Category: How To Import From China

How To Import From China

Elksourcing：How to Get a Better Price from Your Chinese Supplier?

Mar 31, 2021 , by 露露

Many importers will always try to get a better price from their Chinese suppliers, but how? You need to know some tactics to try to meet this target. Here are some tips:

#1 – Buy larger quantities

This one might seem fairly obvious – buy more and you’ll get a lower unit price. However, many importers tend to buy from more suppliers than necessary – and thus lower the quantity purchased from each one of them. Orders can easily be concentrated on a smaller amount of suppliers if you base your product selection on what the suppliers has to offer, rather than selecting a number of suppliers on a predetermined product list.

#2 – Streamlined usage of Materials & Components

A product is a composition of materials and components. Your supplier needs to purchase these materials and components from their subcontractors. A large number of various components and materials results in a higher amount of purchases that needs to be made, and thus higher costs. The best way to avoid this issue is simply to reuse the same materials and components in several products. A positive side effect of this approach is that you might also be able to lower the suppliers Minimum Order Quantity (MOQ) requirement.

#3 – Avoid unnecessary product customization

Customized products often require customized tooling, such as injection moulds. While an injection mould can be used for a very large number of units (often counted in the hundreds of thousands) it’s in general paid for by the importer. Thus the more customized products you order, the higher the tooling cost will be. If you’re specifically importing unique products that have no equivalent on the market, then you can stop reading. However, plenty of importers fail to understand that even the slightest change in a design may lead to dramatically increased tooling costs. I list my suggestions below;

The importer is usually expected to pay for any additional tooling. Avoid product customization unless it’s essential.
Limit the product customization to components and/or materials that doesn’t require expensive tooling.

#4- Reasonably lower your quality requirements

I’ve seen plenty of situations where the importer requires a quality standard that simply cannot be matched by the supplier. This could be dimensional tolerances that are too narrow or other product specifications that are all but impossible for the supplier to comply with. From the supplier’s perspective, quality requirements that are very hard to reach increase the waste and the risk of a total loss. The end result is that the supplier is forced to raise the price in order to compensate for the increase waste and risk. If a supplier clearly communicates that your requirements are hard or impossible to reach, you should do any of the following;

Look for another supplier
Accept a price increase
Adjust your requirements according to the supplier capability.

#5 – Ship by sea

Many importers tend to waste money on not so cost efficient transportation. Sea freight is in general much cheaper than Air Freight, something that can have a big impact on the unit price. Especially if we take customs and VAT into consideration, both of which are added on top of both the product price and the freight cost. However, Sea freight is slower and takes around 30 – 40 days to reach most ports in Europe and North America. Thus it requires the importer to have some foresight and place the order well before the existing stock runs out. It’s rather common that importers end up wasting their profit margins on highly expensive Air Freight because they “simply cannot wait 35 days” for the cargo to arrive. This is what I advise you to do;

Place your order at least 3 months before you expect to run out of stock.
Ask your supplier to quote you a C&F price that includes shipping cost.

How To Import From China

Elksourcing：How to Contact with Chinese Suppliers Properly?

Mar 30, 2021 , by 露露

Due to the language barrier, cultural different, time zone difference, unfamiliarity with Chinese business manner, many buyers find it very difficult to get a reply to your inquiry. In many cases, you find a supplier online, you send an email or submit an inquiry form online, you wait for weeks but get no reply, then you call them, surprisingly, you found it is difficult to understand their English, or they don’t speak English at all. So how should we do to get prompt answer from the supplier when you contact them and how to communicate with them smoothly? Here are a few tips we want to share.

How to write a good email that makes sure the Chinese suppliers give you a proper answer?

– Use company email account. 
Don’t use email account from free email provider like yahoo mail, hotmail, aol mail. Using free email account will harm your company image and is considered very unprofessional. In practice, many suppliers are indifferent and arrogant to the inquiry using free email account.

– Complete description of the specifications
Try to give details about the items you are looking for, try not to be too general. An email inquiry with detailed specification normally will be seen as firm inquiry, the supplier will give their best attention to give a prompt and professional reply. A too general inquiry will make the suppliers think that you are an outsider or newcomer to the industry rather than established business. They will even think you are business spy trying to gather their trade secret, in that case, you will receive a slow and unfriendly quote (more expensive price and higher minimum order quantity).

– Signature
A proper and professional signature including name, title, company name, contact information and address. Email without a signature or a complete signature is considered unprofessional.

How to use telephone and instant messenger like MSN, Skype to speed up the response?

Email communication, in many cases, is very slow, mostly due to the time difference. You can use telephone or instant messenger to speed it up.

– Telephone
You will need to make sure that the contact you are calling speaks good English (spoken English). The fact is that many salesmen in Chinese companies don’t speak good spoken English even though their written English maybe seems perfect. So try to speak slowly on the telephone, write an email to confirm the conversation on telephone if it is really important.

– Instant Messenger

Instant Messenger is really popular and convenient to use. Chinese people use QQ more than other instant messenger like MSN, Skype, YM, AOL Messenger, Google Talk. For important issues, you will need to write an email to confirm the conversation on instant messenger.

Contacting suppliers on Alibaba.com

Download Alibaba trade manager (an instant messenger like MSN) for better communication with suppliers on Alibaba.  If the supplier is online, the status of the trade manager icon will turn light. If they are offline, it will turn grey. Trade manager can also be used to transfer files.

Sending message through inquiry form on Alibaba. Make a call too if the inquiry is urgent. You know, many suppliers don’t check their defaulted email of Alibaba account very often, in some extreme case, they never checked it. Make a phone call to back it up.

How To Import From China

Elksourcing：For New Importers How to Import From China?

Mar 30, 2021 , by 露露

This article is for new importers. As a sourcing agent in China, we would like to share our years of experience of helping overseas buyers to import from China.

1. Feasibility Study
Before you start to import, you need to research the feasibility of your sourcing project. You need to set up a goal, decide the budget, make the plan, consult the import expert, research the market, learn the import process, and calculate cost. In the end, you should come up with an enforceable plan, which should include the following: the products, the market, the process, the people, the cost, the margin, and the marketing.

2. Products Ideas
What products you will buy from China? If you don’t have any clue, you could check ecommerce websites like alibaba, ebay, amazon, see what products are highlighted on homepage. Every product from missile to toilet paper has its own market, so do something you are familiar with, do something you have resources to sell.

3. Know where to buy Chinese goods
Ecommerce makes international trade easier. Search your products on alibaba, globalsources or made-in-china.com, you will find thousands of suppliers. If you are a small fish, your quantity cannot meet the MOQ set by factories, you could go to Chinese wholesale market such as Yiwu wholesale market, to buy small quantity and consolidate them into a container.
Or, if you think it’s too much troubles to source a good supplier among thousands of candidate, you can go to a trustworthy sourcing agent like Elksourcing, and focus more on the things you are strong in – selling good products.

4. Screen and verify supplier
By comparison, a final list of suppliers meet your price target, how to select Chinese suppliers? Don’t pick the one with lowest price; otherwise you should worry about the quality. Don’t pick too big supplier, you won’t get VIP treatment there; pick a supplier with reasonable price, good service and medium size as start. Do the due diligence properly; send inspector or a trustworthy sourcing agent like Elksourcing to check the factory’s credit and capability, capacity and quality system.

5. Price negotiation
In today’s market, price is very transparent, so it is more of price comparison, than price negotiation.

6. Contract negotiation
SIGN CONTRACT IS A MUST and DON’T USE PI AS CONTRACT. Try to cover all details in the contract.

7. Collect Samples
A few Chinese suppliers offer free samples, many do not (but usually will refund sample cost when PO is placed later-on); but it is reasonable to pay for the sample and shipping cost. China DHL, UPS, TNT agent gives better rate as 20~50% lower than freight-collect, so, ask your supplier to recommend a shipping agent.

8. Communication
Chinese sales normally don’t speak good English, for important matters, better to communicate by emailing. Try to explain the terminology. Use simple and basic English.Or, if you believe communication is critical, you can go to a trustworthy sourcing agent like Elksourcing.

9. Payment terms
T/T is the most common terms, if after verification you believe the supplier is trustable, T/T is acceptable.
Usually 30% deposit and 70% payment before shipment is common for first few orders, once you have built up trust, suppliers may accept less deposit.

10. Quality Control
Don’t save money on quality control, send a reliable QC inspector or a trustworthy sourcing agent like Elksourcing to inspect the quality before shipment.

11. Shipment
There is flood of shipping forwarders out there that provide one stop shipping solution. You need to learn how to screen shipping agency. Or, use CIF terms so your supplier will take care of the logistics.

12. Dispute Settlement
Hope you have a proper contract signed before you have to go through the dispute settlement stage. Lawsuit is the last solution, try to solve the dispute outside the court, get in a lawyer, send a lawyer’s letter, with lawyer chasing behind, many cases are solved outside the court. Arbitration is always easier than lawsuit, so it is advised to use arbitration as the dispute settlement method.