855 Comments (page 2)

Hi Olivia, Thanks so much for reaching out with your kind words, I really appreciate it! Glad you like our content, and I would love to hear how you think we are doing in the future. Somebody has got to keep me up to quality! I don't necessarily discount an item like the ones you're describing, but it does discourage me. Ultimately, it comes down to risk. It is much riskier to import something that is not already selling more, and it will require more time, money, and effort to get selling steadily. But, in the long run, it may pay off. Again, it is just riskier. Hope this helps, Will

Hey Edward, thanks for commenting. You could be profitable with slimmer margins, but it leaves less room for growth, scale, unexpected events, taxes, etc. I like the 100% markup minimum, but I've gotten by on less.

Hey Devan, glad you like the follow up as well! Definitely keep me updated on the new project (you know my email). Hard to believe that simple email you sent out started all this! Cloud Atlas or what? :-P

Great post Will! I have imported a couple of products very similar to how you recommend here. None of them really took off like I had hoped, but I learned a ton in the process. My question is in regards to shipping. The samples I order were sent via UPS, but it cost something like $105 and it weighed less than 2 pounds. It arrived in two days, so it was definitely shipped express. The only other option I was aware of was FOB. What is this shipping method you mention that is $25-45 and takes 7-20 days? Is there a method that allows for UPS or another similar carrier to handle the pickup in China, the customs at the port, and the transporting from the port to my house that I'm not aware of? Also, a little advice I learned the hard way for your readers. I used my own UPS account for samples and used PayPal for payment for protection. If you ever file a dispute with PayPal (like I did), you can't get the shipping refunded if you pay for that separately. Plus, the manufacturers usually have a better price than you if you're just starting, so it might even be cheaper to pay the manufacturer for shipping and keep it all in the PayPal payment :) Again, great post!

Thanks Austin! FOB (free on board) just means the liability transfers to you once they drop it off at your designated shipping port. I want to say you didn't have to go Express - you can usually give them your UPS/FedEx account number and they will ship it whatever way you want through your account. They just don't want the liability. There are also companies that manage shipping and customs in China and act as a third party, but they are massively expensive and generally don't do much you couldn't do yourself (at this scale at least). You say in the 2nd paragraph that they did use your UPS account, so that is weird they shipped it express. I'm not sure why they would have without approval, maybe some misunderstanding? Or maybe the item was shaped strangely? Fragile? Something? Lol... Good advice on keeping the shipping costs protected as well. Thanks again for commenting! Will

Hi Will, Thanks for the write up - very educational. When contacting the people on AliBaba - do you ever just write and say " Hi blah blah, Can you do product XYZ for $XX/unit, shipped to my address "? I just find that often the products look good, can be priced well, and then shipping makes it hardly worth my time - so I almost want to start with a low-ball offer... Does that make sense? Thoughts? Thanks :)

Hi Will, Thank you for your great insight on this topic! I have a question regarding your competition when researching a product on ebay...When you are considering a potential product, when or at what number of sellers do you decide that there is too much competition? I fear this may be a case-by-case basis, but regardless let us know if you have any opinions on how you personally would go about evaluating this. Thanks Will and keep up the great work!

Hi Michelle, Yea, your fear is correct. It is really case-by-case, but you are really trying to compare and get a feel for different products. I never really quantify anything when comparing sales volume via ebay, it is more rough estimates and gut feelings based on the data I can get. If you want a premium option, a few readers have been using Terapeak.com to dig down and quantify sales data - maybe try that. They have a free trial. Hope this helps, Will

Hell Will I wanted to know if you recieved my email and if you could help me. Thanks in advance

Now when it comes to branding, how can you brand something that isn't yours? What I mean by that is, if i have a supplier of say paintball guns, how can I put my brand on that if there are 10 other people importing the same product? Am I trying to sell the brand name at that point?

Right on the spot Keon, branding is just branding. You'd start by setting up a private label manufacturing deal to put your logo/design on it. From there, if successful, you could start to discuss custom products from the factory, but it becomes more expensive as you'll need to pay for huge runs of products. Private label manufacturing is a great way to get started in it, I have a friend who started private label with a factory and now that factory runs specifically for his company. It is much more expensive/risky to build a brand though!

Hi Luis, I think I responded to you today - let me know if I didn't. Thanks for reaching out!

Thanks for commenting Guy, glad you enjoyed the article. You could definitely go around messaging suppliers with low ball offers, but obviously I don't think that's the best route. Try it out though, action is better than my advice! Will

Great Post! Do you know if there is a Terapeak version for Amazon? Thank you, Omar

Hey Omar, I'm not sure if there is or not, I'll look into it though. You would think there is someone out there... If you find one, let me know - I'll do the same! Thanks, Will

Hi Mitchell, This is great info. i can't believe your giving away free secrets that are REAL!!. The only difference between me (and others trying to do this business) and you is that you already did it. You found that product. I am still looking. I know if i get that first one, it will give me the confidence to go all out and be successful. I have a question. I have a friend overseas (GIANT ASIA MARKET). He is a factory owner. Manufactures clothing for the big boys walmart, gap, burberry etc. A few times he tells me the brands will cancel a order after the production for whatever reason, maybe the buttons were pointing the wrong way or whatever but the difference is small. He tells me foreign importer not the orginal brands (Americans, THATS US) buy this clothing. This are called stock lot. How are they legally importing this brands? For example, a Disney character little mermaid may have a red tail instead of regular blue. can they do this? is it legal.

Hey Will, I love the blog! Thanks for taking the time to not only provide this information, but answer questions as well. I know that you did not used Etsy to sell, but do you know if there is a "completed listings" option similar to eBay? I am trying to gauge the demand for a product!

Hey guys, Was doing my product research and was very interested in the Etsy marketplace. I ran into this site which you gives you the top sellers on etsy...http://craftcount.com/ Hopefully it helps you guys out. Im having a hard time finding good products myself :-/ but best of luck to you. P.S. Im interested in a potential partnership with someone whos serious and wants to create something special and of course make some mula $$$. feel free to contact me. Thanks again will!

Hey George, email me at Omar 1487 @ icloud.com I'm going overseas soon, let me know what you had in mind.

For some reason on my ipad I cannot stay signed in, so I can't rack up any points haha. Has this happened to anybody else? The only option I have is to input my email, but this will re register me rather than sign in.

Hey Omar - I'll take a look at that, it definitely shouldn't be giving you issues! Thanks for letting me know, I'll keep you updated

Hi again Joe :) Glad to see you liked this one too! Keep me updated on if my writing is improving or declining, I need more reader coaching! :) It looks like you understand pretty well that you're looking for a product rather than a niche. You just need one product to get things started, then use those profits to expand into your niche or whatever. I can't really speak to the legality of that arrangement, especially since it sounds like it is more of a case-by-case basis sort of thing. I'm sure factories do this for smaller, non-trademarked things all the time as well. Definitely something to explore for you, even more so since you have the personal connection to that supplier. In my experience, personal connections get the best prices most of the time! Hope this helps, and sorry I don't know much about that specific question. Thanks, Will

Awesome Ben, thanks for reaching out! I'm not sure if there is a way to see that data in Etsy, but I have to imagine there is some way. I'm working on another follow up about product selection and finding better data, so I'll definitely take your advice and look into it for that. Hope this helps, Will

I'd like to say that if you two wrote a book I'd buy it lol. I guess it's a little early in your entrepreneurial careers for that but the amount of information you guys are providing is amazing, I'd pay for it lol. Now I've emailed some prospective suppliers on some products I'm interested in and I have a few questions. I've gone through all the comments and I see you've advised those of us living in anti business states to LLC. I live in NYC unfortunately lol, next January I'll be moving to FL(no income tax woot!) Should I LLC or first test the waters? I was thinking of ordering a little more than 1 or 2 samples, I want to about order4-5 or maybe even 10 and sell 3-4 of them to guage interest. I was wondering your thoughts on this. I think this could save me money in the long run if the samples tank as opposed to ordering 1 sample, falling in love and then ordering 100. I know I asked something alongs these lines already but do you guys have any advice on branding/packaging. I'd like my brand to resonate with the consumer, ordered something generic like HID bulbs for my car and I honestly can't remember the name on them. Did you guys custom package your products?

Hey George, Awesome resource - thanks so much for posting it here! Tons of people have been asking me for a tool like that, so I can't thank you enough. Good luck with the newest venture, I'm working on some more follow up material that will hopefully continue to help! Talk soon, Will

Hey Keon, thanks for commenting - Funny you should mention that, I think Kyle is getting the first print of the first StartupBros book - "Self Made U". We're also thinking of doing a book on importing, but we'll see... Awesome to hear you've already gotten started and began contacting suppliers. Weird coincidence, I'll be in NYC this weekend (and obviously we live in FL). Sounds like a lot of reasons to grab a drink! I typically test the waters for a few months before filing for an LLC, just because it gets annoying keeping up with LLCs if you have 5 or 6 failed ideas in a year :) Another option is to just start an LLC for yourself and file a DBA for each new company, but again I'd try to get this done in Nevada, Wyoming, Delaware, or maybe FL/TX. We're in FL for StartupBros, they're not too bad for small companies. Yea, the more samples the merrier honestly. Obviously there is more risk, but it seems like you understand that (and also understand the risk in not having 5-10 samples). Our packaging wasn't customized in any way, but you could definitely start a brand. It's just a different route, more risk and potentially more reward. Branding is tough, a little more than I could talk about in these comments - I'm thinking that might be my next blog post topic though! Thanks again for commenting, Will

Yessir! Book's launching at SXSW :) Can't wait to show everyone!!

Will, The information on this topic and the China topic is great stuff! I have a few questions: 1) Do you need to have a website to promote your products? 2) Do you choose products that are geared toward women or men? Which tends to sell the best? 3) So you choose products based more on margin than on popularity? Thanks, Michael

Hi Michael, Thanks for commenting - glad to hear you liked the article. 1) You don't need to have a website to promote your own products, but that is one way you can expand after you max out Amazon, eBay, or Etsy. Obviously, your own website will take more time. I think it's good to get the cash flow and validation from the existing sales channels before trying to create your own. 2) I don't really try to choose a product that is good for one or the other specifically, it is more based on the numbers I can buy and sell it at. Women spend way more money than Men on consumer goods though, so it might be that those sell well. But again, I think it's so different from product to product that this is almost a dangerous question to answer, really the data is all that matters. 3) Definitely. If I'm not making money on a product, then it's popularity would only scale up my problems :) Hope this helps, Will

hi will I got a question for you. found a product on alibaba.com. but I see that on eBay there are two powersellers with more than 100000 feedback selling it. my buying price is good . I could beat them by a few cents. and still make a decent profit. do you think this is a good idea. should I go for it. thanks.

will. I would like to send you a private email about another product I been looking at and maybe go for a big purchase. I just need your feedback. did all the research. looks promising but afraid to pull the trigger. what's your email. thanks.

Hey Joe, There are very, very few cases where I would compete for a few cents per sale. I need at least a few bucks per sale. Profit margin is everything in importing. Hope this helps, Will

Hi Will, Great blog it has really motivated me into trying to start a little part time ebay business on the side. I have an idea of a product that is fairly small in terms of competition on ebay, however the margins may be quite small and I'm worried that if I dive into it i might end up losing money. The prices i've been looking at on alibaba range from 2-20 dollars. However on ebay they are selling for around £8-10. I might be able to get a good deal on alibaba that allows for a good profit margin but do you think its a good idea going through with it or do you think its too risky?. Mat

Hi Will, I found that it worked with filtering out the guys that weren't really interested in shipping under 500 MOQ. I love that people say 1000 MOQ, but you say " I can do 10 for the first order after the sample" and they're like "Ok", haha. Found that it's easier to negotiate on MOQ than price. They dont move on price very much. Again, thanks for the article, Im a new eBay store now with a few imported products, and importing new bits and pieces as I find them, along with a separate eCommerce website, a bit of branding and we'll see how it goes. Fastlane all the way, right? Cheers.

Great information that you're giving away here. I very much appreciate you sharing all your knowledge. I've read both of your posts on this topic and I'm stoked to move ahead. Somewhere you mentioned the real money to be made is by getting my customers info, like email address, so that I can directly market to them. Exactly how do you do go about doing this? I know on eBay that when you use their messaging system it hides your email and I believe it strips out any email addresses and URL's. Assuming etsy works the same way. All I can figure is to include something in the package when you ship the product to them. I have already bought a domain name and partially built a website around the product I plan to sell hoping to eventually sell directly to my customers and cut out ebay, etsy... listing fees.

Hi Mat, Happy to help, and glad you liked the article! I think risk and reward are proportional, and the only way to find out the truth is risk. There's no way for me to know more than you about your specific product's market at this point. Those margins seem fine if you can buy them at the low end. Buying for $2 and selling for $8 works well, but you have a huge spread for your cost estimate. Again, I'd assume the only way to find your true costs will be to buy samples. The key is to compare a LOT of products to know which ones to take the risk on. The more you compare, the better your odds. Hope this helps, Will

Hi Guy, Interesting filter technique - an ironic one. You're probably right about it though! I've found the same thing. Chinese factories tend to work on low margins, so they can't budge too much on price. MOQ is just a matter of somebody having to do something different, like pack an order in a smaller box. Inefficient for the company, but much less "do-able". Awesome to hear you're moving on both eBay and your own store - let me know how it goes. Keep me updated, Will

Hi Tony, Thanks for stopping by and commenting, appreciate the kind words! I'll probably be writing a post in the next month or two specifically on that subject. It will deal with scaling up the importing business and how to build a brand with a recurring revenue stream. To get to that point though, you will need to have a product that you're ready to scale up; a good problem to have but a tough one to get to. Yes, that's the easiest way to do it though. Product packaging can be a great promotion medium. Think of what would make you give a company your email - maybe a "go here for a discount" or even "go here for a free thank you gift". Same principles as an email optin online. Hope this helps, Will

Hi Will, Thanks for your reply. I have continued my research into my product yet not placed an order for any samples. I'm in the UK and one thing that puts me off is the import tax. By the time I add import tax, packaging, delivery etc im worried that the margins might be very small. The product I have found and considered is selling at around 100 a day for top sellers and have an average of 3000 sold. Your advice is much appreciated Mat

The import tax and VAT taxes completely kill this method (and a lot of other ones). Such a shame. Many readers have been telling me that you are exempt from the import tax if your items are under $10, or something...Maybe something to look into. But your concern is definitely legitimate! Keep me updated, Will

Great follow up Post to the previous-definitely answered a lot of the questions I still had lingering. I'm working on some ideas now and thanks to this post, my research over possibilities has been made much easier. Also, thanks for the tip on the site for drop shippers- Becoming fully automated is ideally where I'd like to end up with a business like this. I've been browsing your site for the last couple days and it really is helping me get this thing off the ground- still at my full-time job during the day but dedicating my free time to building my business on the side (and reading your blog while at work, of course!) Looking forward to more great posts like this one, thanks again! -Jamie

Hello Will, Thanks for your great article! It's been a very helpful reference guide for my ecommerce endeavor! I have a question about branding. I've been reading through the comments and there is one talking about private label manufacturing. Is there a reliable company you could recommend to me? Thanks!

No problem Jamie, glad to hear that this post fulfilled it's purpose :) Let us know if there is anything else we can do to help you get started! And by the way, if you have trouble with product selection moving forward - you may want to try out Terapeak. It's eBay's analytics tool, and it's got a free trial :) Thanks for reading, Will

Hello Childes, Thanks a lot for reading and commenting, glad to hear it's been useful for you. Pretty much any industry will have private label manufacturing. It is just a little more expensive, and the MOQs are much higher. Just ask in your emails to suppliers if they offer private label manufacturing, and you shouldn't have any trouble. If you can't find anybody, it may take some searching. It's going to be different for every product. Unfortunately, I've never done any private label manufacturing, so I have exactly zero contacts for it :) Hope this helps, Will

Thanks a lot Will for this Awesome Post! I am bookmarking your site for my reference. You will definitely help me in starting up an import business. As I said in your previous post, I live in Australia and will be selling the product at amazon.com. You mentioned Australia in the post but the problem is I don't wan't to handle packing, storing, shipping & customer service because I don't have a warehouse, so, amazon.com is my only option. I am trying to set up a Delaware LLC so that a US Bank Account for the company could be opened because amazon.com accepts Bank Account opened in a US Bank. I hope my import business will prosper with your guide on your site.

Hi again Maria :) Glad to hear you liked this one as well - hope it helped. You don't need a warehouse to play the small time importing game. Just grab some samples and start selling! Don't overthink. Good luck, Will

Hey Will, Thank you for your awesome posts. Would you be able to give some useful pointers on importing from China (shipping, import taxes etc)? Ed

Hey Ed, No problem, thanks for reading! Glad you liked them. I'm guessing you saw my other article that was linked in the post above - that's just about all of the tips I have for importing from China! If you have any specific questions though, feel free to ask. Hope this helps, Will

Thanks Will, the info is really helpful. I am looking for a good product to sell as well. Just one quick question, I read what you said about the volume on ebay, but what is a good ratio that you would find the volume to have a decent amount of volume? Also, how can you tell if the competition is too tough, because I saw some products with thousands of listing on ebay? Thank you for your time answering my questions. Tan.

No problem Tan, glad you found the importing articles helpful :) I've answered this question in a few other comments in your look around a bit. There is no right or wrong number, it's a relative comparison based on hours of your own research. If you want to skip all that, you can try the free trial over at Terapeak. That's eBay's analytics tool, it will actually show you the number of sales for your product over time, and even the ratio between sold and unsold listings over time. That will save some time when looking for products to import. Competition is too tough if you can't sell into it! Hope this helps, Will

Hey Will, thanks for sharing your knowledge on this topic - something that a lot of people are not willing to share. I was looking into importing micro fiber cleaning cloths a few years ago, long before they became readily available everywhere. I found a couple suppliers on Alibaba but decided not to proceed because I did not know if they would sell. There was certainly no step-by-step guide like what you have provided. It would have helped me a lot. Thanks for your effort in putting this guide together and keep up the good work.

Hey Simon, glad to hear you found the articles helpful! I guess it's too bad that they weren't written a few years earlier. I have to assume there was money to be made importing microfiber clothes when it was blowing up. Too bad, but at least there's always another product!

Hey Will, I enjoyed reading your blog. I could not stop reading it. I'm just starting my first online business and have a few questions. The manufacturer has a warranty on there products, should I advertise to my customers about the warranty? It seems to me that it could be a lot of work. With returns, exchanges etc.. I don't mind doing it for my customers but I don't want to be left hanging with the bill when the manufacturer doesn't want to exchange for a new item. The manufacturer told me that any defective item will be replaced in the next order. Any advise on this subject? Would it be better to sell a bunch of items or just a few that you know will sell regularly? I'm just starting so I don't have the funds to buy a lot of products. So I was thinking about just buying a few items in bulk and slowly add one or two new products as my business grows. Or just buy a variety of items in less quantity? Again Awesome blog. Thank You Rija

Hi Rija, Thanks for reading, glad to hear you enjoyed it! When I was importing from China, my suppliers would always replace defective items. I advertised that any defective items would be replaced, but nothing more. I think most buyers expect that kind of service now, so most don't even think to look for it. They just assume that a defective item would be replaced. Moreover, you'd want to, or else they might give you bad feedback! In this article, I explain that it's always better to sell one product you know will move, rather than trying a whole bunch of different products or a product niche. You're describing the method in this article, so obviously I agree and think it's a good idea :) Hope this helps, Will

Hi Will, I've been looking for a way to make money online for a long time now. A person I know from work mentioned he knew a guy who sells on Amazon and is doing very well. That started me on the path of looking into the process and I found your page via google. I've been doing some research and I have a product in mind and a supplier lined up. My concern is: It almost seems too easy. Is there more to this than meets they eye? Is there any hidden cost such as tariffs or a customs tax that I'll get hit with later on? I've really been enjoying your posts here and I thank you in advance for your feedback! Rich

Hi Rich, Awesome to hear you're getting starting, and even more awesome that you checked out our site! :) It's just like anything else I suppose. It looks incredibly easy, then turns out to be incredibly difficult, and then back to incredibly easy. It's a pretty simple business to run, and quite literally anybody could run it. However, most things are like that. If you want actual results and real growth, you'll need a concrete understanding so you can think in abstract ways about whatever task you're mastering. So, it's simple, but there's a lot of variables that you can learn. You'll have to pay the IRS their typical fee for the privilege of being their loyal subject. There are some duties and tariffs on some items, but they are few and far between. Most of the time, your supplier or shipping courier will be able to help you with those things. If not, it's just a short Google away, but it's always going to depend on what product you're importing. Hope this all helps! Will

Thanks for the reply. You were certainly right about the incoming spam to the e mail address that I used. One of the offers is for incredibly cheap iPhones. It looks like an attractive offer but they don't accept PayPal. I'm assuming this supplier would be one to avoid. Your thoughts? Thanks, Rich

No problem! Hope you took my advice and used a separate email account - I've had more than a few people regret ignoring that part haha :) I would ignore any emails you get into that spam box honestly. Unless you message the supplier first, it usually doesn't turn out too well. The products will generally be very bad, either completely fake, or non-existent :) Hope this helps, be thankful you're smart and didn't fall for it :-D Will

Yes, I used an alternate e mail that I usually use when I expect to be spammed.

Haha, it might even be too much spam for your spam email! :-P

Thanks for a great post. Made things very clear for me A week ago I finally found my "product", emailed the text you provided above to 5 suppliers and... only one responded (it's been 5 days already...).. the one that responded never responded back to my next email. Am I doing something wrong ? is it typical ? should I resend my email ? Thanks !!!

Hey Shac, Awesome to hear this cleared things up for you! Some suppliers can be a little weird with email, just try emailing again. They are usually more reachable via Skype, if you want to try that. If not, on to the next supplier! There are better ones out there :) Hope this helps, Will

Great article! Devoured it whole! A question about Etsy....I thought they limited their items to things you YOURSELF had made. The only exception being for vintage items (think antique shop stuff), and supplies for crafting (like necklace clasps and earring backs, etc). Can you comment on this restriction? For example in your Google Spreadsheet you listed the throw pillows, then linked to an Etsy page with throw pillows. I thought that your Alibaba throw pillows would have been rejected by Etsy since you didn't make them. Did this rule change? Here is the link that tells what you can sell: http://www.etsy.com/sell?ref=so_sell Thanks for any comments you can add.

Hey Jon, glad to hear you liked it! Hope you're a quick reader :-P Honestly, I've never sold on Etsy. So I wouldn't know! But, I do know that I have found things selling on Etsy that I can buy from Alibaba. Not sure how it works! Hope this helps, though I'm sure it didn't :-P Will

Thanks for this amazing article, it was fun to read and also very informative! I've had some experience on ebay (dropshipping iphone cases) and I was wondering how did you make your ebay listings look that professional? Did you design it yourself or outsource the work?

Hi Will, Fantastic article`s, how old are you now if you don`t mind me asking ? I work in the web industry and also dabble in affiliate marketing, so know only too well how you should keep relaying the message home about product niche research and saleability... I notice alot of your ebay sales are at $0.01.. ??! Can one assume you are making a loss on the product, but a profit on the postage ? Cheers Ben

Hey Eric, glad you found them fun and informative. I figured I beat informative to death, but might be lacking in fun :) Hope you had success in your first drop shipping venture. My eBay listings were honestly just swiped from other sellers that were selling well. I know there are places out there that sell templates and things like that. If you're serious about selling on eBay, that $50 investment would definitely be worth it. Your sales page doesn't need to be too beautiful though, very few people would refrain from bidding due to a simple listing. But, you can get people to bid that otherwise wouldn't with a good listing. Hope this helps, Will

Hi Ben, Glad you liked the articles! I'm 22 now, but 23 on Sunday :) Yes, I'm sure with your experience you already knew a good amount of the information in the article. Hope you found some new things and reinforced the old... I'm not selling on eBay any more, I just run my marketing agency and StartupBros now :) The people that sell at $0.01 are generally still making a profit somehow though, probably on shipping. Hope this helps, Will

Well many happy returns for Sunday Will, don`t party too hard! ;-) You sound like the next Zuckerberg in the making. If ever any of your businesses are floated on the markets, drop me a line as I`m always looking for individuals like yourself to invest in, as you have real drive and belief in what you do.

Haha, thanks Ben! No big plans, just seeing an Orchestra play 2 hours of The Doors with the girlfriend tonight :) Thanks for the kind words, we'll see how I do! Keep me updated on your ventures as well. :)

Hey man, Thanks for all these articles man, they've been extremely helpful. One question I have is, how does shipping work out? Most of these suppliers list an FOB price, so who takes care of making sure the end product reaches me (the retailer) from the port?

Hey Nomaan, No problem, glad they could help! You have to work out shipping yourself when importing products from China, with your own courier. FOB means "Free On Board", it refers to a transfer of liability. Once your supplier gives the product to your shipping courier, then the liability of getting it there safely lies with you. Most of the time, you transfer it to your supplier with shipping insurance and things like that. But, you're probably not going to be shipping to a port any time soon. If you were, you would need to hire another company to ship it from there to you with a rig. Hope this helps, Will

Hey Will - Both of your articles on Importing are very informative! Thank you for sharing your experiences (both positive and negative). It may have been answered already, but I was wondering if you ever used a letter of credit rather than paypal? I have read a few books and publications on IM/EX that put heavy emphasis on letters of credit to cover your arse! Another question I have is regarding some of your larger transactions. Did you ever use the services of a customs broker for larger sea-bound container shipments to get them through customs? If so is it worth the $$? It sounds like a lot of your suppliers had the HTS codes ect figured out and handled a lot of the customs related logistics but it seems like in some cases a customs broke would still be needed. Thanks for your time!

Hey Lewie, glad you liked the importing articles! From my understanding, a letter of credit is usually going to be used with larger purchases. In the small scale importing game, you'll probably want to use PayPal or Escrow for financial protection. They're all essentially doing the same thing though - acting a third party to verify a smooth transaction before releasing any funds. I might be wrong though. My answer on the customs broker is unfortunately the same as the one above. I've never dealt with a customs broker one-on-one, only when helping friends and clients. Customs brokers are typically going to be reserved for much larger orders, the same types you'd be using letters of credit with. Even if you're going big enough to require these things, you'll still usually be dealing directly with UPS/Fedex/DHL/whatever. It's not until you're shipping full containers with some frequency that you'll need to set up a custom supply chain. One of my close friends uses UPS and their brokerage department to ship a full container a month with no issues. I think the shipping couriers make it as easy as possible. If you have further questions, it might be good to call UPS/Fedex/DHL and ask them. I've had some readers email me telling me that their support staff helped them understand what they needed to do. Hope this helps!

Hey Will, thank you very much for this! Thanks to your guide, I had the confidence to browse through alibaba. While busting my brain trying to think about what I can list on ebay/amazon with all those parameters, I got hit with a great idea. My dad is a contractor, and there is a certain widget he goes to Home Depot/Lowes to buy every week. He also gets this widget from wholesalers, but the price is just about the same as home depot lowes. I looked at suppliers, looked at the guide to not getting scammed, and ordered 500 of this important widget from a gold supplier with iso certification who specializes only on this type of widget. The pictures and blueprints match the same widget you see in store, minus a brand name. It usually retails for around 20, and I'm getting them at just under 5 bucks each. My father will be saving over 1000 bucks, and he said that he will tell all his contractor friends to order more through me. I only need to mark up 2-3 dollars, they save money, and I get my cut. I'm going to be pre-ordering by the thousands. I'm soooo stoked. Thank you thank you!!!

Art - that is AWESOME! Way to see opportunity and grasp it. This is where the real money-makers differ, they can take a method and tie it together with their own skills, connections, and knowledge to create an exponentially larger opportunity. That's exactly what you've done - congrats! Be sure to order some samples to make sure the quality is up to your father's standards, but I think you've hit a possible gold mind here. Congrats again, and be sure to keep us updated!

Hi Will, really good articles here. Impressed to hear that you managed to start this all at the age of 13. However I do have a question, and its about payment. A supplier has offered; Western union, Moneygram, T/T, HSBC(Company account), but not paypal. Shall I carry on through with this supplier or shall I ditch them? Jamie

Hello Will, Thanks so much for all of the info that you've provided in these blogs! I've been reading and re-reading for weeks now and have finally started ordering samples! This is exactly what I am supposed to be doing with my life and I am so glad that I ran across your thread on the Fastlane Forum! I do have a few questions though (that I believe haven't been asked yet). 1. Is it typical that a manufacture will list their FOB price for a product, but then when you inqure about it they are greatly over their FOB price? 2. When using Paypal, is it normal for the supplier to ask you to pay the Paypal fee? I have been asked by most of the suppliers that I pay the 3% Paypal fee for them and I haven't figured out if I should be doing so or not. So if you could give me your insight when you get the chance, I (and I'm sure many others) would greatly appreciate it! Thanks so much!!

Hi Ben, glad you have been finding it valuable :) Awesome to hear you've already started ordering samples, sounds like you're well on your way! Congrats to that, keep the momentum up! It's common for suppliers to have a higher FOB price for smaller orders. So if you're looking on their page, they may be quoting their average order size, rather than any concrete prices. Or, they could just be trying to trick you, no way to know for sure! But yes, it's pretty common for these prices to fluctuate greatly, especially in smaller order quantities. Yes, it's common that you'll have to cover any third-party costs. You'll have to pay Escrow, Shipping Insurance, Paypal, Bank Fees...almost all of it will be passed to you as a buyer. Hope this helps! Will

Hi Will, Can you help me? I am new to this and am trying to get my head around the Alibaba website. For some reason i do not get a price of the product that i am looking for when i search for something using the supplier filter. I notice that there are prices under the products filter, but there is nothing under supplier. Does this mean that i have to contact every supplier to ask for a price per unit?!! Please help thanks Grant

Hi Grant, Glad to hear you're taking action and getting started! You won't find any prices on the Alibaba site itself (only AliExpress). The reason for this is because there is no real price, you negotiate with the supplier to set it. So yes, you need to contact each one individually. That's why I show my process of mass messaging suppliers efficiently in the above article :) Hope this helps, Will

Hi Will - thank you so much man. I love your posts a lot, great info!!! In the past few years I have been thinking to go in this exporting business but didn't know how to pull the trigger. The product I want to buy is seasonal, something you SUGGESTED not to get into. I have an uncle lives in GuangZhou, China. He has been in the trading/middleman/look for suppliers for many buyers in the past 20 years. I know he has a great source of suppliers for the products I want and he will help me to find the suppliers, but he has never shipped anything out to U.S and he doesn't know the process. I have a few question i hope you can answers... 1. I only have about $3k to start - is it too small? 2. Let's say my uncle pays for the products - should he ask the supplier to ship them to me directly, easier? (with such small order - estimate about 500 piece, not heavy) or my uncle can do the shipping through DHL for a lower cost on products ?? 3. If ship by the supplier or my uncle to my house, do I need to pay any taxes when they get in the U.S? 4. I read some posts and watch video on Youtube, they mentioned something like to visit U.S Custom and Border, fill out forms, look for a port....etc. Do I need to do any of those for such small order? At what size of the order I must done those U.S Requirements? 5. What advice and recommends that you can give about my advantages & disadvantagaes? In addition - how can i get into the middleman business and how should i start? Buyers Me My Uncle Suppliers I wish I can learn more from you. I hope you can help me and walk me through how to get start this business. Please email me at [redacted] whenever you could find the time.

No problem Jeff, glad you liked the importing posts! Sounds like you have a great connection there, I'd definitely try to leverage that. I bet he knows a TON about finding suppliers, so much more than I will ever know! Haha. Unfortunately, I wouldn't be able to tell you what's needed on his end. I'm sure it's not as simple as just calling up UPS with the Chinese Govt. But then again, maybe it is! :) $3,000 is plenty to start with, you should be able to find a great product and start profiting from it long before you run out of that. Then, it's just a matter of scaling up! I would assume that it would be best to have the supplier to ship directly to you, just because it cuts more touch points out of the shipping process. But, again, that would be something to look into more deeply. You won't have to pay taxes until after you've sold things. There might be customs, duties, tariffs, or whatever else as it comes across the border, but you'll only pay taxes on your profit in the US. It's unbelievable to me that the EU and UK tax 35% (accumulated) when you BUY the items! So even if I lose everything and the products were terribly made and I didn't even sell them, the tyrannical UK/EU will STILL tax me, just for the privilege of importing into their borders! What garbage! Luckily it's not like this in the US (yet). Most of the time, UPS/DHL or whatever will pay the customs and pass them on to you, but it's always good to make sure for yourself. I wouldn't go out to any ports or anything with smaller orders like that. Once you're looking at importing containers you can start doing things like that, but not this early. Your main advantage is your uncle, that's the thing your competition doesn't have! Hope this helps, and good luck... Will

Well as many have already said, thanks for all the great information. Currently I just have one question, but what are your thoughts on selling name brand items that you get through liquidated auctions? Is this something you have had experience with or know someone that has? No doubt wholesale with a good supplier is more stable, but I was mainly thinking of starting off with liquidated items because you can get them for pretty cheap to help build up some income, to then invest in wholesale later and I would think there is less risk, but I’m not really sure. Any thoughts would be great. Thanks

Hi Ghoro, I've heard of a lot of people having success with liquidation companies and auctions, but I've never done it personally. Definitely something to look into, but not something I could help with all that much! Sorry I couldn't help more... Thanks for commenting, Will

Hi Will, I just have a few questions for you if you don't mind. I may have found a product, but am concerned at the MOQ of 3000 units being outlined by the supplier. I've never done any thing like this before and I'm not confident that i would be able to sell the 3000 units on Ebay or Amazon.(i'm not sure yet how to ascertain amounts being sold) In your experience would you advise me to ask the supplier to drop the MOQ? and if so to what amount? Also am i right in thinking that 1 unit represents 1 item of the product. For example, if i was looking at toy guns each unit would represent one toy gun? Finally, when searching completed items on Ebay what is the quickest way to find out the amount of product being sold? Is adding each completed item up as you search each page the only way of getting a figure? (Sorry for the dumb questions) :)

Hey Will I know almost nothing about importing and my son sent me a link to this post. I absolutely LOVE the 'nut & bolt' kind of approach you lay out, even the way you lay out the 'fuzzy' parts of the process. My son found a product that fits a lot of your criteria but I think it's knockoff/counterfeit stuff. It's perfume. Mark Jacobs "Daisy". I also know nothing about the perfume industry. Maybe there are many factories that produce perfume for the Mark Jacobs brand according to their specs or maybe this is counterfeit perfume. I'm pretty sure I saw other people including links in their comments so I'll put a link here and maybe you could tell me what you think. Thanks for everything!!!!!! Danny

Hi Grant, thanks for commenting! You're right not to be comfortable buying 3,000 units, that would be needlessly risky! In the article above, I go in pretty deep detail about it. Yes, you can typically negotiate your MOQ down. One unit is whatver the supplier calls a unit, it could be a case, a carton, an item, a pallet, etc. This will usually be easily found on their pricing sheets and catalogs. Like I said in the article above, there is no way to get an exact count on those statistics without using Terapeak. You're looking for relative values, that's why the research taks time! You have no baseline going into it, you have to get a feel for everything. Hope this helps, Will

Hey Danny, Haha, that's an awesome way to find us! Tell your son I said thanks for the help spreading the word :) Glad to hear the guide could help you guys out, and congrats on getting out there and taking action on the idea (something tells me you're raising a good kid!). Unfortunately, that is probably a kockoff. The only way to know for sure is to go through a intellectual property firm, or to contact the company. But, with a brand as big as Mark Jacobs, I'd guess that they are pretty strict with who they sell to. I'd keep looking :-\ Hope this helps, Will

Hey Will I had two product ideas that got stuck in my "Bros Post" checklist hopper. First was a sleek Mens Electric Shaver. Found it on Ebay then found a similar one on Alibaba. Then I started re-reading what I now think of as the "Little Guys Kickass Chinese Import Bible". *Sells for more than 10 and less than 200 - CHECK! *Sells for at least twice what I will pay for it - CHECK! *Small and light - CHECK! *Lots of tolerance for manufacturing error - BzzzzzzzzzzzzT I figure moderately sloppy factory setups will end up pinching a lot of customers faces and my ass with returns. Another idea is a Digital Infrared Baby Thermometer. I'm not sure if it fails for the same reason or not. I started researching myself but I got lazy as I was about to search some PDF schematics and figured I'd ask you first. If Google Digital Infrared Baby Thermometer you'll immediately see pics of these things. I usually do all my research myself but you may know already. Thanks a bunch ... Danny

Hey Danny, I love seeing this! Clearly, you followed things more than I even expected, and it saved you some time! Maybe my writing isn't so bad... :) You're right there though, I'd be nervous with an electric shaver for that exact reason. Maybe worth a shot still, but it's important to realize that product will carry a higher risk. Which you did, of course... Wow, that ones tough too. I'm in the same boat, not really sure. My worry with those would be consistency of the sensors across 100, or say 10,000 units. I'd bet that their sensors aren't the highest quality, but then again I don't know much about sensors... With both the shaver and the sensors, I'd be worried about long-term durability as well. Don't mean to discourage at all, hope I don't have that effect! But, these are just a few things to keep in mind. Remember that buying some samples and trying to sell them is the only way to REALLY test a product. I've never bought things like electric shavers because I was afraid to, but that could have been my unknown mistake! Hope this helps, and keep me updated... Will

Hey Will, Thanks for this awesome post. I have found a product that fits all the criteria you listed so I am very excited but I am having some trouble with samples. The three manufacturers I have contacted have given me quotes of between $20-30 per unit when ordering 100 units. For a single sample unit however they want between $200-300 which is much more than the product sells for. Is this normal? Thanks in advance, Anthony

No problem Anthony, thanks for taking action! :) Shipping prices for samples vary widely based on size and weight. There's no way for me to tell you without knowing all of the information regarding the shipment, but maybe this will help - For a small object in a envelope or small box, it's usually $20-40 to ship from China to USA. If you're shipping to a different country, or your samples are larger/heavier than I described, then it will be more expensive. Hope this helps, Will

Hi Will, I've been reading this article for a month.I think we guys could really form a community or forum and list members according to their country much similar to Alibaba but here we guys can get spot light to export from this small genuine circle of trading members :) We can strictly adhere to escrow or paypal payment policy. In this way, we don't need to rely on chinese suppliers for almost any products on this planet :) I think Joe made a wonderful effort. Congrats Joe.

Hi Saravana, Couldn't agree with you more, awesome idea! I'd love to put together a community! It's on my list of "things to do eventually" :) And yes, congrats to Joe - he's killing it :) I know you've been a Bro for a while, so I'm sure you'll see when we roll out the next iteration of this post! Thanks for the help, Will

Will, Thanks a lot. I have a great idea to improve your site. Why don't you put a wholesaler/importer list that you know will not scam and are legit. I would love to be on that list. Many fellow bros would much rather just buy from each other than risk all this scam in China. People losing thousands of dollars. I got lucky and found an alternative source. I would love to do business with fellow bros even at a reduced profit. I know how hard it is to do importing business. Its not easy. I literally spent 100s of hours (late nights). Talking and networking overseas. Your guide is great but lets move on to the next level. I think you should give this a consideration. Thanks.

Hi Joe, Awesome idea! I'm definitely going to include something like that in the upcoming course/community I'm building up around selling imported goods online. You definitely found a golden source, I'll be in contact with you when building the course :-D Would love to hear more of your thoughts on how to move it up to the next level, especially as I move towards building the course. I hope the course will quite literally be the next level :) Thanks for the help, Will

A nicely written article, keep up the good work and thanks for educating me on this subject. That said, I have been glued to my computer screen for 2 weeks now and feel exasperated with trying to find the right product. As soon as I think I've found something, I'll find it on ebay for about the same price as Alibaba! I just can't figure out how they're doing it at their prices, because I agree with you that you need a minimum 100% markup, especially on a sub $100 item. But when you add shipping costs and tax, I am left with maybe no more than 20% on most items compared to lowest ebay price. The only remotely promising product I have found so far can only be bought at the right price with an MOQ of 500! It makes me wonder whether importing from China is always the cheapest option compared to sourcing from a local wholesaler. What are your thoughts on this? Thanks again, Jon.

No problem Jon, glad to help! Sorry to hear you're having trouble finding a good product to import. As you probably know by know, this is one of the most difficult parts. It's also a lot of your competitive advantage - not everybody can find a good product to import. It takes time to develop the skill, like anything else. Sounds like you're well on your way... You could try to local wholesaler, but it's important to realize what's happening there. What you're really doing is buying imported products from China, through a local distributor. You're essentially getting middle-manned. While that's not necessarily a bad thing, and there can be advantages, you're still getting middle-manned. In most cases, you could buy the products from overseas for substantially cheaper prices. But, in some cases, the MOQ will make that impossible, or the factory sells exclusively to one distributor, or the distributor will help with shipping. In these cases, maybe a local wholesaler is the way to go. But again, you're going to pay higher prices on it than you would if you could locate and purchase from the source. Hope this helps, Will

Hey, thanks for this thread and the related ones. I'm using them, along with some guidance from members over at www.thefastlaneforum.com (I think that's how I found you originally it was either that or Tropical MBA) . I just wish the people at the mfr's would respond quicker. lol I'm hoping to have the first of my sample orders in by the end of the week.