12 tips for doing safe E-Commerce

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1. Know more about your potential buyers by going to their website to find out more about their company. You should also search for their company name in the search engine to check their business reputation.

2. Pay close attention to big, urgent orders or government purchase orders. Use your own business experience and common sense to make a judgment.

3. Only use secure payment methods to protect yourself, such as L/C payment or a third-party payment service or an escrow service. Third-party payment services allow you to transfer money into an online account and make payments from that account without exposing your credit card or bank account information. You’re recommended to use a well-known escrow service, such as PayPal to transfer your payment.

4. Make detailed inquiries about any third-party payment company or online escrow service a buyer wants to use before you agree to use it. We have received reports of fraudulent buyers who will insist that the seller uses a third-party payment service or an escrow service that turns out to be fraudulent. The seller ships the item to the escrow service, but never receives payment or the return of goods. If a buyer insists on using a particular escrow or online payment service that you’ve never heard of, check it out by visiting its website or calling its customer service line. If there isn’t one, or if you call and there is no answer, don’t use the service. If the service claims to be affiliated with a government agency, that’s the sign of a scam.

5. Be cautious of companies from countries which are often targeted by scammers. We have received reports of fraudulent buyers who are mainly from Nigeria, Benin, and other African countries.

6. Look out for Fraudulent Cheques or Money Orders. Sometimes, your bank may not alert you that a fake cheque or money order has been rejected until after you have shipped the merchandise. If you are suspicious about a cheque because it has been written by a third party or for any other reason, call the person who wrote the check to verify that they have authorized it. If you receive a cheque or money order for an amount that exceeds the successful bid, and the buyer asks that you wire the excess funds back to him or to a third party, do not wire the money. Instead, return the cheque to the buyer, and do not ship the merchandise.

7. Pay attention to buyers, who insist on paying by credit cards because they might be using stolen or invalid credit cards. If you choose to accept credit cards, contact the company that has issued the card to verify that the name on the card matches both the shipping information and the contact information you've received.

8. Be cautious of buyers who are not concerned with the cost, quality, delivery time of the product and don’t want to discuss more details about the product with you. Generally speaking, a serious buyer should be very concerned about such information.

9. Use tracking services when shipping. For trial orders, it is usually the buyer's responsibility to pay for shipping samples; however, the seller usually chooses the shipping method. To help ensure that your items arrive in a timely manner, and to help prevent fraudulent buyers from claiming that they never received an item (when, in fact, they did), use a shipping service that includes tracking, or consider paying or charging extra for tracking services.

10. If the buyer requests that you send payment to an address other than his registration company address, it could be a fraudulent request from a scammer. Be cautious of this kind of scam.

11. Never respond to unsolicited requests to update your account information. These could be scams that can lead to identity theft. Most legitimate companies never send unsolicited e-mail or Instant Message requests for a password or other personal information.

12. Don’t use an online escrow service that doesn’t process its own transactions and requires you to set up accounts with online payment services. Legitimate escrow services never do this.





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Provide Proforma Invoice to Avoid Dispute

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what is the best way to make a quotation? How much information is necessary to avoid confusion at later stages of the deal, and are there parts of a quotation that may be considered to be legally binding?

When importers request quotations, experienced exporters always provide them with a proforma-invoice.

A pro forma invoice is similar to a quotation, but is more formal and if done right provides solid information to help the importer make decision. A Proforma invoice is an invoice provided by a supplier in advance of providing the goods or service. Proforma-invoice however, resembles commercial invoice and provides information to the importer the product to be shipped including itemized list of charges, pricing terms, quantity, value, weight, size and other important specifications of the transaction. Proforma-Invoice is one of the most important and common document the importer receives prior to shipment.

Many legal experts suggest that proforma-invoice is considered as a legally binding document, even though price might change prior to the final sale of the goods. When an exporter provides a proforma-invoice to the importer the importer can use the proforma-invoice to request foreign currency if his currency is not freely convertible. Proforma-invoice can also help the importer apply for a letter of credit at his bank.

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Protecting your Trade Secrets in China

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Protecting customer lists, supplier information, manufacturing processes and product formulations from the risk of theft.

Before China's World Trade Organization (WTO) entry in 2001, the PRC government required foreign companies in many sectors to partner with domestic counterparts before granting the foreign company permission to operate in China. This requirement often left the foreign company's trade secrets (generally customer lists, supplier information, manufacturing processes and product formulations that cannot be determined from the product itself) at risk of theft by its own business partner.

But since China's WTO entry, many foreign firms have been able to operate as wholly foreign-owned enterprises in China; thus more foreign companies have been able to operate profitably without having their trade secrets compromised.

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Negotiate the overall transaction, not just the good price

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When we think about negotiating, price is always the topic that comes up first. We ask basic questions like: Why does it cost so much,? What does it really cost, and how can we make it lower? In our quest for nice prices in China, it is sometimes easy to forget that we should be negotiating for a successful overall transaction and not just a good price.

Here are a few tips that will help make your transaction a long-term success:

Quality Control Process:

How will quality be managed? What are the forms, reports, schedules, inspections and certifications that will be required? Both the buyer and the factory need a clear understanding of their responsibilities, especially when a third party is supplying raw materials or goods in process for final assembly that neither the factory nor the buyer may fully control. In more technical fields, the production process document may be much longer and more important that the general commercial contract.

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How to Locate Better/Faster/Cheaper Suppliers?

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Good, reliable suppliers are critical to your business. But where can you find them? How can you locate the manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors and service providers you need?

Better, faster, cheaper.

Those three magic words can turn your hot prospects into happy customers. But in order for you to give your customers better products, faster service and lower rates, you have to develop a core group of reliable suppliers who cut you good deals on the products and services you buy.

Finding reliable suppliers who will sell to you at low cost is no easy task. In fact, it's not unusual for small businesses to find they can buy certain products cheaper from Wal-Mart than they can from a wholesaler. Nor is it unusual for a wholesaler or distributor to refuse to sell to a very small business. That's because it will take their sales staff the same time to process your $150 order as it would to process a $5,000 order.

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Strategies for China Sourcing

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China Sourcing has evolved into a global supply chain strategy with the emergence of china manufacturers to the fore. It no longer comes across as an option but a significant imperative.

China sourcing offers freedom of business planning to be competitive by way of reduced costs. If at all there are limitations, for the success of China sourcing, it is only in the form of
1.Lack of understand
2.Lack of incentive
3.Perception of risk Strategizing Your China Sourcing
Strategizing China sourcing is not a cake walk or a quick fix solution for short-term goals. Any sourcing manager taking China sourcing as done must also be aware of political dynamics in both US and China which trigger price imbalances and that this will only lead to a degeneration of the differential prices. Nevertheless, it is true that because of low-cost manufacturing capability of China manufacturers that China sourcing is a strategic agenda.

Cost Reduction with China Sourcing

The general remark that ‘China sourcing is too big a task for too little gain’ isn’t entirely untrue. Given that, reduction in cost can’t be achieved without adapting better industrial practices such as improved design and contract terms and it must never be at the cost of quality or performance.

Cost reduction efforts payback better if china sourcing is coupled with optimal supply chain management. Exploring air freight alternative may be an option to compensate for stock-out losses.

Many common hidden expenses that eat out into the bottom line can be offset with calculated implementation of rational steps such as this, which otherwise can, in all probability, washout benefits of china sourcing strategies. On the contrary, lengthening of supply chains with China manufacturers can only beat the purpose of sourcing from china.

The impact China sourcing will have on your business will be tremendous. On one hand, there is high end-market and on the other, the low-cost and innovative china manufacturers rising upto the challenge. Giant SAP finds China manufacturers as low-cost R&D providers.

By any perspective, China sourcing is a typical long term strategic decision is a foregone conclusion. It is also one of the biggest chance your or any American companies can wish to have and stay afloat in competition without damaging profit margins.The lonely focus on China sourcing must be influenced by the desire to be closer to healthy and growing demand realities first than being fixed on cheaper costs alone to retain price competitiveness.




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Choosing China Suppliers

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Choosing a china supplier is no easy task. No amount of care is going to be helpful in ensuring absolute safety unless you carry out the right due diligence. Still, there is no guarantee that any transaction can be 100% safe let alone with China suppliersbut not applying these fundamental tests may walk you to ruins and will have all of yourself but no China suppliers to blame for.

Firstly, you need to beat the laze and haste both of which are against the principles of due diligence. You will need to be all of eyes when you do the due diligence in order to steer clear off the frauds that galore around import/export business.

Steps in Due Diligence to Choose China Suppliers
Cost test: Don’t enter a market in which you have no competitive knowledge as you will not be able to judge suppliers through cost parameter. Alarm bells must ring if the asking price is beyond 30% of market on any side. If this is extremely low, you must be instantly able to tell something is amiss, so that you can take steps cautiously.

Contact test: Get telephone numbers not cell numbers and check whether they are real. Check whether addresses given by China suppliers match the addresses available with domain registrars. Search for the address to ensure that numbers belong to the address provided by the china suppliers.




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