What’s the biggest news recently about China? Yes, Coronavirus!
So here I would like to talk about what I would like to recommend you to do about sourcing from China during the Coronavirus.
First of all, calm down.
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. The Novel Coronavirus is really not the end of the world, it is not the end for China, and much less likely it is for you. So first of all, as the Spanish say, Tranquilo! Just like any time you are going through a hard time, the first thing first is to calm down.
Anyway, I am not asking you to calm down for no reason. There are a lot of reasons why you can stay hopeful about importing from China.
1. Your suppliers might not be affected much at all by this so-called Coronavirus.
Primarily only the suppliers that went back to hometown for the Chinese New Year holiday in Hubei province, especially its capital city Wuhan get more affected. So if your suppliers’ hometown is not in Hubei, you are much less likely to get affected at all.
2. In 1-3 weeks, the possibility for the virus to be contained is really high.
First of all, the Chinese government is taking all the powerful measures and Chinese people are behaving in a highly disciplined manner to contain the virus, should you panic about this? No, we all should feel lucky that although it may look like a little bit of overreaction, it is exactly in this manner that we can stay away from the virus earliest possible and wipe out the virus more completely.
Secondly, if you have checked a little bit of medical background information about the virus, actually one round of coronavirus incubation is 2 weeks, given than the holiday has already extended by 2 days to Feb 2 in the beginning and later by 7 more days to Feb 9, in addition to the 1 week of the holiday we originally had, the first round of incubation should be finished soon.
Let’s suppose we need another round of incubation for more patients to be revealed, adding 2 weeks from now, the picture of the matter would be a much brighter one.
Secondly, contact your suppliers.
1. To make sure they are safe
Ask your suppliers about where their hometown is, ask about the health condition of themselves and their family. Tell them you don’t care about your orders, products, and business, you care about your suppliers as a human being first.
2. Ask about what time they resume office.
Ask about what day they resume office and make sure you create a spreadsheet to get down all the details for you to have a full view of their conditions so you can prepare for your orders earliest whenever they come back to work.
Thirdly, think in your suppliers’ shoes to build a better relationship.
Your suppliers might have some difficulties anyway caused by the Coronavirus, make sure you show your care and concern for your suppliers about their difficulties as well. If you think in their shoes, you would be able to foster a better relationship with them.
Your suppliers’ difficulties might include:
1. The government doesn’t allow companies to resume office before Feb 10th.
2. Very unlikely but some of their staff or workers have been infected during the Chinese New Year break so this small group of people cannot come back to the company.
3. Their raw material suppliers are faced with similar situations.
4. Their raw material suppliers might increase the price because of the shortage of supply.
5. Your suppliers might have to work from home for a period of time until the virus is in better control.
In this way, you are able to foster a better relationship with your suppliers, and being able to predict these important points of information makes you look more knowledgeable and professional.
Fourthly, find backup suppliers if necessary.
In case your current suppliers are not able to meet your expected date of delivery, you need to find a backup supplier to fulfill your orders. However, this step is not just necessary in this critical moment of Coronavirus, you should be in the habit of seeking alternative suppliers from time to time anyway.
Lastly, tell your customers that receiving packages from China doesn’t make them infected.
Although the United States has just imposed a travel ban on China which is probably due to our dearest fellow Mr. Donald Trump’s overreaction it doesn’ have anything to do with a shipment or product, on an importing perspective you should not worry about not being able to receive products from China.
The WHO has made it very clear that it is safe to receive packages from China and people are not at risk of contracting the disease because from the previous analysis we know Coronaviruses do not survive on an object such as letters or packages Please spread this knowledge around your customers so you won’t lose sales from the customers that might have this concern.
