Nowadays the digital world has allowed small companies, even individuals to import products from China. It is not only an exclusive activity of large international companies. What products should I import? What is the process of importing? Where to find Chinese vendors? How to ensure of the quality?. To answer these questions, we have written “The best guideline to import from China in 2021” which will help you clear those doubts and have a better insight of the entire procedure.

1.   Target a Product and Make a Plan

Import Guideline 2021 – Target a product and make a plan

We often got new importers to ask, which product is mostly popular to import from China currently? But actually the best product to import will depend completely on the situation. The first step to take is to do your local marketing research. Make a survey through local markets or your friends who have been importing from China, talk to them and see what your competitors are selling. Start with the idea of  what you are going to sell based on your research. Is it similar to something that already exists? If  so, it is not necessarily bad. If customers are already buying a similar product, it is a good thing because it means that there is a market for it. The competition is always good.

What do customers like or dislike about that product? or What would you like to see instead? or What is the profit margin you will get? The worst thing you can do is import a lot of products from China thinking that they will sell well. Prepare for success by being sure that your product will sell well before making your first trial order.

Now that you have an idea of what your customers want, look for a product to sell. Prepare a list of requirements for your product. For instance, will you need a high-end quality , will you accept a bit of adjustment or difference on the product?

2.   Find potential Chinese vendors

Import Guideline 2021 – Find potential Chinese vendors

There are plenty of Chinese platforms to find suppliers, such as Alibaba.com, Made-in-China.com or Globalsources.com, etc. You can go either of those websites to search for your potential supplier, tell them about your detailed needs and ask for prices.

Ask for the term FOB.  FOB means Free on board. This means that the seller pays all the costs of loading and transport, and dispatches the merchandise to be exported. The seller is responsible for loading everything in the container. Once the cargo is inside, the ship the costs and risks are divided between the buyer and the seller. Also, as a buyer, you are allowed to select the carrier, the route and the transit time. The term FOB allows you to have more control over the cost of freight.

With CIF shipping, the seller pays for insurance and all costs. However, once the product is loaded, the buyer is solely responsible for the risks. Also, the supplier has the final decision in each part of the shipment until it is delivered. They choose the transit time, the transport company and the route.

3.   Supplier audit

Import Guideline 2021 – Supplier Audit

Once the list of potential vendors is made, you should reduce the number of potential suppliers down to 2 or 3. There are many different factors to consider when choosing a supplier, you must be very cautious when deciding who you are going to cooperate with. There are many typical stories of buyers who pay orders to suppliers and then these “suppliers” disappear without even sending the product. The best thing is to do a background research before choosing the Chinese vendor.

Asking a local third party to do an inspection in the Chinese factory can help you verify if your potential Chinese vendor is reliable. This will also save you a trip to China and the inspector will detect things that you probably would not even notice.

Also, you must make a decision between choosing a manufacturer or a trading company. A manufacturer is a company that produces the products for sale. A trading company is like a middleman who works with Chinese manufacturers. Most people assume that it is better to cut the middleman and go straight to manufacturers, but both options have their advantages and disadvantages.Manufacturers often require very high MOQ (Minimum Order Quantity) and not all producers are licensed to export from China. And they don’t necessarily have better prices.

But it is better to choose the option that best suits your situation.

4.   Get a sample to test the quality

Import Guideline 2021 – Get a sample to test

This is a crucial step to test if the supplier can meet your quality standard. If the product is with little value, they would not even charge the sample itself, you will only need to cover the express fee. And when the product is not that cheap, they would charge a sample fee which is normally higher than the unit price for mass production. But when you have your product customized with your own logo or especial design.A certain amount of sampling fee would be required and you can get refund when you place a mass production order later on.

After the sample is ready, you can  select a relatively cheaper express method to ship your sample. Those express prices are usually very changeable, you can choose between DHL, FEDEX, UPS, etc. This usually would arrive your place within one week from China.

5.   Payment methods

   

   Import Guideline 2021 – Payment methods

For sampling fee or small amount of trial order like few hundreds US dollars, you can pay directly with Paypal or Western union, Money gram, etc. But for bigger amount of order, you would need to transfer through bank.

Normally if it was a very small amount, they would require you to pay 100% in advance. But when it comes to bigger amount, 30% to 50%  in advance is commonly applied over here, and the rest is to be paid against BL(bill of lading, it is like an evidence to show that your goods are already accepted from the shipping company and ready to delivery).

6.   Production follow-up and inspection

Import Guideline 2021 – Production follow-up and inspection

After you made the payment to the Chinese vendor, you still can’t relax your alert. As we all know, we can’t fully trust what those vendors tell us about their quality control and production lead time. Based on my experience, they always need someone to push them to get things move faster.

Even if some companies have their own QC (Quality Control) department , but after all, the inside standard from the inspector who works for the company is way different from someone who works for YOUR company.

Thus, to avoid any future troublesome or complication such as receiving a bunch of defected goods and dealing with negotiation, refund, reproduction, delayed timing, etc.

It will cost you much more than hiring a local third party  to take care of everything in advance.

7.   Shipping Methods

Import Guideline 2021 – Shipping methods

Whether you need to choose air shipping, ocean shipping or Express method, it all depends on the volume and weight of your products. But when you need to ship your goods urgently, that’s another case. Ocean shipment is the most economical method for large loads, usually it takes at least 20 days around to arrive at your destination port. Air shipping is faster, and it has minimum weight requirement. International express such as DEL, FEDEX, UPS are more suitable for small volume and light weight goods.

Compare prices with different freight forwarders before you select one to work with. Each freight forwarding company has advantage on some methods which you might just happen to use or NOT. For example, if your are going to ship your goods through ocean shipping, but the freight forwarding company you are talking with actually has better prices for air shipping and express methods. Then you won’t get the best price to ship your merchandise.

8.   Relative documents needed to receive your products

Import Guideline 2021 – Make a Plan

Each shipping method requires papers differently. For air shipping, you will need AWB (Air waybill), Commercial invoice. But those will be provided from your vendor or agent. Express shipping won’t have such strict requirement.

When it comes to ocean shipment, there will be much more documents required. Besides those general papers like Commercial invoice, Packing list, Bill of lading, Proforma invoice and Certificate of Origin, each country will have different rules for some other papers. Also for special product, some extra documents will be needed too.

After you clarify those necessary documents with your shipping company, you need to ask your Chinese vendor or local agent to send all those documents by express or transferred through telegraphic. Either you need the original documents sent by express or telegraphic transfer , you can ask your shipping company directly.

9.   Clarity all possible expenses in advance.

Import Guideline 2021 – Clarify all possible expenses in advance

Speaking of ocean shipment. It is better to clarify with your freight forwarder about all those charges which will be caused in your local port. This ever happened to one of my customers from India. The freight forwarder quoted him a very low price from the departing port, but when the goods arrived in the destination port, they received a bill which was way out of their expectation. So when you ask about the shipping price, you better have a clear idea about the possible local fee you are going to pay in the end.

I hope my article about “The best guideline to import from China in 2021” could give you some insights about doing business in China or import products from China. Now, are you ready to move forward to start your first attempt of importing from China?