Discover the Perfect Invoice No Format for Product Quality

Invoice no format for Product quality

hey guys I want to welcome you to liftoff [Music] I want to introduce you to you ping Yu ping is a sourcing agent but so much more she actually was a lawyer in China before she moved to the u.s. in Dessau Riza round-the-world and one of my favorite things about you ping and she's going to talk about commercial invoices because you know Amazon asks is you for those so everybody I'd like to introduce you to you ping everybody thank you so much for being here today I want to introduce you to you Pete she has an incredible story we're gonna ask her some of the most challenging questions you guys run into when it comes to sourcing she has years and years of sourcing experience and she's also you have actually an opportunity to meet her in Los Angeles March 8th to 10th at EECOM 2019 so you ping I want to say thank you so much for being here today thank you and I would love for you to share your story like how did you get to where you are today I know you have some vast experience when it comes to sourcing and before you answer everyone I just want you to know you ping is not like a sourcing agent who knows a few things and knows a few factories she understands sourcing at a deep level she's a very intelligent woman which you're soon gonna know and I'm just excited that you're here I think people are gonna be very excited to learn what you have to share with them I worked as attorney in China and until I was challenged by the ethical issues where I have to choose whether I wanted to continue to practice law or I wanted to choose the different career paths so once I got to you u.s. I worked in a business school and after the business school I start to work in the supply team function and that was like 20 years ago and that's how I have started my career in supply chain management work for different companies different industries and I have this you know incredible passion to do the fighting to help business to improve their business bottom line and that I just continue to excel you know what I do can you talk a little bit you peeing about what are you some of your biggest successes I I know you are not a proud person like an arrogant person you're humble but I want you to tell people so they know who they're talking to tell us some about your biggest successes that you've had do not be shy I can't actually I don't have success you know when I look into any company's business how their supply chain is set up and I'm very serious about this I look at any given business and see how they're they choose their supplier the supplier location how they invest in their tooling how they plan their inventory how they ship their product I see a pie of money in their supply chain so my goal is to bring home some of the money helped improve the profitability of the business and how the business to be more successful is really the business success not much of my personal success so really come down to how I can help the business and lately I have been sharing some the sourcing knowledge on the YouTube channel if I can help so many people to improve their sourcing and their business bottom line I think that is awesome how do you do it how do you when you look at supply chain management and I love how you put it you ping I love how you say you basically try to help them save money how to improve the cash the cash flow profitability of the business how do you do that what are some of the first things you look for in order to save your clients money well you look at their business model and their supply chain setup if the business model for example right now onion is option based I don't know the style the color the shape they want for their final configuration but this business I'm in right now promised the customer that we can ship the product within 48 hours that means my supply team has to be set up to be as flexible as possible to support the promise that the business is making to the customer but to have the supply team to be flexible I if I have to deal with the suppliers have a lead time that is three months four months sometimes even five months that is the big supply chain challenge so to save money on the supply chain side I have to find the partners in the supply team that those companies are not just willing to be good suppliers there are so many companies wanting to be your suppliers right you can find them but not so many that are capable to be your partners what I mean is when I actually design inventory program with the company I asked for payment terms I asked them to expedite productions they have to be in a position to put onto the cash flow to do that so with my current suppliers I have suppliers around the world from Europe from China from Taiwan from Norway across you know the continents so I have to find those suppliers who can be true partners like really we have inventory programs stocking programs to shorten the lis time so I can offset some of the cash flows that I have to put out to run the business and negotiating on the payment terms so these are true partners you know once the supplier is selected and they are the partners I really putting a lot of effort to cultivate that deep trust right I mean I take supply team seriously when I look at you know go into a business I do you know I specifically designed this is the supply chain set up I want to support this business model what would you say you ping are the biggest challenges that Amazon sellers or e-commerce sellers run into when they're trying to source a product like what are the most common ones that you're seeing in your experience you mean besides the language barrier coach mo difference Nexus you know when I when I went to China my first time was so helpful just being there and trying to understand the differences in culture and the misunderstandings that's huge then we went and we trade a whole bunch of people and sourcing and we went through EMU China and that was also educational each time we go it just reminds me it really is a different way of thinking and people assume they're on the same page but maybe not so now you want to share like what would you say like what do you experience that yeah ecommerce sellers and Melissa this is just usually some of the biggest challenges that they're running into well at the beginning you have those challenges but over time you'll learn right your suppliers communication style and you can also learn from your own communication what is causing the supplier to use that nurse to do so I specifically emphasize on the one two three you don't you know mingle your questions in one sentence you list it out like one two three so they understand your points and they answer each one of them because they are trained going through schools the teacher always say you know answer these question one two three though besides that I think at the beginning you overcome the communication challenges but over time I think most new beginning sellers in summary they are just facing this pile of unknowns they don't know who is the supplier they don't know if they wire the money to China if they're going to get you know any protection and you know these are the fears that's facing for the new sellers in general do you recommend the thirty seventy or forty sixty rule where you know so I'm selling Amazon and I'm gonna send part of the money over to them wire it through my bank international transfer then they build it then we have a product inspection then I send the rest after it's approved do you recommend that kind of approach or you have any other approaches that you think are helpful when it comes to payments there's no other choices at the beginning you don't have any leverage they don't trust you yeah so you know for the sellers I would recommend you really absolutely hundred percent have to do three things number one is you really really really know your supplier when you choose a supplier is like getting a business marriage you really do need to know who they are what they do where they are at if I ask you where's your supplier don't know she washing and don't know where my supplier is you need to pinpoint exactly where their factory is and what their key competency in terms of manufacturing your product and before you make the down payment the terms and condition on the purchase order I strongly recommend everybody think about the consequences and spelled out all of the terms and conditions that's like a you know marriage prenup for your business as possible so that you when there's a dispute or disagreement you know what its settlement is going to be for how to resolve those and before you make the final down payment I would say you know everybody agree that every single shipment you need to have a final inspection so if you wanted to conquer the fear you must do do three things know your supplier another question for you you think and thank you again for being here today and by the way before we continue you can all wants to learn more about what you do what website do you want them to go to or any any place oh I just started to the YouTube channel to share the sourcing knowledge with people is a good life warrior sourcing warrior on the YouTube channel they can find me there awesome good life sourcing warrior I love that you call it a warrior as you may know that's what we call our members what happens if we're trying to find a supplier to build a product that is not on the market and so you go to one supplier and say oh we can't make that another supplier we can't make that and say let's just say it's made out of leather like the wallet but it's a different kind of material so we then going to a supplier who builds products out of the same material even though they haven't built this one what are your thoughts on that how do you do that yeah every day actually I have similar challenges with the product that's the player never build it yeah so if for the Amazon sellers I would recommend break down the bill material find a unique thing find that unique component within your view of material that nobody has it so find a supplier who has a similar product you know similar product and ask them to customize I think like you know in the case of that leather wallet yeah I would go with the supplier who has a similar product and ask them to customize but first you don't have to overwhelm them with the whole product he does I know unique parts that's that really makes sense and I think that's very helpful and hearing you saying that still is a challenge is he I think it's encouraging because some people think bandit you know I can't find a supplier that no one can do it you know think of my mind there was a day when this wasn't created there was a day when this wasn't created I mean someone what about a phone like there was a day when no one had created it so someone had to commit somebody to build it at some point and obviously there's a way to do that it's harder but then you can differentiate better products I mean it's not that difficult for most of the Amazon sellers product is not difficult because if it's injection molded parts is so easy you know you can make any shape or form out of injection molding if it's the plastic parts right and you just defined the product category where you're you need a commode components belongs to find those suppliers to customize a special form or shape for you now what if Amazon and this is very common for Amazon sellers where someone will make what's called an authenticity complaint for example would be a competitor you know they're saying oh well your product isn't you know this isn't real leather for example or anything or someone saying yeah this isn't a real product or it's or it's a fraud and so what Amazon will do is they'll close the listing temporarily and they'll say I need you to supply us with commercial invoices of where you source this product now people struggle with this because they're thinking ok if I send invoices from China well Amazon accept it now a lot of people they think the Performa invoice and I know that's not that's not acceptable right so my first question is what do you do when the supplier sends you a commercial invoice but it's all in Chinese and most people at Amazon the frontline staff they don't reach I mean but they can't do anything with it yeah what are you do you have any other option or suggestions when you need that commercial invoice yeah so I wouldn't recommend anybody any business before you because you are on prepayment basis when you make the down payment and the final payment at the 70% before you make some payment I would recommend you to mandate your supplier to render the commercial invoice and the packing list after your final inspection you know how many they're shipping after final inspections effective products are being deducted from the total list right so commercial invoice I'm taking list our mandate for the customer clearance so you should a mandate your supplier to render that commercial um packing list for the suppliers who has very little a sporting experience like you're saying they have only Chinese version of it you can create commercially moisten packing list template ask them to put it on their letterhead and always use this template to fill out the quantity weighed and dim and to send it to me before your final shipment is I can pay again stacked so I can use it to clear my shipment and if the Amazon demand for that and you can use you know the email directly from your supplier to prove this is not what you manufactured it's actually from the factory right you know use that as a proof that is so a question on the template so if the Amazon solar creates a template they're giving the template to the supplier and the suppliers filling it out on the template is that correct let's say you you you ship a thousand at this unique cost right so you create a commercial you moist it's a simple Excel it's a simple excel sheet of how many you are shipping unique cost and total cost and that's a commercial you moist and packing list it's almost identical except it has a weight and dimensions to this load right so this is a set of document commercial and commercially away sent packing list this said it's needed for custom clearance so you create the template for your supplier every single time the shipment quantity may be the same or different right all you have to do is to fill in the quantity catch it right and then put it on their letterhead and email you a copy and that's your commercial invoice impact list that makes sense because it has their letterhead so it's obviously legitimate me but you now it's in English through an excel sheet some incorrect yeah that's really good and everyone listening it us encourage you guys this is what you just heard is gold this is one of the big struggles a lot of Amazon sellers will run into some will generate their own invoice some will buy it from an American supplier and then drop into number so the Amazon will accept it more likely some will send into P iris networks commercial so this is really really good beeping it's important to for you if you're importing from overseas right your freight forwarder needs the commercial invoice and Peckham is to clear the custom that is your proof of entry when you actually have a record of your import shipment coming through US custom your commercial invoice is attached to the value that you're declaring you cannot as just run it randomly give you your forwarder a number they have to use some kind of document to surrender to the US custom and the fact that it's already there it's a matter of leveraging that and connecting that to what Amazon needs you have that information already so that makes total I knew that the best the best time to ask for it is after inspection make it a mandate it should be on your terms conditions on your appeal for that because after the inspection you know the exact number and all the details therefore it's gonna reflect it accurately is that the main reason yes because um commercial invoice it's used for their as port declaration as well I need to be consistent and I create a lot of times before inspection you know the after inspection quantity the final shipping quantity could be different so after the inspection you can ask the supplier render the commercial you moisten packing list before I make the final payment my final payment is going to be against exact shipping quantity under the dollar amount now you mentioned product inspection let's talk about that for a minute yes well there's these ideas out there that all part of inspections should be 100% I've noticed that a lot of Planet inspection companies will do maybe 20 to 25% and their thinking is well it's coming off this machine they have a whole bunch you know what 20 20 to 25 percent of the products already then the chances are the rest are going to be fine so it seems like a waste of time and money to do all of them your thoughts on that you ping hundred percent agree because it's based on criticality of your you know your product my recommendation is the result the quality of your inspection result it depends on the quality of your inspection checklist so it doesn't matter how many you inspect you if you're inspecting against the wrong criteria or insignificant criteria it doesn't really matter right so your inspection checklist is the key for you to inspect it doesn't matter ten percent who is hundred percent so I always recommend people from the moment you receive your product sample from the moment you receive your sample you should start to document what could go wrong a every iteration of the sample you start to build out your inspection checklist in the end when you have the final inspection checklist you gave a copy to your supplier not only you use it for the third party but also gave it to your supplier so they can do the internal inspection they can use it as a quality checklist as a reference and then you use the same checklist with the third party to check it doesn't matter whether it's 10 percent twenty percent a depending on how confident with your supplier if it's the first time you can op the percentage don't listen to the third party recommendation is really your business right you know you're paying the money yeah exactly exactly and in the second time if the first time passed and you can you know decrease the inspection ratio but you still do it what do you recommend you being where people go to find a product inspection company do you have any ones that you reckon men is that a service that you offer is like where do people start because people get scared like okay I'm here in the US or in the UK and they haven't been to China they don't have any connections what recommendations would you have on that um I personally don't offer you inspection service I don't do certain thing I don't do inspections I can't share my knowledge with people he there's so many companies I think within your own student group there's people use different agencies I don't particularly recommend anyone but I think overall they're quite good like Asian inspection if you really up for level SGS is pretty good but they charge a lot more their greatest like Asian inspection these third parties are everywhere there are some union videos can do that too right yeah this is really good and it's funny you say that because for a while we would recommend inspection companies ones that I have used that I liked but sometimes they can change and sometimes they get worse or better so finally we stopped recommending them and said look reach out to the community ask me working for you right now so it's because and I think different inspection agency has a different key competencies right and if any inspector has a different knowledge set I mean if you you are doing an electronic product or you're doing a fabric product you know deliver the different key competencies very true because they know what to look for or maybe they don't know what to look for exactly you ping I on everybody you peeing is a wealth of knowledge and I want you guys to know something and it's hard to know just in one short conversation you ping is a joyful person I don't know how else to say it she's joyful the first time I met her she didn't miling and happy and like life just flows from her and this is why I'm so excited she's gonna be with us in Los Angeles March 8 to 10 talking about these kinds of things you're discussing and if you're sourcing any products from anywhere you're going to get to a point where you have to get help from a supplier so she's gonna be speaking I'll need a supplier and I like how you put that you lead a supplier that was taking ownership leadership and find more profit in sourcing now there's one last question I have to ask you in this I saved the best for the last questions on it you King it is so difficult sometimes for Amazon sellers to know if they're dealing with an actual factory or trading and I know sometimes it's not as simple as that sometimes it is a factory that in some things they are act as a trading company and some things they don't I get that and I know that the Western mindset is very different from the factory then if you go to China and look at them that might be you know a very old room dingy lights but a state-of-the-art machine in the middle that makes amazing products and it's hard for people to understand that hmm question is number one what recommendations do you have for finding a factory who's not selling on Amazon and is not also a trading company in other words they say they're a factory but then they're really working through someone else and they're upping the price do you any recommendations for really finding a factory you can trust they don't sell in Amazon so then I'm you're not competing with them you're paying them to sell your product what are your thoughts on that everyone agree so for me to find out if the supplier is sounding on Amazon or if they're a trading company is actually quite easy because I speak Chinese I will ask them a few questions kind of a coal folks but I think in general if you suspect this supplier is selling on Amazon if you suspect this supplier is a trading company just ask very firm and tough questions if we are suspecting the supplier is selling Amazon send them the picture from Amazon your competitor's product listing tell me now is this product is this your listing we're gonna become partners we need to be a friend right now and because we're gonna find out right and that you asked and asked again great if I suspect my supplier is a trading company I will tell them you need to tell me now if you are the factory because I'm selling my team to do a factory audit yes oh that's good right and just be very firm yeah no because we're gonna find out right so that's just beginning as if we I'm doing the product research you know trying to find the direct factories it's tough for many beginning sellers because the only source of information they have is from the online platforms like Alibaba right going to do very tough screaming ask these tough questions so to spring out of these traders and the you know the companies were selling on Amazon so or I can hire people like you know people from at work or sourcing agent find the directories but the only point I wanted to make here is that if you do that it make two conditions to be very clear number one once you find the direct factory's handle where the supplier contact and two is the supplier contact me to speak English so you can start to communicate directly otherwise you will just end up having a collection of a Chinese factories who you cannot communicate so you hire people to do that you need to you know kind of have a clear expectations of what you want so as the business grow I think it gets easier you can fly to the tree shows either here where in China you know there are so many Asian suppliers Chinese suppliers are coming to the US are coming to Europe to attend the tree shows - yes a lot of them yeah you can you can go to the tree show even if it's not at the product you're selling now I think it's always so good to establish the connection and to get your network and set up yeah do you just one follow-up question on this you ping you ever use 1688 to know find a supplier why not I mean the suppliers so here's the her dos for many American sellers for me it's okay I mean I can use the 168 I'm saying no because is really hard to recommend those factories selling their there was two reasons one is the quality could be different number two is they rarely speak English you'll have to go through people who speak English so after you go through the hoops to pay for someone to communicate through a third party after all the time you're saving this little bit might as well just do the homework and defining the suppliers yourself from factories who can speak English to begin with and nowadays if they don't have export license exporting out of China is getting stricter and stricter over time like you know in terms of custom declaration so it's good to work with decent factories it's worth well to find good punters yeah this is very good you paying thank you so much for being here today and for answering these questions and and everyone watching I hope that this is adds a ton of value to you again I want to share you have an opportunity to meet you ping talk to her shake her hand in Los Angeles March 8 to 10 she will be there and she'll be speaking on how to lead a supplier and find more profit in sourcing and if you are looking to get more material like this she has a whole lot of videos just go to youtube and search good life warrior good life warrior and you're gonna find more about that you can thank you again is there anything last you want to share with the followers from watching anything at all any tips well I think it's it's in general sourcing is a bit challenging but tedious but I think if you go through the searching process it's really the best training ground for many entrepreneurs who wanted to rise up to become successful resiliency OHS you can do product research he can do PPC product launch right behind a computer but we need to sourcing you start to interact with the different culture different business you really you know you know test out a lot of your key capabilities and once you go do it once that you will be so successful thank you so much you being for being here today thank you [Music] you