Costume jewellery from China?

[Hedgie]

My wife has been selling hairbands from the US on Ebay but is now looking at including some costume jewellery items in the range. She has found some on Alibaba but given all the negative threads on here she is a bit reluctant to buy of there.

Initially she only wants to lay out around £50 which ,given the cost of the jewellery, is not a lot for a fair amount of goods.

Is it worth taking the punt from the Alibaba supplier or is it better to use a sourcing agent?

Obviously the problem arises of paying more for a sourcing agent than the cost of buying the goods?

If the stuff sells well she will order more etc but until then the following initial orders will only be in the £50 -£200 range.

A friend of hers buys items from China and has built up a good business from it over the last few years after buying just £5 worth of beauty products from China hence the interest in trying it out.

Any pointers or advice on which way to go? Buy from Alibaba and take a chance or go through an agent?

Cheers

 

[GraemeL]

Hello Hedgie,

I used to bring this stuff back as presents for everyone.

I think the problem might be knowing what you will get, as the items are such low value you in effect buy them by weight! So your order 500 earings and get whatever they have at the time. Could be quite wrong but thats how it appeared to me.

Just go ahead and order £50 worth and see what happens. The risk of losing all your money is there, but for £50 not worth worrying about.

G

 

[joycehsiao]

Hey,Hedgie! As Graemel said £50 is worthy for you to have a try.
Buy these small costume jewellery normally the freight cost will be higher than the goods value. As they count by weight. As you buy from Alibaba with these small quantity, i think there will be no factory can supply for this. I suggest you to find someone to help you. You just select the designs from the Alibaba B2C website, there are thousands there.You can buy one piece, two piece,any small quantity there in any designs.As all the seller and the website is in Chinese, I hope i could help you. If you need, could PM me.

Joyce

 

[Directimport]

I suggest that your wife considers small manufacturers in Taiwan or Hong Kong, and possibly South Korea.

Mainland China has a huge industry but most of the factories are large and you may not find them so easy to deal with.

On the other hand, Hong Kong and Taiwan have many well established small jewellery businesses.

Quality from Taiwan will astound you. I know, I used to import jewelry from there, as well as other products when I was running my importing business.

If you buy direct from a real manufacturer and not from an agent or wholesaler, the profit margins will be more than adequate to allow for you to bear the freight cost, whether air courier or EMS.

As you have already seen on other threads, there are risks in using sourcing sites such as Alibaba. These risks can be avoided by using safe sourcing sites and safe sourcing practices. See my thread that refers to that subject: Step by Step Guide for New Importers

 

[MOIC]

For the amount of spend you have suggested..AliExpress...................With due dilligence!!

 

[Directimport]

For the amount of spend you have suggested..AliExpress...................With due dilligence!!

If the OP does choose to use Aliexpress, I only have two words to say:

Good luck.

 

[MOIC]

I did say to use due dilligence........................In fairness for an import purchase of £50 its probably not worth importing directly. buying from local wholesalers to get off the ground and understanding the jewelery business first is probably better advice.

 

[Directimport]

Quite so, but a sample purchase of £50 from a potential long term supplier would probably be of more benefit than buying retail from another supplier whose product quality, reliability, and service would bear no relationship to the actual manufacturer.

Such small sample purchases delivered either via EMS or even Airmail are quite common when newbies are feeling their way.

 

[MOIC]

Quite so, but a sample purchase of £50 from a potential long term supplier would probably be of more benefit than buying retail from another supplier whose product quality, reliability, and service would bear no relationship to the actual manufacturer.

Who mentioned buying retail from another supplier?

My post mentioned buying from a local wholesaler, where the OP can see, touch, feel the products she is buying as well as the possibilty of asking advice on current trends which a local wholesaler can give direction on.

Once she has overcome that first hurdle of knowing which products are selling for her, then she can take the next step up.

Fashion, and particulary in jewelery changes very fast.

 

[Directimport]

You suggested buying through Aliexpress. That is buying retail because the suppliers there who will supply such small orders are selling retail.

Joycehsiao suggested buying from Alibaba's B2C site (which is Taobao) and that is retail.

 

[MOIC]

You suggested buying through Aliexpress. That is buying retail because the suppliers there who will supply such small orders are selling retail.

Aliexpress has literally thousands of sellers ranging from 1pc to wholesale lots.

A link that may be useful to the OP:

http://www.aliexpress.com/category/...lar_style=n&similar_style_id=&CatId=200000139

She can buy from a variety of these sellers to suit her budget.

Unfortunately for her starting budget of £50, it is not possible to buy directly from manufacturers, no matter how you try to convince potential newcomers that this is possible.

Perhaps China and particularly suppliers in China have moved on a great deal from when you was running your importing business.

There is no substitute for being in China and seeing how each category of business works with your own eyes.

 

[GraemeL]

There is no substitute for being in China and seeing how each category of business works with your own eyes.

Absolutely correct. Second best is to use a sourcing agent.

Which is I both visit and use an agent - who I prefer to call a partner.

G

 

[Directimport]

Unfortunately for her starting budget of £50, it is not possible to buy directly from manufacturers, no matter how you try to convince potential newcomers that this is possible.

Perhaps China and particularly suppliers in China have moved on a great deal from when you was running your importing business.

There is no substitute for being in China and seeing how each category of business works with your own eyes.

Ron, I am constantly in touch with the reality of starting small as a new importer, because I have hundreds of budding entrepreneurs learning how to do so.

Not only do I have a large number of newbies following my methods, but I also maintain regular contact with a number of my former suppliers in China. They keep me up to date although I no longer buy from them. One of the contacts that I regularly communicate with happens to be a jewellery manufacturer.

Yes, it is definitely possibly to place a sample order of £50 for low value items such as costume jewellery. Very small value sample orders are the norm for newbies, not only in that product area.

You provide importers with a substitute for being in China, and so do I. Very different substitutes, but clearly both have their place.

 

[MOIC]

Ron, I am constantly in touch with the reality of starting small as a new importer, because I have hundreds of budding entrepreneurs learning how to do so.

Not only do I have a large number of newbies following my methods, but I also maintain regular contact with a number of my former suppliers in China. They keep me up to date although I no longer buy from them. One of the contacts that I regularly communicate with happens to be a jewellery manufacturer.

Yes, it is definitely possibly to place a sample order of £50 for low value items such as costume jewellery. Very small value sample orders are the norm for newbies, not only in that product area.

You provide importers with a substitute for being in China, and so do I. Very different substitutes, but clearly both have their place.

As I said, there is no substitute for being in China and seeing first hand all the different trades, how they are evolving and visting factories as well as the many wholesale markets.

You simply cannot do this from being "Kept up to date" from former suppliers. They will merely tell you what they want to tell you and no more. (This is a typical China trait)

Very very few manufactorers, in any category will accept an order for £50 (For one sample, maybe, but they will inflate the price if this is the case).

I provide "importers" on this forum with free advice and free offers of help, which is the main function of a forum, when they are ready to commit, they can choose their own path.

There are many threads on this forum where they can learn from.

(I'm sure you will want to have the last word)

 

[Hedgie]

thanks for all the replies.

one thing that does bother me is the Chinese sellers on Ebay selling direct from China. Bracelets selling for 0.01p !!!

 

[MOIC]

They just put these prices down to attract attention, in reality they do not exist.

 

[Directimport]

Many vendors on eBay use loss leaders to gain positive feedback, so you should be able to buy those bracelets for 1p. When the bracelet may cost them as little as 3 or 4 p, that is much cheaper for them than the common practice of buying reviews from professional reviewer sellers.

 

[MOIC]

Very very rarely do the fashion jewellery items offered for sale at £0.01p (with no postage costs) by China sellers get sold for this amount.

The OP should not look at this as a reason not to get involved in fashion jewellery, especially as the items are related to what he is currently selling.

When selling fashion jewellery you can often work on x10 of your cost price.

 

[Hedgie]

They just put these prices down to attract attention, in reality they do not exist.

I have literally just watched 5 auctions, all of which sold for 1p.
How do ebay take a 10% final value fee off that? Something smells of haddock!

 

[Directimport]

I have literally just watched 5 auctions, all of which sold for 1p.
How do ebay take a 10% final value fee off that? Something smells of haddock!

Currently eBay are charging 7.5% and in a week from now that will rise to 8.75%. They also make 10p per listing by charging an insertion fee so they make money out of such sales. Also, they know that those vendors will soon revert to full price sales.

As I wrote in my earlier post, these are loss leader sales to gain positive feedback. Once they have accumulated sufficient good feedback that is when the prices will rise, and they will usually sell on a Buy Now basis rather than auction.

 

[Alicechina]

Your q'ty and amount is too small,factory's MOQ is 100doz-200doz/style, even sourcing agent may can't help you.You can buy some from Aliexpress,DHG or other B2C platform. Or buy some drop shipping styles from wholesallers.you can buy many famous brand,like lia sophia, j.crew,Prada etc. There are many custome jewelry factory in my city, many korea company set factory here. There are also many lace wigs factory here. If you need help, pls PM me.