China is the absolute manufacturing hub of all kinds of handbags in the world. But different bags have different hubs inside China.
If you are a new player in fashion bag business, or if you want to source handbags worthy your money from China, this article will help to save your time & money a lot.
Undoubtedly, China has the most complete handbag manufacturing industry chain, sufficient supply of raw materials, skilled industrial workers, and fast and convenient freight services.
Most Chinese bag manufacturers are trustworthy and reputable. But we all know that, none of factories is good at making all kinds of bags and buyer and seller may have disagreement on quality standards.
Where can I find a bag supplier who is good at manufacturing my bags in China?
How to deal with Chinese bag factories to ensure goods delivery & quality?
Read carefully and follow this guide, you will avoid 90% troubles in your bag purchasing.
1. Where typical bags are made & quality level
There are 5 well-known bag manufacturing hubs inside China, these cities or towns are:
- Guangzhou City (Shiling Town)
- Yiwu City
- Baigou Town
- Quanzhou City
- Pinghu Town
These hubs have a lot in common on certain types of bags, that is:
- Complete bag industry supply chain: raw material, technology, …
- Plenty of skilled manufacturing workers
- Relatively low price than other areas
- Fast & convenient freight service: by DHL, by Air, by SEA
But do keep in mind, these hubs are good at making different handbags.
Let me introduce them to you one by one.
1) Guangzhou City (Shiling Town)
Guangzhou City is known as the Capital of China’s Leather Goods & the No. 1 among all handbag manufacturing hubs in China. It is the most important port city in South China. Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport is located in Huadu District — the north of this city, about 1 hour drive from Guangzhou downtown.
The famous Canton Fair (China Import & Export Fair) is held 3 times a year in Guangzhou. It is the most representative trade exhibition in China, which makes Guangzhou world-famous and brings many business opportunities to Chinese bag manufacturers in Guangzhou.
Shiling International Leather Centrum
There is a lot of fine genuine leather handbag manufacturers located in Baiyun district and synthetic leather bag factories in Shiling Town of Huadu district. Handbags made of synthetic materials (Vegan fabric) are the final trend in the future. The biggest synthetic material and metal hardware trade market – Shiling International Leather Centrum is located in Shiling town, Huadu district.
In Shiling, you can find the latest trendy PU, PVC fabrics & hardware, new technologies for manufacturing bags. Handbag factories of different sizes and related upstream and downstream suppliers are distributed around the fabric and metal markets.
Shiling has the most complete handbag industry supply chain and richest resources of industrial workers. Most kinds of handbags in synthetic fabrics (PU, PVC, nylon, canvas, 1680D, etc) can be finely produced here at reasonable price: backpack, crossbody bag, hand bag, tote bag, fanny pack and wallet.
The averaged product quality & workmanship in Shiling is middle to high end and the cost is at same level.
But keep in mind that there are still a few of small factories which may offer very cheap price and lower quality bags.
2) Yiwu City
Yiwu is the second world-famous handbag manufacturing hub in China, it is called as ”Wall Street for Small Commodities in China”.
If your order quantity is too small to reach factory MOQ, Yiwu is good place for you to buy small amount of cheap bags from wholesalers.
Yiwu International Trade Market District 2
Yiwu International Trade Market is the largest wholesale market for small commodities in the world. You can find all kinds of items there, but for handbags, it is located in District 2.
The MOQ is pretty small and price is pretty cheap. That is good; you may love it at the first glance.
However, the biggest problem of Yiwu is that most of the bags are produced by hand workshops nearby, which mean the quality is not stable. You may get different quality bags even if you are buying exactly the same bag from the same supplier for replenishment orders.
And they prefer to buy material in stock which means you cannot repeat if you are selling hot.
Generally, Yiwu is good at producing simple bags like cosmetic bag, pen pouch, children coin purse and canvas shopping bag. Shaped or structured handbags like backpack, hand bag and crossbody are beyond their ability.
In one word, Yiwu price is the cheapest and the quality is lower end.
3) Baigou Town
Baigou Town is located in Hebei Province; the nearest port to Baigou is Tianjin Port. The Baigou Bags & Cases Trading Market was built in 1994. Baigou has become the 3rd largest bag manufacturing industry hub in China.
Baigou Bags & Cases Trading Market
Different from Guangzhou & Yiwu, suppliers there are mainly selling bags to China domestic buyers. The foreign trade is not well developed there because there is in lack of salesmen who can use English to communicate with international buyers.
The worker wages are only 60% of Guangzhou, but their productivity is much lower than in South China. Most workers are not good at producing complex bags like functional backpacks, structured cross-bodies, and so on.
The factories there are smaller than in Guangzhou, so if you have big or urgent orders, they may have problem to proceed or catch delivery. They can make simple fashion backpack, handbag and crossbody, but not wallet.
The quality there is a bit better than Yiwu, but much lower than Guangzhou. And its price is between them. If you are buying middle end or higher bags, better to choose Guangzhou factories; if you want to get a better offer for simple bags, you can try there.
4) Quanzhou City
Quanzhou is also a port city like Guangzhou. It is the east manufacturing hub for mainly clothes & sport shoes, also some clothing fabric bags.
It is facing the problem of rising labor cost, but they are still have strength in making clothing bags like sport bag, laptop computer bag, traveling bag and similar bags.
They are not good at manufacturing PU handbags, since most factories & workers were making clothes before they produce bags.
The factories in Quanzhou are big enough to accept huge orders but you may meet MOQ problem with them.
So if you are buying sport bags, nylon traveling bags and you have big orders, Quanzhou is your best choice.
5) Pinghu Town
Pinghu Town is located in east China in Jiaxing City, between Shanghai and Hangzhou. This nearest port is Jiaxing Port.
Bag industry was once the pillar industry of Pinghu Town, but it is going downstairs due to raised labor cost. Nowadays, the cost there is catching up to Guangzhou or even higher.
Pinghu has a long history of doing international business with foreign buyers, handbag manufacturing was very prosperous at early 20 century. But now the left advantage there is suitcases & luggage bags.
Most China’s biggest luggage manufacturing companies are located there. Their quality and reputation is very good due to their long trade history.
If you are doing suitcases, go to work with Pinghu factories without hesitation.
2. Guides to work with China bag factories
Now you already know where the typical bags are made in China and the quality there, then you will need to find and reach them.
If you don’t know how to find them, try to read below article for answers. Remember to add location keyword in your Google search.
» How to find your right handbag manufacturer in China
After you contacted with some potential bag factories you are thinking of cooperation, you should have a rough idea in mind on below aspects. This will help you to work better with your bag supplier.
- sample lead time
Usually, your proto samples should be sent out within 7 days. If a supplier takes 10 days or more to send out, recheck if they are really good at your bags or if they are real factory. - mass production lead time
35- 45 days is regular lead time for bulk cargoes, but if the materials need to be customized or it is in peak season, it will take one or two weeks longer, especially for small factories. - payment term
Most of factories registered legally in China can receive payment to their company bank account, but some small factories may ask you to transfer to a private account. These type of factories usually cannot accept L/C payments due to lack of capital. - customs clearance certificates
If in your county there needs certificates like C/O, Form E, Form F to import, don’t forget to check with this supplier whether they can offer them.
3. Tips to get better offer from your bag supplier
Generally, price from your suppliers comprises material cost, workman labor cost & margin. It seems there is nothing you can control directly, but if you follow our tips you can get better offer than your competitors.
The deep reason is these tips will help to reduce suppliers’ operation cost & time, so they will be willing to reduce some margin to accept your orders rather than others’.
Below are the tips other bag factories won’t disclose or advise you:
- try to place all orders in once instead of several times in each season
- try to enlarge units for each style, this helps the most
- reduce color combos for each style as less as you can
- combine lining color into black or one same color for each style & combo
- require shipment samples as less as you
- don’t make extra change after PP sample approved unless it is real necessary
- try to express all your design idea clearly at the first time to avoid 2nd samples
In the end
In China, you can always find professional bag manufacturers for your ideas with affordable price. What you need to do is just to find the right ones matching yourself and work smoothly with them.
Follow these guides or tips we suggest above will make you walk faster, easier & longer with your suppliers.
If you have any question or idea about handbag manufacturing, just contact us or drop us an email.
