There is a lot of information online about how to import products from China and save money. However, no one ever mentioned the mistakes which we made when importing wholesale products from China…
Luckily justchinait.com managed to avoid these pitfalls and still make good margins on my turnover every month, which exceeds 250k USD. Here are six mistakes you could easily make if you don’t know what to look for:
1) Wrong supplier
– Before buying anything, check their address on Google maps and see if it matches the factory you’re going to buy products from (take a close look at satellite images). Also, use this tool to validate the telephone number and email address. It’s easy to set up an account for free and scan hundreds of emails/phones in seconds.
2) Wrong communication language
– If the wholesale products supplier is in China, most likely, they will speak either little or no English at all. It’s not necessary to speak Chinese, but you should be able to understand essential communication with suppliers. You can use Google Translate for this. It has already been solved by several existing services where you just send an email, and it will be automatically translated into Chinese (for example, Tradukado or Alinghi ).
3) Lack of payment security
This may sound funny because you might think if the supplier is on Alibaba, they are trustworthy… But some suppliers ask for money upfront before production starts. It never happened to everyone, but I know people who did the transfer of thousands of dollars only for the supplier to “disappear” in thin air. Here are some suggestions on how you can protect yourself by paying only after production is finished:
- Order the samples first and check them before ordering larger volumes.
- Find reviews about the supplier on Alibaba or Aliexpress. They have probably already been reviewed several times, so it will be easier for you to spot red flags when reading reviews/complaints.
4) Low quality of China wholesale products
Always test products with your personal items if possible (hairbrush, phone…). If not, try using a simple action that any customer would do, like brushing your hair or scratching something with your nails to see how it holds up against daily use. Any good factory will never object to testing their products with your personal items. Also, try to find videos on Youtube about this product and what people do when using it. For example, if you want to sell earphones, check out videos of people testing them out in the subway, in a club, or while running.
5) Wrong delivery time estimate
I always add 50% more time than initially quoted by the supplier (for example, if they say ten days estimated delivery time, I would count at least 15 days). Sometimes suppliers need more time because:
They don’t understand what you’re asking them to do/make, and it takes extra communication between parties. They will subcontract some parts of the order, and it takes longer. The supplier doesn’t have enough workers for this order, and it’s better if you let them find the right people such as Himbuy instead of pushing them to rush the order.
6) Not reading the terms of sale carefully
– You should always read all TOS documents on the supplier’s website before paying for anything. Sometimes they don’t ship for free or require minimum order amounts, which you could easily overlook when placing an order.
Conclusion
We’ve covered all the mistakes you can make when importing wholesale goods from China and how to avoid them you can further check on HimBuy. It is important that you know these before deciding on a supplier or product so your business doesn’t suffer any financial setbacks.