You’ve been thinking about it, and so has every other small business owner. After seeing the Made in China label on almost everything you buy, wouldn’t it just make more sense to go directly to the source and buy your merchandise in China to maximize profit margins? The answer is yes, but you need to do it so that it is profitable.

How to Import?

Importing goods from China is not in fact difficult at all. The steps typically involve finding items that you would like to import, negotiating with the manufacturer or distributor, finding a freight forwarder to transport your items to the port, and then finding a customs broker to clear the items once they arrive at the destination port. This is a standard process, and you can find good freight forwarders and customs brokers to help you through the process. In fact, some companies have entities both in the major U.S. cities and in China, so turnkey services are available to guide you through the entire process.

Sourcing Merchandise

The actual import process is not difficult. However, sourcing merchandise is where you may run into some trouble. First of all, most Chinese manufacturers and distributors do not deal in small volumes. So if you are considering spending a few hundred dollars to test the waters, you are better off buying the items from a local wholesaler at a much higher price. Depending on the size, weight, and cost of producing the merchandise, a test run amount can be around $5000.00. If you are not willing to make that kind of an investment, then you are not ready to import merchandise directly from China. Instead, focus on growing your sales domestically before taking the plunge.

Once you are ready to put up the capital requirements, you can research online at web sites such as Alibaba to find the type of products you would like to import. Make sure you call and negotiate with the companies ahead of time to get a feel for the pricing. Typically, if more than half of the companies you speak to are saying the lowest price is a certain amount, it will be within range. Throughout this process, you should pick a region in China where you would like to get your merchandise from (for instance, Guangdong Province or Zhejiang Province). This would limit the transportation expenses when you visit these companies in China or send your agent to represent you at their offices.

Meeting Your Manufacturers

Before you place the order, you will definitely need to meet with the manufacturers or distributors that you are interested in doing business with. I cannot emphasize enough how important this step is. If you are willing to pay someone $5000.00, wouldn’t it make sense to meet them in person first? This means you will have to fly out to China. This is why I suggested selecting a particular region to work in so that you can come up with a list of at least 10 manufacturers you can visit all at once within a short distance. This will save you money and time on additional train or plane tickets. It would also be a good idea to hire a Chinese interpreter and guide for the duration of your trip if you are not fluent in Mandarin.

Once you actually meet your manufacturers, you should be able to separate the legitimate companies from the illegitimate ones. Key things to look for include how large is the office, how big is the warehouse or factory, how good are the samples shown to you, and if possible, ask for a list of past clients or testimonials from others who have worked with the manufacturer. Remember that anyone can be rated highly on Trade Key or Alibaba, so it is necessary to gauge each manufacturer in person. This is where it is important to have a list of at least 10 prospects so that you can cross off the list illegitimate manufacturers and focus on the ones that can provide the product you need for your business.

After you have agreed to certain terms and conditions, you might need to leave a deposit with the manufacture in order for them to begin production on your items or to begin preparing your items for shipment.

Quality Control

Everything seems great so far and you have deposited your money. But how do you know you are getting exactly what you are paying for? How do you know if the merchandise going onto the container at the port meets your specific requirements? This is where quality control comes in.

The best approach to quality control is for you to fly out to China to inspect all the goods before the items get loaded into the container. If time does not permit you to fly, you will need to hire a quality control agent who can do the inspection for you, then provide you with a detailed report. This is an absolutely crucial step in the import process to get what you paid for.

Consider Your Sales

This is perhaps the most important consideration when you decide to import from China. You need to ask yourself, do you currently have enough sales to justify the import process? If you are still building your sales or have a limited retail business, you should not be considering importing from China. You do not want to have thousands of dollars of merchandise stored in your garage or warehouse and sell only one or two items per day. You want to be able to get your merchandise sold as quickly as possible.

If your sales are not steady, continue to buy from local wholesalers and build up a bigger customer base even if the profits are lower. You need to build your brand and reputation first.

Remember, importing is not difficult, building up your sales is. Once you have a strong customer base and a steady volume of sales each day, then perhaps you should consider importing from China to increase your profits.

Why People Prefer To Buy From China?

As you all know that china is a leading industry in electronics and produce electronic items in a reasonable price. The people who deals in electronic goods always prefer to buy from china to get huge profit in electronic goods. Nowadays mostly multinational electronic companies plant their projects in china so that they can manufacture the products in China and get huge profits.

Now you are might be thinking that why multinational companies plant their project in china? And how can they earn more profits? The reason is that in china they have manpower and labor cost is not too much expensive as compare to other countries. So that even USA and other European countries importing electronic items from china at regular basis.

Buy from china is really a smart deal for every electronic vendor because Chinese products are very popular all across the world as they are very cheap. This is why many people want to buy from china. Since the china import policies in most of the countries is quite relaxed and importer get the product very easily.

Some of the vendors start their business from china first they need to contact with good wholesaler who deals with the electronic items and provide china products on regular basis. Now china is the one stop shop for the people to buy electronic items from china. To buy from china is really comfortable for the consumers who love to buy better product at reasonable price. China deals with varieties of gadgets found at cheaper price. If you are going to buy from china then you can see these kind of gadgets which are unseen on the other part of the world.

As you read above that china imports policies is quite relaxed and importer get product very easily. So start business with china is really a smart deal for every business man. If you do this then you can earn heavy profits. Buy from china at wholesale price and get it in your country and sale to the customers and earn profits.

While planning to buy from China, it is always recommended to contact China vessel agents and they can help the importer to find out the best possible deal in terms of price in electronics products. In short, for running import business, the involvement of shipping agent will help to keep the wholesale electronic goods prices at the lowest range. On the other hand, the combo of quality and aesthetics has kept the demand of China electronics products ahead of other products of the same category.

There are companies in china that produces fake electronic goods. Before buying electronic goods it is advisable to every vendor first review about the wholesaler who sells original products. Buy doing this you will have original goods at lowest price which is completely reliable.

Choose Alibaba for your Imports

Alibaba is one of the biggest online name brand wholesale stores available. You can find suppliers here who are selling you various kinds of goods. Their prices are very competent. You can also view an entire list of suppliers, and then compare their ratings with those of others. You can compare prices, and can even choose a reverse auction model, where you quote the price at which you want to buy, and the supplier who is willing to accept your price makes a deal with you. These name brand wholesale companies also offer you brochures for their products and company details, along with the quote for an order as per your request.

Alibaba is very well known and one of the most preferred destinations for various kinds of procurement functions. The name brand wholesale companies registered here are extremely reliable, and are completely legal. This is a website that also respects IPR laws and complies with its rules. You will never have any problem with a supplier in the issues of payment and receipt of goods.

Name brand wholesale companies listed here at Alibaba are also reputed to be among the most highly professional organizations today. Whether you choose a simple, local supplier, or the regional distributer of a huge organization, you can be sure of two things. The first thing is that they are all legal. The second thing is that these name brand wholesale companies are extremely quick and agile in fulfillment of the order. They adhere to the promises that are made, and you will never have to face a stoppage in production due to them

Another feature of Alibaba is that you can immediately chat and contact the sellers. An important first distinction is to find out whether the company is the manufacturer of the product or a trade company representing a variety of products. The easiest way to find this out is to just ask when you contact them. Ideally you want to deal with the factory directly for cost and operations efficiency.
Understanding Alibaba’s Trade Assurance Program

Since its launch in 2014, many have wondered what really this so-called Alibaba’s Trade Assurance Program is. What is it for? And what is the importance of it in the import business industry?

As per its main coverage and defined scope, this assurance program states that the buyers, mainly those who work with Chinese suppliers, are subjected to higher level of security. As such, they have the right to ask for refund at the given condition. This is when shipment of the ordered products comes way behind its intended delivery date. In other words, when shipment is delayed. Too, refund may be asked when the delivered products do not comply with the required level of product quality.

Though being promised by this system, Alibaba’s Trade Assurance Program only applies to its Alibaba Gold Suppliers who meet the set criteria. In this note, this program is not applicable to those who are working with small suppliers.

There are other conditions set on this Alibaba’s Trade Assurance Program. Owners of import business can only be qualified on this trade assurance program when they have registered themselves and their business through the Alibaba Checkout System. In addition to, this program does not apply to those who make payment through private and/or offshore accounts.

How to Claim the Refund?

As mentioned earlier, there are requirements to meet before a buyer can receive refund for the shipped products. In this regard, it can be concluded that refund is not given simply because the buyer have asked for it. This is perhaps because quality issues are believed to be the most common end-product of the buyer’s negligence than that of the supplier’s.

Quality here is being defined in accordance with the specified product quality when the buyer placed the order. Subsequently, it does not pertain to the buyer’s imaginative description of quality product.

As such Alibaba had the Quality Inspection Company to take over this process. This company shall asses the request of the buyer for a refund. Investigation process shall comply with the set industry standards. When investigation is done, Quality Inspection Company is expected to share the result of whether to accept or reject the refund request.

Industry standards differ from one product to another. For example, when the ordered products are clothing, the buyer would have to include specific details in the order such as the fabric type and color, design, dimensions and other required descriptions.

In this case, products would be assessed based on the specified product qualities when refund request was raised. This is the reason why buyer must have a clear understanding of the following elements prior to placing orders.

* exact specifications of the product to be ordered

* process of verifying the product specification

* standards and regulations being applied to the to-be ordered product

* existence of the supplier’s record of product compliance

The above discussed assurance program, needless to say, is not merely a tool but an assurance of successful product deliver. This is just one of the many other things that could help you attain success on your import business. There are other things that you may know about this industry. How to Import had been in the same industry for years. Run by experts and successful importers, you can ask for some help from them in line with the course of establishing your own successful import business. They also offer online import course that is easy and closest to being
realistic.

Latest posts by Yuri Khlystov (see all)