HELP! Competitor is trying to source my product from my manufacturer
I could really use some guidance from people who have more experience (I'm still green), so I thought I'd post my situation to this forum.
I sell my own branded items online (ebay) and source them from a manufacturer in China. The item that is sell is growing in popularity and there is one other person who sells the exact same product.
I’ve worked with my particular manufacturer for a few years and I (or so I thought) introduced this item to them when we first started working together. This was the first item they manufactured for me.
They reached out to me this morning with an urgent message because there is an American ecommerce retailer who is trying to source my product from them. My manufacturer reached out to me to ask if this person was a distributor of mine (and he isn’t) and if so, they wouldn’t sell to him.
I guess I have a few questions…
- I don’t want to lie to my manufacturer, but I also don’t want them to sell to this person. I asked in the past that my manufacturer not sell this item to other people and they responded at that time that it was a common item throughout Europe (this was when I was working with a different person than the person I’m working with now…. I really like and trust my new contact (as much as one can)). That didn’t seem quite right because I was the person who introduced the item to them. However, I let it go. What should I say to my manufacturer to dissuade them from making this sale? I think it’s really impressive, overall, that they’ve even made me aware that this is going on.
- How did this person (the potential competitor) figure out that this was my manufacturer? He contacted them through globalsource.com. In his message to them (which my manufacturer shared with me), he said that he was in the process of sourcing the item from several other factories and he wanted to confirm that they were my supplier. If they can give him a competitive price, he’ll go with them. Since I have that email, I actually have his name, email address, and website address. I've gone through my records and now see that he bought one of these items from me and that he's using his images of it to source a supplier in China.
- Over the past several months, I’ve been working with them to manufacturer a number of other new products. What sort of agreement can I put in place that would prevent them from selling these items to other people, down the road? None of these items can be patented, so that isn’t an option.
I greatly appreciate everyone's input! Thanks for taking the time...
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Trinipirate -
Thanks
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SignatureUse emotions and perceptions to build a great brand. Ask me about my book LabelsThatExploit. For safe sourcing and easy importing from 41 countries globally, see https://provenglobalsourcing.com{{ DiscussionBoard.errors[10121581].message }}-
lisah4788 -
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Importexport -
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