With the development of Internet economy, now people don’t have to go out, that they can know all the information through the Internet. It’s no surprise that more and more people are turning to non-traditional ways to earn money. Online businesses has became a trend and a channel of making an incredibly reward. Many small sellers have started their own businesses.

But how does these small business import from China?

Today, we’re explaining in detail all the steps of importing goods from China to your destinations. All topics contain the following aspects:

  • The definition of small business and small quantity buyers
  • Why import from China?
  • What products do small sellers choose?
  • Where to find suppliers?
  • Quick Tips on achieving quality products?
  • Which shipping methods suitable for small sellers?

Point 1: What is small business? And what Is small quantity buyers?

A small business is a privately owned and operated business, typically has a small number of employees. Even some companies are new importers. With the development of e-commerce in recent years, sellers of the platforms such as Amazon, eBay and Wish are emerging in an endless stream.

If the customers who purchase USD 5,000-50,000 (including different kinds of products) in one order, I’d like to define them as Small Business. With this amount, the shipment volume usually is from 5CBM to a 40HQ container. This amount usually can reach factory’s MOQ, and can buy from them directly.

If the customers who buy less than $2,000 per order and who just start the new business(I mentioned in the beginning), I’d like to define them as Small Quantitiy Buyers. This article will more focus on helping this group of people.

 

Point 2: Why do we import goods from China?

If you want to run your own E-commerce business and succeed, you need to import from China. The drop shipping model where you buy and resell somebody else’s products is more or less dead. Here are some reasons that import from China:

 

A. Cheaper goods price:

This is what you have to know. The goods’ price sold in China is very cheap. You can even bargain the price of an item to the very cheap one from the price offered.

The advantages of China’s import for you is, you can automatically resell the products or goods freely up to 10 times from the price of imported goods. Are you lucky? Definitely. Furthermore, you have to get the goods at the lowest price. So, it can be beneficial for you to reduce the import cost.

 

B. High profit margins:

This is the most profitable we get from China import business. If you get very cheap prices of the products or goods, you will probably earn the profit margin up to (100-1000%) when you sell imported China products in the market.

Not only that but also you can set the goods price by yourself without worrying about the losses you will get, because it ensures you will be very profitable if doing this business. That’s the great advantages of China import.

                                              your profit margin up to (100-1000%)

C. Product diversification & High quality:

You can purchase various products from different platforms, and you can design your packing.

Many people may think that the goods from China are fragile and durable easily. That is totally WRONG!! China imported products are guaranteed to have best and good quality because before the goods are ready to be imported, it will pass to the checking process first. So, there is no worry about the cheap price and best quality.

                                                           Yiwu wholesale market

D. Uniqueness of products:

Supplier or products manufacturers in China always make their own innovations to the products or goods they have made. Automatically, it can make a lot of unique and rare goods produced in China. Not only that but also more beneficially it is this unique products not available in any countries or markets. So if you buy from China, you can make more profit by relying on the uniqueness of your products.

Maybe some manufacturers are not willing to provide the customized services, because of the order quantity of small sellers. In this case, you can find a China agent(RunSourcing Agent) to help you negotiate and handle all the Chinese procurement matters. You only need to pay a very small commission, but in the end you get far more than that.

 

Point 3: What kind of products are suitable for small quantity buyer?

For small business importer, those who buy more than USD 5,000 per order, they must know how to choose the most suitable goods that import from China. Maybe for new sellers, they have no idea for selecting products. 

A.Small size but high value products

Small, light, simple products is better for shipment. The bigger and heavier your products is, the most expensive shipping is. And shipping is typically the 2nd biggest expense in this business. Besides, the more complex a product is, the higher your return tate, which again drives up shipping costs.

The products you import from China are high-value goods, which means that your profit margin will be greatly increased based on the cost control. In addition, customers retroactively value expensive purchases. Here’s an example, a very stylish glasses are inexpensive to produce, and were originally sold at bargain prices by market standard. Eventually, though, it became clear that the low price tag was actually keeping away the fashion-minded customers the company wanted! But when sellers charge glasses twice as mush, and donate a pair for every pair purchased, sales went through the roof!

                          Fashion accessories or electronic products for small seller choosing   

 

B. Not the Goods seen everywhere around you

If you are an Amazon, or eBay seller, what you want is that the products you sold is unique, not the products everyone is selling. You certainly want the products are innovative, but it isn’t the normal one.

Similarly, for the customers, the purchase exclusively on the platform and need to wait for several days for express delivery. What they hope is not just the products that can be seen everywhere around them. Choosing the irreplaceable products to make you more competitive.

 

Point 3: Where to find China suppliers?

The key to finding the right suppliers is research. There are many factors that should influence your decision during your research such as : buyer review, business age, expertise, supplier experience, lead times, and more. If you pick the wrong suppliers, your experience will be bad and the cost could set your business back.

There are three channels for small sellers to sourcing suppliers. You just need to search through the Internet, but don’t need to fly to China. As we know, the cost of attending exhibitions or visiting suppliers on the spot is huge.

 

Google:

Google is the simplest and most cost-effective way to start your search for suppliers in China. Searching with Google will help you find manufacturers and suppliers who are active on the internet.

To get started, just visit Google and search for the name of the product you want to order, in addition to certain keywords like “wholesale,” “manufacturer,” or “supplier.” If you’re looking for “genuine leather wallet” for example, try “genuine leather wallet supplier in China” or “genuine leather wallet wholesale in China” and so on.

You need to do some extensive searching, using a variety of keyword combinations. Here’s a good list:

China supplier + product

manufacturer + product in China

wholesale + product in China

Alibaba + product

Alibaba + brand name of product

bulk + the product in China

bulk + brand name of product

                                                          Google search the key words

 

Alibaba:

Right now, the most popular way to find Chinese vendors is to use a service like Alibaba. Alibaba is basically an online directory of Chinese suppliers that you can browse for free.

If you are using Alibaba to find your vendors, make sure you only deal with Gold or assessed suppliers. A gold supplier is a supplier that has been pre-vetted by Alibaba. Not only must they pay a membership fee to join (which generally weeds out the small time operations), but they also perform an on site check to see if the vendor is running a real operation.

An assessed supplier is a supplier that has been vetted by a fully independent and impartial third-party verification firm. Alibaba works with several agencies with proven track records to ensure a business is legit.

                             Searching”genuine leather wallet” in this way can get 1604 suppliers

 

Aliexpress:

Aliexpress is a wholesale site owned and operated by Alibaba.

Advantages of buying from AliExpress:

  • You can purchase wholesale goods as low as 1 item.
  • Your purchase is covered with Aliexpress buyer protection service.
  • You can pay with Visa & Master cards, bank transfer.
  • Multiple shipping options are available

You just need to enter email address and password to creat account. Here’s the screenshot taken from AliExpress official site:

                                    You can fill in your target quantity in this column or even 1 item   

 

Point 4: How to ensure you get quality products?

When it comes to negotiating with Chinese vendors, price should not always be your primary concern and it’s a delicate balance between maintaining low costs vs achieving high quality. But how do you ensure the quality of products you receive is good?

 

A. Keep fluent communication

Many suppliers in China do not speak English. In order to clearly express your requirements for orders, you need a translator or local guide. He can timely remind you of any problems, instead of ignoring some order details and some mistakes due to language barriers.

After you’ve established initial contact with a vendor via email, ask for their WeChat account. WeChat is a messenging app that people in China use for EVERYTHING.They use it to exchage money, pay for good. Communicate with friends etc.

Once you connected with them on WeChat, communication becomes infinitely easier and faster. Unlike email, vendor receive your messages instantly and they are more likely to respond in timely fashion.

                                                            Can download Wechat like this

 

B. Request sample confirmation

Most transactions with overseas vendors are done via wire transfer. As a result, once you have received your merchandise, you are pretty much stuck with it and there’s no easy way to make a return. To stop a vendor shipping you complete and unsellable crap. It is very important to request samples made from the exact batch of materials from your production run.

When you initially ask a vendor for a sample, maybe they will ship you something that was made from excess material from a different production run. So you should ask from samples made from the exact material this is going to be used in final production.

 

C. Arrange China sourcing agent inspecting

In order to ensure the quality products, many businesses will arrange 3rd party inspection companies to inspect products in the factory. This is a good choice, because these inspection companies are very experienced on quality control.

However, for small sellers, it isn’t worth ordering inspection companies for small quantities, which will be a large cost. In view of this situation, small sellers can find a China sourcing agent (purchasing management service) to help processing everything of import from China, includes order follow-up and production inspection. Similarly, many China agents have set a very clear ladder prices for small sellers.

Besides, you also can ask suppliers to sent inspection samples to your country for personal checking. As the inspection samples are selected according to the proportion of the order quantity, they are may be 5-10pcs, or may be more. A lot of express fees are generated.

                                      RunSourcing is a leading sourcing agent in China

 

D. The term of the contract stated clearly

                                              Be more careful about the terms of the contract

In addition to controlling the quality at the source of the material and the product itself, it is also important to restrain suppliers by contract terms.

In the terms of the contract, you should clearly state the quantity, specification, quality standard and delivery time of the products. If the goods received are not as stated in the contract or not meet the delivery time, how much penalty the supplier will bear. For example, if you need YKK zipper for your genuine leather wallet, you need to make it clear in the terms to prevent suppliers from replacing it with cheaper conventional zippers, or what you need is 7-layers export carton, you also need to write clearly, to prevent supplier use the thinner poor quality boxes.

In this way, suppliers will strictly comply with your requirements, because they are also afraid of huge penalty.

 

Point 5: Which shipping methods suitable for small sellers?

For a small business, such as an e-commerce store, shipping can be very complicated and get expensive. Shipping prices are hard to understand and negotiating for cheaper shipping rates with carriers is not easy. Below are some modes of transportation we share with some small sellers.

 

A. International express and air freight

International express is suitable for cargoes under 300kg, while air freight is suitable for over 300kg. But air freight needs the same import & export processes as sea freight. You also need to pick up your cargo at the airport.

For many e-commerce sellers and retailers, this is a very convenient shipping method. Express is the simplest and fastest solution for sending products, and it’s suitable for small volumes. The whole process is operated by express companies, like UPS and FedEx. They will handle everything including import-export process and custom process. You need not to do anything. They are professional in the customs clearance in the United States.

                                               Pick the suitable express company

 

B. LCL companies that offer All-in Price shipping service

Quite different from express, sea freight has almost no forwarding company that moves cargo from China all the way, to Amazon or your house. The whole process will be operated by one freight forwarder.

If you are a Amazon seller and want to import to USA. You should find a freight forwarder who can quote an all-included price, from the factory in China to your destination, it doesn’t matter if the freight forwarder is based in China or America. If they are only offer you an all-included price to your destination, that’s good. Then you can ask your product supplier to quote you an ExW price or FOB price.

They will handle all custom and shipping process, and you just need to pick up your cargo in their warehouse, or sometimes they can deliver to door. Their price is very low even you ship 0.5CBM, because the container is shared by 10 to 40 clients.

C. Consolidate cargoes from different suppliers 

If you have purchased goods from different suppliers, you can consider consolidate all the goods in one shipment then shipped out together. Because even use the international express, they have a minimum order quantity. If you have too few goods, the amont paid will not be much less than the amount paid for the heavy cargo.

It makes more sense for sea freight. If you import 5 different products from 5 suppliers, each product 0.5CBM, then you can consider to consolidate them together by LCL sea shipping. By doing this, your shipping cost will be 80% less than express. Or you have to pay for 5 international express separately, because there’s no cheaper solution.

China sourcing agent will provide you 2 months warehouse for free to consolidate all the goods, support private label, repackaging and arrange shipment together. You will gain more import experience and competitiveness.

              2 months free warehouse for you to consolidate cargoes

 

Talk to your China runner now!

When it comes to sourcing product for your online store, import goods from China can be intimidating if it’s your first time. As a leading China sourcing agent, RunSourcing is pleasure to help you save worries!

Importing your products from overseas is quite doable. Low cost products, various goods with various customizations, you don’t have to buy an enormous quantity of goods, you don’t have to rish a lot of money. Instead, with us, you can start your own business right away. Let’s us help you sourcing popular products that selling on Amazon, eBay, etc.