We have a big order for one of our customers in production at the moment. The deadline is approaching and we wanted to do some inspection of the goods ourselves to make sure the products are alright. The factory is in China, Guangdong province. Initially we planned to send 2 people to the factory but one of our staff was stopped at the border because her China ID card just expired and she couldn’t enter China. Therefore, Alan went by himself to the factory to have a look. He took some pictures of the factory in China. They were still working on part of the products, mainly sewing on handles on bags. The order included a lot of other items as well (socks, gloves, scarfs, hats, wallets, armwarmer, necklaces and more) but most of those items were made in another factory.  Below you can see the pictures and maybe you can imagine now a bit better where your bags come from and how they are made

Chinese factory making bags for us

several people sewing on handles on bags

all those bags are for our order

the

another picture of the factory in China

I found a new factory from Thailand producing Monster Dolls. They are super cute kawaii or naughty or just really funny dolls and are made with really good quality. They come in different sizes and can be used as a cellphone charm, key chain, attach it to your bag, inside your car or any other idea you can think of.

Here are some pics of my favourite Monster Dolls:

One Eye Monster Doll

Flower Heart Monster Doll

Cute kawaii Monster Doll

Monster Doll Bear

Today I finally received the samples I ordered from the factory I found on the trade fair in April. I got some really cute fans and the quality is really good. Not the usual bad quality I am used to get as samples. The only problem is the MOQ (Minimum Order Quantity) for these items. I would need to order at least 3,000 sets. So I am not sure yet if I am going to order them. That’s a lot of fans to sell.

I went to the Gifts & Premium Fair the first time today. We were just curious what they are offering there and hoped that we are lucky and find something interesting for our shop. The fair was huge; so many halls. Every time I go to a trade fair I come back home with burning feet and legs. It is SO exhausting. You don’t realize it while you are there because there are so many things to see so you are totally distracted. But after leaving the premises you suddenly realize how many kilometres you must have walked. High Heels are a No-NO, you just wouldn’t make it through countless aisles of booths.

I was really lucky this time as I met a Japanese guy who is the official distributor of San-X. If you don’t know San-X, here is the official website. They have lots of cute kawaii-style characters like Rilakkuma (a cute bear) and Mamegoma (a baby seal). San-X didn’t have a booth there but the factory who is producing their products gave me the contact details. I will definitely contact them. Their items would fit perfectly into our shop.

Rilakkuma, the cute Relax Bear

Mamegoma, a baby seal

We also found a contact for a printing shop here in Hong Kong who could make low quantity of t-shirts for us. The printing quality is really good so that could be a useful contact in the future. We plan to make our own t-shirts soon. And low quantities are always welcomed. There was also a company who could make our prints on stickers, so our customers could iron the designs themselves onto their t-shirts. But I personally think the printing shop is more interesting because the quality is just better.

We just got another bunch of voodoo dolls samples from another factory. I want to check different factories for their quality as we only accept items with good quality. We don’t sell that typical china-made low-quality things. This time the factory sent me a bag full with samples. They are really generous. We got big, medium and small voodoo dolls, mobile phone straps and earrings. Especially the earrings and mobile phone straps are really cute. Anyone interested in buying them, please contact me. Wholesale is welcome too.

left to right: Bat Boy, Ninja, Dark One, Bad Devil, Zombie & Thief

lots of voodoo dolls samples

You can buy our Voodoo Dolls here: Voodoo Dolls Shop

These weeks many trade fairs are held in Hong Kong. They are just in time for companies ordering for their Christmas business. Alan and I went to a Houseware Fair and we could see lots of Christmas decoration. I must say I LOVE Christmas and seeing all these decorations, Christmas trees, Christmas candles etc. made me really looking forward to this year’s Christmas. Like every year, we will fly to Austria and celebrate Christmas with my family. Can’t wait to see them again and lots of snow and Christmas decoration.

Now, back to what I wanted to write about: We checked out that trade fair because we wanted to see if we can find anything interesting and maybe get a 2nd product range for our business. It is always wise to not just stick to one product range but to extend it and maybe even find a totally different product range for your business. I have a colleague from Germany who is exactly doing this. He is selling ducks (the ones for the bathtub) and he has another online shop selling cherrystones and other natural products.

We found 2 interesting products: One is a factory producing stickers. Stickers aren’t anything special, but they have wall stickers which can be stuck on a wall or any other big surface. It is great to decorate your room. They have designs for children rooms, adult bedrooms, living rooms, kitchen and so on. Some examples of designs: gorgeous flowers, Buddhas, Asian inspired themes and many more.

I also found a factory who makes 3D stickers for decorating bathroom & kitchen tiles, cups, glasses, fridge, MP3 player, PSP, iPhone, iPod, mobile phone and many more. They are really cool because the quality is amazing and after sticking it for example on a tile it looks like it was printed on it, not just a sticker. And the 3D effect is really amazing too. We were totally surprised that a sticker can look like a print. With these stickers it will be easy to change your bathroom, kitchen or any of your decoration within seconds. You don’t need to spend huge amounts of money on new tiles, glasses or whatever anymore. The stickers are even removable, so you can change the design as often as you want. Here is a photo of some examples, unfortunately you can’t see the quality:

I hope we can find a way to produce and sell these products very soon. We can even make custom made designs. So anyone interested, please contact me by e-mail.

I have to admit I couldn’t resist when I saw all these gorgeous candles and ordered some samples for myself. That’s one of the advantages when you have a company, you can order free samples for yourself, but don’t tell anyone.

Today we got a delivery from our factory in Thailand with lots of new Tenshi Neko bags. This time we also ordered some new items from Akuma Neko and Mimori. Both are new brands and were just released in Asia. Akuma Neko is the naughty boyfriend of Tenshi Neko, but really cute too. Mimori is a japanese girl who is always smiling and having fun. When my supplier sent me the newest catalog and I saw these bags, I just had to order them. Have a look at some of the bags here:

This is Akuma Neko, Tenshi Neko’s boyfriend.

Mimori, the japanese cute girl.

And one of the newest bags of Tenshi Neko.
Isn’t she cute as a little queen?

A few days ago I found a factory for some cool voodoo dolls. I think they will fit perfectly into our collection and I am sure our customers will like them. The factory has hundreds of designs available but i think around 20-30 designs fit to our items. There are characters like Ninja, Devil, Angel, Dracula, Batman, Mummy, Killer, Wizard, Witch, Samurai, Pirate, Sagai, Demon and many more. Today I got some samples and here is a picture of them. Anyone interested in them, please contact me by e-mail. I will write an update here in my blog when we have them in our online shop for retail orders. They are available for wholesale orders from now on.

We are constantly on the lookout for new products. This year I decided to go to all trade fairs in Hong Kong that sound interesting. You never know what you will find. As I live in Hong Kong and there are so many international trade fairs here, I should take this chance and check them out.

Today, Alan and I went to the Gifts & Houseware Fair to look for some new ideas. And we really found some interesting things. Alan is really into ceramic knives and we found 2 factories who could manufacture them for us. I also found some factories for badges, cute fans, plastic accessories (mobile phone straps, bracelets etc.) and factories who produce blankets and doormats for one of my customers. Alan also found a company who makes iPhone skinz but unfortunately, their quality isn’t good enough for his expectations. He is doing a local chinese blog related to iPhone news, software etc. and always looking for new products that could be interesting to blog about.

For my my company modeS4u, the cute, kawaii-style fans and the badges could be interesting to add to our current collection. Here are some pictures of the fans, aren’t they cute?

Finding new products is crucial for our business so I search the Internet, visit trade fairs, etc. very often. Today, Alan and I went to a trade fair and found a very promising new factory from China which is producing scarves. Most of their designs are not interesting for us, but there was one design I really loved. Its a silky style scarf with lots and lots of stars on it. My customers love stars, so I had to talk to them. They told me that it’s their first time exhibiting on a trade fair which I could see because they had 3 sales there and only 1 spoke English! The other 2 only spoke Putonghua (Mandarin). What are they thinking? That foreigners visiting trade fairs all speak Putonghua? Crazy! I speak some Putonghua but I don’t know the vocabulary for business related conversation.

Anyway, there was one who spoke English and I discussed with him questions about the product. They can make different colours and I ordered 4 samples (neon-pink, neon-yellow, black, white) to be able to take some pictures and show them to my customers. Neon colours are so IN now! Their MOQ (Minimum order quantity) is also really attractive (300 pieces/colour), their prices are also good. Now, I will wait for the samples and post some pictures here soon.