Thanks for the informative article Will! How much capital would someone new to this business need to get started? You mentioned that you started at age 13, but with the high MOQs and costly samples, it feels like I would need at least a grand, unless I opted for AliExpress and significantly smaller margins.
2047 Comments (page 2)
Hi Will, I recently started dropshipping items like so http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Coal-Model-of-the-Famous-Titanic-small-Brilliant-Coal-Ship-model-made-with-Coa-/120851813197?pt=UK_Collectables_Nautical&hash=item1c2354534d now as you can see this is the cheapest of these items on ebay at the current time at £12.99 + £3.75 postage. but these items cost me £6.00 + £2.90 postage to customer. so i'm wondering how much would be best to undercut the current cheapest person on ebay? Thanks for reading
Hi Tezza, I'd undercut him by $1 for as long as you can! Congrats on getting started and finding a supplier that will dropship. Good luck, Will
Amazing article Will! My dad will be retiring in a few months and I was planning to get him into the dropshipping business and I am really glad I bumped into this rather elaborate post. I am going to share with my dad and hopefully start a dropshipping business. Thanks a lot again!
Thanks a lot Sanjay! Hope you and your dad can extract a lot of value out of these posts! By the time you guys get started, we might even have a few more posts/courses/coaching/books/whoknows out! We are looking at expanding that side of our business. Hope to hear from you in the future, Will P.S. - Say "Hi" to your Dad for me :)
P.S. Nikolai - Book it is! Sometime this year :) Will
Hi Will! Good stuff! I'm a 22 year-old recent graduate working in the marketing field. I have a load of student debt, and I've been trying to find a way to make some extra cash, and I think this might be a possibility! I have a few quick questions: 1. Can you explain your system for packaging and mailing out the airsoft guns, (when business was busy and before you outsourced it to another person)? I have a third bedroom in my apartment in which neither my room mate or myself use, it'd be perfect to set up a little 'mailroom'. 2. How much time a week were you devoting to this project? I know it's going to be different for everyone, but in your experience did it feel like a full-time job? Thanks again, Will! Nick
Hey Will, First off I just wanted to say this is an awesome site that will hopefully allow me and others like me to gain some valiable business knowledge and get our feet wet in our own businesses! I have found a few specific niches that I am exploring and should be getting samples of in the near future. I have a few questions for you though. 1. I have found a product that I want to start selling. Through my research I have found another very well-known company selling this exact product with huge margins. However this company has already branded this product as their own. If I import this product and if everything works out start branding it myself, are there any legal issues that could arise? Can I brand a product that has already been branded? 2. Have you ever run into any patent issues? Let’s say I want to sell pens that have LED’s on the end of them that light up when you write (not my actual product). There are other companies selling pens like this but I haven’t been able to find a patent on the concept of these pens but that doesn’t mean one doesn’t exist. What can I do to protect myself so that if I am successful with this product and build a brand and a company around it I don’t get a cease and desist letter in a few years? I have about a million other questions but I’m trying to figure out as much as I can on my own. It would be awesome to be able to sit down and pick your brain for a few hours. Lol Thanks again Will, -Kris
Hi Nick, Thanks for commenting - glad you liked the article! Definitely a good way to make some extra cash as long as you are smart/careful about it. 1. Yep, that would be perfect. I usually just piled stuff up in a room, until eventually moving to a table in the garage. An extra room would be more than enough to make some extra cash. 2. Of course it didn't feel like a full-time job because I wanted to do it, but I was probably spending around 5-50 hours per week on this. Pretty wide spread, but it's just up to you. There are no hours in entrepreneurship and nobody cares what you do or don't do, it's all on your internal desire to grow. You can spend 2 hours a week on it or 100 hours a week on it. Hope this helps Nick! Thanks, Will
Hey Kris, Thanks for the compliment - glad you got some value out of the site! 1. It really depends on the product. If the product is patented then you'll probably run into issues at some point, but otherwise you are just printing your logo onto a product. 2. I don't there is much of a legal risk with these types of products, just avoid trademarked brands. I think you'd be hard pressed to find a solid patent for something as generic as that. I've never gotten a cease & desist for selling anything, but I know a few people that have - and it always copyright infringement. In terms of limiting your liability I'd just recommend the standard - be behind an LLC and have your financials separate. Hope this helps, Will
Hey Will, first I would like to thank you for putting your experience into one post for free while this could have honestly been made into an ebook and sold for well over $100. I'm about half way through this post and I had some questions. I'm 14 years old right now and I found out about the importing business not to long ago. I originally had plans to buy apple earphones in bulk and sell them at my school (as there were way to many top competitors on ebay) however I thought that selling 100 earphones at school might get out of hand and I would get in trouble one way or another. Since then I have lost interest in the whole idea of buying in bulk however once I read this I was encouraged to get into it. I had a few concerns first. I noticed that you said you started when you were only 13 years old. How did you have the money to even start to buy the items in bulk? And if not in bulk and only like 5-15 units, you were buying airsoft guns, which aren't cheap. Also, how would you recommend I build up some capital to start testing products. I have around $120 to start off with right now, I just don't feel this is enough to really get into the swing of things. Thanks again for everything, Devin
Hey Will This has been a great read for me. A friend passed this link to me when I told him I was working in imports in Argentina. I am possibly older than I would like (26), and my mindset has changed in the passed year. I am a science and engineering background and always had the employee mentality before I moved to Argentina. Anyway, not to get off track. I work in purchasing with my company, and eventually my boss wants to send me to China to learn how to purchase and deal with the providers. After reading your blog, I had ideas of using your advice to do something similar, but with a trusted friend who lives in the US (since I can´t do anything from here). I was wondering if you think it would be better for me to wait to go to China and do reconnaissance before making any moves, or if you think this is something that can be accomplished simply by following your advice. Thanks!
Hey Devin, thanks a lot for commenting and for your kind words. It's never too early to start learning what you'll need to learn to be an entrepreneur, good to hear you're getting in so early (you won't regret it!). Sounds like you were onto something with the Apple earphones, if it were me I would have sold them and worried about getting in trouble later :) Again, I screwed around with some other products before I found my airsoft supplier which I used to fund a lot of this. Even with the airsoft though, I started by ordering 1, then 3, then 5, then 8, then 10, then 15 and so on until I worked out the dropshipping deal with that supplier. It is possible to start with less capital, it is just going to mean less growth (in all businesses). Like I said in the article, I'd like $500 of padding to test for a good product. To get to there, you'll have to make some quick cash. I know when I was 14 I found some quick ways to make cash at school selling candy, soda, or whatever else I could get away with (wallets, purses, sunglasses, headphones, etc). You have a massive market of buyers walking around you every day at school, the sooner you realize that the sooner you can profit off of them. It becomes especially profitable in college :) Hope this helps! Will
Hey Nick, Glad to hear you enjoyed the article - and tell you friend I said thanks for sharing! The good news is we may all be older than we would like :) You can of course do some prospecting online before you go to China. How would you know who to visit anyways? I have a friend whose supplier flies him out to China and Vegas once a year just to build their relationship and grow their companies together. This started off as a simple Alibaba thing as well, but has obviously progressed. I think it is good to do your recon online. Once you find a good product and are ready to start buying in bulk, then it may be time to fly over to work out some deals. Hope this helps, Will
Hey will thanks for replying to my comment above, is it possible to reach you by skype in anyway. I know you don't want to give it out to everybody on here however if you could send me an email that would be great. Like I said in the previous comment -- I'm only 14 and don't have much start up capital. I did however find a GREAT product that I could start buying and making a decent profit I sold my whole inventory. I've already emailed the supplier about some samples and I'm just waiting to hear back from them. I wanted to go over this product with you though first just to see if you think it would sell well. Thanks again for all the time you put into this website, Devin
No problem Devin! You can email me at will <at> startupbros.com
Hi Will, I really appreciate you taking the time to write this article it was very informative and sparked an interest! I was looking to start importing and found a few products that I think have potential, but I had a few questions first. Since these are being imported in can we get in trouble because they have a brand name on it? When you email suppliers inquiring about samples should you offer to pay for the sample or will they just send you them? Have you ever used something like Terapeak.com to research Ebay sales? Thanks, Alex
Wow Will I have to say its a little humbling to glean such valuable insite from a guy less than half my age!!! but your article was terrific!!! I made many of the same mistakes and am currently sitting on a garage full of running gear that i have sold out of the popular sizes :( so i was thinking i was faced with a descision to order $5000 (minimum qty) do you think I could negotiate a lesser minimum order?? thanks! -Chris
I hardly blink my eyes reading your amazing article, full of inspiration and motivational words, Although I normally buy men and women's t-shirt from Aliexpress and sold them off locally in my Country. I did make profit but very very little. I wanna try ebay, amazon and those selling channels maybe I should start something else on them. But my problem is that I am from Nigeria in West Africa, the cost of shipping the product to my buyers is what is killing me, how do I go about it? I don't know those that can help with dropshipping or what to do
Thanks for your kind words Sam! I have to imagine this business is a little tougher in Nigeria, but not impossible! I haven't been to Africa (yet!), but there have got to be some things that are profitable to buy and sell there. If not, maybe think about something like affiliate marketing or something. I'll tell you what though, I have to imagine entrepreneurs and internet marketers living in Nigeria are pretty comfortable. Congratulations on being a good track. Hope this helped, Will
Thanks a lot for your kind words Chris! There is something to be learned from everybody ;) I don't see why they wouldn't allow a lower MOQ, especially if you lie a bit and act like you are bigger than you are. I have almost always found a way. Good luck getting rid of those sizes! Will
No problem Alex, I appreciate you taking the time out to comment! Good to hear you already got started. Yes you can get in trouble if you import products that have trademarks on them or are patented. If the company that owns the intellectual property decides to sue you, they will have a good chance of winning. Your supplier will usually require you to pay for the shipping costs of your sample products. It is pretty rare to find a supplier that gives free samples. I've used Terapeak and will actually be featuring it in a future post. Hope this helps, and be sure to read the follow up to this post. Will
Hi Marvin, Make sure you read my follow up post to this, I think it will answer a lot of these questions. If not, comment on that one and I'll get back to you much quicker than I got back to this one! Thanks, Will
Hi Bud, There are a ton of scammers, middle men, and terrible suppliers on Alibaba. You have to be really careful, you can lose a lot of money (and I know people who have!) Just be sure to have all the filters I mentioned above on, and make sure you use Escrow or Paypal so you can reverse/dispute the order if things go sour. Hope this helps, Will
Hi it's jason from BHW, Please explain one thing only... For example I want to sell knifes. First step is to pay the supplier for example 100 knifes and then what...Do I import all 100 knifes and then ship all around the world to each customer or the supplier ships the knifes to each individual customer??? -I dont understand the entire process... Thanks!
Hi Jason, Thanks for commenting! You are describing two different concepts, importing and dropshipping. It is up to you if you'd like to import or drop ship, but I'll tell you that it's pretty tough to find a factory that will do dropshipping for you without a long history. I see that you're in the area of Serbia, so I'm not exactly sure if there is a local Amazon/eBay/Craigslist that you could sell on. It's going to be tough for you to sell and ship internationally though due to shipping costs. Hope this helps, and feel free to respond with any other questions! Will
Are you still selling products on ebay as of now WIll?
Yes! I stopped for a long time, but I've been doing some light importing since this post was made. Had to make sure I knew what I was talking about :) Hope this helps, Will
Hey, I enjoyed reading your article. However, i been trying to do this online business for so long but still could NOT do a single legal transaction on ebay or amazon other than selling brand name stuff in my house. I did the brand name importing from CHINA. ITs not a good idea!! I learned that lesson. so i am heading in the right direction, right? I guess its a rite of passage. haha. Can someone point me towards a niche or a item that i can sell on for profit from ALIBABA. I been there but can not find a item to sell for profit. I did many many hours of searching. It seems like someone on ebay or amazon is already marking it up so low it would be impossible to make a profit. I'm losing my hope that ebay/amazon could reallyl be a profitable business in 2013. Thanks.
Hey Joe, Glad to hear you enjoyed the article! Yea, like I said in my article I also went down a similar path. Sounds to me like you're on the right path. Branded counterfeits are always going to make people a ton of money, it's just very risky. I hope you saw my 2nd article on how to pick a profitable product, I put a TON of work into that one. It should do a lot to help you in finding products. If not, I have another article on the way that will describe a few other ways to find products. Keep in mind what you're looking for too. If you go out looking for a profitable niche to operate in, you're not going to find much. If you go out looking for a high-margin product, you'll have a much better chance. Hope this helps, and I'll also be responding to your other comment now too so hopefully those two responses help! Thanks, Will
Hey Guys, Regarding the advertising route you took with Amazon, was it there PPC version? And if so, did you have to set up a ecommerce site for that? Thanks, Omar
thanks for the info. I would like to make a few suggestions to improve this blog. 1) make the site mobile friendly. some of us use our phones to access the site. 2) I probably spent at least 3 hrs last night on alibaba but can't decide on a product. found some radios but looks like China seller kill it already. how about you make a page that provides something like item of the day that we could sell for profit. You could make the page paid subscription. and maybe allow members to post. no one wants to share items but I think we could all profit from each other since the market is unlimited. what do you think?
Joe - You're the man! Thanks a ton for the thoughtful feedback, those are all great ideas (and I didn't even know we were having mobile issues). I'm definitely going to take both of those things and add it to my list - now I just need more than 24 hours in a day :)
I am struggling with finding a niche product to sell here in the uk with low startup, can you help will? your writeup has been amazing
Hey Dan, Sorry to hear you're struggling with the product selection phase. If you're having trouble, check out my follow up to this post that deals specifically with how to select a profitable product. Here is the link - https://startupbros.com/step-by-step-guide-on-how-to-find-a-profitable-product-to-sell/ Comment there and let me know if you still have trouble. Also - I'm working on a new post going deeper into the data on product selection, that should be out late March! Hope this helps, Will
yes. I think a lot of us need a lot of help to get out feet wet. I don't mean we spoon feed anyone. but I think members should post products that sell well. don't give away your cash cow but lead us in a way that we can find our own cash cow. point out some niches or if possible products. will, I think you should add another of my recommendation. Maybe make a page that shows what a seller needs to do to achieve a certain goal. let's say for example I want to make 1000 dollars a month. how many hours should I spend. how many products should I sell etc. where should I get my products from. same for if someone wants to do 500 a month. or 10000 month. thanks.
Hey Joe, Thanks again for the great ideas - that's all good stuff. It sounds like you want a community and some tools for importers, definitely something I'll be keeping in mind moving forward. Like I've said, I think in late March we will focus on importing a lot, and may even write a book or create a course :) We'll see what happens, thanks for the great feedback! Will
Will, This was a fascinating article. You are very generous with your trade secrets. Are you still selling imported products from China or are you into other businesses? Thank you. Greg Moore Greater NYC
Great information I have been following this blog since December. I finally got my feet in the water. LOL I have found a Niche Market. I have two suppliers from Alibaba sending me Samples. It took me a while to sort out good suppliers and get a good price. Most were trying to sell to me @ close to retail. I would check target Niche product resale price on Ebay and I would be buying at a loss. I'll keep you up dated on the progress. They have already sent me the tracking numbers one gave me sample Free . I just paid for shipping. The other I paid for samples and shipping. Both were paid with Pay Pal. One thing I found out was that when you place a product request or make an offer on Alibaba You get a lot of offers in your email. But most are not coming from Alibaba Suppliers So Pay Attention. All of these wanted Payment by TT,MoneyGram,Western Union. By reading this Blog I knew not to deal with them. But I wanted to see how the scam worked. Here is How It Goes: They send you a picture of the product you wanted. They offer you a very low price.A Great Price I agreed to the price. Then they ask you which of the 3 payments you prefer So I told them TT (BANK TRANSFER) They sent me an Invoice. It had their Bank information, and their so called business address. Here is where I caught them. I googled their addres. It came up another business name. This business name and address was on Alibaba. So I emailed that business told them that this company was requesting payment from me using their address. I asked do they know them or were they working together. They emailed me back and stated they did not know or have any dealings with that company. Next scam: The fake Company name was on the Invoice But the Benificiary of the Money transfer was a persons private account and not a Business. Next Scam: Website Their Website are Great. I Verified their website@ http://www.scamadviser.com/ This site gives the history of the website: how old,owner,country and Complaints They supplier told me they had been in business over 5 years This site gave a negative rating on the Suppliers. Also showed me that their website and Domain name was just started Jan 2013 So I emailed them back and presented these findings very nicely and the never contacted me again. So as Will says only pay Using Pay Pal starting out and only deal with Alibaba suppliers. Sandra
Sir very good article and honestly it was exactly what I was looking for this evening. I decided to create my own website to install my store sport. I invested 3 nights to talk and chat with China and about a werk planning everything related to the project. When you say copies are like selling drugs it scare me because almost everything is copy in China, so can you tell me and describe me a little more about the risk of selling online copies in my own site and in another hand what happen if I buy something that is suppose to be original like nike shoes, I mean how can I recocognize an original product? if so what's the bad thing around my business if I am not even sure if is original or not. Please help me to clear this topic in my business plan. Regards, DP
Hello! So i am very interested in starting this, however I have a question regarding the shipping costs before pulling the trigger. I am looking to order a product which is costing me $1.70/unit for 50 pieces and the shipping is costing me 198$ on top. Also the supplier is 4th year gold supplier with escrow.
We are working in China providing everything from sourcing to quality control to shipping to mainly german SMI companies. I have to disagree with the point that gold suppliers are always the way to go. We have worked with gold suppliers and there is really not much that makes them so golden to work with compared to other factories. More over you can often find better factories on chinese trade shows. Many factories are not listed on Alibaba simply because they have another approach to generating sales than replying thousands of emails every day with mostly zero sales. If you have found the right product I advise you to go to china and buy a larger quantity right away. Why this approach? If you play your cards right you will be in the middle of a supply chain management dillemma before you know it. So you might as well figure out how to safely buy larger quantities right from the start. If you are not standing on the factory floor in China and taking care of business here, forget about scaling your business. Bigger and "more professional" suppliers use the same cheap tricks to sell inferior quality if they see an oportunity to do so. One oportunity is definately if you are just ordering by email and have no staff on the ground in China. Never go with "it's gonna be allright" attitude because it will break your neck.
Awesome post, thanks a lot! I just made my first purchase on Alibaba with your help. Hopefully everything goes smoothly!
Hi Will, My samples arrived. I checked them out. They all fuction as they should. I made my choice about which supplier to use. I also was able to talk the price down some more. I am going to place them on amazon amd ebay. Will keep you posted. Sandra
Hi Will, I just set up my DHL Import/Export Shipping Account. Sandra
Thank you very much for all the information, i have a question : I have writen to several suppliers And in return i recieved a lot of mails from different suppliers who i cant find on alibaba.com ,,, are they scammers? What can i do to the legal suppliers answer to me? Thanks Greeting from chile
Hello, 3 days ago I bought 3 watches at total of 22$ with free shipping, watches are 5-8$ each and searching on internet for the exemples i found selling at 150% from their price and there arent many seling them. Also i found that some of the models aint even listed on sale :D so i guess that its my time to strike now. The watches where send 1 day ago, now i have to wait 3 weeks with Chine Air Post Mail. The VAT taxes are 7$ for all.. i live in Europe in a country where VAT taxes are 24%... but goods under 10 Euro dont have to pay taxes and goods under 150 euro dont pay border taxes. Waiting to see what i get.
I forgot to say that i ordered from Aliexpress.
First off I just want to say this is the best single piece of literature I have read on this subject. It is so difficult to find real information. Here's my issue: I have been communicating with a 3-year gold star, inspected supplier from China (via alibaba.com). She says I need to either: 1. order a 20 foot container of their stuff and pay for freight. 2. for smaller amounts - order through their US contact who gets it directly from them (problem is the contact is an Amish guy in Ohio and works off of a communal fax machine that he checks daily.) She is insisting that he is the greatest guy ever and that his credit is so good and that's why he is able to work directly with China. First of all, if I were to order a container, how on earth does that process work? I'm in San Diego, so at least I'm close to a port. Is it normal to be asked to deal with a distributor that is Amish and uses FAX? I'm laughing as I'm typing this. Please have a go at this.
Will I need to get an importing/exporting license?
Hi Will I have a Quick update. I had a small problem with the samples. But lucky I paid attention to your advice. In my excitment I forgot to check 1 detail of a function that the samples were to perform. Right before I was to place my Larger order I caught the mistake. I informed the supplier that they did not send the sample I wanted. They said they were sorry, and admitted @ this time they did not have my requested item in stock. Since I paid with Pay Pal and it was their mistake, they refunded all my money. they will contact me when they get the right product that I requested. Lesson learned. Check products and all functions completely. Thanks Will, Sandra
Great advice. I am over in the UK and am desperately trying to get hold of LCD/LED TV's. The problem, is not the supplier but the cost of getting them from China to the UK. Any advice? Thankyou Darren
I remember doing playboy watches this way. I was buying 3 for £10 and then was selling for £10 each good luck with your find.
A way round shipping cost is to buy in bulk as many surpliers will offer discounted shipping on bulk orders this may not be an option with your product but its worth asking.
Hi Greg, Thanks for commenting, and glad to hear you enjoyed the article. I still do some light importing, but now most of my time goes to running StartupBros and my marketing agency. There is definitely still money to be made though, some of the readers of this article are already making money and now focused on growth. Thanks again, Will
Hi Sandra, Awesome to hear you're getting your feet wet with it, and thanks for your continued support! If you've already ordered some samples from Alibaba, then you're well on your way. Sounds like you've figured out how to filter out the bad suppliers and find the good ones, especially the one willing to send free samples (always a positive sign!). Yes, I hope you took my advice and grabbed a new email before starting. Whatever email you use on Alibaba will be spammed for years to come... Great insights on how the scams work, maybe I will take that and turn it into a blog post :) Keep me updated on your progress! Thanks, Will
Hi Dan, Happy to help! In the US, the brands stay very vigilant against counterfeits. Furthermore, it is illegal in many cases. If your product is in any way trademarked it will not be real. You can't buy Nike shoes from anybody but Nike. Of course, the people selling them are probably producing the shoes themselves (in some cases) - but you'll still be sued and prosecuted if you sell them. Hope this helps, Will
Hello Preet, There's no way for me to come to any conclusions with that information. Shipping costs are dependent on many variables and are going to be different for every product. Why don't you just go to the UPS or DHL site and estimate the shipping cost? It's a very simple thing to do. Hope this helps, Will
Hi Yannick, Thanks a lot for jumping in with your insights. It sounds like you deal in much higher volume than what this method is intended for. I agree with most of your points, but for higher volume buyers. Obviously people struggling in the US won't be able to spend a couple months jumping around from factory to factory in China. They don't need to either, they are just trying to make some quick arbitrage cash. If you want to scale up and start taking containers in and things like that, then it's time to start visiting factories and negotiating deals. Always have the end in mind - if this is what you want to do, then this method isn't for you. In the articles I speak about how scaling is a different story, this is good for side income. Most of the principles apply in scale, but scaling to the level you're speaking of would be a different article entirely. Thanks again, Will
Hi Will, Because of your advice, i am thinking of jumping into the import business. I been doing a lot of work since i read your blog a couple of months ago. Here is what i have so far and please advise on what you think i should do moving forward. I am going into to clothing/garment importing from Asia (not China). I see a lot of powersellers on ebay selling women clothing for cheap prices. For example, a basic cotton top for like $5.99 and up. These guys are selling thousands of these per month. My supplier whom i verified through a friend that lives in the country is offering me the same clothes for like $1.99 or less. Most are less than 90% of the selling price on ebay. I can kill this market/niche. My question and concern is this. I would have to buy a lot. possibly $10,000 to buy all supplies just to get started. I would need to buy tops, jeans, dress, shorts etc. Would i be able to sell this and will buyers buy from me if i am cheaper and better quality? only negative i have is, i would be a new seller. Those powersellers are like 10 years old accounts. Can i compete? I will go on a marketing craze and try to dominate the niche. What do you think?
Awesome Isaia, congratulations on taking the first steps! Definitely keep me updated and feel free to throw questions over! Talk soon, Will
Awesome Sandra, so far so good! Sounds like you are well on your way and things are working out. Keep me updated when those samples sell!
Keep moving forward Sandra! :)
Greetings Diego! No problem, thanks for commenting! Yes, like I said in the article I always set up a new email address. Your email gets leaked or sold or stolen pretty quickly, and will soon be spammed to death by scammers. Ignore anything coming in your email directly, just deal through Alibaba or whatever shipping site you want. If you want to take the risk though, just make sure you're behind PayPal or Escrow and you'll be fine. Hope this helps, Will
Hi Silviu, Awesome to hear you've already got your samples in the mail! Great to hear that you found a way around the VAT taxes, those are brutal and nearly kill this method... Keep me updated on how you do! Good luck, Will
Hi Anne, Thanks a lot for your kind words! Glad to hear you got value out of the article. I already responded to your email, so I'm just going to copy and paste it here for future readers. Sounds like a strange situation to be in, though definitely not the worst problem to have. It's good that you're already seeing some success. It does make sense that the US contact would be able to supply you for cheaper, since they are probably buying many full containers worth per year. Honestly, that's a similar situation to how I ended up with my airsoft dropshipper. I don't want to say go for it if you're uncomfortable, so make sure you use caution. But if it were me, just from what you were telling me, I'd probably try to figure it out with that Amish guy. I'd imagine once you get the ordering process figured out you guys won't even have to talk all that often. Hope this helps, and keep me updated! Will
Hi Victoria, Honestly, it depends on where you live. Some States/Countries will require an importing/exporting license, but most States in the U.S. don't (as far as I know). Hope this helps, Will
Hi Sandra, Sorry to hear about the hiccup, but definitely glad to hear that you took my advice and used PayPal! It could have been much more than a hiccup :) Looks like you just ended up with some free stuff, and the assurance that your supplier will stand behind their mistakes. Keep me updated, Will
Hi Darren, Ouch, importing LCD/LED TV's to the UK would probably cost a fortune due to your tax system over there. VAT and Importing Tax will both hit you I believe, but I'm not sure. Definitely look into that. Other than that, I also tried to get LED/LCD TV's imported once - it didn't turn out well. The cost of entry is EXTREMELY high. To compete, you'd need to buy 50-100 TV's minimum - and even then you'd still barely be scraping by. The electronics market is typically pretty tough. But hey, if you find a way you find a way...I just couldn't Hope this helps, Will
I guess the watch market has a lot of opportunity in it!
Hi Joe, Good to hear you got some extra motivation from reading the article! That's what this method is for! Buy some samples batches and test them out. There is no way to know if it will work without testing. In fact, there is tons of stuff you won't even know you have to know that will be revealed by selling sample units. I definitely wouldn't just jump in and buy $10,000 worth of a product though, especially in the fashion niche (as I have never understood it well). Hope this helps, Will
Hi Will, Great post. Have you tried importing in Bulk to resell in Bulk? For instance you import 1000 t-shirts for $0.50 and you sell 200 t-shirt lots for $1.50 each? etc
Hi David, Thanks for reading. I was buying in bulk at one point, but eventually moved over to dropshipping. The only exposure I have to it now is with a few clients. Hope this helps, Will
I too decided to get the ball rolling... However I just think there's more to this. Last week friend of mine, who is 16, had federal agents at his house because he bought 60 iPhone cases on alibaba and didn't pay some sort of tax. I'm talking swat team. I think you just flew under the radar and based on the items you ordered they probably assumed the items were for your personal use. What do you think?
Hi Paul, Interesting situation, I've never heard of anything like that happening. Other than what I mentioned in the article, but that was due to intellectual property infringement. I don't think I flew under the radar or anything, I've never heard of anybody getting into any tax issues. Even if you did, it would take quite a bit for the IRS to jump straight to that. Maybe there is more to the story?
Thinking about this a little deeper, I could see this happening if you imported something like food, plants, or something similar. With these you can run into regulatory issues, but I guess this has nothing to do with the IRS. Even so, you would get a letter and possibly interviewed (worst case would be a fine) - can't imagine the IRS or a SWAT team for anything related with importing (other than the reasons I mentioned).
Hi Will, Thanks so much for this post. I've been researching for weeks, even paying for a useless webinar. And this was exactly what I was looking for. I have two questions.. The first concerns volume. On your chart you list volume as low or high, etc. Can you give me some idea of what a low or high volume number actually is? How many units have to be selling per week on ebay for it to be considered high or low? What are the numbers I am looking for? And how can I tell exactly how many units are being sold on ebay? Just going through the listings and manually counting? And how do I tell if something is a knock off on Alibaba? For example, Im looking at the "Fibit Wireless Activity and Sleep Monitor" on Amazon. Then I search for the product on Alibaba, and come up with the "Fitbi Sleep Monitor".. notice the missing "t". Does that indicate a knock off? Could this land me in trouble? Something to avoid? Again, thanks so much for the great information. Definitely has me on my way.
Hi Cort, Glad to hear my article could help! I'm not sure if you saw my follow-up to this article - https://startupbros.com/step-by-step-guide-on-how-to-find-a-profitable-product-to-sell/ In that article, I go in deep detail on product selection. To answer your question though, high and low don't really mean anything. They're just relative to other products you're looking at. It's a comparative exercise. If this is uncomfortable for you, you can also use Terapeak to pull real data from eBay. Very awesome tool, and it has a free trial. That fitbit is definitely a counterfeit. Buying any trademarked product will put you at legal risk. You won't be able to buy most trademarked goods in bulk. Hope this helps, feel free to respond back after going through everything! Talk soon, Will
Thanks Will, Terapeak definitely gives me the data I was looking for. Im just a little hazy on what is trademarked and what isn't on ailbaba. Is there ever an instance where you legally buy and import trademarked items from a manufacturer? What about OEM? Something to avoid? Thanks!
Awesome to hear that Cort, glad it helped. There are some situations where you can import trademarked goods, but you'll probably be working directly with the trademark holder or their distributor. In most cases on Alibaba, people sell copies of trademarked goods. Now, will you get in trouble for this? That's an entirely different question. Some companies go after everything, and some don't even care. Do some research, because it's very case by case. On your last question - I suppose you could say a lot of what you import will be made by OEM factories anyways. Hope this helps, Will
I just wanted to say, I contacted my friend and spoke with him about the "SWAT" incident I mentioned way above, it turns out he was importing FAKE "otter boxes" Apparently they take that kinda of thing very very seriously. Just thought I would add this, and I see someone asking about this very topic so I thought I would reply down here. Like you said with knock off designer crap. You will make money but its not worth it, I wouldn't import something that's a knock off or fake intended to be sold as a name brand item.
Hey again Paul - thanks a lot for giving us the update! Yea, that's what got my other friend in trouble as well (but with fake brand name shoes). Glad to hear we're all on the same page again (though sorry for them...)
Morning from the UK This site has been very helpful in me completing my first order. It has been delivered and sold at a 40% Margin within a week. Naturally, I am not going to share the product information over the www as this would be fool hardy but I am going to give some advice on choosing your product. I have no idea why people are looking for "Niche" products. Even if the market place is saturated with the item of what you wish to sell it means that is 1. Very popular 2. Very profitable 3. Very Marketable Did the guys at Burger King think "Hmmmm, we've no chance in this Market place with McDonald's" Or did Microsoft concede to Apple? My point is, if you believe in your product then turn it into a company, create a logo, offer a top class service and go dance with the Wolves. 99% of the small business market place discovered nothing new. They emulated what others are doing and have done and made it there own. Anyway guys, it's just a point of view. Good luck:)
Hey Darren - Goodnight from the US :-P Glad to hear this article helped show you how to make some money! Sounds like you're well on your way in the importing game. Completely agree with you there, some people are scared off by competition. People have to be more confident in their ability to compete, and see competition as validation of a market/product. The balance of supply and demand and opportunity for differentiation are much more important. Again, awesome that you already made some money with your first imports. Be sure to keep me updated on your progress! Thanks for sharing, Will
Thanks Will, terpeak is a big help. Am I wrong in saying that the majority of the stuff on alibaba is trademarked or a knock-off? Everything seems to be stamped with a brand.. How do I build my own brand that way? Can you talk a little bit about OEM and how it pertains to importers? You're the man.. Really appreciate all the help for the noobs!
Hey cort smith. OEM - Original Equipment Manufacturer.... Which means you can create a brand with a pretty little logo and ask the manufacturer to put it on your products with hardly no extra cost, many manufacturers will accept OEM and the best thing is that when you create a brand of products you can sell the brand for a lot of money. Referring to alibaba.com that there are a lot of generic designs and if you want to avoid buying knock off products, all you have to do is ask the manufacturer and in my experience they will tell you if it has a logo on already. Thanks !
Hey Gage, thanks for your response. So Im generally safe from trademark infringement if Im buying OEM?
No problem Cort, glad it helped! Everything Gage said seems spot on, so I'll leave it at that... Thanks, Will
Hi Will, this is a very rich source of information from someone who seems to be genuinely altruistic. I get this vibe that you want everyone to prosper. Keeping in mind that information is one of the most sought after assets of our time, you really do a good job with freely disseminating it. I can see a lot of people charging money for just 30% of what you tell us in this article and I consider myself lucky to have found it all for free. I just wish all of us were this generous with ''insider information''. A lot of what you say here may be considered trade secrets by many people (which is sad). I have a lot of admiration and respect for people who unselfishly give others such important information. I believe in Karma and I know that the universe is gonna reward you for this. That said, I've wanted to sell stuff over the internet for so long. But, just like others have said in the comments, I'm still looking for ''that right product''. I stay in Norway, I'm a new resident in this country and everything seems to be totally different from what I'm used to, so it's hard to pin down people's consuming habits here. Nonetheless, I've always believed that things that target demographics like women, children and teens have the potential make ridiculous amounts of money. I'm considering jewellery, lingerie and toys. But even then, I have to figure out which ones exactly. Thanks for having a big heart. May the universe pour its rewards on you..:)
Hi Solo, Thanks a lot for checking out the article and for your kind words! You're right that I want to help everybody to prosper, I'm glad my writing gives off that positive vibe. The more people I can help prosper, the more prosperous I become. Seems like we agree on that - what comes around goes around! I've met some incredible people through running StartupBros! I'm assuming you saw my follow-up article Step-by-Step Guide on How To Find A Profitable Product To Sell - If not, that will definitely help in product selection. In Norway you'll have to be careful to avoid the taxes as much as you can. If you get hit by VAT tax it will kill your margins. There are ways around it, but I'm not too familiar as I've never done business in Europe. You're right about that - women spend the money! A lot of readers have been making good money with jewelry, but I've never made money there. It seems it's all about finding a good sales channel, as most jewelers are selling everywhere they can already. But my readers that have found an unsaturated sales channels have been making easy money there. Hope this helps! That follow-up should help a lot, if not check out Terapeak (eBay's own analytics - freaking AWESOME for product research/selection phase). If neither of those work throw me an email! Talk to you later, Will
Hi Will, Can you expound on how to forecast/mitigate the "other" costs involved? As I understand it: The supplier will be able to provide information on VAT. The supplier may have a preferred shipping partner, but this can be negotiated. Import taxes can be determined using an HS code. Insurance is optional (recommended?) Anything else I'm missing? What seems to kill the margins on the items I've looked at are the shipping fees being quoted by the suppliers. I'd really like a bit of guidance here if you can elaborate on how to keep these fees "reasonable". Thanks!
Definitely a great article 10/10! Thank you!
Will, Of course i did read the follow up article. How could I miss that? You are right about the VAT issues in Norway. Taxes are some what exorbitant here due to the welfare policies and all that. I have to look into that, inform myself and know how to deal with it. I have been seriously thinking and researching about the choice of the product for the last two days. I think I have made up my mind already. I want to get your opinion about it. Let me know if I can drop you a line in your email...) Thanks man.
Hi Jason, Thanks for reading and commenting. It seems like you understand the additional costs, but... -Your supplier might not be able to provide information on VAT, but it is worth asking them. I think I mentioned talking to supplier to see if they know ways around VAT. VAT kills this method, it might as well be required to get around VAT tax. You will probably have to do your own research on that though. -Your supplier will prefer to ship FOB (Free On Board), which means the liability is transferred once they hand it to your shipping company. They will want you to have your own UPS/FedEx/DHS/EMS/TNT/whatever courier account for this reason. It also eliminates any potential for them overcharging you on shipping. If you don't have a courier account, then you can usually get them to ship it through their account. The bigger the factory, the less they will like doing this. -Yes import taxes can be determined by HS Codes, but the tax system will be very different from country to country. In most countries the cost of this isn't too meaningful (unless you import food, drinks, plants, animals, or natural resources) -Insurance is optional yes. This is through your courier company though (liability is with them at FOB point). It's the same concept as insuring domestic packages (at this scale). -Sounds like you have everything figured out. Just make sure you test your product correctly. Watch for returns, shipping materials, fees, all that good stuff. Hope this helps! Will
Hi Will, Needless to say this has been a session full of learning....thanks a ton for the same... I am not a resident of US, live in India. Quite interested in importing stuff from China and re-exporting the same to US. Not sure about the overheads for the same and on the face of it, this looks like a business heavily loaded with overheads (largely shipping) and may not work for most of the products. Also, the transit time for cargo is also my worry, since I would need to ensure the product reaches customers without much delays, which means I will have to maintain sizable inventory. These are just few of my apprehensions as of now. I am in the very start, currently finding out the process, cost and time taken for the Import as well as the re-export. Would be glad to get your view point on this situation. Thanks SM
Thanks a lot Chris, I appreciate it!
Awesome. Yea, my opinion is that the EU tax system is out of control. In fact, I think the US tax system is out of control. But, I try to leave my opinion out of it and just tell you that you need to find a way around VAT tax :) I know there are ways, as some readers have told me they have figured it out. It's out there. Congrats on taking action - for sure feel free to drop me an email any time! Talk later
Hi SM, No problem, awesome to hear you got some value out of the article. Happy to hear it. You're going to have a tough time importing from China to India and then back to US. You can do it if you play a middle man/trade agent role, but I think your overhead will be too high to compete selling straight to consumers (like you said). A lot of people play that trade agent role and middle man US importers though. In fact, a lot of this article is about how to avoid dealing with middle men and go straight to the source. But there is definitely money in there. As you said, I think your shipping costs will be too high and too long to compete in consumer markets. I think you'd do better finding good products and selling them to US importers. But either way, your overhead will be much higher that way. Hope this helps, Will
Hi Will, Thanks for all excellent information you're providing! I really appreciate it! I have a question for you if you'd be so kind enough to give it a read. I have a potential supplier who is willing to ship me a sample through Fedex. I'm concerned because he wants to use Paypal only for the sample transaction and not for a large quantity order. Does this sound normal to you? Thanks!
Hi Childes, No problem, just glad to see you're moving forward with everything! Many suppliers don't like using PayPal for bigger orders due to the increased fees, but if you cover the fees he shouldn't have an issue with this. Either way, it would probably be hard to find a supplier who wouldn't take a large bulk order through PayPal if he has a working account! It is possible that the factory doesn't have PayPal, and that the employee is doing this for you through his personal account. But, it is also possible that it is a scammer doing the same. Just be careful, try to get to the bottom of things without damaging the relationship, and don't send them unprotected money until you trust them 110%! Hope this helps, Will