After more than a decade of domestic business, we decided in August of this year to seriously pursue export. This article isn’t about products or specifications—it’s about the real process behind a decision.
【About Us】
We are a Foshan-based tile manufacturer with over a decade of production history—well-established in the domestic market, now expanding to serve international buyers directly. Our factory operates multiple production lines with an annual capacity of several million square meters. Before we started exploring export, our products were already widely used in commercial complexes and residential developments across China.
We’re new to export, but we’re not new to tile manufacturing. Leveraging Foshan’s mature supply chain, we have partnered with CE-certified factories and reliable freight forwarders, and are steadily advancing our international business.
After more than a decade of domestic business, we made a decision in August of this year: to seriously pursue export.
This decision wasn’t impulsive. But it also wasn’t because we were “ready”—in fact, we still don’t have our own export cases or a single completed export shipment to our name.
This article is an honest record of one thing: why a tile factory with over a decade of domestic experience is only now deciding to go global—and what we’re facing.
Why We’re Only Starting Export Now
Many friends have asked us this question.
We’ve been in domestic business for over a decade, and it’s always been enough. Our production lines run steadily, our customers are primarily commercial complexes and residential developments, and our reorder rate exceeds 30%—a solid number in the home building materials industry. The industry’s average customer retention rate has dropped below 15% in recent years, so maintaining our level says something about our quality and supply capability.
But this year, we saw several changes:
First, domestic competition is getting fiercer. Real estate has entered a period of adjustment, new construction has slowed, and price wars among peers are intensifying. In the past, quality and delivery times were enough to retain customers. Now the first question is often, “Can you go cheaper?”
Second, opportunities in overseas markets are growing. We’re seeing strong signals across the industry—accelerating urbanization in Southeast Asia, increased infrastructure investment in the Middle East, and a continuously expanding home renovation market in Europe and North America. China’s tile export data is also growing, especially in Southeast Asian and African markets.
Third, we don’t want to compete solely on “cheap.” We’ve been in this industry for over a decade, and quality has always been our bottom line. If we continue to compete on price domestically, quality will eventually be sacrificed. Rather than doing that, we’d rather bring our quality standards to overseas markets and compete on “consistency” rather than “lowest price.”
So in August of this year, we made it official: we’re going to export. Not as a trial, but seriously.
What Our Biggest Concerns Are
After deciding to export, we realized—doing well domestically and doing well in export are two different things.
We currently have three main concerns:
First, overseas customers don’t know us. We’ve built over a decade of experience domestically, but overseas buyers don’t know who we are. Without export records or overseas customer reviews, how do we get buyers to trust us?
Second, the logistics chain still needs to be proven. We’re very familiar with domestic logistics, but export involves freight forwarders, customs declaration, ocean shipping, and destination customs clearance—every step has its pitfalls. Although we’ve partnered with reliable freight forwarders, we haven’t yet completed a full shipment ourselves.
Third, we don’t know how to find our first customers. Domestic customers come through word of mouth and referrals. But how do we find overseas customers? Trade shows, B2B platforms, independent websites, cold emails—every path is said to work, but which one suits us? We haven’t tested any yet.
What We’re Doing to Prepare
Despite these concerns, we haven’t been standing still. Here’s what we’re currently working on:
Supply chain: Leveraging Foshan’s mature tile industry cluster, we have partnered with CE-certified factories. This means that while we haven’t completed our own CE certification application yet, we can meet the EU market’s CE marking requirements through our partner factories’ certification systems.
Logistics: We have partnered with freight forwarders and customs brokers experienced in tile export, familiar with customs clearance requirements in Southeast Asia, Europe, and North America. While we haven’t run a complete shipment ourselves yet, our partner forwarders have handled large volumes of tile export orders.
Documentation: We are preparing export document templates—packing lists, commercial invoices, certificates of origin, and test reports. These are documents that domestic orders don’t require, but every export order does.
Content: The article you’re reading right now is part of our preparation. By writing about international standards, certification requirements, and packaging specifications, we’re both organizing our own thinking and showing potential customers our professionalism.
What Our First Customers Can Expect
We know that as export newcomers, we don’t have our own export cases or overseas customer reviews. This is our current shortcoming, and we won’t avoid it.
But conversely, becoming our first export customer also has unique value:
| What You Get | Why |
|---|---|
| More flexible pricing | We need our first cases and are willing to be flexible on price |
| Priority production scheduling | Export orders are scheduled separately and won’t be squeezed by domestic orders |
| Direct communication | The owner handles it directly—no layers of sales staff |
| Dedicated service | For our first customers, reputation matters more than profit |
| Mature supply chain support | Leveraging the Foshan industry cluster, our partner factories have CE certification and export experience |
We won’t promise the “lowest price,” because that would mean sacrificing quality. But we can promise this: every order from our first customers will be treated as if it were our very first.
What We Need Most Right Now
Not orders. Advice.
If you’re an experienced overseas buyer, we’d like to ask a few questions:
- When you chose your first Chinese supplier, what mattered most to you?
- Where do you think a new export factory is most likely to run into problems?
- If you could give one piece of advice to a factory just starting export, what would it be?
The answers to these questions are more valuable than any industry analysis. If you’re willing to share, we’d love to hear from you.
Final Thoughts
This article isn’t a “look how great we are” pitch—it’s a record of “what we’re doing right now.”
We know there’s a long road between “deciding to export” and “exporting well.” Customers need to be found, shipments need to be run, processes need to be proven—every step is a challenge.
But we believe one thing: a factory with over a decade of domestic production experience has quality and supply capabilities that can stand up to scrutiny. And we have Foshan’s mature supply chain behind us. What we lack is our own export record—and records can be created.
If you’d like to become our first customer, or simply have a conversation with us, we welcome both.
【Supplier Verification Checklist — Our Real Status】
| Item | Current Status |
|---|---|
| Domestic production experience | ✅ 10+ years |
| Domestic customer reorder rate | ✅ 30% (industry average: ~15%) |
| Partner factory CE certification | ✅ Partnered with CE-certified factories |
| Export freight forwarder | ✅ Partnered with freight forwarders experienced in tile export |
| Export cases | ⬜ None yet (seeking first customers) |
| Export document templates | ⬜ In preparation |
| Sample orders | ✅ Available |