How To Make Product Samples With A Factory Guide
Venturing into the world of product sourcing and procurement, whether you’re a burgeoning entrepreneur, a seasoned retailer, or a new business owner, often begins with a crucial step: ordering product samples. This initial phase is more than just a preliminary check; it’s a strategic move that lays the foundation for quality assurance, supplier reliability, and future business success. Understanding how to order and evaluate product samples effectively ensures that the final products align with your business’s standards and expectations.
In this article, we will guide you through the essential steps and considerations for ordering product samples from suppliers, whether they are located domestically or overseas. From selecting suitable suppliers to communicating your requirements clearly to handling the logistics of sample shipping to evaluating the samples upon arrival, each stage of this process requires careful attention and informed decision-making.
We will also discuss the importance of product samples in assessing the quality of materials, workmanship, functionality, and overall compatibility with your market needs. Furthermore, this article will offer insights into negotiating sample terms, understanding the costs involved, and balancing cost-effectiveness and quality assurance.
Join us as we explore the art of ordering product samples, a critical step in building successful supplier relationships and ensuring the quality and viability of your products. Whether sourcing electronics, apparel, home goods, or other products, this guide will equip you with the knowledge and tools necessary to make informed decisions and set the stage for successful product sourcing.
The next step is ordering product samples when you find a suitable supplier with a decent quote. Before you begin production, this is a crucial step to ensure that the supplier is legit and will make your product exactly how you want. We created this guide to cover everything you need about samples. We’ll cover the types of samples, best practices, and several great tips.
Why should you order product samples?
Ordering product samples before you make a purchase order is an essential step. In most cases, this will be the first time you see your product. Here are the main reasons for ordering product samples. Make sure that the supplier is legit.
If you order a customized product, seeing its appearance before a production run is essential.
Check to see how the product will look before production
Make sure the manufacturer is capable of making your product
It would help if you never trusted the supplier to say they can make it and that you need to have them produced.
Common Types of Product Samples
There are a few different types of samples that you should expect to receive depending on your product.
Off-the-Shelf Samples // These are the most essential product samples you can get and are products they have made that they have pulled off a shelf or from their warehouse. These typically have little to no customizations. Be careful with these as a trading company, posing as a factory, could have bought it from a store.
Material samples // These are not finished goods but are samples of materials they can use in the product. Common examples of this are different types of woods and finishes. Fabric swatches
Customized Factory sample // If you are doing private or white-label products with minimal modification, you will order a premade sample the factory has. The factory often remakes these, but if you get some customizations, then.
Production Sample //These are made on the actual production line as close, if not exact, as possible to your specifications. These will also use the same methods used in production; in some cases, the factory will document the steps for your reference.
Randomly selected Finished Samples //These are taken either in the middle of production or at the end before you make the final payment. After a random mass order, these are parts of the finished product to ensure quality control. Some people will have an inspector evaluate them. In contrast, others will be fine with photos or doing it yourself.
Ordering product Samples
Once you have found a supplier, you need to ensure that you order product samples. This should be a relatively straightforward process if they are a legitimate supplier. If you provide them with your product spec sheet and, depending on the complexity, ask for them to send you a product sample of either product.
Just be aware that ordering samples can be a process if you are getting a customized product; it’s not uncommon to have 2, 3, or even more product samples shipped so that you can make sure that you get it right. There’s a saying that it’s better to do something right than on time. That is true in this case.
Sometimes, they get it right off the bat, and it only takes a week or two; other times, it takes more than a month with multiple back-and-forth shipments, tweaking components or parts each time. Regardless of the time and effort required to ensure the results are good, it is better to spend time and money at this phase than later, when mistakes can become exponentially costly.
At the end of the process, you must ensure that the final sample you approve is what you want for production. Both the supplier and you will use it as a reference to compare the finished goods, so be sure you take the time to do it right. Many call this the production, reference, or golden master sample. Regardless of what you call it, ensure you do it right.
Should you pay for samples?
Mostly yes, but sometimes no; this is something that you need to negotiate with the supplier. Some suppliers will make a sample for free, and others will require you to pay for the sample production. In most cases, but only sometimes, will the supplier expect you to pay to ship.
Typically, You are expected to pay a small sample fee, ranging from free plus shipping to the normal total retail price. You should expect to pay more than retail plus shipping if you get a custom-made item. Shipping is also usually by air, which is more expensive but takes 3-5 days versus more than one month. Using PayPal for the sample is typically the best way to pay due to solid buyer protection.
Regarding shipping, the factory will almost always ship the samples via air, which can get expensive, depending on the sample size. Expect to pay about 50-100 USD for small items; the cost can be several hundred dollars for larger items. In addition, you often need to send samples you have made for reference or have samples with revisions. This can result in several shipped orders and cost quite a bit.
If you think the cost of ordering a sample is high, you can negotiate to deduct it from the purchase order. However, regardless of the high price, it’s worth spending money now to save money on any significant revisions later.
The Best way to pay for samples
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The best way to pay a supplier for a sample is usually PayPal. Even though the fees are high, PayPal has one of the best fraud detection systems of any payment service. If the factory does not have a PayPal account, it may be because PayPal suspended them for fraudulent actions.
Bundle Samples: if you are ordering more than one
In many cases, you will be ordering multiple samples from multiple suppliers. In this case, having each shipped separately by air from China to the US can be costly. The easiest way to avoid this cost is by shipping them to a company in the country where the factory is located and having them bundle multiple samples into one box. This service is typically called sample bundling and is a standard service from sourcing companies.
How to evaluate Product Samples
When you get samples, you want to be sure that you are very thorough in evaluating the samples to ensure that it meets your expectations. The best way to do this is to review your original product spec sheet and compare every part to ensure it matches your description. In some cases, they may have made a sample precisely as the product spec sheet specifies, but it’s not what you expect. In that case, it likely means you must update your product spec sheet to reflect your vision better. It is not uncommon to keep evaluating samples.
If you have specific use cases you cannot test yourself, you can work with a lab or product testing service to test your samples. It is easy to send the samples from the factory to the lab to provide this service.
Things to keep in mind about samples
For the most part, we should have covered everything, but there are a few other things to note:
Many product samples are handmade
Often, a staff member makes the samples by hand when the final product is on a production line. It is often essential to ask how your samples are being made so that you can make sure that the result is the same. You can do things by hand when you are not constrained by the time you cannot do on a production line. If this is the case, you should do a test run and have a sample shipped early in production to verify.
The final sample will be used as a reference for production and QC
Ultimately, you should ensure the product looks and performs exactly how you want. If not, ensure the supplier can revise and send a new one. If you are not confident that the supplier can make it exactly, then it may mean you should look for a new supplier.
Remember always to send feedback to the supplier.
Whether the sample is good or bad, let the supplier know exactly what you think. If it’s good, let them know. Everyone loves to hear compliments and then get ready for the mass order. If it is terrible, either make changes; if they can’t, go with a different supplier.
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