How to Develop and Manufacture a New Toy Product in China?

As the price competition in the toy industry continues to increase, more and more small and medium-sized toy companies are caught in a price war. Wondering how to develop and manufacture a new toy product, they are able to survive in the market by reducing costs and lowering retail prices.

In this case, many toy wholesalers decided to develop and manufacture new toy products in order to gain more profits. However, developing and making new toys is very difficult, and less than 5% of people can achieve real success.

Fortunately, we have helped many overseas toy wholesalers develop and manufacture new toys, and gained a lot of valuable experience. If you are interested, just keep reading.

Step 1: How to Generate and Manufacture New Product Ideas?

According to our past experience, there are mainly 2 types of new product ideas.

Creating a Brand New Product

The benefits of creating a completely new product are immeasurable. Of course, the premise is that this brand new product has a very good market prospect. For example, Fidget Spinner and  Last Mouse Lost have been popularized till now. And they bring much benifit for the toy developer.

harm:

It is very difficult and risky to develop and manufacture a brand new product. Good ideas are not so easy to come by, which means more costs. At the same time, before designing a toy, you should consider whether consumers will like the product. There is definitely a lot of difficulty in applying ideas to real life.

suggestion:

The advice is simple. That is when you are not sure whether this product will be a hot seller, or you do not have a lot of cost to invest in production, then you should decide to produe and manufacture a product with a lower cost.

Also, it is best not to manufacture plastic toys. Because plastic toys need to be molded before they are officially put into production, and the cost of a pair of molds is very high. This means you invest a lot of money upfront.

Improving Existing Toy Products and Increasing Functions

For a product, it is difficult to improve it. This change can be large or small. But the important thing is that it can bring greater value to consumers, and consumers can remember this new product and are willing to pay for it. Like a simple toy puzzle. If you add a luminous effect to it, consumers will be willing to pay for it.

harm:

The profit margins of improving a product are not as high as developing and manufacturing a new toy product. There may also be patent infringement issues because you don’t know if the change is patented or not.

suggestion:

I suggest that toy wholesalers keep an exploring mind in their daily life. Pay more attention to the inconvenience of consumers when using toys, so as to improve the products better.

At the same time, pay attention to infringement issues. If your toy is improved and causes related infringement problems, then you need to make timely adjustments.

Step 2: Prepare Design Draft or Mockup In Advance

Prepare design drafts or models in advance, which can promote communication between you and suppliers.

You can tell the supplier very coolly that you want to develop and manufacture 1000 toy products. At the same time, you can take out your design sketch and give it to the supplier for reference.

Ready-made 3D Design Draft

3D design drafts can help you give suppliers a better understanding of your product idea, so they can know where your new project is. At the same time, with the 3D design drawing, you can verify whether your toy idea is reasonable.

3D diagrams can help you foresee many problems. Before the final design is born, you will be dissatisfied with the appearance, function and details of the product. But as you improve step by step, you will find that your ideas become more real and palpable.

In addition, 3D drawings can help increase the confidence of you and the manufacturer in facilitating cooperation. Because you have already taken the first successful step towards this project. In the subsequent in-depth discussions, Chinese toy manufacturers will also share some of their views and suggestions to make better improvements.

Find a Product Development Company to Prototype

A professional product development company can make a prototype that satisfies you based on the 3D design draft.

At the same time, most product development companies will provide factory supporting services while providing services. But this means higher development costs. If you’re on a tight budget and tight on time, hire a professional product development company.

Step 3: Find the Right Supplier

Draw up a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA)

Nondisclosure agreements are very important when you are preparing to develop and manufacture new products from China.

The NDA must be signed with the finalized supplier. If you complete the signing through a purchasing agent, the agent needs to sign with the factory and keep confidential.

A complete NDA includes the following elements:

Your company information (contact/telephone/email etc.)

Your product information (cost, appearance, design, function, etc.)

Your packaging information (logo, design, etc.)

Your order information (order quantity, order plan, shipping plan, etc.)

Looking for Factory/Trading Company/Purchasing Agent

What kind of toys are suitable for direct sales factories?

Generally speaking, factories will quote with lower prices and higher MOQs to get more profits. However, they are more concerned with product quantity and production speed.

If your product is not only simple, but the budget is more suitable for a higher MOQ, then you can directly cooperate with the factory.

Advantages of a trading company？

Trading companies are good at handling combination products and can help you get a smaller MOQ. Because they directly connect with the factory, it can save you a lot of trouble.

Why do I need a purchasing agent, not a factory or trading company？

If you are not familiar with the Chinese toy market, or you don’t know what factory or trading company to cooperate with, then you can find a purchasing agent to complete the order.

The purchasing agent will keep your cost control and quality control requirements in mind, and will find a suitable factory for you until shipment. China’s purchasing agents are all local operations, and they will be more familiar with factories. For example, a factory’s MOQ is 2000 pcs, and the purchasing agent will find a way to help you reduce it to 1500 pcs, or even lower.

The Keys to Judging a Good Supplier

For finding the right supplier, there are several key factors, which are very important.

Price: For buying and selling, price is undoubtedly the most important factor. But don’t go for the low price too much. You have to balance quality and price to get the best value for money.

Sample quality: The quality of samples usually determines the quality of bulk products. If the quality of the sample provided by the factory is bad, they will make an excuse to say that it is just a sample, and the quality of the bulk product will be good. Don’t trust them, don’t place an order until you are satisfied with the samples.

Good communication: A good supplier should focus on understanding customer needs, and put forward their suggestions, resulting in high-quality order completion. When looking for the right supplier, you should look for those who speak good English, respond promptly, and communicate well. Most importantly, you want a patient supplier. Because in the process of order, it is very likely that there will be unexpected situations.

Minimum Order Quantity (MOQ): For buyers with small orders, the MOQ is undoubtedly as low as possible. But when the MOQ is fixed, you can communicate to get more colors at the same price, or more styles. Because rich styles and color options can attract more consumers’ interest.

Factory qualification certification: For factories, the more qualification certifications, the better. If a factory has ISO 9001 / BSCI / ISO 14001 / OHSAS 18001 and other certifications at the same time, then he is more attractive than other factories. Because the more certification certificates, it means that their products are certified and can be sold in more countries.

Step 4: Calculate and Break Down the Cost of the Entire Project

Costing is important. You need to figure out the approximate total cost of producing and manufacturing the toy, and then set the retail price of the product to see if it is suitable for the market.

Here is a full list of costs:

Pre-production Cost

Prototype cost (including design cost, 3D printing cost, manual production cost)

Molding cost in factory (preferably avoid plastic molds, otherwise there will be an expensive mold fee)

Inspection fees (checking which items are required and which are not, can save you a lot of money)

FDA registration fees (if you sell to the US)

Sample cost and courier cost (In many cases, the courier cost can be many times the sample cost. For a wooden puzzle purchased by one of our customers, the courier cost was $100, while the sample cost was only $10)

Patent and brand registration fees (As for patents, if you have the budget, you can apply for PCT. But the usual way is to get the shield first, then start with the country of sale, and add more countries as the sales increase)

Production Cost

Product cost (largest portion of value)

Inner packaging costs (better packaging can lead to higher retail prices)

Outer packaging fee (if your product is packed in 1 piece/outer box and will be delivered directly from the warehouse to the consumer through logistics, then you need to perform a drop test on the outer box and ensure that the inner product will not be damaged)

Packaging cost (If you are combining goods from several factories into one finished product, you will get this cost on the list.)

Production loss (loss occurs during production and you need to add a specific defective product rate)

Post-production Costs

Shipping: Most buyers don’t pay enough attention to shipping. By the time they realize the problem, it’s too late. Therefore, you need to consider the shipping method of the product, whether it is appropriate to ship by land, water or air.

Loss during transportation: Special attention should be paid to fragile items. Set a specific loss rate in the cost calculation to ensure it is included in the retail price calculation.

Warehousing costs: If you have warehouses with offset prices, you may consider stocking more of your goods for cheaper shipping. If your warehouse prices are too high, you can ask the factory to keep more inventory and ship on demand.

Marketing Cost: Calculate the budget you want to spend on platforms such as Amazon and Google SEM, and allocate them to the unit cost of each product. This cost is also an important part of the puzzle of completing the total price of a product to determine its retail price.

Step 5: Preparing Pre-production Samples

Determine the Material and Production Process of the Product

Before formal production, you need to discuss clearly with the supplier. They have more experience and can provide experience with materials and production processes.

Improvements to Pre-production Samples

When you receive a pre-production sample, gather all the comments you can, including negative ones.

Special attention should be paid to those bad reviews, whether it is reasonable or not, if it is reasonable, we must find a way to solve it during this period, don’t wait until the mass production is changed, it will be too late.

In addition, when making trial samples, some reliable suppliers will provide opinions based on their experience to remind you where it is not wise enough and needs to be improved.

Step 6: Start Marketing Your Product with Pre-production Samples

Tell Your Brand Story

Consumers love to read and enjoy the detailed process of how products are designed and end up on their table. Therefore, it is important to tell a perfect brand story.

Marketing Begins Upon Receipt of Pre-production Samples

Don’t wait until large quantities arrive at your warehouse to do marketing; you’ll waste too much time and spend more money on stocking products.

Most of our new product market success customers start with finished pre-production samples. They’ll take it to an exhibition or arrange a presentation for it, and they’ll take it to a lot of channel resellers as well.

Step 7: Start Mass Production

We have finally reached this point, and your order delivery is coming to an end, thank you for your hard work! Finally it was time to make. This is the starting line for your new product business to run and make money.

During production, you need to constantly monitor quality and delivery schedules, and also start contacting freight forwarders to arrange shipments.

In the End

Finally, I would like to hear your opinion: Which step in today’s guide still confuses you? Or want to know more details about products made in China? If you have any suggestions or questions, welcome to visit our website at https://unionvisionchart.com/.