The main goal of any company is to take care of customer satisfaction, which ensures too much for the offered goods. The view was therefore taken that the supplier is always satisfied with every customer who manages to sell the goods. However, this does not always have to be true. The best suppliers can afford to choose their customers rather than ask them to buy something. Often it is the customers who ask the best suppliers to sell them something.

At every stage of the purchase/sale process, therefore, there must be a balance - both sides must feel won. This builds long-term trust, which translates into the volume of purchases, the quality of production, the punctuality of deliveries, the handling of complaints.

Finding the optimal supplier is also a process that can take time - you need to have many meetings, travel, test many samples.

Depending on the industry in which the company operates, suppliers can be searched locally in your own country, in close range within or far beyond Europe.

The advantage of ordering products from domestic or European suppliers is a significant reduction in the waiting time for delivery and the possibility of purchasing a smaller batch of goods than for deliveries from Asia. It is also easier to visit a potential supplier and get an idea of its capabilities on site. However, short availability times and fewer purchases often mean a higher price.

Prices for Asian producers are usually a dozen or even tens of percent lower, but the path they have to travel from factory to customer warehouse is much longer and more expensive.

The optimal solution is therefore to establish relations and cooperation with both local and Far Eastern producers.

Trade fairs:

You can search for suppliers in different ways, but the most effective way is to trade fairs of a given industry located in an area where there are many local producers. Usually there are many trade fairs at different times, and every trip, especially to the countries of the Far East, is a big investment. So you do not have to go to every fair, but you definitely need to prepare for them.

The biggest advantages of searching for suppliers at the fair:

access to hundreds of interesting manufacturers in one place
opportunity to see the products of interest to us directly at the stand
possibility to stock up on catalogues and samples
possibility to visit nearby factories
establishing new business relationships

EMEM Sp. z o.o. offers assistance in preparing and advising on the organization of trips to business meetings and trade fairs.

Search engines:

You can also search for suppliers without having to travel - through search engines. There you will find offers not only of real producers, but also of many intermediaries, which are easiest to recognize by the fact that they have a wide, but not thematically related offer. The undoubted advantage of using the intermediary's offer is its good discernment among local producers and often the possibility of ordering smaller batches of goods.

Examples of B2B platforms where you can search for suppliers and compare products:

Labelling of products:

Regardless of how suppliers are searched, particular attention should be paid to their certificates for manufactured products.

In Poland, as well as throughout the European Union, the CE marking (Conformité Européenne) is a declaration by the manufacturer that the labeled product meets the requirements of the directives of the so-called new approach.

The new approach directives cover more than twenty product groups, including electrical appliances (including electronic equipment and household appliances), toys, personal protective equipment, building materials, machinery and elevators. However, not all products require a designation - only those products for which there are essential requirements laid down in the regulations should have the CE mark.

When a consumer buys a CE-labelled product in any EU country, he can be sure that he can use it safely and seamlessly in his country.

If the importer decides to place products on the European market under his own brand name and his own trade name, he shall, in accordance with the rules, become the manufacturer of those products. This imposes obligations on him, as defined by law, and in particular obliges him to ensure the safety of any product placed on the market by him. More about the entrepreneur's responsibilities as a manufacturer.

EMEM Sp. z o.o. offers assistance in the initial verification of CE documentation in terms of reliability and correctness of the presented certificate.