Question

Contracting with supplier partners in other countries can offer challenges compared with dealing with onshore partners. what issues do you believe should be addressed when ordering from suppliers overseas? should you order online or offline?

Answer 1

Ordering from suppliers overseas can sometimes be challenging because of the following reasons:

(a) Logistics problem - Anything can go wrong between the time once a shipment leaves the source and when it reaches the destination. Such cases result in increasing the expenses of a company. Moreover, considering the long distances and the need to cross borders, sometimes the shipment procedures are complex.

(b) Language barrier - The dealing partner may not be very fluent in your language and this often leads to creating confusions. Such misunderstandings become more common when there is a need to discuss technical terms or issues. Companies may suffer a huge loss because of this because the supplier may mess up with the order quantity or total inventory or anything related to shipping because of a little misunderstanding.

(c) Time difference - Ensuring a proper communication between the supplier and the customer often becomes a challenge when there is time difference. The company can lose some precious hours waiting for the answer from the supplier and this will result in delaying the schedule of the company.

(d) Quality expectations - The quality standards for each country are different. Also, the company won't know about the quality of the supplies until the shipment arrives at their warehouse. The only possibility is that the quality inspection is conducted everytime before the shipment leaves the country of origin.

(e) Compliance issues - Supplier's failure to comply with quality, safety standards, environment, social responsibility etc can harm the relationship between the supplier and buyer. So it is important for the supplier to completely understand the supplier's expectations and standards.

(f) Production scheduling - Companies have a pre-decided project time in which the project needs to be finished. Any delay in the arrival of the shipment can become an obstacle in the timely completion of the project and will eventually, result in loss of the company.

(g) Payment - The payment methods sometimes vary from country to country and maybe complicated as well.

The choice of whether the company buys online or offline depends upona a number of factors. To increase the efficiency and decrease the project time, companies must try to order offline. And if the supplies are not in abundance in your country, a company may even order online.