How to select suitable lash supplier – 7 key factors

90% of lash brands & supplies owners are exhausted from repeatedly choosing the wrong lash supplier because they did not consider all the necessary aspects.

… while each supplier bring a new surprising problem.

There is a checklist for selecting suppliers can help you:
✅ Cover all necessary aspects to consider.
✅ Easily compare suppliers through a professional and systematic method.
✅ Anticipate potential risks with current suppliers.

The checklist is based on the 7-factor supplier selection model, which is the most advanced in use by leading companies worldwide, and has been refined to suit the eyelash industry.

Sen Lash Factory Vietnam is ready to share this checklist with you, owners of Lash Brands and Lash Supplies businesses, Lash Academies worldwide

I. QUALITY

A supplier must have already got the quality capability before you, with fact & figure. Find the answer for the following questions:

1. Is this lash supplier producing the right type of lash (that you need now or in the future)?

The point here is your future need which will normally expand alot. Never just simply choose a supplier for your current need. Make sure that you sellect a supplier who provides a range of lash which are much wider than your current need.

2. Is this lash supplier able to show/prove their product/service quality (via image/video/videocall…)

Don’t hesitate to ask the supplier to show you some images/videos showing their quality of lash. It means you can always check the quality even before using the samples. They way a lash supplier answer to your request will also show you the quality of their service.

3. Is she able to provide free sample, or support your sample order as request?

Normally, if you approach a lash supplier, and you’re her targeted customers, she will be able to provide you with free sample, or support your sample order as your request. It means, she are able to not only sending you samples from stock available, but also making some new samples same as what you need.

4. Does she have a concrete and suitable Quality Warranty/Exchange/Return/Refund Policy?

Every lash suppliers should have those Policies, even the best lash supplier in the world does. You can refer to Sen Lash Factory’s Terms & Condition to have a reference when checking it with your own lash supplier.

5. Is she producing the products at the same segment as yours?

Some suppliers focus on high-end sengment, accepting small order quantity, while the other follow the model of Basic Product – Big Scale. You should always select the supplier producing in the same segment with your products for the best suitability of quality and the cost.

6. Do their people have a clear mindset and method to ensure the quality?

Let’s do some discussion with them on how they can ensure the quality for you. There must be some proper and concrete methods. For example, if they only say that they have strong QC team, be careful. You can refer to this post to have a better understanding why:

II. COST/PRICE

Your business need a not only competitive but also stable price. The supplier must have already got a good price before you, to avoid the risk of Quality tradeoff.

1. Are they have a price list available, allowing price comparison?

A strong and confident lash supplier is always able to provide you with their price list. However, please note that there are some suppliers serving more than 1 customer segment with different price list, for different content of service and scale. Therefore, don’t hesitate to share with them about your need, They might be have suitable offer for you.

2. Are the have a list of benefits availabe and reasonable?

Go along with a price list, there must be a list of benefits available for each customer segment that a lash supplier is serving. For example, If you’re a lash academy with a plan to start your own lash product brand, you ask us for a quotation, You will got a list of benefits like this:

• Free samples
• Free private label
• Free support to design the packaging
• Free professional production photoshoot
• 1 year curvature warranty
• Lash variety with 0 MOQ on each size
  ….

3. Are they have a list of extra cost/ surcharge, upcharge available and reasonable?

A lash supplier may have extra cost, surcharge or upcharge on the following case:

• Mixed length
• Color
• Special style of lash
• Under MOQ
• Private lable/customization
• …

Make sure that they can send they can make it clarified right from the beginning.

4. Are the able to commit a stable price? Do they have a rule to change the price?

No lash supplier can keep their price forever. However, strong lash supplier can keep it stable for a considerable long period of time. The point here is no surprising change which can have bad impact on your lash business. Therefore, there must be a rule of changing the price. If you would like to refer to a proper rule of changing price, you can text us or email us “senlashes@gmail.com”. We would be pleased to share with you for your reference.

5. Which is their price segment (factory price/trading officce price/wholesale price/retail price)?

You should be careful with lash supplier who is in fact a trading office pretending to be a lash factory. If they’re a lash factory, their prices must be much lower than a trading office. When you got several price list from different supplier, you will be able to easily realize who is sincere, who is not.

We would be pleased to provide you.

III. PRODUCTION CAPACITY

You should be in the list of their ideal customers, naturally, not be at their last priority. And They’re able to keep their promises

1. What is their production capacity?

How many workers do they have? How many box of lash they can produce per month? is it too big or too small to your need? If you need only around 20,000 boxes/month, you should not work with the supplier who can produce 20,000 boxes/month. Or if you need only 500 boxes/month, you should not work with the supplier who produce 50,000 boxes/month.

2. Are they a real factory or a trading office?

Many lash supplier is actually a trading office pretending to be a lash manufacturer. Lets check with them about their production capacity. If possible, ask them to show you their factory via video call if you can’t visit them.

3. What is their business model?

Normally, lash suppliers are following 1 of these 2 roads:

• Low cost: Narrow product range, Big Scale, High efficiency for lower cost.
• Different: Wide product range, provide with many supportive service to help you have advantage other than price.

Make sure that your lash supplier is walking on the same road as yours. This is a key of suitability for long-term cooperation.

4. What’s their main customer segment? is it suitable to you?

Don’t hesitate to ask about their main customer segment. They might not be able to tell you their customer’s name, but they can tell you their main segment. If you’re a startups but they target only mature lash brands, they are not suitable to you.

5. How big/small a typical order that they do? is it similar to yours?

For example: If there typical order are of around 20K usd, they might still accept your order of 500-2000 USD at the moment for some reason, but they will not happy to do that for long time. Or you may have to pay a higher cost.

6. Do They have a leadtime breakdown available? is it reasonable and suiltable to you?

Leadtime breakdown means standard time for each step of processing an order. Having leadtime breakdown means giving a promise of delivery time to the customer. Keep the promise via managing the leadtime means that manufacturer really know how to manage their production planning professionally. This is a signal of a professional lash supplier.

7. Do they have and rule/idea of how to control the schedule?

Ask your lash supplier about how she anticipate the risks of delivery postponement and how she prepare for those risks. You can also ask about how she keep following up with the procedure of your order, and how she manage problem solving to make sure that your order will be delivered ontime.

8. What’s their Ontime Delivery Warranty?

A responsible supplier always take full of their responsibility for the case of delayed delivery. Therefore, they will always be happy to make you an Ontime Delivery Warranty. Don’t hesitate to ask here for that. However, from our point of view, the risk-anticipations to prevent the problem from happenning would be much more important.

IV. TECHNICAL LEVEL

The quality of a lash supplier should not be fixed. They should have the ability to adjust technical factors to help you improve quality in the direction you want, creating a quality difference for you.

1. Are they able to produce high-tech (hard) product?

Many lash suppliers are only producing a very narrow range of ordinary product (ex: from 2D-14D promade fans only, no bigger fans like 16D-30D)… They decide to keep their product range like that because they don’t want to invest in improving their technicity. Just wanna focus, keep high efficiency, for a better production margin.

2. Are they knowledgeable on manufacturing? Are they understand and adjust the technical things to improve a point of quality.

For example, if you tell them that, you got promade fans with curly hairs last time with other supplier, they should know exactly which things in manufacturing should be done right to make sure that the hairs would be bended smoothly instead.

3. Are they able to change some details in the product in accordance with your need?

For example, if you ask a supplier about how to make a longer stem on a promade fans, if they’re a knowledgeable on manufacturing, they would be able to tell you what they can do in production. In other case, if you tell them that you would like a lash tray which allow you to pick up the lashes easier, they would know exactly what to do and adjust.

4. Are they developing products on trend?

Developing the products on trends tell about a lash supplier who really pay attention to their technicity. If they don’t make a product, the reason should not be a technical limit.

V. SERVICE

Eyelash suppliers can help make your purchasing & procurement easier and safer. There are 4 main parts of their service should be examines:

1. Consulting

• Are they able to suggest you a good Catalog to build stock?
• Are they able to suggest you a suitable packaging solution which is suitable with your segment and budget?
• Are they able to support you with market insight? (both sales & supply part)
• Do they have a dedicated salesmen to support you?
• Are their salesman can use English and computer tools fluently to support you smoothly?
• Are their salesman familiar with international commerce standards/customs?

3. Designing

• Are they able to do wholesale/OEM/ODM/ Private label…
• Are they able to provide you with design file?
• Are they able to help you to design the label/package?
• Are they able to help you in sourcing for new materials/box that you need?
• Are they able to support you in Product Photography/ content creation?

3. Transportation

• Are they use common international express (DHL/USP/FEDEX…) for quick and safe transportation?
• Are their shipping cost reasonable?
• Are they able to provide door to door delivery?
• How long is their transportation time?

4. Payment

Are their payment terms, payment method convenient and safe for you?

VI. CREATIVITY

The provider has the ability to personalize their service for you, and help you solve your specific problems.

1. Do they have any creativity that can benefit you?

For example, if you talk with some lash suppliers, you might realize that there are mainly 2 options of private label on the markets: logo sticker on the standard box (cheap, small MOQ but low-end) and custom-designed cardboard box (high-end, luxury, but expensive and high MOQ) .

However, if you talk with Sen Lash Factory in Vietnam, you will find that we have already developed another solution which can help you overcome all of those obstacle.

2. Are they able to tailor their solutions to fit well with your need?

For example, if you would like to have custom-designed packaging for your product, but you don’t want to buy thousands of box, what would their solution?

VII. SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

1. Are they use child labor or force labor (prisoners)?

As you may knew, many lash suppliers are using child labor and forced labor (prisoners) in a part or a whole production process to lower their cost. This is so unethical and it may have veyr bad impact to your lash brand. We’re strong against this way.

2. Do they have and packaging solution which protect the environment?

Users nowadays are more and more concerned about the impact that a product might have on the environment. Many lash suppliers have packaging solutions which contribute to protect the environment proactively. And they might have already optimized the cost too.

GET A CHECKLIST IN IN DETAILS IN EXCEL FORMAT?

We understand that this post is too long to be used. We have also created a well-designed check-list in excel format which is ready to use. Would you like to get it for free?