Home Furnishings in India : How to Find an Exporter,manufacturer or Supplier ? Beyond a Database.
Looking for a manufacturer or supplier of home furnishings in India ?
Don't know where to begin? Want to find a source but at a loss for resources? Want to do business in India, but unsure what is the best way to go about it?
This article attempts to answer some of these questions.
Firstly,unless you have a link in India, you will find it a difficult task to sift through the information available on the Internet. There are various sites that provide a directory of manufacturers and exporters in India. These sites have a database of exporters, manufacturers, suppliers and agents dealing in home furnishings. Not exhaustive and certainly not comprehensive, but it's a good place to start.
One disadvantage is going through all the databases. Largely, in the directories of manufacturers and exporters in India, the paid listings are not the bigger companies, because the latter do not feel the need to have a paid listing. If the site with the database also offers website design and hosting services, then the listings that come on top are usually the ones they got business from. Many of the resource sites are similar and even have the same information base.
So, what would be the best way to find someone a source?
I have tried to outline below some of the methods you could use to get more information.
1. Find a consultant based in India. You would need to pay such a consultant for their services, but it would be well worth your while. They would also do market research for you at a nominal cost. They need not be your buying agents, you could still deal with manufacturers in India directly, but they would be a useful link to have.
2. Ask for specific information, giving details of products you are interested in. No matter how small your quantities, you will find a supplier in India, who is willing to deal with you. In fact, if you have a niche market, the chances of finding someone reliable to do business with in India are even better. If you are just generally looking for suppliers of home furnishings based in India, you will get absolutely nowhere.
3. Send a few pictures of the kind of products that would be of interest to you. Without a visual, it is difficult to communicate. Posting trade leads with pictures is useful, although it is doubtful how many of those companies have an employee regularly visit the sites that carry their listing. My guess is, it would probably be ones based in remote towns where there is no other way to access information.
4. Once you have found a few suppliers for what you need, assess if they are willing to come and meet you personally. If the manufacturer finds you to be a potential client (and this is important), they will not hesitate to travel across the world to meet you. The kind of manufacturer you will find is likely to be determined by the volume/quality of business you are likely to give.
5. Assuming you are uncomfortable dealing with faceless companies based in India, consider the fact that most manufacturers and suppliers in India are equally uncomfortable dealing with someone they do not know or understand. If you make the effort to communicate with them, they will usually respond with the same enthusiasm. The ones that are more likely to be useful will not send you an email that looks like a mass-marketing mailer.
6. If you need samples, and you want to deal with a good company, you would need to pay them for it. A better way would be to ask for digital pictures or a CD. At any given point of time, a fabricator based in India has at least five requests a day for samples. Every single potential client promises big business.
7. The best way to assess the credibility of a potential supplier is to start small. That way you will know what their limitations are, and they will also be able to assess if they can do business with you. Even a cursory glance at the communications that keep going back and forth will give you an idea of what kind of a company you are dealing with.
8. Try to exchange information that would be useful to your supplier in India. If you can help them with information that you have access to in your country, they will go out of their way to help you find someone even if they do not manufacture the products you want. It builds trust, helps business, does not cost anything and does no one any harm. It could however, prove to be extremely beneficial. In pure commercial terms. To both parties.
9. To understand a fragmented market, the first step is to work in fragments that will create the whole. Keywords commonly used to find manufacturers from India-that will probably get you absolutely nowhere in terms of relevance and drag you into a cyber jungle that will leave you more confused than anything else?.
"furnishings India, exporters home furnishings India, manufacturers bedspreads India, decorative pillows India, table linen manufacturers India, suppliers fabrics India, wholesale distributors, handicraft, embroidered textiles,"
The list goes on and on. The reason is simple. It is an organized chaos. But chaos nevertheless.
10. If you have the time and the resources, you could perhaps find what you want in one of these databases. If not, and you are still looking to do business in India, find a link in India. A link you can build a relationship with. Business is all about relationships. Especially small business. The home furnishings industry in India is still relatively small business.
Rekha I Nambiar is an interior designer based in New Delhi,India. She runs her own business in interiors,furniture and furnishings.
Her work may be viewed at www.id-home-furnishings.com">http://www.id-home-furnishings.com
Her blog is www.20six.co.uk/furnishinghub">http://www.20six.co.uk/furnishinghub
Exclusive: Donald Tusk says it would still be better for both sides if UK stayed in EU
Brexit has been “one of the most spectacular mistakes” in the history of the EU and followed a campaign marked by “an unprecedented readiness to lie”, Donald Tusk has said.
In his first interview since standing down as European council president last week, Tusk said Brexit was “the most painful and saddest experience” of his five years in office, a tumultuous period marked by the Greek eurozone crisis, bitter rows over migration and the election of Donald Trump.
Number of cases reported so far this year is three times higher than at same stage in 2018
The worldwide surge in deadly measles outbreaks is showing no sign of abating, with nearly 10 million cases and 142,000 deaths last year, according to new estimates, and three times more cases reported so far this year than at the same stage in 2018.
Most of those dying are small children, and thousands more suffer harm including pneumonia and brain damage. New scientific evidence shows survivors are at greater risk soon afterwards because their immune system is impaired.
Quoting from the Declaration of Independence and the founding fathers about the danger of a president one day betraying the country’s trust to foreign powers, the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, announced on Thursday that she was directing the judiciary committee to draft articles of impeachment against Donald Trump.
“The president leaves us no choice but to act,” Pelosi said. “Sadly, but with confidence and humility, with allegiance to our founders and a heart full of love for America, today I am asking our chairman to proceed with articles of impeachment.”
Transport workers bring country to standstill amid anger over pension changes
More than 800,000 people have marched in cities across France as railway workers, teachers and hospital staff held one of the biggest public sector strikes in decades against Emmanuel Macron’s plans to overhaul the pension system.
A nationwide transport strike brought much of France to a standstill and was expected to continue for the next few days as unions dug in, saying the president’s pension changes would force millions of people to work longer or receive lower payments.
Oversubscribed listing in Riyadh of 1.5% stake in state oil company will value it at $1.7tn
Saudi Aramco is poised to achieve the biggest initial public offering in history next week by raising $25.6bn (£19.4bn) for the Saudi state in its market debut.
The state-owned oil business will emerge as the world’s most valuable listed company after valuing its shares at 32 riyals ($8.53) apiece before its float on Riyadh’s stock exchange next week.
Woman left with 70% burns in latest attack as film director’s tweets on rape cause outcry
An Indian woman has been set on fire on her way to a court hearing to testify against two men who had allegedly raped her.
The 23-year-old is in a critical condition in hospital with 70% burns after she was set upon by five men in the city of Unnao in Uttar Pradesh. They dragged her to a field, doused her with petrol and set her alight.
Boris Johnson has claimed that all-out strikes on public transport will be made illegal under a new Conservative administration following major disruption on UK train routes.
“I do think it’s absurd that critical transport mass-transit systems should be capable of being put out of actions by strikes, and other countries around the world have minimum service requirements for public transport – and that’s what I want to see,” said Johnson in front of an audience of textile workers near Matlock in Derbyshire.
Regional body describes ‘malicious’ steps to rig October election in report, including use of a hidden computer server
The Organization of American States (OAS) has described “deliberate” and “malicious” steps to rig Bolivia’s October election in favor of the then president, Evo Morales, who was forced to resign amid widespread protests in the Andean nation.
A nearly 100-page report by the OAS described several violations, including the use of a hidden computer server designed to tilt the vote toward Morales.
Work by Panmela Castro of woman held in headlock was removed after managers at events space told her police complained
A mural depicting police abuse in a Rio de Janeiro favela has been removed from the walls of a Miami events space after local police reportedly complained.
The work, by the Brazilian artist Panmela Castro, showed a black woman being held in a headlock, with the caption: “Woman who filmed abused [sic] by police officers is beaten and arrested.”
Organisers of competition students travelled to attend demand their return to Nigeria
The organisers of an international student sports competition have called for two Nigerian table tennis players to be returned to their own country after Croatian police wrongly deported them to a Bosnian refugee camp.
Abia Uchenna Alexandro and Eboh Kenneth Chinedu, students at the Federal University of Technology Owerri in Nigeria, arrived in Zagreb on 12 November, on their way to participate in the fifth World InterUniversities Championships, held this year in Pula, Croatia.
Study expands on archive finds revealed in 2011, and suggests that the French state may have abetted the 1960 car crash that killed him
Sixty years after the French Nobel laureate Albert Camus died in a car crash at the age of 46, a new book is arguing that he was assassinated by KGB spies in retaliation for his anti-Soviet rhetoric.
Italian author Giovanni Catelli first aired his theory in 2011, writing in the newspaper Corriere della Sera that he had discovered remarks in the diary of the celebrated Czech poet and translator Jan Zábrana that suggested Camus’s death had not been an accident. Now Catelli has expanded on his research in a book titled The Death of Camus.
A mile east of the Luís I Bridge in the middle of a residential neighbourhood in Porto, Portugal’s second city, sits a bleak and decaying building.
Initially a three-storey car park, then a thriving shopping centre, the building has more recently suffered from years of neglect. Its walls are sprayed with graffiti and plastered with stickers, and the windows are blacked out.
From the shanty towns of Khlong Toei to the hidden parts of Chinatown, Cody Ellingham walked Thailand’s capital every night for five weeks to photograph the city for his book Bangkok Phosphors
Prague has long an uneasy relationship with monuments to its history – but 30 years since the fall of the communist regime, that could be about to change
I used to think the saddest place in Prague was a prospect high above the Vltava River. It is a peaceful though somewhat neglected spot, buttressed by granite ramparts covered with graffiti and popular with families out for a stroll, skateboarders, joggers and tourists taking selfies against the backdrop of the city. At its centre is a gently mounded plateau, empty except for a giant metronome, soon to be taken down.
The area has no name on current maps of Prague, but it was once known, in popular parlance, as “U Stalina” – Stalin’s place. In 1955, two years after the Soviet dictator’s death, a massive 50-foot high granite monument to him was unveiled on this spot, the largest representation of Stalin in the world. Commissioned in the late 1940s when Czechoslovakia was being turned into a Soviet satellite state, and already under construction as Stalin lay dying, the monstrous memorial remained in place until 1962 when, in the spirit of de-Stalinisation, it was blown to smithereens by the same regime that erected it.
Cities around the world are scaling up their use of surveillance cameras and facial recognition systems – but which ones are watching their citizens most closely?
Qiu Rui, a policeman in Chongqing, was on duty this summer when he received an alert from a facial recognition system at a local square. There was a high probability a man caught on camera was a suspect in a 2002 murder case, the system told him.
The depth, breadth and intrusiveness of China's mass surveillance may be unprecedented in modern history
Mired in poverty, corruption and violent unrest, Haiti faces a fresh problem in the form of paid gunmen out to settle scores
At the barricaded junction next to the international airport in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince, protesters burn tyres and block the road with stones and a large truck.
Cars and commercial vehicles that approach turn back or risk being stoned, while pedestrians wade on through the smoke.
It was wrong of PM to rapidly call for tougher sentencing for terrorists, says Labour leader
Jeremy Corbyn has accused the prime minister of politicising the death of London Bridge terror attack victim Jack Merritt by talking too soon about tougher sentencing for terrorists.
The Labour leader, who revealed he spoke to Merritt’s father, Dave, in the days after the student was killed, criticised Johnson for making a glut of statements about strengthening the law in the immediate aftermath of the atrocity.
Audrey Mash developed severe hypothermia while hiking in Catalan Pyrenees in freezing weather
Doctors in Barcelona have managed to revive a British woman who had a six-hour cardiac arrest after developing hypothermia while hiking in the Catalan Pyrenees in freezing weather last month.
Audrey Mash said she was surprised at the attention her case had attracted and said it had not put her off hiking. “I feel like a fraud for not being back at work. I’m hoping to go back before the end of next week,” she said on Thursday.
Company’s shares are low rated and its legal and regulatory headaches are greater than ever
Congratulations if, in the spring of 2011, you took one look at the big £38bn stock flotation of the year and concluded the company was un-investable. Glencore has never traded above its float price of 530p. The Swiss-based mining and trading company stands at 217p after Thursday’s 9% fall, which was prompted by news of an investigation by the Serious Fraud Office into suspicions of bribery.
Broker Jefferies politely called the SFO’s probe “a new overhang on Glencore shares”. The existing overhangs are inquiries by the US Department for Justice and the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission into activities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Venezuela and Nigeria. That’s quite a collection of serious regulatory bodies taking a look.
The former secretary of state under Obama said Biden’s ‘decency and the experiences that he brings to the table are critical to the moment’
Help us cover the critical issues of 2020. Consider making a contribution
Congressman Jeff Van Drew, one of two House Democrats who voted against the measure formalizing procedures in the impeachment inquiry, warned that drafting articles of impeachment could backfire on the party.
Urgent: Dem NJ Rep Van Drew believes impeachment could backfire on Democrats: “People have to be careful for what they wish for.”
Van Drew: The majority rules. I would rather have seen a censure…the House could have strongly censured him
The Iowa town hall where Joe Biden shared a fiery exhange with a voter remained contentious after the former vice president concluded his remarks, with one attendee telling the orignal questioner to “get out of here.”
The voter who confronted Biden offered a very colorful response.
"Stick it up your ass, fella."
Voter that challenged @JoeBiden gets into confrontation with another voter that told him to "get out of here."
Rushan Abbas says countries doing business with China are enabling its mass detention of 3 million people, including her sister
A leading Uighur activist, Rushan Abbas, has urged Australian MPs to take a stronger stance against the Chinese regime, while backing controversial comparisons between the state’s authoritarianism and Nazi Germany.
Abbas, who met with MPs in Canberra on Thursday and held a roundtable at the US Embassy on the plight of the Uighur Muslim minority in western China’s Xinjiang province, said that “modern day” concentration camps holding as many as 3 million Uighurs were a case of “history repeating itself”.
The suffering of people wounded in conflict zones is being compounded by what doctors say are ‘horrifying levels’ of antibiotic resistance
When Jihad Nasser arrived at al-Awda trauma clinic in Gaza, he was hoping doctors could finally stop his pain. A gunshot wound in his right leg had not been not healing properly. The news, however, was bad.
The complex bone fracture he had suffered was badly infected with MRSA. Doctors told him it would not respond to treatment and they would need to amputate.
Increase in violent conflict combined with effects of climate crisis make outlook bleak for world’s poorest people, says report
Attacks on healthcare workers have reached a record high according to a UN report that predicts a “bleak outlook” for the world’s poorest people due to intense armed conflict and the climate emergency.
The number of highly violent conflicts has risen to 41, from 36 in 2018, causing deaths, injuries, significant displacement and hunger, the UN’s global humanitarian overview 2020 report found.
Whatever the outcome of this general election, leaders should rise to the ambition of our own and global commitments, write representatives of 49 organisations
The UK has a well-earned reputation for being a key player on the global stage – respected for our record on international development, climate change, and humanitarian aid.
By 2020, this country will have helped vaccinate 76 million children, saving 1.4 million lives from preventable diseases. The UK has already helped 57 million people to cope with the effects of climate change over the last eight years and is on track to reach 60 million people with clean water by 2020. About 32 million people have been supported with humanitarian assistance in the face of conflict and disasters, including at least 10 million women and girls.
Japanese prime minister among those to pay tribute after Tetsu Nakamura is killed in deadly ambush on car
The head of a Japanese aid agency and five other people have been killed in an ambush in eastern Afghanistan
Among the victims was Tetsu Nakamura, 73, the respected physician and head of Peace Japan Medical Services, who had recently been granted honorary Afghan citizenship for his decades of humanitarian work in the country.
Pamela Karlan’s reference to Trump’s son Barron offered Republicans a chance to claim righteous outrage
Finally, a smoking pun. A simple play on words told us everything about the impeachment inquiry, the current mindset in Congress and the state of the nation.
The witness Pamela Karlan cracked a joke that delighted liberals and infuriated conservatives. Or rather, it delighted conservatives because it gave them a talking point to whip up outrage.
Squabbling, a spreading focus and Trump raise doubts about the effectiveness of the alliance
Seventy years after Nato was founded to protect western Europe from Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Union, the military alliance returned this week to its first home in London to discuss an increasingly sprawling set of goals while bickering leaders competed to see who could offer the most contentious soundbite.
Normally this is an arena that would be dominated by Donald Trump, although this time he was somewhat upstaged by Emmanuel Macron, whose pre-summit declaration that the organisation had become “brain dead” obliged Trump to describe his French counterpart’s comments as “very, very nasty”.
New Zealand’s political system relies on an untraceable flow of donations from rich individuals with personal agendas. That won’t change
The press release was triumphant. The justice minister, Andrew Little, announced that the government was banning foreign political donations, a move that would “protect New Zealand from foreign interference in our elections”.
This is a good thing. Across the Tasman, Australian politics has been roiled by allegations of Chinese interference. One donor, Huang Xiangmo, who had donated at least A$2.7m to both major parties, had his residency cancelled when his connections to Chinese Communist party-linked organisations were exposed. More recently Bond-esque revelations, including a Chinese defector, a dead businessman and a million-dollar donation, have emerged. Given that Australia is facing such a severe challenge to its democratic integrity, the attention Little is giving to this issue should be welcomed.
Nancy Pelosi lashed out at a reporter for asking if she hated Donald Trump after her statement announcing that the Democrats would move forward with articles of impeachment against the president.
'As a Catholic, I resent your using the word "hate" in a sentence that addresses me,' she said. 'I don't hate anyone ... I pray for the president all the time'
The US Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, has announced the House will proceed with articles of impeachment against Donald Trump. 'The president leaves us no choice but to act,' she said. 'Sadly, but with confidence and humility, with allegiance to our founders and a heart full of love for America, today I am asking our chairman to proceed with articles of impeachment.'
The Christmas tree at the Tennessee aquarium is being powered by an unusual renewable energy source – an electric eel. Miguel Wattson is the resident eel and through a special system that connects his tank to a nearby tree, the natural shocks he produces when he is looking for food or when he is excited, is being channelled to power fairy lights
Republican representative Matt Gaetz fiercely criticised the Stanford law school professor Pamela Karlan for a pun during the second round of the Trump impeachment hearings.
The Democrats' witness and impeachment expert had said: 'While the president can name his son Barron, he can’t make him a baron.' She later apologised for her comment, which Melania Trump highlighted in a tweet
Donald Trump has cut short his attendance at the Nato summit in London and accused Justin Trudeau of being 'two-faced' after the Canadian leader was heard apparently mocking the president's predilection for long, impromptu press conferences at a Nato reception at Buckingham Palace. 'He was late because he takes a 40-minute press conference off the top,' Trudeau could be heard saying, as other world leaders laughed. Boris Johnson, one of those present, denied they had been joking about Trump
Donald Trump said Justin Truedeau was 'two-faced' after the prime minister of Canada seemed to joke about the US president in a video shared widely on social media.
Trudeau appeared to be joking with Boris Johnson and Emmanuel Macron about Trump in the video, although the US president is never mentioned by name
RELATED ARTICLESReminders For Running A Better Business
The following tips are from an article we contributed to Compute magazine. These are ideas that we all should know, but many times forget.
7 Money Saving Tips to Decrease Home Business Expenses
We all know that running a home business is highly satisfying, and at times downright liberating! No clock to punch, no dress code, and best of all, no boss to answer to. But there are also many facets of business ownership that entrepreneurs must stay on top of.
How to Counsel Your Non-Performing Team Members - 10 Tips
Counselling non-performing team members is a tough part of any managers role. This article is full of tips to help you perform this difficult role.
7 Keys to Running a Successful Business
Although dentistry may appear to be different than other types of businesses, in reality it is a business. And although this article is written from a dentist's perspective on developing a successful practice, the principles can be used in virtually any business.
Performance-Stress-Motivation: 7 Sanity Saving Business Boundaries
The lack of strong boundaries is one of the chief causes of stress, overwork and overwhelm in the business environment.What are Boundaries?Clearly set boundaries help other people to understand how you want to be treated.
7 Tips for Home Business Start-up Success
1) Prepare a realistic business plan.Think of this as your business road map.
Top Ten Tips for Improving Your Cash Flow
Cash is king-so they say. If you work for yourself or someone else, you need to be aware of ways to improve the cash flow.
Seven Ways to Get the Most Out of the Next Training You Attend
Sometime soon you will be attending some training. It may be a one hour tele-seminar, a one day class, professional conference, or a weekend retreat.
Ten Tips for Cross Cultural Communication
Here are some simple tips to help you improve your cross cultural communication skills:
Slow Down
Even when English is the common language in a cross cultural situation, this does not mean you should speak at normal speed. Slow down, speak clearly and ensure your pronunciation is intelligible.
Brainstorming! The Key To Wealth
Advertising executive Alex F. Osborne first coined the word "brainstorming" in the early 1940's.
Event Planning: Seven Best Practices Successful Planners Use
Do you plan events for the corporate world like product launches, conferences, seminars, etc? If so, check out these seven practices of successful event planners.It's easy to dismiss these points thinking they're trivial.
7 Reasons You ARE Your Own Best Product, or Lessons From the 2004 Presidential Election
The 2004 election is over--at least in the minds of the public--and analysis runs rampant as to why Senator John Kerry lost. From a business viewpoint, one could say that he simply didn't sell the product.
Top Ten Ways to Manage Interruptions
So many people I worked with said they got more work done at home than in the office. That was because there were so many interruptions in the office.
Plan Your Success In Seven Ways
Many businesses lose money yearly because they don't think creatively about the future. They run their businesses doing what they think they should: dealing with customers, dealing with problems, ordering for their business, and paying their expenses.
10 Things To Do Before You Start Your Business
If you are thinking of starting a new business, or if you are just about to take the plunge, you will know that there is a lot that you have to do. But where do you start? It is a good idea to get some of the groundwork done before you start, possibly this will often mean things that you hadn't thought about, things that most people do as a reaction to circumstances rather than as a planned activity.
Ten Tips on Delegating Work
One way to manage your time more effectively is to delegate work to others on your staff or to contract workers you hire for specific projects. How often I hear such comments as, "It takes too much time to delegate.
Top Ten Tips for Participating in Online Business Expos
Are you ready for a BASH? Have you ever been a vendor or exhibitor at an expo, craft show or other offline event? Well, when you are a participant in an online bash or online expo - many of the same expo tips apply. Here are the Top Ten essential business expo tips for online events.
10 E-mail Organization Tips
Who doesn't have issues with organizing their inbox!? I receive close to 600 e-mail each day due to the variety of activities and contacts I have online. Some I am truly interested in their content - most I am not.
Advice for New Coaches: 10 Ways to Attract Your First Paying Client and Receive Endless Referrals
Many new coaches struggle to attract their first client. Often, these coaches are so desperate to prove themselves, they'll sacrifice their financial health to coach their first few clients for free.
7 Tips To Increase The Success Of Your Online Business
1. Outsource what takes you too long to doWhen you don't have time to do something, you either don't do it, or do it faster and make mistakes.