Divine inspiration from China

scottyboy1973

Hey there
In an effort to generate a bit of pocket money in these troubled times, I'm looking at setting up an online store. I don't know exactly what it is I want to sell yet but I do know that if I can buy cheap in China and sell with a bit of markup here I should be able to make a few bob. I know I'll never be able to match the prices on eBay from traders shipping direct from China and HongKong but I hope an Irish presence will put buyers minds at ease and be a reason for paying a wee bit more.

To take a step back, I still dont know where to get product. I'm hoping that if I can find a source or two or three I might get some divine inspiration from their websites on what to sell?

Any thoghts on suppliers, hints and tips on shipping and customs or generally stuff to watch out for when buying from China would be gratefully received.

thanks a million - ScottyBoy

EKRIUQ

An online business is just like any other high street business, once you get past the technical difficulties, you will still have to promote and market your business in the knowledge that you probably have a couple of thousand competitors who are better equipped and with a better reputation.
I’m assuming you have at least €50,000+ to pay for stock, a professional website, insurance, etc.. etc..

Why not just start with selling a few items on ebay as they already have a customer base to get the feel of things before taking the big jump. Most successful online busines’s have had as much as 10 million invested before making a profit and some just went bust.

hedgehog33

www.alibaba.com seems to be the best known place to make contact with Chinese exporters. Can be quite a few scammers on it so you need to be careful. There's a forum there with info on trading safely.

If importing from China you will have to pay Customs and Vat. The schedule of customs fees is here http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/dds/tarhome_en.htm

And I'm sure you already know this, but you will also have to budget for hosting, a website, and most importantly advertising and marketing, no point having a website if nobody knows about it!

gypsy777

I'd say the first thing you want to do I identify a few products (maybe just one) ...your own niche so to speak and before you purchase any stock get a website up and see what it takes to drive some traffic to the site.
Weigh up the costs and see if its worth while to begin with. No point buying a load of stock you cant shift.
Ideally if you can rank organically for the term in the search engines then thats free targeted consumer traffic. You then just have to overcome the 'confidence barrier' that so many in ireland have with making purchases online.
I like the idea...if you can find the right product. Start small and build it up.
I might be up for a joint venture...I handle website, web marketing...you handle getting the stock in and the orders/mailing out etc.
You'll have find the right product though to tickle my fancy with this...

515

Importing from China might not be all that simple. Remeber you'll be responsible for the product safety etc... you'll need everything to be compliant with EU legislation... CE marking where necessary... Just be careful.

Drn55

EKRIUQ wrote: »

I’m assuming you have at least €50,000+ to pay for stock, a professional website, insurance, etc.. etc..

I don't know where that 50,000 figure came from - I'm guessing it was pulled out of the air at random. If you're sourcing your goods in China, then unless you're buying very expensive items, you won't need anything like this to get you started. There's also no reason you should expect to pay more than 3,000-5,000 Euro for a good, well designed website.

hedgehog33 wrote: »

www.alibaba.com seems to be the best known place to make contact with Chinese exporters. Can be quite a few scammers on it so you need to be careful. There's a forum there with info on trading safely.

If importing from China you will have to pay Customs and Vat. The schedule of customs fees is here http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/dds/tarhome_en.htm

And I'm sure you already know this, but you will also have to budget for hosting, a website, and most importantly advertising and marketing, no point having a website if nobody knows about it!

Dealing with Chinese suppliers is hit and miss. You'll have the best chance of doing well if you actually go out there and see them in person, and even then you'll end up with the odd dud batch on delivery. Might sound scary, but it's not as difficult as it might seem. Do some research into where your products are manufactured - this is where you'll find wholesalers as well as manufacturers. As for buying without seeing - don't even think about it.

As regards Customs and VAT - ensure that the goods land at Dublin airport or where ever, and that your customs agent clears them. Do not arrange a door to door delivery using DHL, Fedex, or China Post, as they all get the customs values wrong - EVERY TIME! DHL are notoriously bad at this, and it just creates a mess you'll have to sort out yourself later.

Advertising and marketing for a website will almost always be online - which means Adwords is a good place to begin. The upside of this is that it doesn't need to cost a fortune when you start advertising, though there is a lot of work involved in getting it right.

mark1975

hi
i have been importing products from china for a number of years and the greatest problem you will face after finding which product line works for you is to source a factory you can work with and vice versa it look me months of hard graft just to find one (i visited in excess of 50) that i would deal with on moral grounds let alone quality or trust before i started i would could never have predicted the problems that i faced but it is profitable and a trully brilliant experience.
you will not go far wrong with alillaba its full of scammers some not so obvious but theres loads of vital info on there you will have to go to shows out there and take baby steps if you need more info pm me
regards mark

EKRIUQ

EKRIUQ wrote: »

An online business is just like any other high street business, once you get past the technical difficulties, you will still have to promote and market your business in the knowledge that you probably have a couple of thousand competitors who are better equipped and with a better reputation.
I’m assuming you have at least €50,000+ to pay for stock, a professional website, insurance, etc.. etc..

Why not just start with selling a few items on ebay as they already have a customer base to get the feel of things before taking the big jump. Most successful online busines’s have had as much as 10 million invested before making a profit and some just went bust.

That's just wrong. It's also super negative. I agree with your points about an online business being just like any other business in terms of the hard work, promoting etc

Competition is a part of business and if someone is confident of doing a better job or focusing on a niche that present competitors are not dealing with then I don't see any problem in going for it provided you invest what you are prepared to lose and start small. Your figures seem well off as well.

TheEntrepreneur - going for the big leap in the coming months

lecheile

ScottyBoy - are you sure you are considering trading the in the right direction?? Latest CSO figures - imports from China down 18%, Exports up 17%?

MrMatisse

Hey,
Id second alibaba.com, of if your looking for even smaller quantities try taobao ( Its in chinese but theres lots of pictures!)

Alibaba has quite a lot of scammers so go for companies with a trustpass ( they exist) and who have a bit of a history on the site ( gold suppliers). Wouldnt buy from Hong Kong as there generally just agents for mainland manufacturers who are on alibaba themselves and are more expensive.

With reagrds shipping if possible you should organise this yourself as factory shipped stuff can sometimes get 'lost';), theres a dhl in some of the main coastal cities.

If possible id even make a trip to China , sounds expensive but swissair or airfrance usually have very good deals from London and if your planning a long term supplier relationship this is the only way to go as business in China is completly based on relationships, plus youll get a far better idea of what your buying before you crack open the crate.

Good luck!

scottyboy1973

Hey All - as usual a really mixed bag of good and thoughtful information on Boards- thank you

lecheile - You'd have to think that that has to be directly related to fall in retail sales and, therefore, lack of demand for products from retailers. In turn surely this actually presents me with more of an opportunity to supply things that retailers aren't carrying- the key is finding the right product.

Really Stressed - I am thinking about a trip out to get ideas more than anything else (also helps to get face to face with potential suppliers as suggested by others) -you're right, it isnt too expensive. My concern with AliBaba is the quality and trustworthiness of suppliers - I guess I could buy through a distributor (who vets them) but then I'm giving away some of the margin. Anyone know of a decent list of vetted manufacturers out there that sell direct?

and EKRIUQ - thanks for your thoughts. I dont have 50k to spend starting up but rome wasnt built in a day and I guess I can dabble with a few bits to start with before investing heavily in marketing and development.

RUDOLF289

Hello Scottyboy1973

There are a number of companies that assist in sourcing products / manufacturers in China. To name a few ; China Portal Ltd (www.chinaportalltd.com), FSI Ireland (www.fsiireland.com), EightoneJ (www.eightonej.com) and China Green Ltd., (www.chinagreen.ie). However, you would probably need to develop your idea a little further, i.e. work out what product you want to sell here in Ireland before these type of companies would be able to assist you. Most of them would offer a complete service, including shipping to your door. If you do require assistance with shipping products from China, let me know, as I have 30 years+ experience in Freight Forwarding, Logistics and Distribution.

Best of luck

scottyboy1973

thanks Rudolph. I may well come back and pick your brains if I may please. thanks a milion

scottyboy1973

how do you spot a scammer? for example..http://www.besthap.com/product.asp?classid=555 - this stuff seems too cheap to be true but the site looks good, they answer their online chat service etc so they might just be real.

RUDOLF289

Hi Scottyboy1973,

I am sure you have heard of the maxim ; if it is too good to be true, then it is.

I have looked at the website and I have also looked at their shipping. They publish a long list of international parcel tracking nrs from DHL/TNT/UPS/EMS on their website. Looking at the tracking nrs I notice that there is no continuous numbering. Normally you would expect sequential tracking nrs. Having checked a few tracking numbers they appear to be genuine shipments, originating in Hong Kong.

However, the physical address on their website is in Beijing. If you google their address, two websites come up that look identical to www.besthap.com. They are ; www.aocoe.com and www.sell118.com. It also throws up another website ; www.icq158.com. If you google this site, it comes up as an error. However, the site underneath is ; www.fraudwatchers.org
They have a thread on their site which has the following reply on it ;
"quote"
t's a typical Chinese scam. It uses the same WU recipient details as a dozen other scam sites:
http://www.fraudwatchers.org/forums/...ad.php?t=19936
Their prices are ridiculously unrealistic for most brand items, prices 50% of retail on such items is not possible for any real company. Their bank account is in the name of an individual, real companies have company bank accounts.

Please read here for more information:
http://www.fraudwatchers.org/forums/...pg=fw_buychina __________________
Thinking of buying gadgets on the internet? Read here first. And there is no such thing as cheap stuff from China, at least when it comes to famous brand names. Read here.
"unquote"

I suggest you have a good look at this website, as it makes a lot of sense. I also strongly suggest that if you are thinking of doing business in China you need to get out there and meet prospective suppliers.

Hope this helps. Just in case, I just used the internet to gather this information by googling the address these people have given on their website.

hedgehog33

Useful info there Rudolf, thanks.

Drn55

The bottom line here, and it's something every business person should know by now, as it's no secret, is that you cannot buy cheap branded goods in China.

You can buy cheap goods in China. You can buy quality goods in China. You can very, very, very rarely pick up some branded goods in China. But you can never buy cheap branded goods in China. There is no exception to this.

All talk of this website or that website is irrelevant. If you want to source quality goods at a good price in China, you need to forget about brands. It's that simple.

MrMatisse

Hey scotty boy,

Try www.lifung.com

this is the rolls royce of sourcing goods from china services.

All suppliers are vetted

Ralph Lauren uses them. Not sure how big you have to be though.

(probably massive but maybe they could point you in the right direction)

saram

So Scotty....How are things going with your business there?

Did it get off the ground? How did the ailibaba site go..


I see the latest figures from China is that exports are up a whopping 46% in Feb compared with last year.. Asia leading the world out of recession..

I am living in Korea here and am going to start selling stuff from here online on ebay as a start.

As China is next door it would be great to get a slice (even a small one) of the cake..