Finding product supplier for your business is very important. If your suppliers are unreliable or fail to deliver high-quality products, your company will have a hard time providing well-priced goods and services that meet customer expectations.
So, how do you choose the right product supplier? Here are five key steps to ensure you’re finding the best possible product suppliers for your products, components or raw materials.
Set your criteria when finding product supplier
To look for a good product supplier, you must first really know what you need. Therefore, setting criteria is a prerequisite to do. There are some basic criteria that you need to pay attention to:
Ideal Delivery Time: When finding product supplier, you will have to be concerned about how long it takes from the time an order is placed until they actually ship it. Does this time meet your requirements or not? For example, if you want to order from an overseas supplier, you will have to wait longer than the domestic supply. Or, if the supplier is manufacturing the item you ordered specifically, how long will it take for you to receive the product?
Maximum and Minimum Order Quantity: You must know if the product supplier you are looking for and will cooperate with can meet your number of orders. Taking an example, when you first start your business, you can only order at a low rate. However, after the business has stabilized and grown, what is the maximum quantity the supplier can supply? Does that amount match the quantity you want?
Quality Assurance Process: You must also set quality assurance criteria for the product supplier you will find. They will have to put in place a binding stipulation that their products will give you the quality they promise.
Price and Payment terms: Price is also a factor to consider. You have to compare prices between product suppliers to choose the best product with the most reasonable price. Besides, you also need to set criteria on payment terms for suppliers such as: Will they give you credit, if so, how much? How many days will they give you to pay the bill? How much discount will you get if you pay in time? If you pay in advance for the first order, will you get priority for the following orders?
Return Policy: You also need to set criteria for returns, about whether you can return it for any reason, what costs you will incur when returning, and what you will get back when you return.
Search and evaluate potential product suppliers
After you have set the necessary conditions, you need to conduct a search and evaluate potential suppliers. You should take care that it is not advisable to put all of your suppliers on one supplier, if possible, choose multiple suppliers to reduce the risk of goods.
When evaluating product suppliers, keep in mind the criteria you set. Besides, it is necessary to recognize and evaluate suppliers in terms of reliability, quality, value for money, accompanied service, their financial security and partner approach. You can find the product suppliers through a variety of channels. You should build a shortlist of possible suppliers through a combination of multiple sources to give you a broader base to choose from.
Call for bids after finding potential product suppliers
After you have a curated list of potential suppliers, you can issue a call to bid. During this process, ask suppliers to provide information about price, process, and quality. You should thoroughly investigate the planning and sourcing of raw materials by those suppliers. If you find a product supplier with any unreliable information, find out and ask clearly. This helps ensure that you’re working with a supplier whose supply chain is reliable so it doesn’t break and cause product shortages.
Evaluate bid submissions of potential product suppliers
The evaluation of bids is very important. The purpose of this is to identify and find a preferred product supplier that meets the requirements and criteria set forth. This is a rigorous examination, suppliers must ensure compliance with the terms, conditions, specifications and evaluation criteria set forth in the open bid. When participating in this assessment process, the parties must ensure fairness, no conflict of interest occurs and if so, they will be excluded from this assessment.
The evaluation of the bid package will be carried out by the senior official who is responsible for the documentation and the purchase. This evaluation process includes consideration of three key factors: process requirements, required requirements, and specifications.
Monitor supplier performance
Monitoring supplier performance makes it possible to capture the fastest risk situation. If by chance the current supplier has any problem that violates the contract and previously agreed requirements, you can completely claim compensation, cancel the contract and proceed to find product suppliers to ensure that business operations will not be interrupted and adversely affected. This is a very important factor after finding product supplier.
The Multi Source Inventory (MSI) by ConnectPOS, with the feature of managing supplier lists, will be an extremely effective tool for your business when finding product supplier. MSI is sure to help your business find an ideal supplier thanks to the facilities it offers.
Conclusion
Finding product suppliers is a prerequisite that directly affects the business activities of enterprises. Therefore, it is necessary to select suppliers meticulously and accurately. Now, contact us to find and choose the best ideal suppliers for your enterprises!
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