China importing

Work out the price you'd have to pay per item. Work out the shipping, duty, VAT, etc on your order and apply on a per unit basis.
Then compare to the per unit price you would pay elsewhere.

Now ask yourself does it make the margin worthwhile?

You should also factor in the risk of going alone versus working with a company like maple sourcing. For sure, they will take your cut but chances are, the chances of you being ripped off are infinitely smaller so in the long run, it may prove to be worthwhile. At least for the first few orders until you find your feet.

Mister B

Make sure you choose an agent that has knowledge in the products you want to purchase.

Also ask who will be looking after your account and ground work. In most cases it will be a young person with limited English doing most of the work.

Communication between you and the agent, as well as the agent and factories are very important.

Good luck

Hi Ryan

The reason I mentioned loading mirrors into a one full container (FCL), rather than a part load (LCL) was due to the risk you will have in your mirrors being damaged.

When sending by LCL, your goods are manhandled several times, without any due care to the product by the loaders, so it's important to take this into account.

When your goods are loaded into one full container, your goods are only handled once, to load onto the container and then it's shipped to you without any more handling.

In order to make sure your import is economically viable, you should try to fill 1 x 20ft container as much as possible as this will reduce the shipping cost 'per item'.

My advice is to do the following:

1. Research all the products you want to purchase.
2. Check viable order quantities from factories for each product.
3. Calculate all the product costs.
4. Add all costs to get the goods to your warehouse, including agent fees, shipping costs, Import Duty, VAT, delivery to your door .
5. Make sure you have the funds to cover everything in point 4.
6. Allow 3 months from sourcing to getting the goods to your door.

We can consolidate goods from factories into one container, but ideally you will need to order from 2 factories at most, who are located in the same province, to make local logistics to the China port viable and cost effective.

Shipping costs, both within China as well as to the UK, are important factors to take into account when purchasing from China.

Do as much of the preparation work yourself and don't take on face value what you are told by China suppliers, they are often not interested in the shipping part, rather then just concentrating on selling their product.

Feel free to ask any advice, it's free!

Regards

Ron

Ryan Gladwin said:

Hello, this is my first post. I have always wanted to import items from China but been wary of the risks. We are a small business that sells interiors and we buy from UK wholesalers. We know the products that sell well and want to source from China but preferably not a full container straight away. We are looking for items such as Hollywood mirrors, wooden plaques, possibly Roman numberal clocks. I have researched companies like easyimex, maplesourcing. I am wondering that if by using these companies does it make the margin worth while once everyone has taken their cut?

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Send me a PM. I go to China quite a few times and do have reliable sources that can help with your needs. You are right about being careful inportingfrom China.

there are many online stores, like amazon platform in China, the online platform, like Alibaba, Taobao, etc. You can find products here with cheap price, you can communicate with the retailer about the details.

As stated above in an ideal world you want to ship a FCL but in reality many startup's just cant afford to do that which is fully understandable. Part loads can work fine but for delicate products like mirrors they must be very well packed. Make sure your agreement with the supplier has terms to deal with breakages and compensation. For electrical goods you need to make sure they have the correct CE certification. Just a tip most suppliers in China don't have a clue about CE certification and many goods have a CE mark applied but don't in fact comply with the regulations. Check t out very carefully and if you don't know how to do this get somebody who can - it will save you making expensive mistake.
Make sure you know who you are dealing with - many sellers are agents not factories (over 90% on Alibaba), despite strenuous claims to the contrary. If you are not dealing direct with the factory it adds a layer of complexity and at the very least you need to e aware of that.
Finally be aware when shipping part container loads (I have posted on this many times before). Chinese sellers will often offer to ship CIF to UK and the prices will seem very good, but you will be faced with large port handling charges on arrival in the UK. You won't know about these charges until the container arrives, by which time it's too late. Why does this happen? The shipping agents offer to ship part loads for the supplier FOC - (great for the supplier) and make back this money with exorbitant port handling charges in UK. This can be avoided by doing the shipping yourself - my advice don't use the CIF shipping they offer for part loads.
Using companies like Easymex is an option but as you have pointed out they are not cheap and it may well wipe out any financial advantage. There are cheaper alternatives so my advice would be to shop around but remember there are no free lunches and to some extent you get what you pay for.
Good luck with your plans - trading with China is fun and can be very profitable if done correctly.