How To Buy Goods From China

Before placing a firm order, it is sensible to request samples from potential suppliers. This allows you to test product fit and quality. It also lets you further evaluate the supplier and possible relationship.

This publication is provided for general information purposes only and is not intended to cover every aspect of the topics with which it deals. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content in this publication. The information in this publication does not constitute legal, tax or other professional advice from TransferWise Limited or its affiliates. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. We make no representations, warranties or guarantees, whether express or implied, that the content in the publication is accurate, complete or up to date.

Summary:This is a guide to purchasing ("sourcing") from China, and working with Chinese factories. It will probably be most helpful to people like me - entrepreneurs developing a new product or starting a new business that need to obtain parts and raw materials from China. It is written humorously, but hopefully there is some useful advice.I've been doing a lot of shopping recently. I have one favorite store. I buy nearly everything there. Do you think Home Depot is big? Wall Mart? Amazon? Ebay? McMaster Carr?HAH!They are all pathetic and insignificant compared to The Greatest Store The World Has Ever Known. I am sure you are wondering - "how is that possible? no store is bigger than Wall-Mart!" . You are wrong my friend. There is One Store bigger than Wall Mart. MUCH bigger. Where do you think wall-mart, amazon and mcmaster go when they need to buy something? Sorry jimmy - they don't go to another wall-mart. They go to The Store. It is where all goods come from. ALL of them. You know it as: China.Perhaps you thought you had to be a "big player" to buy from China? Think again. You and me can buy direct from The Greatest Store The World Has Ever Known. It's easy and fun! I will show you how.So, say thanks to your new friend Globalization, read on, and soon you too will be a global sourcing expert...

It used to be that buying stuff from far away places was hard. You had to send a ship across the ocean for a couple years, they might all die at the hands of a storm or bandits, and in the end maybe you get a few grams of Pepper for a piece of gold. woot!In more modern times, international trade was not so expensive or risky, but it was inaccessible because you had to know someone. 20 years ago if i wanted to buy something from a factory in Mexico, how would I do it? If I didn't know someone my best shot would probably be to go to Mexico and start driving around until I found a factory, buy some samples on the spot and write their address and phone number on a piece of paper and drive home.As you might expect, the greatest agent of change in our lifetimes - the internet - plays a central role here. In the last 5 years countless Chinese companies have figured out that if they make a web page and hire someone with enough english to process an order, they can bypass lots of middlemen and be far more accessible to their potential customers - YOU!

Once you've found some stuff in the directory, take a look at some of the companies selling it. they will usually show a sampling of their products in the directory. if you go to the 'contact info' page in the directory they often have a real website, which may have a different sampling of products. in either case, the real catalog of products is usually far larger. it is often useful to ask about other similar items if you see something you like. also you will rarely find full information about an item on the web, you will need to ask for them for complete info (product specs).Note - the artistic standards for a website in china are considerably lower than you are used to. I'm sure this will change in a few years, but as of 2008 a multi-billion dollar chinese company might have a website that looks about like your 17 year old cousin's myspace. so don't judge the company by their webpage - yet.

ok, window shopping is fun but lets say you actually want to buy something. take a look at yourself. yes you. are you a 15 year old with an AC/DC tee shirt and $10 in your bank account? well, you are not someone that China wants to sell to.you will be buying from a factory, and they are only interested in selling to a professional buyer - someone that knows how to buy things, and is likely to buy a lot of things.but you can play the part, and because of how the system works you don't have to buy a lot of things.

It is not uncommon that you will not hear back from a company. There could be many reasons for this - the company may be too busy right now, or it could be that they think you are a 15 year old with an AC/DC tee shirt and $10.Some things i've found:- some companies will respond only to "in-system" emails in Alibaba etc.- other companies will only respond to their real email- other companies you might only get to by AIM- its pretty random!- many companies will check the domain name for your email address, or the website you list in your sig. its pretty much the only thing they know about you. if you only have a yahoo.com email and nothing else you probably will not get as high a response rate as if you have an email from ibm.com and matching website.

Express transport is obviously pretty pricey on a per-kilo basis. But fedex sure makes it quick and easy! you'll get your stuff in 2 days right at your door, just like if you ordered from Amazon.The other normal methods are Air Freight and Sea Freight. i think the best way to describe the process of freight shipping might be - it's a lot like paying your taxes. there are endless rounds of forms, phone calls, fees, faxes, surcharges, more forms, driving around, waiting in line, waiting not in line. it is a truly classic beaurocratic experience.I tried shipping by sea once - the result was that it only cost $120 to send about 100kg of crap across the entire ocean, but then it cost another $450 and half a day of my time by the time those boxes got to my door - and that's in a case where my door is only half an hour drive from the nearest sea port! i do not recommend this unless you are looking to transport at least a full palette. on the plus side - it is really cost effective in bulk. a full container from china is only about $2500.A friend of mine told me he had the identical experience trying to send sometihng by sea.Air freight is not quite so bad as ocean. The difference between using a courier like Fedex and using Air Freight is that with Air Freight you will need to pick up your shipment at the nearest international airport, and you will have to do customs paperwork yourself. The costs for air freight may be 30% to 50% less than the courier service. You can hire customs brokers to take care of your paperwork for you, they might charge $50 to $100 for this.Because the shipping process is so tedious, there are companies called Freight Forwarders that can act as agents on your behalf to take care of the shipping for you.So besides Express service and freight, is there any other way? In fact there is - The China Postal System. China Post has an express service (called EMS), but that's just like Fedex and the rest. Here i'm talking about regular Airmail. Airmail via china's postal system is quite inexpensive - perhaps $5 to send a 500g package to the US - however because it is not insured or tracked nobody would send significant merchandise using it. So you will lose some credibility points if you ask for Airmail. In principle it would be by far the most cost effective way to get samples, but since only the sender can pay for it the factory is reluctant. But don't give up yet! I once successfully convinced a very persistent sales rep to send me some samples by China Airmail - the reason being that I didn't care enough about his samples to pay the Express charge, so I told him that if he wanted me to try his samples that badly, he should just send it by China Post and pay the charge himself - which he ultimately did.

there are different kinds of companies:typically you want to deal with a MANUFACTURER or FACTORY. this is the company that actually fabricates the item. there are also TRADING companies or IMPORT/EXPORT companies - these are middlemen who do not operate a factory, but they may have products from a factory that does not sell direct.it is normal for the buyer to pay up front for smaller purchases. for larger purchases any number of payment arrangements can be used.fraud: i have never been defrauded, however Alibaba etc. have large FAQ's on their sites about different things to avoid fraud. Fraud is probably more common on things like brand name consumer electronics and fashion accessories, which are not things i have buy.

Hi It's Monica from China Lemmy Reflective Manufactoring Co.,Ltd. We are engaged in hi vis reflective safety clothing and various reflective material with high quality and best price. You can visite our website www.raimi.com to look for what you want. And we can suppy customized service. You are interested in our products, please contact me at monica@cnlaimi.com Thanks a lot.

If you just want a few or just one single item, I could recommend aliexpress.com. It's just like amazon or ebay-shops. Many items are sold with "free shipping", even if the cost less than 1$. Free shipping takes some time (from less than two weeks up to two months to Germany in some cases). Plus they have a good customer protection system, meaning that they only release your payment to the shop once you have confirmed receipt of the goods. I buy there for more than two years now and had no really bad experience, because I almost always got my money back if a package was not sent out by the shop or got lost in transit. 781b155fdc