Month: April 2021

Shopify Tutorial

Elksourcing：How to Import Goods from China for Selling on Amazon?

Apr 11, 2021 , by 露露

Now Amazon is one of the world’s largest shopping online platform, so there will be more and more sellers join to Amazon. With the development of science and technology, people like to shop online. Sometimes it is difficult to understand how to import goods from China and sell on Amazon. Here is a step by step guide to help you:

Step 1 – Find the best seller for the product

It is very important to verify that you’re sourcing products from a known and reputed manufacturer, and a good way to find this out is by evaluating online supplier reviews. It is also important for you to find out before making any investment that the product you are importing from China is allowed into the country you are trying to import. Before initiating any step, you should find out if the product you are importing needs any special permit or is banned. Once, the seller has been decided we move to the next step.

Step 2 – Order from China Factories

You can directly from Chinese factory orders after choose a good product and quantity.  you need a China purchasing agent for your goods inspection, to ensure the quality of the product After the completion of the production.

Step 3 – Shipping of the product to your country

You may want to compare the prices of air freight versus ocean freight and speedy versus slow service. You need to calculate the benefit of spending this cost, keeping in mind that import may take a little longer than expected due to delays at custom and other government agencies.

Speed and volume are two main factors when choosing the mode of transport. Courier shipment is the most economical and fastest but they have size restrictions. In case of bigger sizes, you will have to book an air freight or ocean freight. On the basis of the weight, worth and size of the goods to be imported, you should take a call.

Now, it is time to choose between air freight and ocean freight. Air freight is more expensive as it’s a much faster transit. In the case of ocean freight, you can choose how much container space you would need. In case the volume of your good is less, then you will be able to share the container which would make the transit cheaper for you but at the same time the risk would increase.

Step 4 – Custom

After your logistics are finalized, it is time to get ready for custom work and paperwork. As an importer, you are fully responsible for any problems related to the clearance of goods. You should make sure that all the cartons which are coming should have Carton count, gross and net weight, country of origin printed on top.

Step 5 – The last step is to get the goods delivered to the warehouse

After passing through customs and completing the above steps, you will need to sign up and send the goods to the Amazon warehouse. From here, they will be listed on the online marketplace and made available to customers across the globe. A set of registration documents will have to be submitted when signing up with Amazon and sharing the goods in their warehouse.

China Sourcing Agent

Elksourcing：Why You Need a Sourcing Agent in China?

Apr 11, 2021 , by 露露

Manufacturing industries and business houses are increasingly relying on global destinations aided by sourcing companies for factor resources. The involvement of these companies is significant considering the global nature of commerce nowadays. 

1.Conducts an initial research

This is the first stage where you decide what your primary activities are, what are the needs of your clients and who your competitors are. These steps help you to determine your business goals and your position in the market. You and your sourcing partner need to design a business plan to determine the performance measurement system and primary work strategy.

2. Evaluate supplier and market 

Your sourcing partner, which offers global sourcing service helps you to make a supplier selection benchmark. When you have the list of criteria, you can make further changes in the sourcing strategy and determine the final cost. Given the fact that you already have information regarding clients and prospective markets, you can identify the economic and operational benefits of the project and decide, if you at all want to source from a foreign base.

3. Select suppliers 

You can create an request for inquiry (RFI) and send it to your selected suppliers. After you get back the filled up RFIs, you can make a final list of suppliers. You can then conduct a price negotiation depending on the final supplier list and determine how much you can save.

4. Implement decisions 

In this stage, you have to create a performance analysis schedule. Your sourcing partner is going to be a part of the implementation team where you will have to decide resources, shared supply and logistical arrangements. You should keep an account of the performance of every supplier in case of more than one supplier.

5. Monitor supplier performance and take necessary measures. 

You must make sure that you, along with the company offering global sourcing service carries out regular performance check and reports it. This will assist you in realizing whether the suppliers are sending products as per your requirements or not. You will also get to know if the suppliers are following your criteria of quality and safety or not.

Here are some benefits of using Sourcing Agents in China for your business:

i. A sourcing agent represents the buyer and not the supplier so that you will have a local representative for your business. 

ii. Helps you in finding out trustworthy suppliers and factories with expertise in specific products. 

iii. Buying agents help in finding out the products at affordable price and will save you from wasting money on hidden costs. 

iv. They can easily communicate in the native language, thus making it easier for you delivered your message to the supplier and other local authorities. 

v. Manage all the tasks of your company or business on your behalf. Sourcing agents perform the regular quality check. 

vi. Most of the sourcing agents in China work on commission basis and will pay the suppliers on your behalf. 

vii. Good buying agents take quotations and do the price negotiations on your behalf.

How To Import From China

Elksourcing：Step to Step Guidance to Importing Products from China

Apr 11, 2021 , by 露露

Whether you need hardgoods, electronics, machinery or home appliances, virtually anything can be found in the world’s leading producer, China which presently acts as the “world’s factory”. 

However, for the newcomers, it can be a difficult task. In order to buy products from china, there are five basic steps to follow. Following these basic step-by-step procedures will not only save your money but will also save your time.

1. Identify your rights.

Various countries have different regulatory policies. These regulations could be meant to reduce imports of certain products into the country. Sometimes they may serve to fight against smuggling and such activities. Heavy tax policies induced by the government on the customs may also affect how you are going to import the product to your country. It is, therefore, vital to check whether you have the legal rights to import certain goods with not only ease but also without incurring excess expenses. 

You should confirm whether you need a license, as in many countries, and acquire one before buying the goods.

2. Identify your products.

This is the basis of importing goods from China. Identifying the ideal goods to import have a significantly great impact in both the import process and your business or personal use. Remember that import tariffs vary considerably with regards to the type and kind of goods. 

Electronics imported from China, for example, differ in rates from textile products. If you are a business person, you would want to make profits from reselling. Choosing a product that will provide a wider profit margin after tariffs would be essential. 

You should carry out a research on the specific products by taking on reviews and other statistical sources so as to be sure about what you are going to import.

It is important for you to get the samples and carefully review and test the samples. Make sure it passes all the rules and regulations of your country.

3. Find a suitable supplier.

Finding a suitable supplier can be very tricky. Many importers choose their suppliers from a sample shown at a trade show. This is not a good idea.

You better run a background check on your supplier. If he claims to own a factory then you should pay a visit. Get some customer references too.

Once you have selected your supplier, request a Preformat Invoice for your purchases. Remember that your PI must show the weight and the packed dimensions.

4. Do a calculation of the landed cost

Before you can order the goods, it is important to classify the goods and approximate the total cost to your home. The landed cost will include the initial cost of the product, the transportation fee, customs duties, all the taxes, currency conversion and other expenses. Generally, it is an account of what your pocket will have to incur. A tariff classification of each goods you wish to import is important as it determines the tariff duty required. 

You can contact the responsible individuals: the supplies, shipping agents and the custom check officers for this information. This is important for ensuring efficiency and minimizing errors of insufficiency when the goods has started its journey.

5. Place your order

You can then locate the supplier and make your order. Communicate with both the vendor and the shipping personnel to identify the terms of the transaction including shipping. 

You should make sure to give detailed information about the product you want. This will reduce cases of confusion and receiving the wrong item. Do not always opt for the cheap product. Cheap may turn expensive due to quality and quantity issues and the risks that may be involved. To reduce costs, you can inquire if the vendor will agree to ship in the nearest port. 

6. Ensure product quality:

It’s important to make sure that your supplier met your product specifications. A visit to the factory by you or a reliable QC company will better ensure the product quality.

The most type of quality control used by many vendors is a final random inspection. Professional inspectors from a reliable QC company should visit the factory and draw random samples from an entire batch, and conduct thorough function and appearance check.

7. Organize your cargo for transport

Shipment could be a little costly. But with proper plan and negotiations, you will freight your goods easily. You may have to pay for packaging, container, brokerage and terminal handling. It is essential that you choose a goods logistics provider. This will ensure a smooth flow of operations and ease of coordination and communication. It will also reduce the delays in the port that do normally happen for about two to three days. As soon as these arrangements are through, sit back and wait for your goods. You may have to wait for some time since traveling by ocean is quite slow.

8. Track your shipment

Water transport, though convenient, is much slower since it takes a couple of days before arriving at the shore. You will have to give it some time before you can expect your goods. During this period, you should process your freight document and ensure that the shipment will have an easy procedure at the port. The bill of lading, packing list, and commercial invoice are among the documents required as soon as the ship docks.

9. Collect your cargo

Contact the customs brokers to help you clear at the customs office. You will need to submit your documents for customs clearance. When you are cleared, you can then transport the goods to your desired destination.

With these simple guidelines, you can import the goods you need from China with much ease. Make sure to follow these steps before you start negotiating with potential suppliers. Doing this will not only benefit you but will also let them know that you are a professional buyer.

Shopify Tutorial

Elksourcing：5 Factors to Determine if a Supplier is Right

Apr 11, 2021 , by 露露

Whether you decide to try a sourcing agent, continue sourcing on your own, or to use an online sourcing platform, you should still understand how to properly determine if a supplier is the right match for your ecommerce store.  

Here are 5 factors you should consider when determining if a supplier is right.

1. Margin 

It seems obvious that the price per unit needs to be low enough that you have room to take a healthy profit. However, there are many factors beyond price per unit to consider when determining the actual price of your products:

Get a shipping quote: Distance, country of origin, and available shipping methods all have a major impact on the overall shipping price. Before committing to production, make sure you get quotes from your own freight forwarding partner or their internal shipping managers.

Calculate customs duties: When importing goods, you may be subject to additional fees depending on the country of origin and type of product you’re importing. Of course, these fees can be passed on to your customers, but if you’re operating in a price-sensitive industry it could make you uncompetitive. Always make sure you’re calculating customs duties accurately or it could eat your profits.

2. Reliability

“Time is money,” as the old adage goes, and if you’re working with a factory that’s often behind schedule it could lead to major financial losses on your end. To protect yourself from dealing with a completely unreliable supplier .

Ask for their business license: Requesting a copy of a factory’s business license is completely normal. Not only will it show that they’re a legally operating factory, but it will also tell you the exact scope of their production capabilities. If a factory is hesitant to give you a copy of their license, it’s probably a sign to move on.

Ask for a list of companies they have worked with: It’s not uncommon to ask factories if they’ve worked with companies similar in size to yours. If they were able to produce successfully for those other companies, it’s a good sign that your production run will go smoothly as well.

3. Product Offerings

Factories are typically limited to a specific scope of products they can produce. If you’re looking to manufacture jewelry, but the supplier you’re working with specializes in apparel, it’s probably not going to work out. Unfortunately, some factories may try to dupe you when it comes to their business scope, but how do you make sure the factory isn’t lying?

Arrange a factory audit: Hire a reliable QC company to do an onsite comprehensive audit will be important before you invest lots of money, make sure the factory is actually making the similar products when the QC is there, it’s far from enough if the factory only shows the similar products in their showrooms, the samples could be provided by other people or purchased from somewhere.

4. Minimum Order Quantity (MOQ)

Ask about the MOQ: Just ask them if they can work with your order size. Save yourself some headache and make sure you ask them as soon as possible. You wouldn’t want to order a sample and request a factory audit if they aren’t capable of working with your order size.

5. Communication and Support

Communication is the key to a successful production run. No matter how detailed your product specifications, mockups and other design materials are, there is always room for interpretation and it may not be what you had in mind. Communicating with a supplier can be difficult, especially if they’re located overseas, but there are a couple of ways you can test it.

Shopify Tutorial

Elksourcing：Can Factories Benefit from Improved Quality?

Apr 11, 2021 , by 露露

For factories, quality is somewhat double-edged sword. On one hand they would like to provide the best product possible to their customers, however doing so increases their cost. If they try to “cut corners” and deliver product that does not quite stand up to the scrutiny of demanding customers, they can reduce their initial cost, however they stand to lose customers in the long run by doing so. 

What are the factories supposed to do? My view is higher cost of improved quality is well worth the benefits you can received in the long-term. 

Manufacturers need to look at the tradeoff between cost and benefit of quality from the long-term and comprehensive perspective. Sure, aiming for higher quality will add to the cost in the short-term. You can even lose some money in the beginning. But you need to broaden the horizon and consider all other aspects of the business and understand how improved quality helps improve your business.

Improved customer satisfaction 

Higher customer satisfaction is one of the most important benefits of manufacturing and selling high quality products. How many times have you bought a product that breaks down quickly? Would you go back to the same manufacturer for that product? Of course not! Your customer satisfaction will remain high with higher quality which will lead to repeat customers, and even more customers when those satisfied customers will recommend your business to their colleagues.

Higher selling price 

Manufacturers are able to command higher price for their products if they can maintain the quality of their product. As I mentioned in earlier section. High quality product will lead to higher customer satisfaction and those highly satisfied customers will be willing to pay extra to have peace of mind. In many cases, you can more than make up the higher cost of quality by commanding higher price for your products.

Reduced rework cost 

Another important benefit of high quality is reduction in manufacturing cost by not having to rework the defective parts. If you can manufacture the high quality parts, for example stainless process piping, from the beginning it will lead to better products and you will not have to go back to repairing the parts that are defective. It is even more expensive to repair those parts if you fail to find the defect in your manufacturing plant and if they are sent back by customers. You will end up paying for the shipping cost as well in this case.

Reduced wastage 

Focusing on high quality from the beginning will help you reduce the wastage of parts and raw material. Many manufacturers end up throwing away defective parts because they are not repairable. This ultimately leads to higher overall cost including manufacturing and raw material. Eliminating this waste and overhead will lead to higher profit.

As you can see when it comes to quality it is not quite black and white. You can benefit in the long-term by incurring little bit of higher cost.

Shopify Tutorial

Elksourcing：Essential Tips for New Product Development

Apr 11, 2021 , by 露露

Inspiration is the easiest part of starting a business. The hard part? Putting in the hours and preparation for launching a new product or service. Creating a plan and roadmap are essential to staying on task. Here are 6 steps that should not be overlooked.

1. Planning Your Product Strategy

Before you start investing into a product design, you need to have a product strategy in place. How will you market your product? Will it be sold in stores or online? What features are most important? You need to define the goals of your product. You need to have a clear understanding of what your product does for customers, and how it will grow your company.

Start by answering these questions before you think about product features and marketing strategies. Or, better yet, allow your prospects to answer them for you. Survey potential customers to find out which product features and elements of your user experience are most important to them.

2. Develop a Prototype

Turning your inspiration into a working, physical product form is essential to determining its fit and function. Most businesses, in fact, don’t have a physical product ready to test for many months, sometimes even years. It takes time and a team of designers to take the vision in your head and pull it out into a real-world application. That process is prototyping.

Creating your first prototype is the first crucial step to launching a successful business venture. Most businesses that fail do so because they spend too much of their time and resources pursuing a faulty development strategy. Those that reach their first product launch have created and refined a working prototype.

3. Start with Minimum Viable Product

Minimum viable product is the bare bones prototype of your product. It only includes the core and functional elements of your product, ignoring all additional features that may be added later. It serves to test your product’s ability to reach certain user experience goals, but may not be market-ready in terms of design or ornamental features.

The minimum viable product will help you test and make changes to your product while saving you time and resources. Test them with focus groups allows you to analyze your product’s core features, and receive feedback on what would make the user experience better. The minimum viable product is also a great asset for developing collateral and marketing material as well as having something to demonstrate on sales calls.

4. Rapid Prototyping vs. Wireframes

One option for creating your minimum viable product is rapid prototyping, where 3D models of the desired product are made to test its basic function and design. Rapid prototyping can be achieved through 3D printing and computer-aided design (CAD) tools. While this version of product won’t be perfect, it will give you the starting point for your design team to test different functions, and for your marketing team to test customer reactions in preliminary focus groups. Rapid prototyping can also be used to create parts for a fully functional, but low-quality product used for testing.

A wireframe is a visual, and sometimes a functional representation of your product. It depicts the basic structure, visual elements and design concepts of the end product you’re trying to create. Unlike a prototype, it does not function as intended for a customer. It may illustrate some features, but the wireframe is not an independent product.

Similar to this is paper prototyping, a process by which sketches and drawings are used before any design work is done. A paper prototype or a wireframe helps solidify ideas and put a basic design together before the actual work begins. You have to start with a wireframe before you move on to prototyping, where the first vision of your product is actualized and can be used for testing.

5. Use First Generation Versions for Market Testing

One of the basic principles of Lean Methodology is that you must constantly test and adjust your product until it is market ready. Part of that testing, however, has to happen in the “live” market setting. As soon as you reach a fully functional MVP, the goal is to start selling and receive feedback from genuine customers, not just focus groups. The sooner you ship, the more information you can gain and less time you’ll spend refining the product.

Introducing your product early will allow you to learn faster and tailor it to what your customers actually want. The longer you wait, the more resources you will use on a product that may not be desirable for your market. Once your first batch hits stores or online retail, analyze sales, buying behavior and feedback from your customers to make additional adjustments. This first phase of market development will serve as a go/no-go for future manufacturing of large quantities for distribution.

6. Outsourced vs. In-House Product Development

Developing a prototype, depending on the available resources in your area, can be a major expense. Even following the Lean Methodology, prototyping is a tremendous risk, with only a small potential for tremendous reward. Every dollar counts when trying to save money while still producing a quality MVP. The amount of time and energy it may take for you to develop in-house could be cut in half if you choose to outsource.

Shopify Tutorial

Elksourcing：Valuable Tips for Improving Amazon Ranking

Apr 11, 2021 , by 露露

When you’ve made all the right moves, like identifying a consumer need, finding a reliable supplier, and creating an Amazon listing, it can be frustrating when the sales don’t come pouring in as you had hoped.

The fact is, you could have the greatest product in the world but if people can’t find it, they can’t buy it.

The key to being a strong seller on Amazon is to create an optimized product listing. While the inner

workings of Amazon’s search algorithm remain a bit of a mystery, there are some steps you can take

that will make your listing more likely to show up in a customer search.

Here are 6 tips that can improve your listing, increase your sales, and boost your chances for a page one ranking:

1) Streamline Your Title

How exactly you write your title will depend on the product and its listing category but one thing is true

across the board- the more details you can give, the better. Amazon listing titles don’t need to be

attention grabbing or pretty, but they do need to be informative enough to tell the customer exactly what they are looking at. The basic title writing formula looks like this: Brand + Model Number + Model Name + Product type, color. Most major sellers on Amazon follow this formula but pack in as many keywords as they possibly can. These keywords increase the chances that customers can find your listing, potentially increasing your conversion rates and boosting your ranking. But remember, don’t just throw keywords in there at random. The title still has to be legible and clear to the customer.

2) Focus Bullet Points and Product Description

The bullet points in your listing sit close to your product images and above your product description. This means, aside from your title, this is one of the first things people browsing your listing will see. Use these bullet points to list product features, like materials used, and be sure to mention any benefits of these features. Your first point should be the most significant one, working your way down to less critical attributes. This space is a great way to work more keywords into your listing while keeping things brief and digestible. Write in fragments and avoid mentioning sales and promotions in this section.

3) Don’t Forget the Backend

Even though the backend information in your listing is not visible to buyers, it is important for improving your Amazon ranking. By optimizing your information in Seller Central, you can use additional keywords that will increase organic rankings. This space is best used to input long-tail keywords that you were unable to use in the visible part of your listing.

4) Cover Every Angle

Amazon has a list of technical requirements for any uploaded images as well as a list of site-wide

standards. This list includes mandatory requirements for quality, clarity, and appropriateness. While

meeting these standards will guarantee that your image is uploaded, it may not be enough to appeal to a potential buyer.

Try to make sure you have more than one image of your product. Five to six images should be plenty.

Make sure customers are able to see the product from all angles and can see it in use (if possible).

Seeing your product in use can be powerful for a buyer.

5) List Your Product on Amazon Prime

In 2016, Amazon earned $4.6 billion in revenues from “retail subscription services” and nearly all of this revenue came from Amazon Prime. When you don’t make your items available on Prime, you run the risk of being filtered out of searches by Prime users. With guaranteed quick delivery without extra shipping fees, Amazon Prime just makes sense to buyers, and as a seller, this can work to your advantage. Listing your products as eligible for Amazon Prime will increase your visibility which puts you in a position to sell more products. If you don’t have a warehouse to work from, you can use Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA). Basically, you will ship your products to an Amazon Fulfillment Center for storage. When purchased, Amazon will pull, package, and ship your item. They will also handle tracking information and any returns. If you have a warehouse and are able to turn the orders around quickly and meet Amazon’s requirements, you can use Seller-Fulfilled Prime. Seller-Fulfilled Prime is less expensive for sellers than FBA.

6) Pay Attention to Customer Reviews

From a buyer’s perspective, one of the best things about Amazon is convenient access to customer

reviews. As a seller, it is important that you pay close attention to what your previous customers are

saying. These reviews highlight your strengths and weaknesses to other buyers and potential customers.

It is not a crisis to get a bad review once in a while. Things happen. But if you want more positive reviews and an improved Amazon ranking, you need to address any negatives that may pop up. As a seller, you cannot simply delete negative reviews. The best thing you can do in his case is reach out to the customer and try to make things right. Once you’ve done this, you can ask the customer to remove or amend their review. If the customer refuses your offer, you can publicly respond to the review so that any potential buyers know the exact steps you took to try and remedy the situation. Responding in this way shows buyers that their business is important and helps them feel more confident purchasing products from you.

Remember, Amazon Isn’t Your Average Search Engine

Google rankings, for example, are based on click-through rates (CTR) and time spent on a page, so

search engine optimization is focused on these factors. Amazon is not a search engine in the same way, it is a platform for buyers. To this end, Amazon rankings are based on conversions. Whenever you are writing or optimizing an Amazon listing, always do so with conversions in mind.

The more you sell, the better your ranking.

How To Import From China

Elksourcing：Best Way to Start Sourcing Products from China

Apr 11, 2021 , by 露露

Sourcing your products from China becomes a key challenge, as China can be difficult to navigate, especially for new importers. Mistakes in the early stages of importing can drastically impact the future potential of your business.

The best way to mitigate the risks of improper procurement is working with a sourcing agent.

What are the options for procurement, and why is a sourcing agent your strongest opportunity for growth?

There are four major options for procurement: direct purchasing, commissioned agent, trader, and sourcing agent.

1. Direct Purchasing

Purchasing direct from a manufacturer means that you handle all interactions with the supplier yourself. You find the supplier, choose the products, negotiate price, draw up contracts, handle claims and disagreements, perform quality inspections, build relationships, request samples, and more.

A number of new sellers mistakenly think this is the best avenue because they can maintain full control of their supply and aren’t charged a fee that cuts into their margins.

However, this is also the riskiest method. Unless you’re an experienced pro in the manufacturing industry, you make yourself vulnerable to scams, costly processes, and other inefficiencies by purchasing direct. Plus, you have to learn the entire industry yourself, which takes a significant time investment. Without the appropriate resources, you’re often trying to blindly navigate a complicated world.

2. Commissioned Agent

You can hire an individual agent to help you find suppliers for your product.

These agents are usually overseas and have a large network of partners and resources. They’re also low cost and fast.

However, they are very rarely professional and offer very few services. The agent will find you a supplier, but then you are on your own. They usually don’t help you build long-term relationships with these manufacturers or provide other consulting services. Agents tend to keep their resources locked up, giving you very little visibility or access to your own supply chain.

Plus, the majority of agents get a commission from the supplier. This means they’ll usually defend the

supplier in the case of negotiations, error, or disagreements. They usually aren’t looking out for your

interests.

3. Trader

A trader is like a middleman for locating applicable suppliers. They will help you find a manufacturer and they’ll handle payment.

This is not popular for procurement because it’s the most expensive option for the lowest return. Traders take a percentage of your margin on every order, which can heavily cut into your revenue. They also maintain total control over your supply chain with little transparency.

4. Sourcing Agent

A sourcing agent is the strongest option for almost all importers. This is a third party that

works with you, not for you. This builds a partnership to help you find suppliers, assess products,

negotiate price, build contracts, handle claims, and build supplier relationships and communication.

The only con to a sourcing agent is that it can be an upfront investment. However, in long-term, working with a sourcing company is the most efficient and profitable solution.