2047 Comments (page 5)

Hi Will, I have gone through a lot of articles which talk about importing and exporting in the last one year while doing my research and I have to say, This is "The best article out there". You have explained it so precisely and simple. I would have saved a lot of time if I had found this article earlier. Regards, Mark

Hello could you please email me i have a couple of questions for you thanks

Hey, Would you mind emailing me at [redacted] I have some questions. All the best, Gabriel

Hi Huseini, I'm not 100% sure how local taxes work in China, but you probably won't need to worry about it. Any taxes they need to collect will be collected, and any taxes you need to pay you'll pay at customs. I've never seen anybody get in trouble operating that way, but it may be worth some deeper research. As I said, I'm not 100% sure on that. I would be highly skeptical of any increases in price. Most suppliers won't even try to pull that sort of thing on you, as it's very bad business practice. 90% of the time I get quoted from an overseas supplier, they include all of their costs in the cost per unit. I've very rarely seen people tack on extra fees after the fact. It's very, very bad practice. Chinese (specifically) suppliers have a bunch of taxes that they need to pay to get the final product produced. You shouldn't have any extra taxes if you're exporting (only customs duties). You said they aren't charging you any taxes though, so it doesn't look too dangerous this time :) Hope this helps, Will

Damn straight! :) Thanks for the help

Awesome to hear you're up and running Gabe! Sounds like you're pretty cool as well 8-) Good luck in the importing business, Will

Hi Mark, Awesome to hear that, thanks for letting me know! I would love to hear if you think I missed anything :) Thanks again, Will

Hi, Will Thank you for sharing with your experience! I loved it. Got one question: does Alibaba have only ready products? If I would like to create a product myself ( find a company in china that can make a product that I want to create) Do you know anything about that? Thank you again :) Guile

No problem Guile, glad you liked it! You can definitely contact suppliers through Alibaba for custom manufacturing work. I've never done it, so I couldn't give a step by step, but it's not too tough. Just start messaging suppliers that manufacture similar products and tell them what you want to do. They will probably point you in a better direction than I can :-D Note - if you have a REALLY unique product that would surely get counterfeited once you hand over the schematics, then you need to approach this a different way. But most of the time, you won't need to worry about this too much in the early stages. Hope this helps, Will

Great article Will and I feel inspired. I am thinking of doing it the other way round to you though e.g. finding a product in UK and selling online in China (I live and work in China). I have dealt with Alibaba in my line of work and also know of online sites in China equivalent to ebay etc. Not sure what product would sell in a country of fakery but I believe there is a product that is not available in China and if found popular could be very healthy :) Thanks for this

Hi, Great article. it has been very motivational.Would you kindly link me with Joe Rosen for business purposes. thanx,

Hello again Will :D I am coming with fresh Tips about the importing and customs tax, for EU people. Ok so your country is part of the European Union and you want to import stuff from China/Japan. Here are a few Tips & Tricks + Info about the taxes you will have to pay and how you can bypass the customs taxes (for a while)... Importing from a country which is outside EU (in this case China and Japan) means that you will have to pay customs taxes and VAT. This is available for every EU country and the taxes may be all the same. Importing using the Free Shipping will come through the Border/Customs Postal Service and the followings are: For personal use ----------------------- Non Paying Customs Taxes: - for products in less than 10Euro Paying Customs Taxes + VAT: - for products in more than 11Euro For comercial use: ------------------------ Non Paying Customs Taxes: -for products in less than 150Euro Paying Customs taxes + VAT: - for products in more than 150Euro Importing using a fast courier will cost the additional cost of the courier: EMS, UPS, Fedex but will arrive in 7 Days instead of 25Days as Free Shipping. For people who want to import for personal use, DO NOT import more that 6-7 products per piece. The Customs doesnt allow you to make "business" using their service as for personal use ! Trying this 2-3 times will Blacklist your name and your order will not be delivered to your home and also, confiscated. Also if you import less than 6 pieces, dont tell them that these are for sale. You can make imports in more than 20,30,50,100+ pieces and so on, only if you are registered as Self Employed and pay taxes to the country. In this case you can order above 150Euro and no one will look strange at you, if you provide the papers. If you order for personal use and want to bypass the 11Euro tax, when you order 5-6 pices, make sure that you talk with the supplier and ask him to send in different packages and different days, so every pack will worth below 11Euro. If you order 6 pieces and all come in one package the total will excess the 11Euro limit and yo uwill pay VAT+ Customs Taxes. For me this is a rip off, as the VAT is 24%. Keep in mind these Tips and Infos and if you have any questions, please ask here. Happy importings :)

Great idea Wes, I'd love to see how it turns out! The Chinese and Asian markets in general have more disposable income than ever before. I've heard prices are on the way up for Chinese consumers specifically, so it could be a gold mine there! Be sure to let me know :-D Good luck, Will

Glad you liked the article Tyne! Just send me an email and I'll send you Joe's info :)

Awesome, thanks for the help Silvero! That's a whole lot of helpful information. People in the EU are constantly asking me about these things, but I never know what to tell them. Now I have somewhere to send them :-D Thanks again Silvero, and hope you're still doing well with the imports :)

You are welcome Will :D

Hi Joe, How are you selling these garments? Through ebay and amazon? I'm from south-east asia, and I've seen how low those prices can get :) Congrats for finding an excellent source of merchandise. I'm currently based in Australia, and hope to start a business too. I would love it if you gave some pointers on how you started selling :) To Will: Thanks so much for your article! It's the most comprehensive and detailed guide I've come across so far. I'm already taking the first step and getting some samples in. Hopefully it works out. If it does, you'll be helping another student! :)

I'm curious, Joe. Where did you source your suppliers from? Congrats on the success! Best, Tom

hi will, really wanna thank you for your great article, its like a ticket for a big business. i would like to tell ma story short. Before 2 months when i was searching online a digital tshirt printer for my friend,i was landed up in alibaba.com thats the start of the spark.when i was surfing that site the idea came into my mind was buying quality products from alibaba and selling it on ebay and amazon for a profit.so i planned to publish a website and did all stuffs needed for that. i finished ma website and its live now. As currently my financial situation is quite low i couldnt do business on alibaba,so at initial i planned to work as an affiliate for amazon and other websites and make some money and to start over my business. when i searched for products & reviews to promote i landed in your page. when i read the post i was really surprised and very much happy to see you already run this business successful. I had a 0.5% of fear whether this business would be a success or not, but seeing your article that fear have gone. And this is not just an article it is your experience, so i got an idea about the Do's & Dont's. very very helpfull and i really dont have words to express how much am happy on your success.Keep it going well. cheers..

No problem Juliana, glad you liked it! Awesome to hear you're already getting samples in. Sounds like you're well positioned to make this successful for yourself, good luck!

Hi Will , what a great article ! Need you advice, I ordered 10 bedding sets from aliexpress which a totally terrible ( wrong size and color) , seller doesn't want to return my money, I opened a dispute , seller declined it. What can I do next? Is there any customer service I can call?

Hi Hamlet, Glad to hear you liked the article, but sad to hear your first order was a dud! Thank God you ordered samples first - it could have been much worse! I wouldn't be too upset by this small setback... If you paid via PayPal or Escrow, you should be able to get your money back. With PayPal, it's as simple as a few clicks. With Escrow, it's a little different, but not much more difficult. You mentioned that they already have the money, so that worries me. How did you give them money? With Alibaba Escrow, I believe the money stays with Alibaba until you approve the merchandise. Let me know, Will

Awesome to hear you liked it Shankar, hope you can redeem that big business ticket :-D Awesome story as well, good to hear you're already getting started! It's not a bad idea at all to sell Amazon products until you have the money to get started importing, but I wouldn't make affiliate sales my end goal. It's a good stepping stone, and it seems like you recognize that :) Hope the rest of your journey goes well, keep me updated! Thanks, Will

I'm REALLY glad that I came across your blog because you may have changed my life with it! I've been thinking about starting an online boutique ordering clothes from aliexpress and setting up a shop on bigcartel.com and sell them from there like a lot of other people I see on Instagram. I'm glad you gave pretty good detailed tips of Do's & Dont's as well! I actually grabbed a pin and pencil and actually took notes from you! Hopefully I will be able to start soon, I'm planning on starting off small, see where it goes, and increase a little bit and keep it steady from there! (Just like you said.... well sorta... lol) Thank you! Thank you! thank you for the inspiration!

Dear Will, I am about to order 100 singing bird clocks that tweet on the hour. It's a dream supplier. Is this a good product? And the supplier said he will help me through customs so not to worry about tax, what does that mean? Gabriel

Will, Great article. I have been looking for an opportunity to start a business and start somewhere to be my own boss. I found your article today and it sounded great. Many of my questions were answered. I started a seller account on Ebay a week ago , trying to throw some stuff on this site to help myself understand it better. I am interested in importing stuff from China and sell them online. Help me out with this question in my mind: I live in TX by the way. 1. I know there will be fees that i have to pay for customs, what is the procedure on that, how do you pay them? 2. Do i need any license to import goods from China? 3. Do i need a license to sell stuff online, as this will considered a business. 4. Do i have to pay income taxes once i start making money on this business? I know that is too many questions, but i see you are replying to everyone. I appreciate it. Shafi

Dear will, What's freight forwarding because the company said I won't have to pay tax because of it. Also is a 30 usd shipping fee to good to be true for 100 pieces?

Hey Will, I've contacted some suppliers and have whittled it down to 1-3 for different goods that are related. 1 supplier has a product that costs 403.2$ total but costs 240$ to ship it via DHL.. Working with these kind of shipping rates it doesn't make much since to me. I would still make a profit but it would be smaller and riskier with shipping rates this high. Also the product is small and light.

Good Day Will, Just completed the read and love the story. It is a very accurate depicition of supplier interaction and best measures to take when approaching them. Personally I find myself on the other end of your equation. I am building an exporting business out of China which is why your points resonate so closely to what I'm doing. It is because of the opportunity to improve the supplier relationships with buyers around the world that I'm here digging into my own nich industry and marketing it to the world. Needless to say, if you are ever sourcing within the bamboo industry and are looking for a partner, look me up. Best to you and thanks for the read. Rupert

Will, Thanks for telling your story. Where did you store all of your products/air-soft guns before you started drop shipping? Were they stored in your home or at a warehouse? Also, how do you sell multiples of the same item on eBay, amazon, and Craigslist? Thanks so much for your time.

Will, I enjoyed reading your story. Two questions: 1. Where did you store your products 2. How do you sell multiples of the same item on eBay, amazon and Craigslist. Thanks for your time.

My name is Dave and I want to start online importation and I don't know to start besides I live in Nigeria so how do I go about it we don't ebay and amazon even craiglist too so what do I do?

I'm really glad you stopped by too Akia! :) That's actually a really good idea about Instagram, I didn't think of that! That's exactly the type of thinking you need to be successful in importing. I'm sure you'll do great if you keep up that out-of-the-box thinking. You're right to start off small and see where it goes. Don't get greedy and use your first couple products as a learning experience. You'll be profitable in no time :) Keep us updated and let us know how it goes! Good luck, Will

Hi Gabriel, Sounds like it could be a decent product, but you should know that before you buy it! Long before you buy it, in fact. If you're buying 100 of them, did you already buy and sell some samples? What did those samples sell at? How quickly did they sell? How did the end user like them? How did they work after 2 months of daily use? Those are all questions I would like to have answered before buying 100 of anything. So I would work on that first. Hope this helps, Will

Thanks Shafi, glad you liked it! Importing is a great side-business to transition into being your own boss, but it's not easy... Great move throwing some items on eBay, this will help you understand the process and build up some positive feedback. Customs and taxes are usually paid to your supplier or shipping courier in my experience. Usually, the shipping courier is the one dealing with customs. It's typically very straight forward, but I would always look into any other taxes you may have to pay in your specific situation. I don't believe Texas will require you to register a business or collect sales tax (outside of Texas). But, if you find a product that works, and you start making a decent, consistent profit - then register the business and get your resale license or whatever. It will be worth it at that point. Yes, you'll have to pay income taxes on any profit. That's why it's only worth it to register it as a business after it's making money. There's no real benefit to an LLC or Corp when you're still looking for products to sell. Once you're selling products, then build up the business structure around it. That's just how I do it, but I believe if you ask a lawyer they would suggest against it. Hope this helps, Will

Hi Gabe, Freight forwarding is a company that basically organizes your shipments from your factory and manages the actual shipments. They can be useful, but generally not for small orders. Honestly, I haven't dealt with them much, so I can't help a whole lot there. I'm working on researching that for the importing course I'm working on. $30 could be good or bad, it depends on what those items are, how much they weigh, the dimensions, shipping time and method, etc. Hope that answers your question, Will

Hey Brenton, That is a pretty crazy shipping rate for a small and light item, it makes me wonder why it costs so much. You could probably get that cost down. But anyways, you're expecting to lose money on sample items. If you make money on them, it's an extra cherry on top. It's many times cheaper per unit to ship in bulk, but you need to know your product is going to work before you start doing that. Hope this helps, Will

Hi Rupert, Awesome to hear from an exporter working on the other side of the equation. I would love to hear what you can add to the article or what you think I missed, I'm sure you know some things I don't! Good luck to you on your business, I'd love to hear updates about how it's going as time goes on. Maybe I can help connect you with some importers at some point :) Will

No problem Curtis, glad it could help! I stored all of my products in my parent's garage and my room, which worked for the amounts I had. If I kept growing though, I would have needed to move out of there into a cheap warehouse. Luckily, you won't need to get a warehouse until you're making the money to afford one. eBay and Amazon have built in systems to sell multiple quantities of an item, Craigslist I believe you'll just have to manage yourself... Hope this helps, Will

Hi Will, Awesome article Will . This article is inspiration for me. I have some questions . 1. Is there any way to get low price shipping from china. I checked with DHL and they are asking around $230 for 8 kg box(mobile phone cover). can it be less then this by any other way. 2. Do we need any company tag to sell items on ebay or flipkart etc. 3. And when we have product with us how will we deliver it to different location in country after getting order through by online stores for 1 or pieces. 4. Could you please tell me the steps to sell products on online stores like ebay flipkart etc

Glad you liked it Rahul! There are cheaper ways to do it if you buy more, but if you're only going to ship an 8kg box, then air will probably be best. Eventually you can start shipping containers over the water, but you need to be buying in very large quantities. I'm not sure what a company tag is, but if you're going to be in business in the future then I'd suggest getting the legal structure around your business set up. You would want to ship your items the same way you would ship anything domestically. If you're in the U.S. you'll be using USPS, UPS, FedEx, etc. The steps to selling products online would take a bit more than a comment, but it's the same as selling anything. Hope this helps, Will

Hi Will, My mean by Company Tag is that do i need to register a company on legal basis to sell products on online. Will it not be costly to send every item by Fedex to end consumer(buyer of product from online store) location?? Who will bear the cost of shipping of every piece of item sell on online store, online store or vender ???

Like I said, you should register a business when you want to. You don't have to, you can sell it all from your own personal legal entity as a sole proprietor. But, if you're going to be in business for the foreseeable future, then I don't see why you wouldn't. Yes, it's extremely costly to ship things. That's the main cost of the business. I haven't figured out a way around shipping out products to end customers, but let me know if you do :) You will bear the cost. As an entrepreneur, assume you bear the cost of everything until you don't. So, if you don't want to bear the cost of shipping, then have your customers pay it. If you don't want to bear taxes, then pass it down to the customer. If you're worried about liability or legal structure, then file for an LLC. If you want to deliver it by truck yourself rather than ship via FedEx, do that. The buck stops with you, it's all up to you... Hope this helps, Will

i still cant believe this i was almost unconscious to see an iPhone 5 16gb costing just 130$ from china...... i mean this thing costs 500$ cheapest...and costs between 600-800$ on ebay????? is this true i can buy an iPhone 5 from chine for 130$ and sell it on ebay for 500$ and make a profit over 300$ each????????? you were talking about bulbs costing 2.5$ selling at 11$ so can i do the same with this iPhone 5?

Hey Will, This has been great information, I have literally followed all the steps somehow prior to reading this article and look forward to implementing the future ones based on the post. Although now I have hit a brick wall hard! With doing research and hearing about the countless thefts and fraud happening from China now-a-days I'm stuck like Chuck! I talked to some people, some promising the sky so wrote them quick. One group of people actually seem to be promising and I asked them about their clientele in america and they gave me some businesses that are similar to what I am looking at myself. Mistake 1, I sent some money via western union to pay for the shipping of the samples which they first said would be $100, then I said that was too much and I am willing to pay $30 and they all to willingly accepted that. Nonetheless I sent the money and am now waiting on a tracking number for that. I need to know if its ok to also try and have multiple agents bringing in different products,but then I get back to finding that awesome supplier which seems to be impossible! Any suggestions?

Chinese selling popular brand of mobile phone is not unusual. They sell it at a dirt cheap rate with a slight twist in spell and physical appearance which are not at once noticeable to the discerning eye. I once bought fake one with full knowledge. Because it was cheap my curiosity got better of me. One will notice the difference in software and hardware after sustain use and will realize the compromise made thereof. The Chinese girl selling me the phone confessed that it was fake but insisted that it was still worth the buy. I finally got rid of the phone by giving as gift to my girl friend who was ever so grateful to me.

cheers for such an insightful article mate, really a nice one. cheers!!!

Will, Your information is very clear and comprehensive and will help most people avoid the pitfalls. But I have a question. On the completed Listings on Ebay the ones in green are the sales, however, if there is no date against them does it mean that although they have sold its not recently and they just sold in the past sometime?

I come from China, and i can tell you just forget it... If that price were ture, then the phone wouldn't be true. In China , we usually buy IPhone 5 at aound $800 or even higher to secure the quality of it. Maybe some people can get little lower price via some specail access but the price gap would never be so big. I dare not to image how big the trouble would be if you sell fake IPhone on Ebay...

Don't get too excited Hash :) If you noticed in the article, I recommend against any brand name products, and any complex electronics. An iPhone 5 is pretty much the perfect storm relative to that. You could try to buy it, but you'll most likely be very disappointed. I believe I also talked about how I learned that. I tried to buy a sample iPhone (or something), and instead was sent a pair of these ridiculous see-through BAPE shoes. Needless to say, I was disappointed, and never got my iPhone sample. After researching more, I found out that they are usually poorly made, break often, are highly defective, and have a generic Chinese operating system installed. My BAPE's are worth more than that junk! :) Hope this helps, Will

Hello, I find this article very useful. Between, am living in china for quiet a while. I do export various products from china across the globe. If you guys are interested in buying some good quality products with affordable price, please mail me with your inquiry to [redacted]. We provide with high quality service and can clear shipment in an easier and most convenient way. Am ding this on a freelance basis and I do have a good contact with various factories around china. I can provide you with good quotation and can render excellent service. I do co-operate with some Chinese companies and can deliver the product in a more professional and friendly manner. Please be cautious about choosing the supplier as there are lot of wholesale websites which offers you a crazy low price.Most of them are fake. Before hand if you want to place the order ensure the company or factory have a proper certificate and can deliver on prompt time with all international quality grading, if you need any assistance or help feel free to mail me. kevin [redacted]

Awesome to hear that you're taking action with importing Mohamed, it sounds like you're really catching on to it :) Hope you saw my reply to your other comment, I gave this link that might help you - https://startupbros.com/how-to-avoid-scams-middle-men-and-fraud-on-alibaba/ Like I said, it sounds like you're catching on to things. If you keep at it, you'll learn all of this soon enough, and probably not lose a whole lot of money. I wouldn't hold my breath for the order you paid for over Western Union, but you'll still probably get something. We'll see, but either way don't get too discouraged. It's fine to have multiple samples coming in from multiple places at the same time, if you have the money of course. I'd recommend it if you can do it! You're right to be careful, there are a lot of scammers on Alibaba looking for new people just like you. But, you can beat them no problem ;) Hope this helps, Will

Thanks for the comment Huseini - you said it better than I did :)

Hi Will, I unconsciously spend the whole afternoon on this post; it's so long and so precious. I learn much from it and have a strong willing to share something here as another “the other end of the equation”. First I’d like to introduce myself, I come from China and for sure can say we are a factory, well not too big yet though. We have been running our factory by this way for several years, that is selling our goods to exporting company and then they sell to customers worldwide. Last year we for the first time planned to sell goods to overseas customers directly. But this plan pended for almost one year out of the thoughts that we would earn more and easier money if we just finish the orders from exporting company like we have been doing for the past year since they have very good quantity for each order. The 2 main obstacles in our thoughts were as following: 1. Risk of Overstocking. We need to prepare stock first then are available to sell them in very small quantities. We time and time again refusing small orders requirement under consideration that it would be a trouble to deal with overstocking. 2. Risk of getting cheated. We also learn stories from friends that some Exporting company set up by foreigners suddenly disappeared from China without paying money to factories and it happened all the time. Currently upon double comparing the prospect it might have with the risk and effort we might take finally we decided to carry out this small quantities orders plan in practice. We know it would be much more complicated for a factory to deal with small quantity orders than to big one, but it Worthwhile. Meanwhile i believe if there is no quality problem with our products, customers would not maliciously refuse to pay money to PayPal. Typing too many English letters makes me a little bit dizzy … but it’s not finished yet. I have to say I can’t be more grateful than the moment when I get so many useful Tips for taxes or licence concerns. There have been so many potential home-based customers keeping asking me this questions and I was hoping I can offer more info than “ well you should consult with your lawyer or local institutes “ . This is not my first comment on this post, it was given to a IPhone question without even say any hello because I was a little too excited at that moment when I saw Hash having so big misunderstanding for it… So I sincerely sense that trust founds on mutual understanding by dialogue. Thank you Will I have subscribed this blog, looking forward to enjoy more! Good day! Cecily

Thanks a lot Vaibhav!

Glad you liked the article Steve! Like I said in the article, eBay keeps their listing data pretty ambiguous. They have their own in-depth data analytics tool called Terapeak that you might want to look into. That's where all of that data lives, and they crunch it in amazing ways that makes product research much easier. And they have a free trial! ;) Hope this helps, Will

Haha, Cecily is absolutely correct. Sorry Hash!

Glad to help Kevin! For anybody thinking of emailing Kevin, I don't know him personally and couldn't give my own personal guarantee. I will say that having boots on the ground in China can be incredibly valuable, especially when you've found a factory and need to negotiate pricing and do quality control. Thanks Kevin!

Hi Will, Your awesome, your like a light to new enterpenours to show and enter into the business world. Your articles are excellent. The way your answering questions and giving soluctions - Nice! Here i am with 1 question, i am planning to sell Fastrack Brand watches on ebay as well as website based online store. Fastrack brabk wantches i want to buy from India and sell globally. Do i have legal problems? Cheers Lakky

Glad you liked the article Cecily! Always good to hear from the other side of the equation, as you said. Congratulations on your success with your export company so far, keep it up! Sounds like you guys have planned out a path to growth, that's great. It's interesting to hear why so many readers can't get low quantity orders filled - do you have any advice for them? Yes, the taxes and duties can be quite the issue. I can imagine you'd get a lot of questions on that if you're trying to deal with low volume clients. Maybe that can be a problem you can solve. Thanks again for the help on this and on the iPhone, like I said it's great to hear an exporter's opinion. Will

Thanks for reading and for the support Lakky, I appreciate it! Happy to help... If Fastrack is a registered trademarks, then they will come after you where they can. China doesn't care about American trademarks, but if you sell anywhere Fastrack can sue you they will. It's usually better to avoid trademarks. Hope this helps - and good luck, Will

Hi Will, I am on the track of getting knowledge in importing business. I would like to thank you that you have given us a platform to get answers for our questions in this field. My question is: Consider i am a seller of mobile phone cover on ebay, flipkart or any online store. I received 5 orders from different states of my country then how am i going to handle the shipping of each order. Will i ship all 5 order to flipkart office and they will send to respective buyer at different locations in country. OR I only need to ship to each buyer.And if this is the case, then shipping 1 mobile cover of cost $4 to 350KM from my place seems costly.How i will save profit. Will, that would be great if u tell me with same or any example of SHIPPING products to buyers after getting order(please include sample rates). Thanks

Hi Will, Does QUARTZ is registered trademark company (Wrist watches)? if i buy from china and sell it globally, is it problem legally? Thank you very much for your previous advice! Cheers Lakky

The Quartz is only the watch mechanism, not a brand !

Awesome article dude, cool to hear you going at it from such an early age. I'm 26 now and still studying about to complete my graduate medical studies... I feel like I've been stooged :P

Hi Will, I've been reading and re-reading your articles and still I learn new things from it. Your experience inspired me really. I have a question regarding a sourcing of supplier. I have tried alibaba and aliexpress already and am happy with it. Now i also wanted to try the website dhgate.com, what i like about this site is that thier registered user/suppliers listed thier product comprehensively like the pricing and MOQ and also the shipping method and many are offering free shipping using dhl or fedex which makes me delighted coz thier pricing are actually less/cheaper than those i've found from alibaba for the same product. Now what i am not sure is if it is safe and secure to use the dhgate website. I tried to communicate with those supliers but none replied to me. So am hesitant to place my order. So do you have any advice and information about this site? Your words of opinions and ideas are highly admired. Thanks a lot Will! Jeim

No problem Rahul, glad to hear you're on the right track :) I'm not sure how Flipkart works specifically, but I can tell you that you'd need to ship your own orders when selling on eBay. Shipping is one of the major costs of importing from overseas and selling products online. Good luck finding a new product, Will

Glad you liked it Jack - I could barely get through High School, I missed 97 out of 180 days my Senior year. I definitely couldn't do medical school! :) Thanks for commenting, Will

Happy to help you out Jeim, hope you're successful in your importing venture :) I haven't used DHGate, I've never had the need to go anywhere but Alibaba for importing products. I've heard a lot more horror stories about DHGate than Alibaba, it seems to attract new people more. I'd guess that it also attracts more scammers for that same reason. Any legitimate factory on DHGate will also be on Alibaba and AliExpress, so I don't really see the need in messing with DHGate. But, I've never used it :) Hope this helps, Will

Hello Will, I've learned a ton from your experiences concerning importing and selling products from China. Thank you! However, I'd like to know where I can go to read about the legality of storing inventory in my house for packaging and selling online. I live with my Dad and he thinks that storing boxes in the house, and packing material may interfere with codes or some other sort of regulations on the city/state level. I appreciate any advice you can offer for my situation. Thanks again for your work on this blog.

That's a good question David! Personally, if some Government goon came and tried to tell me I couldn't put boxes in my own home, I would fight them to bankruptcy. That's absolutely offensive to me for that concept to even exist. I guess if you live in New York or California, maybe you'll run into some issues, as those State Governments are out of control. But, they also can't enforce anything because everything is so ridiculous. Either way I think you'll be fine until you get up and running. By the way, to figure this out you'll have to call around State and City offices and wait around until somebody seems to know something. And then, you'll have to trust them, because it will still be your fault if they tell you the wrong information. Personally, I don't wait up for the Government. Rules are made to hold you down, and entrepreneurs are notorious rule breakers. If you can't convince your Dad that he has the right to put boxes in his home, I guess start calling around... Hope this helps, Will

Awesome Will! Yes I agree, it's a non issue for me, I could stack that empty room up with merch (lol). I live in Florida, and I think I'll be alright, for the level of importing/selling I want to do. I'll convince Dad and get my business started.

Thanks for the great article..... I have an engraving business and I am wanting to buy my acrylic kitchen products from china. Is this wise?

Oh ya, I'm in Florida and have never had any issues with the State. I've had more problems with Federal regulatory goons than FL people. I think you're fine...

Hi Tracie, I think that's an awesome idea! You already know what you need and what to look for. Even better, you can send the factories samples of your products, and they can send exact duplicates back, completely up to quality and everything. I would definitely start looking into it, it could increase the margins on your current business and give you a great competitive advantage. Hope this helps, Will

Hey will So a quick question, have you ever imported in the thousands? I'm wondering about customs, I live in Orlando so it's probably similar. Do I just pay dhl? Or do I have to deal with customs? Thanks in advance

Imported in the thousands of what? Pounds? Dollars? Units? Yuan? Things get a little tricky in when you're shipping containers to Florida, let me know what you mean and I can give you some advice.

For now its just through DHL and I meant thousand of items and its also around $1000 in dollars as well. Also I would also like to know about containers too! Especially if I planned on importing them! Thanks!

Hi will, quick question will alibaba ship to the uk or just America?

Ah yes, when shipping via DHL it's very easy. DHL will usually deal with customs and duties for you and charge you. You usually won't take too bad of a hit from duties and taxes, unless you're shipping in something like food, drugs, plants, animal byproducts, etc. Once you start buying in the thousands, you're going to want to start looking at containers and sea freight and all that. Since you're in Florida, it's even more difficult, as it can be very expensive to get a container here from China. In some cases, you'll want a consolidation warehouse to break down, store, and ship your items to customers from new the port of LA. Short of that, you'll need to get the container on a train from LA to FL, which costs around $2-3k last I checked. If you get to that point, make sure to send me an email and I can give you some more specific help. Hope this helps, Will

Hello, Alibaba ships worldwide so don't worry about UK.

Sweet! I'll keep that in mind and definitely let you know if it ever gets that big! I really appreciate all that you are doing and I wish you success in all of your ventures. You don't know how much exactly this is helping me out!

I wish I had a "Like" button on this! Thanks Silvero, you da man!

That's awesome to hear Mohamed, thanks for the encouragement! Glad I can help :) Good luck to your ventures as well, Will

awesome article! it was insightful and I totally enjoyed reading it.

Good article, i have been in the line of sourcing from china for the advertising and event management company i have been working for for three years. its so interesting job doing sourcing from china..... this article is going to be of great importance to the people who would like to source products from china.... thanks dude.....

Glad you enjoyed it Ben!

Thanks Alex, glad to hear such positive feedback from somebody as experienced in importing as yourself!

Great article! I am very passionate about starting to do this. Firstly I need some direction which I hope you can help me with : I am a student so I do not have much capital to work with and am looking to import baby accessories, baby proof stuff. I have been looking on alibaba and found a great supplier, gold member who does free samples. Where too now? How much capital should I need? This is what I worry about most My motives are not to be a millionaire I just merely want to make a good amount of money on the side to fund my creative passion. I am in New Zealand so there is not as many people to contend with but on the other hand there is only one website which holds the monopoly on trading (trademe.co.nz) I have found a PRODUCT not a niche of products and think I could do well with them (how could I know anyways right?) but am willing to take the risk on these , they are cheap and look good quality. I wanted to give you so parameters as to my situation so that I could get some advice from you just incase you seen unforeseeable problems :) Thanks a lot!! Jamie

Also, it says on your "what product to look for" list that I shouldn't be going for products that will sell in the $10 - $200 range. Being a student I am unable to go for anything out of this range and it would aquire too much capital. If i'm merely looking for something to sell to make a comfortable amount of money then do I still need to target outside this bracket? Thanks again! James

Thanks Jamie, glad you liked the article! I suggest having at least $500 to lose before you start making money in importing. You can usually pull it off with $200, but $500 will give you some breathing room. The key to reducing risk is to buy a sample product and sell that to an end-user customer. Then you just wait and see what happens. Obviously the samples should pass your inspection as well, but the customer's actual using of the product is the ultimate inspection. If it passes that, you know you have a reliable product. Good luck, Will

I actually said to keep it in the $10-200 range, so you're good :-D

Great article Will, if your business grows to where you don't have the time or space to ship and store your articles couldn't you use a 3PL? Have your pallet shipped to a warehouse, you forward the orders and they store, pack and ship to your customers? If your volume grows you already have shipping and warehouse space! That's what I do and am always looking for young entrepreneurs with products. The fees are usually per item and storage is a minimal cost. It's usually 5-7% of your selling cost and you get the advantage of our UPS rates. Just thought I'd throw that out there for any interested parties!

Hey Will. Aside from your marketting company startup, it seems like you know of far better opportunities to make money on the side than importing from china. As a novice businessman I would love it if you could give me some more clues as to where such options exist? For instance, if you had $15,000 in capital and wanted to start a business of this type of nature, what would be the market you would taget today and what would your product be? Thank you James

Great Article. I got ripped off to the tune of $4000.00 by a company in China that was able to supply me with company registration docs and pictures of their offices etc. It was all too good to be true. That taught me many of the points in this article and inspired me to find a great product, one that ends up in the trash regularly and turns good profits. All of the pitfalls faced by young people trying to have a go at reselling I have hopefully learnt (and i'm not a kid!) I now import contact lenses for parties, Halloween and soon will be looking to bring in prescription lenses. I have travelled to China many times and some products like these are made in china but are copies so avoid Chinese copies of products historically made in places such as Korea. I am going to be able to supply resellers as low as 20 pairs each shipment with mixed designs and all certified correctly right down to using FDA approved materials in the process of manufacture. Resellers will double their money on the products which in this era is a pretty good return on your $$$. Regards Jim

Great point Simon, you can absolutely use a 3PL (which means third-party logistics, for others). I didn't mention it in this article, but I am going into deep detail on that in my importing product/course that I'm working on. It's especially great for importers like me in Florida, because it's damn expensive to receive shipments here rather than the Port of Los Angeles... Congrats on your success using it - I might be emailing you soon with some questions!

Hi great blog really helpful! I am in the UK and currently looking at importing sports cameras, they are small and light with a good mark up but are within consumer electronics just wondering what you might think.. Any comments or guidance welcomed

Hi Will, Appreciating your encouragement! i will keep making growth on this path. As for advice to get low quantity order achieved, well , it just take both sides more time to find each other, one side need to buy in small quantity, one side is availabe to offer this small quantity. All we have to do is to make more efforts to seek and select. As you said Alibaba is a great platform for starting international businness, i have plan to try it in the future. I am doing funny party products, i think it might have a big market around young business starter. Cecily

Hi Will, Just to clarify, I AM a 3PL. Any questions you may have I'd be glad to answer. I'm always looking to help any start ups, any business has to start somewhere and young entrepreneurs are the future:-) Thanks Simon.

Hey thanks for the advice. Wish we would've had that to read before buying our stock. We have just had £5200 worth of beanbag covers delivered from an Alibaba Gold Member and they are not as described. Any idea what to do and where to start if the supplier won't reply? Paid for by bank transfer as they only took PayPal for samples due to levy tax.