David's AW News: THINK BIG (no AI)

More China Secrets

Greetings from Yiwu City in China

Yes I'm still in China and still very busy. Last week I was telling just how busy Coco (my wife and your China agent) actually is, if you missed it you can catch up here. 

This morning and yesterday morning Coco was out of bed at 5.30am because these two days are container loading days, yesterday's container is on its way to Spain (AW-Artisan.eu), today's container is being loaded as I write and will go to our Slovakia warehouse (Awgifts.eu). A team of guys on motorbikes turn up, they are the professional Container Loading Gang.. they know how to use every single square inch of space, because in a container space is actually money.

Depending on the type of products and size of the team they can load a container in three to five hours. Jolly chaps, no drama they get the job done chop chop, Coco gives them soft drinks and a tip, and they are off to some other part of town to load another container. Today was very quick because most of the order was big boxes, done by 10.30am and the container is already on the way to Ningbo Port.

Other wholesales get upset with me telling you all the trade secrets. But I don't care, if we can't deliver great value without  keeping secrets then we are not doing our job right. Anyway nothing really secret any more (just ask Ask AI), Yiwu itself was a trade secret years ago and I told you all about it here.. 

Most days we have been heading to the huge Yiwu market, and working our way down a wish list of products. The market is like a trade fair exbo, but permanent and vast. There are about 88,000 showrooms literally under one roof.  On four floors with highly specialised areas for all sorts of products.. It's split into 5 areas with new ones being built. For example there is a ribbon area with what must be every ribbon manufacturer in China having a showroom there. We need to find some bespoke printed ribbons for a particular product, and were swamped with too much choice. But as you can imagine having so many competing companies cheek to jowl means highly competitive prices. But even so when Coco explains she is an agent that doesn't require a secret commission, the prices come down another 5%.. This is one of the reasons you will find our China product prices highly competitive. 

All over the market, and maybe on your social media you can find adverts for Yiwu Agents, if you want to do business here you will need one, and most claim to charge you 1 or 2% commission. We know from experience that hidden commissions can be a whole different ball game. And very dodgy agents will without your knowledge "sell" your order to the supplier that gives them highest commission. Basically holding small businesses hostage with threats of moving trade as a means to extract more.. you can imagine what happens to quality, trust and ethics.. and those hidden costs find the way back. 

I'm very happy that we do straight business in Yiwu - most of our suppliers are small family businesses and I can tell you they are super happy to trade with AW, and we are able to work closely on new products and always have a good feel for the ethics and trading standards of our suppliers. 

Another secret I will tell you is about my favourite area, it is not even in the market, but quite near by and it's the crystal and gemstone area. A grid of about 4 by 6 leafy back streets with rows of stores all dealing in different crystals. Cheap hotels cater for foreign folk from Africa to South America because gemstones and gemstones traders arrive here from all over the world. Here you can buy every type of gemstones, gemstone jewellery, fittings and components.. At AW we already buy a lot directly from India and Africa but gemstones (like essential oils) come from all over the world. Some products we can buy better but many items from here are good value. We spent two happy days seeking out new suppliers, disappearing into huge cellars full of amazing crystal products, and making friends with passionate gemstone folk. Here are few random pictures from our time in the gemstone streets.

We were totally blown away by the stuff available.. and Coco who has many talents has an eye for jewellery design and we bought lots of samples to play with.. 

Meanwhile back in the UK.. it's getting busy. Lot of fast selling items back in stock and with Father's Day fast approaching not before time. Check out the Father's Day page here for inspiration. It's no secret we have some brilliant gifts lined up for Fathers everywhere.

This weekend Coco and I are heading to Xiamen, which is the city across the water from Taiwan - so it should be interesting. I'll spill the secrets next week.

Have a great weekend. More updates next Friday, where we will be somewhere else altogether. 

Take care

David

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