For the past two years I have been organising Webconf.asia, a conference featuring great talks with practical advice from international web experts.
Quite often people ask me where I got my stickers, banners or print work done. I am a big fan of sourcing locally, support your local dealer. This quite will come in handy if you’re based in Hong Kong, China or Asia.
It seems you can find these three combined in China: Fast, Cheap and Good.
Once I have found a supplier, I usually exchange a few emails back and forth to see if they understand what I mean, are reliable and can meet my requirements.
In Alibaba you can set an MOQ(minimum order quantity). Quite often I get disappointed because I only need 200 items maximum, which is, in general, a pretty low number for these companies. If you’re looking for lower quantities make sure you fill in a low MOQ.
With low quantities, it’s hard to bargain.
Things get lost in translation. I always send them a lot of pictures with arrows and text.
Quite often suppliers can send you some samples for free when you pay the postage. Postage from China to Hong Kong is only a few euro. If you’re based in Asia, ask them to send it through SF Express.
Quite often they want to take the conversation outside of Alibaba, worked fine with me, haven’t been ripped off once.
I prefer to pay by PayPal, you can ask them to send you a payment request.
Stickers
I am super happy withStickerHD. They are based in Taiwan. I have been using their‘Die cut stickers’. Their pricing is lower than Stickermule and the quality is super high.
They send you a proof and they think along with you.
Banners
TJBanner made these huge banners and some smaller ones too. I was super happy with them. Their prices are competitive and their product range is very large. They havea website too.
If you don’t feel like going through Alibaba, they can send you a PDF with their products too. Or send them a picture as a sample. I have been dealing with Fiona and she was excellent.
They made a free sample and send it to me when I was not sure about the design.
When you are using a pattern that is supposed to connect, you should double check that. A few of the hooks broke, so you should order some extras.
Socks
I ordered my socks atFirebird. I googled a sock template and they gave me tips on what would and what would not work. The socks turned out exactly as I had designed them.
I ordered a size bigger, because of the presence of quite some western feet which happen to be on the large side, but the socks came out quite big. I advise ordering the size they recommend.
Badges
I ordered my badges atGamma in Hong Kong. I have worked with multiple printers in Hong Kong and he was the only one that lived up to expectations.
He ships to anywhere in Hong Kong and his turn over time was super fast.
Pins
I have ordered my pins atKunshan Vast Gifts. They sent me a number of different samples which gave me a good idea of what they were capable of. The pins turned out great. I have worked with Emma and she was lovely.
Bags
I had trouble in finding simple linen bags. They all seemed to be expensive in low quantities. If you have any tips, please let me know!
If you have other cool that should be added to this list, add a comment or send me an email at charis@webconf.asia
Some tips:
Stickers
Banners
Lanyards
Socks
Badges
Pins
Bags