—————————————————————————————————————————
—————————————————————————————————————————
If you ask people where you could buy products at the cheapest prices… most would say, “China of course!” However, not all of them can tell you what problems to look out for when importing from China. Importing goods from China is an exciting endeavor but at the same time a difficult one.
There is a huge potential for making money from buying at wholesale prices and selling at retail, especially from China who is known for their “rock bottom” prices. But buying from China also poses problems like language and cultural barriers. These barriers could lead to payment and/or delivery problems.
Most Chinese wholesalers only accept Western Union and wire transfer payments. They are not secure payment options as compared to Paypal or Clickbank. Although your money will surely reach the intended party, it is not a guarantee that the receiving party will reciprocate and deliver what you have paid for. Unlike having secure payment processors who act as middlemen to ensure both parties will benefit from a transaction.
The main reason why these are the only payments when buying from China is that they are the only payment methods easily available to the Chinese. Getting other forms of payment methods is an extremelly difficult task, with a lot of government regulations and strict criteria.
So if you want to import wholesale goods from China, you have no choice but to use either Western Union or wire transfer. The most you can do is to minimize the risk. It is advisable to start with a fairly small shipment, so you wouldn’t lose a lot of money, in case everything goes haywire. You’ll need to gradually increase your order over a period of time until trust is fully established. Generally, most Chinese suppliers are genuine, hard working people who want to establish a long-term relationship with importers. They will not deliberately screw you over because they need your business.
Another problem with importing wholesale goods from China is communication. This usually makes negotiating complex business issues extremely difficult…
To get around this problem, you can ask for their MSN or ICQ email address and chat with them online. They are usually very friendly and enjoy talking to people who speak English (this helps them improve their communication skills).This will give you a direct point of contact with them.
After communication is established, you can proceed to ask questions and get them to send pictures of their stock and so on. Once you’ve built a good relationship with them, you could then ask for a sample order. For any genuine company, this wouldn’t be a problem and it allows you to see the quality of the product first hand. You can then be fairly certain that the company is trustworthy and that the product is of good quality.
Another important issue is buying authentic brand name products from China. The vast majority of brand-name products that come from China are either replicas or fakes. It is not an area I would recommend importers to get into. eBay is currently cracking down heavily on people selling fakes. This could only mean trouble if you have difficulty telling whether a brand name product is genuine or not. So why risk it?
Chinese suppliers are best suited for cheap generic goods that can be sold at a higher rate in Western Countries. Some examples are: pocket bikes, scooters, and generic electronic goods like mp3 players, flash memory drives,etc. These products do not need to have a brand name to sell well. These products can be purchased at very low prices in China and this gives you a nice reselling margin.
Taking all these problems into consideration, another way to go about them is to find Chinese wholesale suppliers who have proven track records. An easy way to find these suppliers is through Salehoo. They have a three-prong supplier rating system. You get opinions about the available suppliers from them, from other salehoo members and from independent reviewers who are eBay powersellers. They don’t just list the good suppliers, they also list the ones they don’t recommend. I like Salehoo because they provide their members with the whole picture, so that they can make an educated choice!
This should give you a heads up if you’re serious about looking and dealing with wholesale suppliers in China! Always keep an open mind, ask questions and don’t forget the most important part… do your research!
I hope this article has given you enough insight on problems to avoid when importing from China. I’ll be giving you more inputs about the wholesale business in my future posts.
Thank you for taking time to read this article!
See you again soon!
Eric Delos Santos
