When Does it Make Sense to Produce Promotional Products Overseas?

This is a question I hear quite frequently.  The simple answer is when you can meet the requirements of time, quantity and money.  There is seldom any doubt that products can be produced less expensively overseas.  Often times overseas production can save anywhere from 20-50% of the cost of the domestic product.  Many of my suppliers offer overseas options as well as domestic production.

First and foremost you need time.  Overseas production takes in general 3-4 months from the time the order is placed.  This gives the factory time to make and send a pre-production sample and the time spent on the water in a container ship.  Most clients I work with fall into one of two camps the planners and the procrastinators.  The planners know they have an event coming up in 6 months and are willing to get started now.  The procrastinators start getting geared up anywhere from a week to a month prior to their event.  Overseas production really does favor the planner.

The second criterion is quantity.  If you are looking to have 72 widgets produced overseas production is probably not for you.  However, if you need 50000 widgets then this could be right up your alley.  As a general rule the more custom the item the higher the quantities you will need.  When it comes to totally custom toys and ideas there are often expensive molds which require much higher quantities to make these choices feasible.

The third factor to take into consideration is money.  Depending on the size of the order some overseas manufactures and suppliers have minimum order amounts.  I have worked with manufacturers who would produce an overseas order for a minimum of $5000 and other who require a minimum order of $25000.

If you can meet all three of these criteria then there is a great chance you can save money by having goods produced overseas for your upcoming events.