Competition for small/medium businesses is usually based on price, which can lead to lowering the cost of products or reducing your margins. The increased competition in these conditions means that vendors will have to think of new products or even build a brand to capture the opportunity. Helping customers find the right manufacturing solutions, we’ve had lots of success and invaluable experience. Here are useful steps to help you find and hairbrush manufacturer and make a new product in China.
I categorize hairbrush development into 9 steps and provide many examples to help improve your understanding. Hope you will know more about the process of developing and manufacturing a new hairbrush in China
- Have a new product idea.
- Create a prototype or design of the product.
- Find suitable suppliers.
- Estimate the cost of the whole project.
- Customize a pre-production sample.
- Choose private label and packaging solutions.
- Use the sample product to start marketing.
- Intellectual property and compliance certification.
- Start massive production.
Step 1: How to have a new product idea?
(If you’ve got a good product idea, this section won’t be for you!)
You might have some brilliant ideas for your hairbrush or the design of an existing hairbrush. So, in summary, the origins are mainly divided into two types.
Type A: Create a new hairbrush that is 100% original and not available anywhere else
The biggest benefit is that it can bring about lots of earnings for your business in terms of your sales, your business sees growth that is unparalleled by your competitors.
There are a lot of new product ideas around, but it’s worth considering what you can bring to the table that others don’t, it will take more time and cost more to arrive at that production, And you need to worry if consumers like it before it goes viral.
It is better if you can avoid plastic hairbrushes, which are used to require a mold before production and easily cost USD 10,000 to mold. As if the plastic is necessary, try to control the structure as simple as possible to reduce the mold cost accordingly.
Type B: Make improvements to an existed hairbrush for better.
If a new hairbrush is developed, it should be outputted with improvements. This newly created hairbrush may not be deemed as relevant by the masses, but this is where updates are essential – updates provide an improved base or foundation. You can learn a lot from this, such as the production cost and manufacturing theory.
A lot of competition in the market makes it hard to find the margins you want. And there is a risk of infringement on the patent if you don’t know which one you are going to improve, as it can be for a patent or not.
Step 2: Prepare a prototype or design file before reaching out to Chinese suppliers.
This step is the key to showing your potential supplier how serious are you in this new hairbrush venture.
Being able to talk well and negotiate the price with your supplier is an important factor when you discuss purchase orders, so try preparing a response beforehand. Next, use a piece of paper to draw out a rough draft of your hairbrush in your head. But, China Suppliers have met countless customers who present their idea in this manner; they won’t trust you and will likely refuse to help, or knowingly quote the wrong price in order to discourage new shoppers.
Step 3: Find a suitable supplier to manufacture your hairbrush.
A. The first step for you is to get ready for the Non-disclosure Agreement (NDA).
Non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) are crucial when you’re in charge of developing and putting together new products – especially when they’re coming from China. It decides how you can lead the way in the copywriting world and give your competitor a run for their money.
The customer has to sign an NDA with the end manufacturer. Before you work with a sourcing agent, make sure the agent and factory have both signed on to work.
B. To find a factory/trading company/sourcing agent to help you finish the production, it is important for you to remember that this is vital for your project’s success. If you are looking to produce a hairbrush that has few moving parts and the budget fits with the MOQ, you will be able to find a single factory in need of contract work.
C. Critical Points for deciding which supplier to work with for your project. What needs to be known in order to work with a supplier on a new hairbrush project?: Price, Sample Quality, Good Communication, MOQ, Estimated the time for making the mold, Refund of Sample cost/Mold cost, Factory Qualification Authentication.
Step 4: Calculate and make a cost breakdown for your whole project
Here comes a critical moment, you need to work out a general cost and then plan its Retail price, to learn if it is workable for the market.
A. Cost before Production
Prototype cost (including design cost, 3D printing cost, handmade cost)
Mold cost for factory (again try your best to avoid Plastic mold, otherwise is a $2,000 up expense)
Sample Cost and Courier cost (There is a Chance that courier cost is several times than Sample cost. For one of our customers buying a new style hairbrush with a beautiful box, the courier cost is $100 while the sample cost is only $50)
Patent and Brand registration fee. (As for the patent, if you have a budget, can apply for PCT. But the usual way is to get the shield to start with Country of Sale, and along with the sales going up then add in more countries)
B. Cost during Production
Inner Package cost (A more excellent package will always bring a higher retail price for you, and the better package is charging higher.
Outer Package cost (You should carefully make the Drop-Test for the outer Carton and make sure it passes the test to prove no damage delivery to ruin your hairbrush.)
Production loss (no one can manage 100% perfect production, so you need to add the specific rate of defect hairbrush.)
C. Cost after Production
Shipping cost: Most buyers did not pay enough attention to shipping costs when they proceed to production, and it is too late in noting such expenses will swallow all of their margins. So work carefully on this cost and consider what type of transport is fit for you. Sometimes, when you add the freight to product cost, you may even find out that it is not worth developing the new item.
Step 5: Customize a sample before starting the massive production
After checking your cost carefully and being confident on the product will make a margin from the market, then you can start the pre-production sample process, which is vital to follow as an inspection sample and a critical reference of quality/outlook/function. Also, you can start selling to some distribution customers months earlier than the mass cargo arrived in port.
Some essential features in this step are listed below for assisting your work:
A. Decide the Material and Production Process of the product.
Please note that the pre-production sample is entirely different from the prototype, it needs to confirm on the real production process and material, while the prototype is more or less and reference.
What you need is to discuss clearly with your factory/supplier. They get more knowledge in this field and shall provide a proposal on material and production process to control the quality/cost and reduce the defect rate.
B. Make improvements against the Pre-production sample.
Test it, try it, and show it to your families and best friends to test it and try it. Gather all the comments you can when you receive the Pre-production sample.
Take special attention to those bad comments, consider whether it is reasonable or not, if yes, you must figure out a way to solve in this period, do not leave it too late to change in mass production.
Also, when making the pre-production sample, some reliable suppliers will provide comments from their experience to notice you where is not wise enough and need improvement.
Step 6: Choose suitable private label and packaging solutions
Good package design and packing material will significantly value your product value and support it to sell at a higher retail price. So do not save your cost in designing for packaging, try to find someone right and finish a brilliant design to compatible with your hard work.
Here is the guild for the most frequent 3 queries met by our customers when applying private label:
A. How to apply the logo onto the product, and what is the benefit of each option?
Silkscreen Printing (this is a commercial way of implementing the logo, but pay attention to the printing quality, some lousy quality silkscreen printing peels off easily after use)
Heat Transfer Printing (If your design needs more colors to express, this is a good option. Its process is to plate a printed film onto the product body by heating.)
Laser engraving (works good effect on Wooden/bamboo Surface, supply a more natural and high-end outlook than printing, no fade and peels off. This process has no need for mold cost, and the minimum starting charge is not high.)
B. How about the individual packing selection?
A wise option for most new product individual packs is the color box/bag. It is considered more high-end and has a better outlook. Meanwhile, it can offer excellent protection to the product.
I made a breakdown of some important points you need to pay attention to when customizing boxes&bags.
Material: Paper Card Board Box/Cotton Bag/velvet Bag.
Design: Need the supplier to provide an accurate figure for Length x Width x Height to finish.
Sample: to confirm the printing color and size and all other details before package material production.
Step 7: Start Marketing your product with Pre-production Sample
No doubt that marketing is another key to decide your new product will succeed or not, especially since we are in a world now full of product supplies.
Several suggestions from our experience are as below:
A. Have a good story about your product.
People like stories and they like to read and enjoy the detail process of how the product designed and come to their table. Meanwhile, try to embed the story idea into your packing design, to complete the story and make it more convince-able.
B. Start the marketing at the timing of receiving the Pre-production sample.
Do not wait for the mass cargo to arrive in your warehouse then doing it; you will waste too much time and spend more on stocking the products.
C. Spread out your marketing information as many channels as you can within your budget.
Thoughtful consideration is to prepare a pack of advertising material (Photos / Videos / Flyers), and when your distributor gets interested in selling, send it to them directly for spreading out faster.
D. Register your domain and build an online store.
I highly recommend you register a domain on godaddy.com for your own brand, which can greatly promote your products.
Besides, I suggest that you can also register a store on Amazon, which can bring you traffic and complete fulfillment for you.
Step 8: Intellectual Property And Compliance Certifications
A. Apply Patent for your product.
A patent can help you extend the high margin period for your new hairbrush, as your competitor will need time to think and make 3 significant differences from your original design.
You can consider applying only to the country of sale or both together with China. Provided you have a sourcing agent in China, they can use the China patent to avoid lots of small factories from copying your product, so that to keep your competitor from your new product and protect the price for a longer stable time.
B. Register your trademark
It is never too much to say how important is Trademark to protect your legal rights. Currently, to apply for a Trademark Registration is very easy. Check with your domestic registration institution for more information, and pay notice to the investigating time of how long to get the registration done.
C. Sign an agreement for full control of the mold / getting the mold back
As the mold is your investment to produce, you have the full right to control it. If you are working with a factory directly, make sure they will pack the mold in functional status with a seal after production (You can ask them to take photos when packing and sealing).
If you are making the order through the trading company or sourcing agent, ask them to keep the mold for you instead of leaving it in the factory.
Step 9: Start Massive Production
Thanks to your hard work, you finally come to the time for production. Here is the starting line of your new product business to run and make you money.
During the production, you will need to keep monitoring the quality and delivery schedule, and also need to start contacting the freight forwarder for shipping arrangements.
Finally, I’d like to hear from you:
Which step from today’s guide still confuses you?
Or want to learn more details about manufacturing products in China?
Either idea let me know and welcome to consult us anytime for rapid assistance.
