Author: 露露

shipping FAQ

Elksourcing：Tips to Reduce Shipping Cost When Importing from China

Apr 12, 2021 , by 露露

Known as the “world factory”, China has become one the most popular sourcing destinations for millions of business startups, shipping cost is important for the success of your business.

If you are running the logistics independently, shipping cost should be one of the key factors for you to consider. The more your business relies on the movement of goods, the more your business will benefit from cutting down your shipping cost. As such, it’s very imperative for you to analyze all the possible shipping costs and get the best shipping options for your business.

1). Plan for Product Shipping

Everything should be started with a plan. It goes the same with your shipping business when you import from China. An effective shipping plan should embody a clear understanding of the scope of business, quantities involved and the frequency of the shipments. This plan will help you negotiate with the freight forwarders.

Route planning is a key part of your plan. As we know, there may be multiple routes to ship your items to the final destination. What you have to do is to find the most cost-effective one to reduce cost. You can choose the best one, or direct transportation to make it efficient and time-saving. It’s known to all that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Plan your transportation route and optimize it to reduce delivery route and shipping costs. If possible, you are allowed to utilize a combination of ship and truck transport.

2). Choose the Right Shipping Provider

Quality shipping services will help you expand the international market without worrying about the high cost of international transportation. To find the right overseas shipping service provider, you have to take the time to review relevant shipping companies one by one. Given your shipping destinations, product material, order size, shipping lead time, tracking service, insurance, and the shipping price, you have to get relevant key data for further analysis.

Comparation is a good way to narrow down your options for the right shipping service provider. You can find the preferential price by comparing different suppliers. With so many shipping companies, you are allowed to review their freight rates and the different advantages they offer. Comparing their shipping services and their charges, you have to identify the right one for you. In fact, shipping price varies widely even for the same company. You can specify your shipping needs, and tell them to the shipping service providers, and get their quotes. This is very easy for you. And then compare them; you will finally get the most competitive one. If you still unable to get one, you can use the online shipping calculator to evaluate your shipping cost based on your needs. After deciding your shipping service partner, you can establish a business relationship with them and start your International business. Remember to develop a long-term and strategic relationship for a better rate. This will be significant in the long term.

3). Optimize Packing

Generally speaking, freight charges are based on the weight or volume of your products. If you find extra space on your package, you will finally pay for it if neglect the fact. Shipping extra packaging will not only cost you in terms of the packaging material, but also in terms of the loss of the cargo space. To save your cost, there is something you can do to optimize products’ packaging.

This goes to FCL (Full Container Load) and LCL (Less than Container Load) shipping. These two are the ones that can save your cost on the basis of the number of your products you sourced from your Chinese supplier. If your order amount is enough for a full container, you can use an entire container yourself. This is FCL. Normally, shipping FCL is cheaper than by volumetric unit and weight unit. To ship FCL, you’d better buy large quantities of products. This will make you the cost per unit much lower. FCL shipping costs, on average, will be 30 to 40% less than LCL shipping. However, if the amount of your order is not enough for a full container, you’d better choose LCL. Given the high rate of air freight, LCL is the ideal option for your business. To make the best use the container space, your items will share the container with others’ products if you shipping LCL. For this method, the cost may be much higher than you imagine, and you also have to pay some additional fees when you shipping overseas. However, it is the most cost-effective for a small number of shipping items. This shipping container space is highly depended on how much you are going to ship.

4). Choose the Right Container

For FCL, there are normally 4 types of containers for your options.

FCL 20 GP/ FCL 40 GP / FCL 40 HQ/ FCL 45 HQ.

Generally speaking, the container with 20 feet is designed to carry more weight than voluminous items. For instance, it is produced to fill minerals, metals, machinery, etc. These items are heavy products of small size.

The container with 40 feet is designed for voluminous items instead of the heavy ones. For example, it is to carry tires, clothes, furniture, etc. All these items are voluminous ones.

45HQ is not common, usually only used for special products (such as very bulky but light products). If you ship regular products, It’s recommended that you use 40HQ not 45HQ, because 45HQ requires extra-long container trailers, which either are not easy to find, or are expensive.

5). Get Freight Insurance

Freight insurance refers to the insurance on what is being shipped. If people already have freight insurance, they will be paid for the loss of their shipping items if there are any accidents happening during the transportation. However, it will be a great loss if you never buy relevant freight insurance. Remember to tell your shipping service provider about insurance requirements, and negotiate the best price with them.

6). Allow Shipping Buffer Time

Shipping lead time refers to how long it takes to get your products from the shipping port to the port of destination. This means that time matters your business and the shipping costs. This is because you have to place your order much earlier if you have long lead time. For instance, you planned to receive your items by April, but you have to book the shipping order several months prior. Generally, lead time includes:

A.   The time your cargo sits in China port before being loaded (up to 1 week)

B.   When the cargo is being shipped (15 to 30 days per different destinations)

C.  The time your cargo sits in destination port before being cleared (up to 1 week)

D.  Inland transportation from destination port to your premises

E.   Possible administrative delays at both ports

F.   Other possible delays

7). Ship on Off-peak Days

As we know, there is quite common for shipping delays when during the peak days of the year. During these days, there will be more congestion, more delays, and a higher shipping price. Shipping a day later or earlier will leave you measurable savings. If possible, you can try to avoid the peak times and holiday congestion.

8). No Unnecessary charges

Sometimes, you may get unnecessary charges either at POL or POD because of demurrage or detention caused by improper or timely documentation in many cases. If this is the case, you will be charged more than the normal process. What is more terrible is that these charges are very high; you may be forced to abandon your cargo and leave your items on the port when doing customs clearance. To avoid such charges, remember to carry out your shipping process properly, and follow the regulations and rules to streamline your business. This is what you can do to control your shipping costs.

9). Do not Classify Everything as Urgent

It’s very common for us to label everything related to your business as urgent as possible. As such, many business runners would like to require their shippers to deliver their items as early as possible without any consideration of the actual urgency of the shipping. Usually, they feel good if they get their goods as early as possible. However, rush shipping orders may incur a heavy shipping cost.

Shopify Tutorial

Elksourcing：Common Defects Need to Notice for Cast Iron Cookware

Apr 12, 2021 by 露露

As a cast iron cookware importer, it’s your responsibility to protect your customers from hazards and other types of quality defects. And due to the unique properties of the iron alloy, production processes can lead to many different kinds of casting defects.

Let’s explore some of the most common defects in cast iron cookware to help you avoid a potential recall and improve your product quality. 

1. Pinhole

Pinholes are a common casting defect found in all cast iron products, including cookware. These holes are almost always visible to the human eye but don’t appear on the product until after mechanical processing.

2. Sharp flash

Sharp flash is generally considered a major or critical defect in cast iron cookware. Flash is commonly seen on post-production, pre-packaged cast iron cookware. This casting defect occurs due to a molding plate issue. Flash can be caused by: an insufficient clamp force, poorly fitted molding plates

and overfilling during injection processes

3. Rust

Rust, or oxidation, occurs when a cast iron surface dries after a wet surface preparation. This defect is usually easy to spot because it affects the cookware’s outward appearance. 

4. Sand Inclusion

Sand inclusion is one of the most frequent causes of casting rejection. Sand inclusion appears as lumps of sand grains near the surface of a casting. 

5. Chip

A chip is a common and visible casting defect that appears as a small notch or incision in casted products. It’s usually found at the edges of cookware products. 

6. Crack

A crack is a more serious quality issue than a chip. Cracks are usually located on the bottom wall of a piece of cookware and are clearly visible to the human eye.

7. Wobbling / Warping

Wobbling or warping occurs on the bottom or base of cast iron cookware. Long or flat castings are more easily deformed and will form a curving shape, usually close to the thickest part of the wall.

8. Black Residue

This kind of defect appears as an obvious black spot present in irregular positions and locations on the surface of cast iron cookware. Fingerprint traces remain at the surface of the casted cookware, causing oxidation.

9. Wall Thickness Variation

This casting defect appears as variation in the thickness of a panel or wall of a cast iron pan or pot. The wall thickness of certain areas exceeds your desired standard or tolerance

10. Dent / Dimple

All measures to prevent delamination of the shell and strengthen the bonding force between the layers can help eliminate dents.

You might also try: Increasing the temperature of the dewaxing medium to shorten the dewaxing time

Avoiding large, flat structures and flat plane or upward pouring. If necessary, set process ribs and process holes to prevent defects from occurring during pouring. Reducing shell moisture. A shell that’s too wet isn’t suitable for high-temperature furnace roasting.

11. Uneven enamel

This defect occurs when the manufacturer inconsistently applies enamel coating to the raw cast iron cookware.

Enamel can be applied to raw cast iron either through a dry application or wet application process. In both cases, operators might unevenly apply enamel on the product, leading to this defect.

12. Foreign material in enamel

Foreign material, such as dirt, human hair or insects, can be introduced to cast iron during the enamel process or the molding process.

Foreign material can appear within the enamel or even the raw cast iron body. Visible foreign material often hurts the item’s overall appearance.

13. Enamel drip

Enamel drip is the byproduct of an improper wet application of a liquid glaze, otherwise known as a glaze slurry. Larger drips often appear as a droop and smaller drips appear like a beaded tear. Enamel drips often occur when the enameled cookware is left to dry slowly at a low temperature.

14. Enamel Shade Variation

Enamel shade variation appears as a hue or brightness deviation from your specified color standard.

Many cast iron cookware buyers and retailers choose bright, glossy, visually-appealing enamel to coat their products. And the product color can be a deciding factor for some consumers, who want to display their cookware on their countertops.

15. Color stain/ spot

Similar to shade variation, a color stain or spot appears as a different colored toner on the glaze surface or as dirt material in the glazing.

But while shade variation is visible as a different hue or brightness of your specified color, a color stain appears on your cookware as a different color entirely. The incorrect color is usually confined to one spot.

16. Orange peel

Orange peel is a major quality issue in enameled cast iron cookware. After the products are fired, the enamel surface resembles that of an orange peel – bumpy and uneven.

Conclusion

With cast iron cookware’s recent surge in popularity, competition between cookware brands is fierce. You’ll need to manufacture a quality product that’s both safe and visually appealing if you want to be a major player in the cast iron cookware space—that’s no simple task.

How To Import From China

Elksourcing：Common Mistakes to Avoid for Sourcing from China

Apr 12, 2021 , by 露露

Chinese economy presents lucrative business opportunities for entrepreneurs in United States and other foreign markets. While there are some risks to sourcing goods from China, you can manage and reduce these risks with a smart and methodical approach. Below are the common mistakes to avoid for sourcing from China:

1. Failing to define a sourcing strategy.

When sourcing goods from China, you must have a well-defined sourcing strategy, this includes conducting proper due diligence about who you are dealing with, including intermediaries and manufacturers. You need to know what types of products you need, how much you can sell those products, how much you can afford to spend on those products, and by what date you need the products. You should also have a plan in place for quality control.

An experienced China sourcing agent can help you put together a strategy for sourcing goods in China.

2. Failing to define quality standards for suppliers.

Before you search for suppliers, you must have a general idea of the quality standards your company expects a supplier to meet. The better you define these standards, the easier it will be to determine whether your sourcing efforts are successful.

Once you have identified and defined your expectations of suppliers, you should only seriously consider those suppliers who are able to meet your needs. An experienced China sourcing agent will have existing relationships with suppliers and can help you determine whether certain suppliers are right for your company.

3. Treating international vendors like domestic vendors.

Many clients forget that sourcing from China isn’t like buying from a local supplier. You must plan ahead, take into consideration for production time, and the time it takes to ship your products by sea, which can take another 4-5 weeks, depending on your location.

4. Not getting things in written.

All negotiations between you and your supplier should be in written. Your contract should include important information such as the parties involved, QTY and price, definitions of product quality, production ready date, delivery expectations, and payment terms. It’s especially important to get all of the product specifications in written up front, including dimensions, tolerances, material requirements, and packaging.

An experienced China sourcing agent will be able to help you with all of this. 

5. Language barriers.

It is very important to have someone on your China sourcing team who speaks Chinese. In cross-border transactions, you cannot depend on shoddy translation. Language barriers often result in failed business deals!

Find someone you can trust to communicate with suppliers on your behalf in Chinese, preferably a native speaker. A China sourcing agent who has proven experiences can help you overcome language barriers.

How To Import From China

Elksourcing：Steps to Get Your Products Made in China

Apr 11, 2021 by 露露

Step 1 – Creating Engineer Drawings and a Prototype

You need to get your idea made into engineer drawings and a prototype. It is crucial that you get both done; it can be difficult to manufacture a product without an engineer drawing that has tolerances, material, and finish requirements. You need a prototype, so you know your product is functional and looks good.

You can do this in China, but it is not easy. Communicating with an engineer in China over different time zones can be difficult enough, if there is also a language barrier, the challenge is compounded as difficult ideas and concepts can be hard to translate. Progress is much slower because of this. It is recommended you hire a professional sourcing company in China. We can help you get started on this process if you need help finding an engineering company.

Step 2 – Finding a supplier

Okay, so now you have a beautiful prototype with clear and exact engineer drawings. The next thing you need to do is finding a factory in China that can produce your products. You basically have two options, find one yourself, or get a sourcing company to find one for you.

You may think that getting one yourself may be the cheaper solution, because you don’t have to pay a commission. In real life, it is often more expensive. If you choose to get one yourself, you must learn the culture, fly to China, and start building business relationships over time. You would need to look for factories that have the capability to manufacture your product and keep your level of quality. You would need to visit their actual location. Just googling Chinese factories doesn’t work because many “factories” actually are scammers, some could be real factories but may steal your product design and sell a knockoff version.

After a lot of flying around China while paying for a translator, you still have no guarantee of success. Using a sourcing company can simplify things as you no longer have to deal with cultural differences, language barriers, time zones, the risk of getting burned by a fraudulent factory, and a whole lot of jet lag.

What makes a qualified sourcing company? Well, for one thing, the biggest isn’t always the best. Alibaba has had a number of scandals over the past few years. A good sourcing company will have skilled people in China who know the culture and language fluently. They have a longstanding history of protecting intellectual properties and know how to find qualified factories. They are responsive, pay attention to detail, and will ask a lot of questions about your situation to get a clear picture. They will help you through the import process and have a replacement policy for defective products. Sourcing agents should be upfront about fees and will work to fix any issues that occur.

Step 3 – Getting a Quote

When you find a sourcing company you like, you will need to provide them with your engineer drawings and some information such as: your shipping location, quantities to quote, packaging and labeling instructions, so they can tell you how much it will cost to produce and ship your product. Also, make sure you provide the company with any additional requirements you need your product to pass such as U.S. consumer certifications. It is a good idea to get exact quotes and not shop around for ballpark figures, so you have reliable numbers. It is important to note that cost, while important, should not be your main reason to pick one quote over another. Choosing a company that is responsive, reliable, and reputable will save you more money over the long run.

Step 4 – Purchase Order

Now that you have a quote that includes sample, production, and shipping charges, along with estimated production times, you should be ready to place a purchase order. Some sourcing companies offer a third-party inspection service which may be a good investment if this is a first order or you are buying a large order. At this point, you should have been provided information about marking your product as “Made in China”, various import fees and paperwork you should expect, and you should either have your own customs broker, or have had one referred to you. Make sure the factory will make and send a sample to you before you move to production so that you will know the level of quality you will be receiving. You should also review their replacement policy.

Step 5 – Receiving the Shipment

After you have signed a purchase order, you should receive a sample for approval. If there is something wrong with the sample, bring it up with your sourcing company and have a corrected sample sent over. When you approve the sample, you should expect to pay a portion of the production order up front, usually 30%, and the balance when the order is ready to ship. You should expect to have to file some paperwork. Many companies will ship your shipment to the port your forwarder chooses, and your forwarder will be responsible from shipping it from there to your door. Make sure you inspect your shipment to make sure good quality and right quantities are received.

How To Import From China

Elksourcing：Good Practices for Sourcing from China

Apr 11, 2021 , by 露露

Here are some good step by step tips I learned from my experiences in import and export business.

Step 1: Confirm the Products

Before sourcing from China, you need to do your homework and decide the products you are after, then, you will need to focus on the main manufacturing areas in China. The supply chain at Yangtze River Delta area specializes on manufacturing small commodities, mechanical equipment, machining parts, auto parts, small tools, die casting parts, and sand-casting parts, however, manufacturers at Pearl River Delta area specializes on electronic products, plastic parts, stainless steel products and home appliances. A list of outsourcing products helps to find the right suppliers.

Step 2: Get the Forecast of Volume

Both the unit price and shipping cost depend on the volume. If you want to purchase products from China, you should match the requirement of Minimum Order Quantity (MOQ). Also, it is high cost per unit to ship the product by sea if the value of goods is less than 3000USD in total.

Step 3: Check the Port

No matter your delivery goods by sea or air, cost is always one of the important considerations to import goods from China. If you need to source various products, try to choose the suppliers close to same port, or at least the products with most QTY are close to the port.

Step 4: Find the Potential Suppliers in China

1. B2B sites in Chinese are useful to find suppliers in China.

2. Chinese search engines are also good ways to find manufacturers.

3. Trade shows are good to find China manufacturers.

4. Recommendations from friends, customers and suppliers.

5. Use a professional sourcing agent.

Step 5: Select Potential Suppliers

It is easy to discover hundreds of Chinese potential suppliers, but most of them are not the one your need, such as, the price is too high, the quality is too poor, the service is too bad. So, it’s necessary to do some surveys.

1. Do online background check for the potential suppliers, including the number of employees, registered capital, facilities, capacity, and reputation.

2. Ask suppliers for doing supplier self-assessment report.

3. Choose 2~3 factories as the final potential suppliers.

Step 6: Sign Non-disclosure Agreement

Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) is one of the most important agreement to be signed before giving suppliers any information about your products.

Step 7: Quote for the Best Possible Price

After getting everything ready, you can get quote from the 2~3 potential suppliers. Negotiate with them and get the best possible price.

Step 8: Maintain Ethical Practices

It’s important to ensure that suppliers are not employing underage workers or treating their employees poorly. It’s recommended to hiring a professional 3rdparty company to audit the factory before signing a contract, especially if you are looking for a strategic supplier and will place a large order.

Step 9: Visit Factories

Before spending money, it’s very important to visit suppliers, to verify the factory communications, manufacturing capability, production capacity, quality control system, and so on.

Step 10: Select the Manufacturers and Make Samples 

After visiting the potential suppliers, we will select one of them for our customer’s project. It’s important to ask the supplier to make some samples for testing, as some Chinese suppliers do not use the correct material as defined on spec.

Step 11: Test on Trial Production Order

After clients approve the tooling and samples, we suggest clients running a trail order. In some case, the sample cannot say anything. For example, the supplier makes 10 samples and only 1 piece is OK, and then he ships that piece to you. So, running a trail order before mass production can give clients some assurance when importing products from China.

Step 12: Go to Mass Production Process

After trial production is approved, we will place a purchase order for mass production. In order to make sure clients get the best quality of products, we will do quality inspection at each step.

China Sourcing Agent

Elksourcing：How to Work with Your Chinese Sourcing Partner?

Apr 11, 2021 , by 露露

Hiring a Chinese sourcing agentcan make things easier if you decide to import goods from China. But you need to learn how to work with them, to make your sourcing business smoother. Here are four tips to help importer obtain quality products from China, especially for the importers who source products from China for the first time.

Tip 1: Know Each Other Before Paying Any Money to China, Both Partners and Suppliers

Make something as a rule before working with a sourcing partner in China. Business license, contact person, and company profile are important documents, make sure you have them on hand before going forward.

(1) Contact information (Contact person, Email, Phone, and Address).

(2) Copy of business license.

(3) Company profile (Documents, Website, and Product Catalog).

If you are looking for a strategic supplier in China, you also need to audit the supplier before sending any money to China. You can hire a third-party company to audit it if you can’t visit in person.

Tip 2: Mare Sure You Can Contact the Right Person at Any Time

In China, a technical engineer will always not be involved in sourcing or market. So, please make sure you can find the right person for different communication. The sales manager is one of the most important people when having issue. He/she can help you to solve any question, should communicate with another colleague or introduce to you if you need.

Tip 3: Ask Your Chinese Sourcing Partner for Quality Control Report Before Delivering

Reliable China sourcing partner should provide quality control service to help you get good quality products from China. Their QC team inspects the products before shipping.

They should report to you if any quality issues and stop supplier to ship the products to you until the issue is solved.

A good partner should also be able to help you solve payment issue when you are in trouble, such as invoice issue.

Tip 4: Pay Attention to the Quality of Service if You are Looking for a Strategic Partner

Quality of service is one of the most important factors to keep a long-term cooperative relationship. A sourcing service company has the responsibility to do all the work. A good sourcing partner not only can export products from real manufacturer to customer, but also should be able to provide good services. For example, your Chinese sourcing partner should handle any quality issue and take actions to make sure it does not happen again.

How To Import From China

Elksourcing：Types of Inspections You Should Know for China Sourcing

Apr 11, 2021 , by 露露

From my 20-year experience in China sourcing business, I’ve learned that solid quality inspections are crucial to the success of sourcing from China. However, many new importers are not familiar with the types of inspections and do not know what they should choose. I’m glad to share with you the brief inspections as following.

Step 1: Pre-production inspection

Make sure your supplier uses the right material and components is concerned by some customers. For example, a tumbler should be made from 304 stainless steel, but some unreliable supplier make is instead of 201 stainless steel; A die casting auto parts should be made from A 380 aluminums alloy, but supplier makes it by using ADC 12; A bicycle hub should be used ceramic bearing, but your supplier uses a stainless-steel bearing for you. When you received these products but find that they were not the products you have ordered.

If your supplier is a reliable, honesty, and trustworthiness manufacturer, you don’t need to worry about this question. However, we can’t confirm a new supplier they are reliable enough. So, we need to do something to confirm or request supplier using the correct material and components for your products. Here are some solutions to help overseas company who doesn’t want to spend the money on product inspection services company.

a.Request supplier to provide material certification.

b. Ask for a material or components sample before placing the order.

c. Sign a contract with supplier and write material and components requirement in the quality control terms.

Although these points cannot 100% ensure Chinese manufacturers to use the material and components as requirement, but it can be a better deterrent than do nothing. And it also tells suppliers that the right material and components are very important for you and they must use the correct one.

Step 2: During production inspection

During production inspection is the most important during the quality control system and product inspection program. Everything should be control during the process. During manufacturing, product should be 100% checking before it was packaged. Most of regular manufacturers have on-site inspection post. When product finish manufacturing and checked by inspectors, on-site inspector should inspect every one or two hours (It depends on the product).

It is unrealistic to hire an inspector to stay at the factory for most of small business. The business is too small to pay other cost. However, we can ask supplier to provide some documents to confirm that they have quality control system and is not a workshop without quality management system. These documents are very important to control the quality product if you don’t want to hire a third-party product inspection company to work for you.

a. Ask you supplier to provide the framework of their organization. After you get it, you can learn their quality control system.

b. Confirm your supplier has process description for operators.

c. Ask supplier to tell you the number of during production inspector and what is their job.

d. Learn the during production inspection checking list and tell your concerns to suppliers.

These points are the basic work to confirm a supplier if it has quality control system if don’t want to spend money on product inspection services or supplier audit. Of course, you can ask any question about quality control if you are interesting. But, please don’t trust what the supplier told you. Documents, pictures, and video provided by supplier are the strong evidence that they have quality control system which includes during production inspection process.

In some Chinese factories, packaging operator is also responsible for product inspection. This kind of inspector is also very important to quality control that they can prevent bad quality product was delivered to final customer if they cannot be found during the pre-shipment inspection process.

Step 3: Pre-shipment inspection

Pre-shipment inspection is the last step to prevent bad quality product be shipped to final customer and is the most important product inspection step. It is the most effective way to control the quality. Overseas customers import products from China, they pay money to Chinese suppliers and get the products match their requirement. Because customer can reject any products if the quality or other points cannot match their requirements. This is the deal. So, most of overseas customer only check the final product’s quality, by themselves or third-party product inspection services company.

Pre-shipment inspection is usually operated before final payment and booking. Customer can hire a third-party quality control company or product inspection services provider to help them check products before payment and booking.

Pre-shipment inspection is the final product inspection and includes appearance inspection, function inspection, dimension inspection, and package inspection. How to check and what is the checklist are depend on the product and customer’s requirement. As a sourcing agent in China, we have rich experience on product inspection and we know that every customer is concerned about their product and don’t want to receive any product with defects. However, for some products with a hug of quantity, it is not practical or high cost to 100% checking or inspect all the product. Random inspection or random test is the most popular for pre-shipment inspection, such as 5 pcs, 10 pcs, 3%, 5% or 10%, etc.

Hire a third-party product inspection services company to check the quality is the common ways to control the quality at low-cost if overseas company cannot inspect the product in person. But there are a lot of product inspection services providers in China, how to find a reliable one?

a. Product inspection services provider should specialize in your field. For example, if you want to check the dimension of product, you should hire a product inspection company who has mechanical inspector.

b. Product inspection company based in internationalized city such as Shanghai and Shenzhen always can provide specialized product inspection services.

c. A product inspection company who is close to your supplier always can provide a lower inspection charge. For example, your supplier is located at Ningbo, Zhejiang province, China, you should not hire an inspection services company who bases in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, China.

d. Ask for the demo of product inspection report, and add the points and terms to match your requirement.

Pre-shipment inspection is one kind of product inspection which can give overseas companies some assurances when importing from China. Of course, customers also can complain when they receive the product cannot match their requirement if they hire a third-party product inspection company to check the products, but it is passiveness in that kind of situation. We always suggest overseas customers to hire a third-party product inspection services provider to help them check the product before shipping when importing from China.

How To Import From China

Elksourcing：How to Wholesale from China?

Apr 11, 2021 , by 露露

Before you start to wholesale from China, you need to figure out below issues.

1. Who are the right wholesale suppliers?

Many people think real manufacturers in China will give a lower price than middleman when purchasing from China. But, things are not like that. All of the manufacturers in China have MOQ (Minimum Order Quantity) requirement that Chinese suppliers will not produce products for you if the quantity on your purchase order cannot reach their lowest quantity requirement. And most of Chinese suppliers set different price for different quantity level. For example, MOQ 100 PCS, the unit price is 10 USD, however, MOQ 500, the unit price is 9 USD.

For most of small business owners, they always hire a Chinese agent as their purchasing partner in China. For the people who cannot visit China in person but know how to import goods from China, they would rather source products through a buying office or purchasing partner in China which can help them save time and money. What important is that a sourcing partner also can introduce some sources that your competitors will never discover.

2. Flow for buying wholesale and importing from China.

After selecting the type of wholesale supplier, you need to search the real supplier. For example, you need to verify manufacturer if you choose a manufacturing company as your business partner in China instead of a purchasing company or sourcing partner. But, whatever type of purchasing wholesale supplier you are planning to select, you need to learn some knowledge about flow for buying wholesale and importing from China. 

Wholesale from China can help you make more money if you are from a high cost country, such as the United States, Canada, Australia, and UK. If you are an American and want to import some products from China to US, you should know how to import goods from China to US, no matter by express, air freight, or sea.

a. Delivery goods via international express.

Delivery by express is high cost due to packages are shipped by airplane and can delivery to any corner of the world within 48 hours (It is quite possible in the future). For small size package or sample, people always like to ship via express. In China, you can ship goods to overseas without customs clearance if the value of package is less than USD 500. Small size with large value and some urgent MRO products can be shipped via this method.

b. Import goods by air freight.

It is a long shipping time when shipping by sea, however, for some urgent purchase orders, customers need to get them in a short time, such as the lead time is one week. In that case, you should consider air freight. The freight is lower than ship by express if the weight is more than 100 kg. If you choose shipping by air freight, both you and your wholesale supplier need to do customs clearance work.

c. Ship goods by sea.

Shipping by sea is the most common way to import from China. And most of importers select ocean shipment as their first shipping method when buying wholesale from China. It is the cheapest way to ship your goods or products to the destination. However, this is longest delivery time during those shipping methods. Truck your product to port of departure, customs clearance, loading and set out, arrive the destination port, customs clearance, pay import duties from China and VAT, truck goods to your warehouse. This is the simple flow for importing from China. If you are a new importer or your company didn’t have import export authority, you can hire a third-party services company to help you.

d. Import tax from China.

Import from China is not like domestic business, you need to pay more tax, such as customs duties and VAT. Whether you need to pay those tax when importing from China depends on your local government and product item. You can check them by using HS code via internet or government. All we know, some products are encouraged to import, however, some items are limited.

What to import from china?

Now, you have known how to find buy wholesale suppliers in China. And you also have some knowledge about how to import from China. The next step is to learn what to import from China. If you are a dealer who specialize in some certain fields, you should know what to purchase. But, in order to stay competitive, you need to know what is hot products imported from China.

Products you are interested in or specialize in should be the first consideration to import from China. As a sourcing agent in China, we know that most of the factories or manufacturers in China didn’t have an exclusive dealing agreement with customers. As an overseas customer, you should maintain a good relationship with your buy wholesale suppliers in China. Maybe, you will get some information about what is hot in China at the first time. Visit some B2B sites such as Alibaba and made in China, you will discover some hot searching products.

Buy wholesale from China or outsourcing to China is easy if you can discover reliable supplier or partner. I believe you can find a good wholesale supplier in China if you are really planning to import from China.