With some of the world’s most remarkable scientists, innovators and engineers hailing from Germany, it’s no surprise people turn to Germany when pursuing quality products and services. Germany has a population of over 80 million and a highly skilled workforce. It has a powerful economic presence on the world stage – global German exports increased by 7.8% in 2018.
Germany exports a wide range of goods in a variety of fields, such as automotive, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, rubber, aerospace materials, machinery, foods, beverages and nanotechnology. With such an esteemed reputation for quality production, finding the perfect supplier can be tricky – although worth your while. That’s why we’ve put together some easy to follow tips to help you find the best suppliers in Germany.
Determine the Market
Depending on what you need to be supplied, there could be different suppliers who are most suitable for your job. You will need to figure out if you need raw wholesale items like chemicals or materials, or if you need manufactured items to be produced and designed. For example, say you need to buy rubber in bulk– you would need to find either a supplier or a wholesaler to get the largest quantity for your money.
Should you need something designed and produced according to your liking, like clothes, you’re going to need to find a manufacturer and probably a distributor. Distributors are necessary when a company needs assistance getting the goods delivered to their location directly from the manufacturer.
There’s also a portal that can guide you through different suppliers in Germany by industry if you’re having trouble navigating. The website is called iXPOS, and it allows you to explore a spectrum of markets, from automotive to machinery, medical supplies and chemicals, renewable energy and even services.
Search Online Directories and Marketplaces
There are many online directories that showcase specific markets for your needs. If you’re having trouble narrowing down a supplier, check out what these websites have to offer.
- eworldtrade.com
- Bizvibe.com
- Manufacturersupplier.com
- Santandertrade.com
- german-business-directory.com
Be very careful of other directories you may like to use, as not all of them are secure and reliable. A great rule of thumb to follow? If the website looks like it was made in the 90s, don’t trust it!
Trade Shows
A great way to find the best suppliers in Germany is by going to trade shows. This is where people display their new products and services in an attempt to get them big on the market. There are numerous success stories of small-time people who integrated themselves into the global market by investing in trade shows.
You can find information on German trade show events here, the German trade fair database.
Read Reviews: Panjiva
Panjiva is a truly remarkable research-based website that has insights and data regarding global trade. It was created so people could better understand how trading processes work around the world. It offers various products, solutions and data such as logistics and analytics for both suppliers and consumers in every market and industry you could imagine.
This is an incredibly useful tool for evaluating suppliers and analyzing data, as it showcases over eight million companies worldwide with over one billion shipment records to review. This includes a risk analysis for each company, an in-depth analysis of each company’s activity, who a company’s top customers/suppliers are, etc.
You’re able to search for both importers and exporters by product, company or industry while having the ability to receive email alerts every time a company emerges that matches your specific criteria. They also provide API access, which allows the data to be directly sent to your CRM software for your own records.
Mind you, all of the data collected from this website is reliable and came from custom authorities and business databases. This service is widely trusted by over 3,000 companies worldwide, such as Hallmark, Honeywell and Michaels.
Request a Sample
A crucial part of choosing a supplier is ensuring you get a sample before you pay for an order. This sees that your product is made correctly. Be sure to pay attention to such metrics as quality, size, colour, material, shape, etc.
To help you assert your product guidelines, make a clear list of all the specific details you need for your product (regarding size, colour, etc.) and give it to the supplier/manufacturer before you ask for a sample. Since Germany is more focused on quality performance, having a lengthy list of product requirements shouldn’t be a problem. Although, if you were ordering supplies from another country, say China, they would most likely disregard your order, as it seems like too much time and work for cheap labour.
International Payments
When sending a payment to a supplier or contractor in Germany, there are lots of things to look out for.
For one, if you’re going through your bank to make an international money transfer, your payment is going to be subjected to various fees. This includes either an upfront flat fee or a percentage based fee based on your total transfer amount. A flat fee is generally a fixed fee that doesn’t change, regardless of the amount you choose to send. A percentage based fee is a variable fee taken out of the total payout, dependent on how much you send.
There are also additional handling fees and receiving fees. And that’s without mentioning tampered exchange rates that are not transparent!
The Foreign Exchange rates that banks offer are always manipulated in their favour, such that they can derive more profit from your payment. Want to see how the ratio is maneuvered in their favour? Calculate how much your recipient should be getting with Google’s rate. Then compare versus how much they’re actually getting if you take up your banks offer.
Banks also use something called wire transfers to make overseas payments, which can take days to weeks to process. If your suppliers don’t receive their payments in a timely manner, they may not want to work with you again.
REMITR – The Stress Free Alternative
An alternative to using banks to make international money transfers is by adopting a modern and tech-savvy payments platform, one like REMITR.
Sending business payments with REMITR costs a flat fee of just $5. There are no percentage deductions and no additional service or handling fees.
REMITR offers the best foreign exchange rates on the market, with no hidden tricks. And there’s no more waiting around. REMITR users can transfer money to 150+ countries in as little as one business day!
