In a continuation from the last post, our sample production transaction began with proforma invoices received from all of the suppliers in either excel spreadsheet or PDF formats. It’s important to check and double check the invoice and delivery details, making sure you’ve included a telephone number as sometimes customs won’t process incoming packages without sufficient details.

Make sure the product details, quantities and prices are those that were discussed in your communications. Towards the bottom of each proforma invoice is generally the payment method information. Most suppliers provided both banking and western union details, but two of them have even offered PayPal as an option for sample payments. This option is probably the safest and fastest method for small sized transactions. If you do encounter troubles with dodgy samples or the supplier all of a sudden pulls a disappearing act it’s quite easy to have the payment refunded. Western Union is also a very fast way to transfer money. Transfers worldwide take only minutes and fees are reasonably price compared to the other methods. Take note of the various transaction fees across the methods as this adds to your overall unit price.

Our partners have agreed to use the telegraphic transfer method via their official banking channels as they view this as the most trustworthy. Unfortunately this method comes with a higher transaction fee than the Western Union method, but the options have been evaluated and this is the path we’ve agreed on.

It’s important to note that internet overseas banking transactions generally don’t allow special characters like brackets, commas or similar, and sometimes also have length restrictions. Some banks, Asian banks in particular, won’t release funds to account holders unless names are exact. If you do encounter difficulties inputting exact names you may need to walk into your bank branch and discuss with them directly.

So all the sample production payments have gone through last week and our suppliers have estimated delivery via express air courier within 14 days.