Importing furniture from China, Vietnam & India
Importing furniture from China, Vietnam and India is a moneymaking business for more and more Western companies and independent importers. That’s just in case you know what you’re doing. Otherwise, the shipment of furniture from Asia can cause some unexpected problems. In this blog you will learn about selecting the best suppliers, material selection and quality controls.
Importing furniture from China, Vietnam and India
Nowadays most furniture can cost quite a bit of money. You can reduce these costs by importing your furniture from China, Vietnam or India. However, both the journey and the search for suitable suppliers will cost a lot of your time and energy.
So although furniture prices in Asian countries are often a lot lower than European prices, importing Chinese interior remains a time-consuming investment.
How to choose the right furniture manufacturer
Do you want to start importing furniture from China, Vietnam or India? Then start by searching for the right suppliers in advance.
For some time now, China has been the world’s largest exporter of furniture. Therefore, the search for the best supplier could take quite some time. If you don’t have time to maintain the already existing contact with a furniture manufacturer, you can maintain this contact by an external partner. This way your partner can build on your prior selection of contacts.
Below are some important points listed about importing furniture from China, Vietnam and India. On that ground, you will have to make a number of other decisions. The outcome of this can affect the quality of your furniture significantly.
Hopefully after reading this blog, you will immediately choose the right supplier and you will not find any unexpected surprises during the purchasing process.
View offers from different suppliers
Nowadays you can import the most diverse furniture from China. It is important that you select suppliers who don’t make any bad products or just a few types of furniture. Think, for example, of interior suited for:
● Office furniture
● Hotel furniture
● Benches
● Garden furniture
● Beds
● Bedroom furniture
● Bathroom furniture
● Living room furniture
● Mattresses
● Children’s furniture
● Baby room furniture
● Wooden furniture
● Dining sets
● Outdoor furniture
● Metal furniture
● Plastic furniture
● Wicker furniture
Many Chinese manufacturers specialize in making one particular type of furniture. As a result, the product quality is often much higher than for manufacturers offering multiple categories at the same time.
Depending on the furniture you are looking for, you may need multiple suppliers for this. There are very few manufacturers in China that produce furniture for different purposes.
Compliance with product regulations
Within the EU there are a number of rules that apply to the import of goods outside Europe. This legislation ensures that products shipped to Europe actually meet certain safety and environmental standards.
So before you can import furniture from countries such as China, Vietnam and India, it’s important that you check whether they meet the standards and technical specifications that apply within the EU.
These are standards set; product properties, degree of flammability, hygiene and electrical characteristics. The production process, product performance and durability also play an important role.
The compliance with the product requirements is also known as conformity assessment. You can judge the conformity of products yourself, or enlist the help of a third party.
Number of products per order
How many products you can purchase per order varies. When importing furniture from China, this is largely dependent on the manufacturer and type of furniture.
Suppose a manufacturer specializes in a certain type of banking set. At this supplier you can probably order fewer units at the same time, than for example a manufacturer of small child seats.
There are plenty of ways to check if a factory is right for your future shipments. Before you immediately engage with a manufacturer, you could also inspect the factory first. The vetting of a factory is also called factory audit.
Design and material choice
If you decide to import furniture from China, Vietnam and India, you usually get the opportunity to make certain adjustments regarding the design and choice of materials of furniture.
You can choose to have a new design made. For example, you can also customize furniture from the manufacturer’s product collection. In addition, most suppliers expect you to choose some extra options with your order.
This also applies if you select furniture from their collection. This is because most furniture can be made from different materials, coatings and parts.
In principle, the Asian manufacturers expect their customers to be able to indicate exactly how the furniture should be made.
Perform quality checks at furniture manufacturer
Of course, you’re not waiting for a container full of faulty or damaged furniture. Therefore, it is important that you have quality checks carried out at the manufacturer in China, Vietnam and India.
For example, you can have a pre-shipment inspection performed. This way, the quality of your furniture is checked before it leaves the factory and will be shipped to Europe.
Below you will find some important points, on which you can have the quality of furniture checked.
● Dimensions
● Weight
● Color
● Material
● Packaging
● Weatherproofing
● Fire safety
If you have some of these inspections carried out, you can carelessly import furniture from China, Vietnam and India. This way you can always be sure that the quality of your order meets the pre-set requirements.
Importing furniture from China, Vietnam and India
There are plenty of ways to move products from A to B. When importing furniture from China, Vietnam and India. A shipping container is often the most economical choice.
As an importer you can usually choose from a container completely filled with your products. In case your order is not large enough to fill a container with, then that space is often filled with other products.
It is therefore important that the manufacturer uses high-quality packaging. This makes it less likely to damage the furniture on the road. For example, are they packed with just a thin cover? Then a sharp angle or edge causes damage pretty quickly.
A fully packed shipping container can also affect the quality of furniture. Tall towers of all kinds of products stacked on top of each other can cause a lot of damage to your products. It is therefore important that your suppliers know exactly what your needs are in this case.
Therefore, always give clear instructions, in which you describe precisely how and with which material the furniture should be packed.
Do you need freight insurance?
Do you need to insure your furniture for a shipment from China, Vietnam or India? Imagine on arrival that half of your furniture is damaged. Then you can still return the furniture, or request a refund from the manufacturer in Asia.
However, do you want a guarantee that your furniture will enter Europe damage-free? Then you can contact Quality Control China without obligation. This ensures the best on-site knowledge in China, Vietnam and India, and you also have a permanent point of contact in the Netherlands.