Global Sourcing Tradeshows with Meghla Bhardwaj

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Hey, product launchers, Tracy here with a great introduction to you. I am so excited to announce, if you haven't heard, on Facebook or LinkedIn or YouTube already, but I'm going to be speaking at the Global Sources Summit and I am bringing to you one of the organizers of it. And I'm going to introduce Meghla Pardwaj. And Meghla is just dynamo. I met her at the Prosper show in March and we've had a lot of conversations since then. And I'm excited about the Global Sources Summit. This is in conjunction with the Global Sources Trade show and it's in Hong Kong and it's just fabulous. And I want you guys to understand what these trade shows are about, why they're here, why they're so important as you're growing a bigger brand, because that's the critical aspect of it here. You're growing a bigger brand. You need to step up your game. And we're going to talk a little bit about differences in different types of trade shows and fairs, they call them fairs out there, which are a little different than trade shows. So we want to discern the differences for you, and then we're going to talk a little bit about what I'm going to talk about and invite you to come with me. So, Meghla, thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you so much, Tracy. I'm super excited to be here and thanks for the lovely introduction.

Now, where in the world are you right now? Are you in Singapore? Is that right?

Yes, I'm in Singapore.

That's what I thought. So, hey, look how clear this is. I'm in California, you're in Singapore. And we've managed to coordinate the whole thing. See how easy that is? So this is the number one thing I recommend is FaceTime, right?

Absolutely. FaceTime. It makes all the difference whether it's in business, personal relationships.

Yeah. You don't want to be in email, you don't want to be filling out a form. There's FaceTime. And when we're talking about sourcing, FaceTime really means everything. And so that's why you have this fabulous summit and the trade show going on. So tell me a little bit about Your background and how you got started with Global Sources.

Absolutely. So I've been working with Global Sources for more than 15 years now and I worked in India, the Philippines, I was based in China for 10 years and I've been in Singapore now for three years. So I've been working a lot with manufacturers and importers and suppliers. When I was in China, I used to visit a lot of factories for research reports for Global Sources. And more recently I've been working with Amazon sellers, E commerce Sellers, because we've seen an increase in the number of e commerce sellers doing private label and developing their own brands and coming to China to source their own products. And so at Global Sources, we've launched a series of initiatives to better meet the needs of e commerce sellers. And one of those initiatives is the Global Sources Summit that you're going to be speaking at. So I'm organizing the summit and I also host meetups in Singapore as well as Hong Kong to engage with the community a little bit more to understand what their pain points are and try to help e commerce sellers source from China.

Yeah, you know, I think it's so important because it used to be really hard. When I was doing this 15 years ago, it was a lot harder. We didn't have zoom and we didn't have like all these other fabulous devices and other things we could do to communicate. So it was really a lot harder. You made a trip and you stayed on the ground for a couple of weeks and so it's really changed over time. And so getting in what these good practices are that we used to do 15 years ago, those are actually the same practices. Some of it just gets accelerated by technology and by locality being able to come into one place. So why don't you tell us a little bit about the co location with the trade show and the summit Because I think that's really interesting the way that you're doing it. So they can do two things at once, but they also are going to get some special skills along the way that they can apply at the trade show.

Absolutely. So let me talk a little bit about the summit first. So this is a three day conference. It's mostly for established e commerce sellers who are building their own brand, doing their own private label business. And we basically bring together about 20 to 25 speakers from all over the world. We have speakers from the us, from Europe. You're flying in. We have a lot of speakers from China and Hong Kong. The topics at the summit range from sourcing related topics, how to find your ideal supplier, how to do inspections, how to negotiate with your supplier, how to get better prices, what are the payment terms that you should talk about with your supplier. And we also cover a lot of selling related topics. So for example, how to do your listings right on Amazon, how to do PPC on Amazon, for example, your photography, videography, how to work with kols. One of the topics that I'm really excited about this time is chatbots in E commerce. So we have a speaker who's coming to talk about chatbots and she's also going to be showing people how to create their own chatbots. So very excited about that.

And I have a slight announcement. I'm going to talk a little bit in mind about blockchain coming forward.

Ooh, exciting.

So I'm going to add a little blockchain talk because I've been getting really hooked up in that community. So we're going to have a little bit of that in my talk as well. So we're talking about lots of very new and emerging technologies because chatbox is really, I mean, I've heard some sellers who are firing it up with their chatbox.

Absolutely. Yeah. It's super exciting. And so the summit is co located with our trade shows. So there are two trade shows that are held at the same time and the same venue as the summit. One is called Lifestyle and it covers products from gift products and home products, Christmas products, decorations, stationary items. And the other is the fashion products which covers apparel, garments, shoes, bags, jewelry, accessories, all of those things. So the idea is that the two events are co located. The conference is held on the second floor of the venue and then on the first floor of the venue you have these trade shows with literally thousands of suppliers. The idea is you come to the conference, you learn all about sourcing and selling and you network with all of the experts as well as attendees. And at the same time you can just start sourcing products immediately. You can implement your learning on the show floor, start talking to suppliers immediately and then you can come back to the conference the next day and if you have any questions about how to talk to suppliers or hey, I found this great product. What do you think about this? You can share and talk about those things with the experts in the second day. Right? Right.

Yeah. So you can talk about your experiences and form better questions for them. And I love that. I think that's really fabulous. Now a lot of people are really nervous of coming for the first time to any kind of trade show or international venue. I've seen it. I'm bringing a Guest with me on the platform, our good friend Brenda Crimme, who is an Amazon seller on our platform. I'm bringing her because she's going to help me with all of my tech issues and all the things that I need because I need an assistant. And she was happy to do it because it's her first trip and she didn't want to go on her first trip alone. We get that a lot from people. I'm sure you've heard those stories, like, it's my first trip, what do I do? But I think this is a really great way to do it because you're going to have the network and the community that's there to support you and walk with you and do these things where otherwise, if you do them completely on your own, you feel isolated.

Yeah, absolutely. It's not scary at all. I mean, it might seem. Yeah, it's not.

It's in our head. Right. That it's something new. So we're always scared of something new.

Exactly. All of the trade shows are held twice a year in the region, April and October. And there is a series of trade shows held in Hong Kong and then there's the Canton Fair in Guangzhou.

Right. Which many of you may have heard of because lots of Amazon or seller programs talk about the Canton Fair.

That's right, correct. Most Amazon sellers attend the Canton Fair. It's bigger. It has a lot of, especially for gift products, home product, it has a lot of suppliers. And then global sources fairs are held in Hong Kong and there are some other fairs that are held in Hong Kong as well at that time. So, for example, Hong Kong tdc, they host some fairs and all of the fairs are timed in such a way that you can hop from one fair to another very conveniently. And there are little things like the dates are the same in April and October. That's very convenient for buyers to remember which fares are when.

And this is also just a warning to those of you working on product development. April and October are not a good time to be expecting your samples to be on time. It is really bad. And actually it's usually proceeding up to it. So within a month of any trade show, it's not really a good idea to expect that you have really timely and time sensitive samples. Not going to work out for you. So plan around that. Just going to say that now?

Absolutely, yeah, yeah.

Because they're busy filling out their trade show booth. Right. So, you know, they want to represent.

Well, totally, totally. Absolutely. So I think the first thing that you should do if you're thinking about coming to trade shows is decide which product categories you're interested in and then look at the trade shows that are covering those product categories and then decide which trade shows to attend. Right.

Because you don't need to go to all of them. And it's overwhelming. You really want to dial in on where your brand is focused on and what that means. And I find that when you get some few strategic vendors, if you needed something that you just needed one product that might be outside of the realm, they know someone and they're happy to refer you to another factory that makes a separate type of product or help you bring it in for you.

Absolutely. Yeah, definitely. So if you're sourcing electronics products, for example, the global sources fairs in Hong Kong are pretty big. So we have two sourcing fairs for electronics. One is the Consumer Electronics show and then the other is mobile electronics and they're held at different dates about three days apart. So if you're sourcing electronics, those are must visit shows. Now the lifestyle shows in fashion are much smaller than Canton Fairs. However, there are more unique and innovative products. That's how we try to differentiate our fair from. We try to curate a lot of products. And we have things like this time we have something new which is called Meet the Millennials. So this is basically an area where we will feature products that will appeal to millennials. And we've really got a group of millennials who are going to be selecting these products.

Wonderful. That's exciting.

And then we have things like a cool design award. So we'll ask exhibitors to submit their products to us. And then we'll get a panel of judges from within global sources as well as designers from overseas. And then they select the products that they like and then all of these products are featured in a separate area at the show. So we try to do such things to make it more easy for people to find innovative, creative, high profit kind of products.

Yeah, I think the difference is when you come to the Canton Fair, it's really, really large. But you do realize as you're walking it that you see a lot of the same over and over and over again. So at a smaller show, you won't see it that way. There'll be a lot of original.

That's true. So if you're looking for high volume, price competitive kind of products, I think Canton Fair is definitely the place to go. And many people actually attend both shows because you get a wider variety of suppliers and you get to see all kinds of products. And again, it's very convenient to attend both shows. You hop from Hong Kong onto a train and then you can reach Guangzhou in about one and a half, two hours. It's very convenient that way. Right.

And the hotel that. The hotel's right on the train circuit. So you're going. So you're. You're all right there too. So absolutely.

Yeah, yeah. And of course, the global solstice fairs are held in Hong Kong, which is more English speaking. It's easier to get around there. And most nationalities don't need visas to enter into Hong Kong. So you can just decide at the very last minute you want to go and then you just buy a ticket and fly over.

You should double check. Please double check. Because there are a few exceptions to that, but absolutely. U.S. citizens, you don't have to, but I recommend getting it anyway if you're going to go into China afterwards or if you think you're going to do it, you might as well have it because I can tell you that I've had it happen where someone said they weren't going to extend their stay and the next thing they know they wanted to go into China and they couldn't because they didn't do their visa ahead of time. So it's really pretty easy to get your visa now. Give yourself a month and you should be fine. But there's no reason to not just do it right away. It's not that costly either. So it's under $200. If you had to have it rushed. There's always a bunch of visa agencies. I don't know. Do you feature any on your website?

No, we don't feature any agencies. But you're right, I mean, most travel agents will be able to do that.

Most travel agents? Yeah. So I'll put a few in the blog post for this episode that I've worked with before so that if you guys are looking for some your listeners out there, there'll be some resources you can know that you can go to and get a visa. So it always feels a little scary when you send your passport in to somebody you don't know. So I worked with these companies before, so I know you'll get your passport back.

The other thing to note is that sometimes you'll only a single entry visa into China. But if you want to attend Canton Fair in Gwangju, come to Hong Kong and then go back to Gwangju again for maybe another show, then you got to get a multiple entry visa, right? Yeah, you need to get the right visa depending on what you plan to do.

Yeah, so I think I have like a five year one. So like you, they're extending those now to people who frequently come in. So if you are doing this on a regular basis, they'll do short multi entry visits, they'll do like a dozen entries or something like that, and then you can do a certain time period after that. So these are easy things for you to accomplish. This is not difficult at all. And we'll make sure you have the resources if you choose to do that. So yeah, good point there. I forgot about that multi entry because it does happen. I've seen. Because the timing. Right. So what else should they think about when they're planning their trip?

First of all, think about what product categories, what shows you want to attend. And then some of the other things to do before attending a show is to list down the specific products that you're interested in. Because sometimes it's easy to kind of just waste time at these shows because they're so huge and you just end up walking the aisles aimlessly. It really helps to know what specific products you want to source for and then also list all of the product features and requirements that are important for you. So for example, if you're sourcing for the U.S. what are the certifications that you absolutely require? And that will also help make your time at the show more efficient because you can immediately tell which supplier is suitable for you because you know that, okay, these are my requirements and I cannot deal with a supplier that cannot meet these requirements. I think those are the two very important things that you should absolutely do.

Right? You should absolutely have your, I'm going to call it, because this is what professional buyers call it a buy plan and a buy plan. And I'm going to do a whole episode follow up. That is my episode for this month for you guys. So I'll be recording that shortly after this. So they should air one after the other. But a buy plan really involves you thinking about the volume you expect, the prices you expect, the requirements, the compliance, all the different things that are absolute certifications if you need them, those absolutes that if you're going to do it in this category, you should. And so that means you have to have done your Amazon search, your research, all of the different things your Google search. You need to be thinking about how you're going to market it because having that data ahead of time says, how much turns can I do? How many units can I sell? Because it's a critical factor in negotiating your price later too. Because if you know you might be needing 5,000 pieces instead of 1,000 for your first order because you think you could really do that because of the volume selling, then that gives you a higher negotiation position with them. So with your factories that you might be considering and you can weigh the options. But it also is a good indicator if factories, if you need a high volume, this is what big buyers do. Right. When you know you can do 10,000 pieces a month or something, you want to gauge whether or not they have the capability of delivering that kind of volume requirement or what that lead time looks like if you want to deliver that requirement. So these are things you must put in your plan. So your timing, your prices and all of those. And I'll go into greater detail on what a buy plan should look like and also invite you all to co co develop with me your buy plan. I'm happy to do that with all of you in advance of the show so we can talk about that further in the next episode. So I'm so glad you brought that up about being prepared because I think that's it. Now let's talk about the somewhat girly stuff like what should we wear and what's the weather going to be like because there are these concerns about how much you pack and you are inside most of the time. I just want to remind you you're going to be inside so much of the time. You're going to go from the hotel on a train. There's a lot of indoors so just keep that in mind.

Yes, absolutely. And shoes. I think the most important thing is comfortable shoes. No heels, sports shoes or flats. Absolutely no heels. That's the most important thing. I've suffered so many times at the beginning.

Yeah, no. And I have this really good friend, he was a COO right in Guangzhou and he would wear flip flops everywhere because he was a San Diego guy from originally and I was like I don't know how you do it, the ground's really dirty and my feet look disgusting afterwards. So I highly don't recommend flip flops for your Californians either. Yeah, closed toed shoes, it's better. It's safer, really comfortable ones. And umbrellas, it's not a bad idea. Showers just come out of nowhere, you never know.

Yeah, it's subtropical climate but it's quite pleasant in October it's not very hot. So yeah, no need to pack woolens or anything. Just a light sweater. Sometimes it can get bit chilly inside the show venues. Yeah. But yeah, I think one important thing to pack is business cards. That's really so Important, right?

Yes, yes, yes. We get kind of used to it sometimes here at the Amazon seller shows and things like that, where they all like digital business cards. They still really like paper business cards. They like that handoff. And so make sure you bring them with you.

Absolutely. And then I think some of the other things to bring is. I mean, these are practical things like power banks, because you're on the show floor all the time. You'd probably be walking from morning to evening. So power banks. And then bring a small trolley to put all of your brochures in because you'll be collecting a lot of brochures.

Your arm will start going, oh, yeah, yeah. Because they do not make small brochures. Their product lines are long and the books are big. Yeah. So we used to do this pretty frequently. So we would pack a small suitcase which all the clothes were packed into inside a slightly bigger one and we would take back samples with us in the second one. So that is also something you can do. I don't think you're going to bring back that much stuff. But if when you go to visit factories or you're working on sample development at the same time that you're sourcing new, they tend to be like, don't ship it, we'll just pack it in a second suitcase. Because you do get two in international. So you do get two suitcases that you can check, unlike having to pay for extra every time you put any suitcase in the checked baggage here in the us so it's a little bit different over there. Yeah, we're spoiled internationally for that. This is my recommendation to you. I think I wrote a blog post about this. I think I might even wrote an ink article about this. Tips for going to China. Tips for traveling well is I prefer the taking the afternoon flight from LA and ending up in the evening into my destination and then getting a good night's sleep. Lots of people I know like to do like they'll over red Eye sleep on the plane and start working the next morning. But I find it wipes you out and you are no good and you just don't function well and you don't make good decisions on lack of sleep and you need to make good decisions for your business. So we want you to get some sleep. So I will certainly do that because I want to come in when I give my talk. I want to be fresh for all of you and be able to answer all your questions and be thinking about that. So it's just my recommendation on how I do it. I sleep at the beginning of the plane and then stay up towards the end so that you'll sleep again as soon as you get there. Like the second two thirds of the flight, I stay awake, read lots of books and watch us movies. Whatever you can do to stay awake. So anyway, why don't you tell us a little bit more about the kinds of people who are going to be speaking besides me.

Oh, yeah, Fantastic. So, yeah, we have a lot of speakers coming in from the US and many of them are actually pretty well known, I think, in the E commerce circle. So we have Kevin King from AMZ Marketer. He's going to be giving hacks for advanced sellers.

Nice.

And then we have Cynthia Stein from Egrowth Partners. So she's going to be talking about dirty seller tricks on Amazon. I'm looking forward to her.

That sounds really interesting. I'm not sourcing any products for myself. I think I only have one or two clients that I'm going to be on the lookout for. So I may be just sitting in on all those fun sessions.

And then we have Andy Slamons from Amazing Freedom. So he's going to be talking about 10 processes and procedures that will help you win on Amazon. Franz Jordan, he's going to be giving advanced PPC tips. Liron Hirschkorn from Amazing Freedom as well. He's going to be talking about relationships. And I think this is such an important topic. Yes, right. I mean, just with your suppliers, with Amazon, with other sellers, it's just so important in this business. I'm really looking forward to his presentation.

Yeah, I think that collaboration will be a key part of mine as well, because that's what I stress. I think that the more collaborative we are with our factory partners especially, but with our marketing partners and our other sellers, the better off we are. It makes for better industry.

Yeah. And when you're sourcing from China, it also helps you in your business. So for example, if you're attending a trade show meeting, suppliers face to face, you're more likely to get better terms for your payments. You're more likely to get a better price as opposed to sourcing online. When you're sourcing online, you're just an email. You're just somebody behind an email.

That's what I say. You're a number. You're a purchase order number at the end of the day, right? Yeah.

Yeah.

We want to move from that to being a person.

Exactly. You're a person and you've invested the time and effort to come down to Hong Kong or China and you're Meeting them face to face, it really makes a huge difference. And of course, I think you're familiar with Guangxi, the principle of Guangxi in China. And so I feel that that plays a big difference and it makes a big difference when you're soft.

Would you explain that to the audience?

Yeah. So Guanxi is basically when you're on the good side of the supplier or you build a good relationship with a supplier, you go out for dinner with them or what else do you do in Guanxi? So you're basically just building a relationship. Right.

You're also very like, this is what I find is transparent, right. You're very honest about how your growth is. And if it's not big, look, I'm going to do a thousand piece test, but I have a track record and here it is. And you can see my Amazon sales on my other products. I grow them up if it's going to succeed. So this is in our best interest to test this out together and see if this is a viable product. I found that factories respond to that really well because that level of honesty is something that they look for. And this is why I ask my factories for a referral, say, I'm looking for another product. And a lot of times they have families, they have sisters and brothers who might have factories. It's great. And then when you do relationships with their factories or their sub suppliers, it makes all of them that all that groups together into goodwill. So that's the way I term it, it's goodwill relationship building. I think of it as the translation for me.

Yeah, absolutely. It's just so important when you're buying from China. And then the other thing is that you'll definitely get better prices. And when you're sourcing, even 10 cents will make a huge difference. Right? You can get a lower price.

That's a good competitive advantage. And this is what I want you guys to think about deciding to come over to Asia. It may sound like, oh, that's expensive and it takes a lot of time out of my business. So costs as well. And so you start to think about those things. But in the end of the day, that relationship building will save you money in the long run. The feedback loop, you'll be able to create, the collaboration, you'll be able to create, they're more conscious of it, they think there's going to be a quality problem, they're going to volunteer it to you, they're going to make recommendations. And so building up that is, I think, critical to sustained success. And it pays back tenfold.

Yeah. And they'll work better with you. If you're developing a new product, for example, they'll work with you. They'll make adjustments to their assembly line or suggest changes that you can do in your product to make it better. And then they'll also prioritize your order sometimes. So especially during, you know, let's say Chinese New Year, when they're.

It's the season.

Exactly. Peak season is all. So it really helps.

Yeah, yeah, that's so, so true.

Right.

You gotta be a little bit of a squeaky wheel. But when they know you and you pick up the phone, they're like, oh, yes, I know you. Because the next time you come, I don't want you to give me a hard time that I didn't serve you. And that's this relationship. So I think it's really critically important. Never be too tired to have a dinner. It's just if you're invited, that's an honor and I take it that way. And I always try everything they put in front of me, no matter how scary. I've eaten some things that I was like that did not taste good, but as long as you've taken a bite of it and just been open minded about it, it's awesome. So, yeah. So let's talk a little bit about the kind of sourcing side talks. So those are some of the sellers talks that you were talking about. What about on the sourcing side? You're gonna run a panel, right? I'm gonna be on your panel.

What's the panel gonna be about?

So the panel is basically an ask me anything type of panel.

That's gonna be really great, especially if you've been on the floor and then you come back and ask these questions. That's great.

Exactly. So we're gonna have three experts on the stage and then the floor is open to questions and people can ask questions about sourcing trade shows. We'll have a selling expert as well in the panel. So it's basically just open. And then another thing that we have is a workshop on quality control. I feel that quality control is the biggest issue that sellers have when they're sourcing from China and when they're just starting out. People don't realize how important this is and how much trouble they can get into later. So I see that a lot of sellers starting out don't do inspections, for example, or they're not very clear with their specifications when they're placing orders. And then they're surprised when they don't get back the product as expected. Right, yeah. So we've got a QC expert who lives in China. He's been doing QC for a number of years and he's going to spend three hours talking about quality control. And it's an interactive workshop where he's going to be showing you how to make your product specification worksheets, for example, or how to do inspections and when to do which inspections. I'm really excited about that.

No, that's really great. I think that's so, so valuable as you move away from just doing me too products, the same stuff that everybody else has some of. I've seen many, many sellers bring them in and never even inspect themselves, which I do not recommend. But if you're coming over for this trip, you're obviously moving to that next stage. And that next stage requires quality control and potentially I'm going to call it quality assurance, where you make improvements with the supplier. And that relationship building is going to go a long way to actually doing that as well. So. Wonderful. Well, Meghala, is there anything else that they should know that we haven't covered? And I mean, I'm excited. I can't wait for the end of October.

Yeah, I think we've covered quite a bit. I would just encourage people to consider attending a trade show if you haven't done already. And just look at the trade shows that are happening in Guangzhou. Take a look at Canton Fair, see what products are being sold.

So what are the dates of the Global Sources Summit? Let's make sure that we've got this right.

So October 27th to the 29th to the 29th.

Right. And so October 27th to the 29th. And does the trade show start a little before and go till after?

Yes, but the trade show goes a day after as well. So the trade shows are from 27 to the 30th.

So you've got an extra day afterwards too, if you didn't have enough time and you just were like mesmerized by every single session and you didn't leave and you still need time to go back and negotiate some more and do those things. You have another day after. So that's wonderful. Well, great. I am so looking forward to this. So, Meghala, thank you so much for joining us today. We really appreciate it and I look forward to seeing you in person again. And I look forward to participating in IT and product launchers out there. If you want to attend the Global Sources Summit and the Global Sources Trade show, guess what? We got a discount code for you and it's going to be in the website, blog post or this episode. So there I'll be a link there code the exact link to how you can register. Plus I'm adding the offers of having a coaching call, an office hours, a live office hours on buy plans so we can work on your buy plans all together. No cost to you. My hour will be free and so join us. I will give you two dates that we're going to do that over the month of September and beginning of October and you guys want to join those because this is your chance to do your research, do these things, make sure you have all the details and we can review them together. So Product Launchers, thank you so much. Let's thank Megla and we are so excited about the Global Sources Summit.

Thank you Tracy. Thanks. I look forward to seeing you in October.

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