

Many clothing stores in the wholesale markets only produce a limited amount of stocks for hot selling items. Nobody would risk losing money investing on new styles that they’re not sure whether can sell or not as fashion trends change swiftly. The stocks will be updated if they go well but it would take sometime for the factory to produce them. That means in an open market place when you buy stocks the chances are quite high that some items are not available, you might have to wait for an uncertain period of time to collect all the goods.

9. Low to medium quality

If you’re looking for high quality clothes with attention to detail or more competitive edge, China clothes wholesale markets are certainly not the place for you as most sellers specialized on low to medium quality clothes with fabrics/accessories or styles that you can find in other places.

10. Almost no after-sales

While buying from China clothes wholesale markets, changing rooms are rare, not to mention any after-sales service. The deal is considered completed once you pay and leave the shop with the goods.

To bridge the gap and offer a much reliable solution for custom made clothes manufacturing in China, I started a joint venture with an Italian fashion designer with 15 years of experience designing and manufacturing clothes in Guangzhou, China. If you are looking for China clothing factory, comment below or send us an email, our dedicated clothes consultant would get back to you as soon as possible.