Tips for importing goods from China

China has been thriving in recent years and has been named as the “World’s factory” because of its high production and low labor cost. It seems to be a trend now to import goods from China directly since there will be middleman in between and hence one can get the latest and cheapest products.

China offers a vast array of products and to track something down that is suitable, you are going to need someone who knows the country well. He or she can advise you very quickly if you are likely to find a company where you could place your order and thereby increase your margins.

Here are some of the things that you will need to establish before working with an import agent:

1. Full product details with drawings / graphics
2. Packing & presentation details
3. Branding requirements
4. Certifications & Safety standards required
5. Date product is required
6. Quantities (min order quantities apply in most cases)

Also you need to take care of the following things if you are planning to import from China;

• Products Quality: Products quality is always the primary concern of an importer. Many of the wholesalers claim that they will do some quality-checks before the products are sent out. This is a good service but I’d suggest you, to be safe, to find a site that offers samples so that you can have a check on the product yourself.

• Delivery: Delivery time is another concern for an importer. Sometimes a product would become useless if it takes 2 months to be shipped. Try to find a company that locates in a large city, like Hong Kong, and at the same time they offer express courier service like UPS, EMS, etc.

• Payment Gateway: Bank-wire was the only option before the Internet times. Now different payment gateways based on transferring money through credit card have appeared. Paypal is one of the examples. Make sure the wholesale company offers Paypal-like payment gateway and charge-back and buyer protection are available.

• Tax: Import tax can make your cost significantly increase. Almost most of the overseas online-shop will not be responsible for the import tax. But some of the better ones will try to lower the tax as much as possible for the customers. They will try to separate the goods into smaller packages, state the goods as gifts and a lower nominal value in the custom form so that the charges would be minimized.

• MOQ (Minimum Order Quantity): Many ebayers and small local shops would care much about the minimum order quantity. Only a few online wholesale shops would offer no MOQ limit to the customers.

• Drop-shipping: Drop shipping is a type of retailing in which the retailer does not keep goods/product in stock, but instead passes customer orders and shipment details to wholesalers, who then dispatch the goods to the customer directly. The retailer makes their profit on the difference between the wholesale and retail price. With the proliferation of online auctions, drop-shipping has become an important function of a wholesale site. However, only a few online wholesale shops will have drop-shipping function.

I hope this would help you in your future purchases from China.

You have any other queries regarding trade with China, don't be hesitant to ask me.