[AMA] Importing & wholesaling for resale on eBay.

[Ecom man]

ecom man i am soooo thrilled to have found your thread. this is my first post in Fastlane forum. i am now completely caught up with your thread... i have been compiling a list of contenders/ products, and have about 30 possibles right now. one question. i found some great looking clothing that i'd need samples to check quality. but when i clicked on pics it said a brand name. so am i correct, this means it is most likely a knockoff? or is it possible the company, which is very known and pretty popular, is buying this product from this source? how would i phrase the question to the seller? also their price is insane, close to what i would charge myself on ebay... but thats for a quantity of one and i assume its being marketed to the consumer not to businesses. am i possibly in the wrong section of alibaba? is there a wholesale division? can u tell i'm new to all this? lol! thanks for any help, and, you seriously rock. i cannot thank you enough for your gift of information and experience.

If it is a well known brand here in the US then it is more than likely a knock off item or a "back of the truck item" (meaning it "fell off" the back of the truck) There are some items that are sold in small quantities that are geared towards consumers in the US. Either look for a different supplier or messages the seller and tell them you are reselling these in the US for $x and need to get them for $y from him to make a profit. Tell him what quantities you will be buying in and see what happens. Sound professional in your emails and come across as a business owner who is expanding his line of products and you will be more likely to get better prices and a quicker response.

 

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[Hallsy86]

Hey guys,
This is my first post on this site and want to give a huge thanks to Ecom Man. I've been buying and selling on Ebay for years but never thought about importing from China. After reading this thread I've found a few products that look promising and am going to order samples today.
I have a question about customs when having items shipped from DH Gate via Epacket. My order is only $70 for a few pieces. Am I going to get hit with a customs bill or do the sellers usually take care of it?
Thanks again,
Eric

 

[Ecom man]

Hey guys,
This is my first post on this site and want to give a huge thanks to Ecom Man. I've been buying and selling on Ebay for years but never thought about importing from China. After reading this thread I've found a few products that look promising and am going to order samples today.
I have a question about customs when having items shipped from DH Gate via Epacket. My order is only $70 for a few pieces. Am I going to get hit with a customs bill or do the sellers usually take care of it?
Thanks again,
Eric

The sellers should take care of it for you.

 

[Hallsy86]

Sweet. Thanks!

 

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[sess362]

If it is a well known brand here in the US then it is more than likely a knock off item or a "back of the truck item" (meaning it "fell off" the back of the truck) There are some items that are sold in small quantities that are geared towards consumers in the US. Either look for a different supplier or messages the seller and tell them you are reselling these in the US for $x and need to get them for $y from him to make a profit. Tell him what quantities you will be buying in and see what happens. Sound professional in your emails and come across as a business owner who is expanding his line of products and you will be more likely to get better prices and a quicker response.

Excellent advice . Def want to avoid back of truck. great advice on how to handle overpriced items. Thank you e com man! i'll check back in with my progress.

 

[NerdAtCoolTable]

I have all my items listed as fixed price. I am getting some good views but no purchases.

What could be the reason for this ?

 

[YMCMB]

If you find a product that has good margins. And sells great on eBay and Amazon. How do you compete besides price? If you can't price it less, what differentiates yours from the competitor? Just the ad copy and pictures? Is that enough to really get a good amount of sales?

 

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[Ecom man]

I have all my items listed as fixed price. I am getting some good views but no purchases.

What could be the reason for this ?

Really hard to answer without some additional information. How many feedbacks do you have? How many competitors for each item? Are you the cheapest? Best match? What shipping speed? What pictures did you use? What is your description like? The list could be endless. If you don't want to put all that out about your account you are welcome to PM me as well.

 

[Ecom man]

If you find a product that has good margins. And sells great on eBay and Amazon. How do you compete besides price? If you can't price it less, what differentiates yours from the competitor? Just the ad copy and pictures? Is that enough to really get a good amount of sales?

eBay has a dirty little secret. If you can be #1 in "best match" you will sell 10x more items than the cheapest person will. I have an item listed for $60 the cheapest competitor is selling them at $49. I've sold 50+ in the last week. The cheapest guy has sold 5. The difference is I am a top rated seller and have the "best match" spot. All he has is cheapness.

Get your feedback up and make people happy and they will be back. Ship fast and your feedback will reflect it. Go above and beyond in every aspect of your business and you will stand out in a crowd even if you aren't the cheapest.

 

[NerdAtCoolTable]

Pm sent. Thank you sir

 

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[Dicky Dee]

eBay has a dirty little secret. If you can be #1 in "best match" you will sell 10x more items than the cheapest person will. I have an item listed for $60 the cheapest competitor is selling them at $49. I've sold 50+ in the last week. The cheapest guy has sold 5. The difference is I am a top rated seller and have the "best match" spot. All he has is cheapness.

Get your feedback up and make people happy and they will be back. Ship fast and your feedback will reflect it. Go above and beyond in every aspect of your business and you will stand out in a crowd even if you aren't the cheapest.

This is very true, i had the same thing happen to me when i was the best match for a few products. Although i did exactly what @Ecom man mentioned i do that for all my products and not all of them are the "best match". Do you have any other tips to become the "best match"? I notice if you have continuous sales shortly after another it does bump you up quite a bit.

 

[Ecom man]

This is very true, i had the same thing happen to me when i was the best match for a few products. Although i did exactly what @Ecom man mentioned i do that for all my products and not all of them are the "best match". Do you have any other tips to become the "best match"? I notice if you have continuous sales shortly after another it does bump you up quite a bit.

I've found that if I list as the cheapest originally I will sell enough to bump me up to best match about 50% of the time. Then once I get "best match" the price can be adjusted upwards to increase profits.

 

[sess362]

I've found that if I list as the cheapest originally I will sell enough to bump me up to best match about 50% of the time. Then once I get "best match" the price can be adjusted upwards to increase profits.

ebay's search defaults to Best Match.. you have to re-sort if you want it by price or ending soonest etc. it is a very big advantage for those who get best match. and from what i've seen, a very secret algorithm. i just lost my trs status - am now just above standard - but strangely... knock on wood... sales have increased. but, i currently sell only clothing. soon will be attempting to follow in ecom's footsteps and selling other types of products, will see how this affects my sales there...

 

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[mosdef]

first item sold

 

[CreateLiving]

Just found out my uncle is making a killing importing....get this Barbie Doll Outfits from China and reselling them via Amazon. Must be some demand for those suckers...

 

[NerdAtCoolTable]

Is it worth it to upgrade to a eBay store if I'm only selling Around 100-200 items a month ?

Paid $86 in fees last month off 23 items

 

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[Bananas]

Is it worth it to upgrade to a eBay store if I'm only selling Around 100-200 items a month ?

Paid $86 in fees last month off 23 items

First post!

@NerdAtCoolTable if I understand correctly you are saying you have 23 items for sale on eBay, of which you are able to sell between 100 and 200 times per month. For this you have paid $86. Is this right?

With a Basic Store yearly subscription you will be paying $15.95 per month and get 150 listings "free" in any category, of any duration, auction or fixed price. Monthly subscription is $19.95 per month. So the first question is: How much of that $86 was in listing fees if any? Is this amount greater than what the store fee would be? Then open a store. If lesser, continue...

Secondly, with a store subscription, you will have lower Final Value Fees (believe it's lowered to 9% for most categories eBay Help will say for sure) so the second question is: how much did you pay in final value fees compared to what you would have paid had you had a store subscription.

Get these numbers hard and then you should have a better idea of what to do.

 

[NerdAtCoolTable]

It was $86 in final value fees.

 

[Nicholas Alves]

Hey guys, my first post, I just have a quick question. When you purchase from Aliexpress do you generally make a purchase without asking any questions. No matter what type of product I can never get in contact with the seller. When I purchase from Alibaba I have no problem getting in contact. Is that because theirs a Buy it Now option?

 

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[Alex Bergvall]

The products that I have branded were ones I found and was already selling under the generic name. The company asked if I wanted to add my brand name to the items and I of course agreed. That's how I have done all the branding for my items up until this point. Sorry that is not much of a help in your situation.

could you explain how you branded a product on your own? I'm more interested in the physical process, than how you found the item and your costs, etc. I have been trying to brand a sporting good item, and have had little luck in the matter. what was your methods for finding a manufacturer, contacting them, packaging and then most importantly, SELLLING. Thank you again for doing this thread, I have been hanging on every word of it.

@smartman
Look for companys who offer "OEM possible" or "custom whatever possible" in their descriptions.
Most will do anything from custom packaging up to branding your products just how you need it.

Of course there are differences in quality and overall conditions, like MOQ or possibilities in printing and placing your logo.
I only work with alibaba, so i just can speak about that; just like Ecom man said, you can get almost anything there.

There are many trading company on there offering services they outsource to some other company.
This may affect quality because your original order passes many people or the sense for quality is simply a bit different than yours.

When it comes to custom products, I got the best results by working with manufacturers.
Also for some things it may be better to visit the production facilities and stay there during sample production.
This will safe time and money.

By time you will get some feel for the asian people and how they work, specially when your only way of contact is through email.
The more quality information you get about products, manufacturing, standards and requirements on the data you have to deliver, (even without asking for it) the better the chances of getting good quality work.

I´m from Germany, so - sorry for english.

If your only problem is to get some sort of whatever branded, chances are you might find some company in the USA offering this service, too... thinking of american apparel wholesale for example.


Good luck.

 

[Ecom man]

Hey guys, my first post, I just have a quick question. When you purchase from Aliexpress do you generally make a purchase without asking any questions. No matter what type of product I can never get in contact with the seller. When I purchase from Alibaba I have no problem getting in contact. Is that because theirs a Buy it Now option?

A lot of the purchases on Aliexpress are buy it now so you don't have to contact the supplier. If you are trying to get better prices etc. you are normally better off going to Alibaba.

 

[Five Star]

First order placed on Aliexpress....exciting times!

...and so the wait is on

 

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[Nicholas Alves]

A lot of the purchases on Aliexpress are buy it now so you don't have to contact the supplier. If you are trying to get better prices etc. you are normally better off going to Alibaba.

Thanks, so much. Probably why I was having such a tough time getting in contact with them...

Also it doesn't seem they accept Paypal on Aliexpress, should I just used prepaid card? Is there a way to use Paypal. I just feel much safer using it.

 

[Tyman]

Thanks, so much. Probably why I was having such a tough time getting in contact with them...

Also it doesn't seem they accept Paypal on Aliexpress, should I just used prepaid card? Is there a way to use Paypal. I just feel much safer using it.

I've used my credit card for a decent amount of orders and never had a problem. Aliexpress has an escrow service that has some protection and if you manage to get screwed over you can just contact your credit card company and get them to reverse the charges.

 

[mosdef]

been looking for hours! How do i display that i only ship to Europe? Now it says im shipping to us also? I know i can block users from us to buy from me, but want it to say only EU shipping?

Edit: found how, you cant exlude us if you are on the ebay.com.

Logged in on the ebay.co.uk and now im able to exclude US!

 

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[Ronak]

Great thread! Kudos to @Ecom man for all the value provided!

Here's a tip for high MOQ's, or almost anything you'd like to negotiate-- simply say it's "Company Policy" for whatever you're having issues with.

They want you to order 1000?

Reply: "According to company policy, I'm not allowed to order more than 1 case in the first order. We must start with 1 case as a sample to test product, sell thru and delivery before increasing orders."

They only take Western Union? Sorry, Paypal or escrow only, company policy...etc

Ultimately, you ARE the company, and YOU set your policies.

 

[smartman]

I have been using the old go to "I would love to carry this product, but I don't not have room for x amount that you require as a minimum order." It has worked alright so far. I'm sure there's a messageboard that all the alibaba operators post to where they say shit like "oh hey, here's another stupid american that thinks he's pulling a fast one." hahaha

 

[dominator]

Thanks @Ecom man and others that have contributed to this thread.

I decided to import children clothing for the first time from Alibaba and found your thread. I do plan on selling using all the distribution channels at first to generate money for buying traffic to my own site. Sometimes I wonder why I choose this niche of products and it's because I am a frequent buyer of theses products, it has great margins, and tons of competition but people will keep having kids, I found my USP, and there's enough to go around : )

Reading this thread taught me a lot, but the action of doing it myself has taught me more. I received my order, some good, some not so good. Now I just want my money back. Put them on ebay, sold one the second day, that was 4 days ago. It might take longer to sell because someone has to be looking for that particular size I am selling (another con.)

I am trying to find a new supplier, but the funny thing is that the 10 other companies that I contacted seem to be the same people with different accounts. I am also looking at other products that could help me raise funds in the meantime.

It's tougher than I thought. Buying from overseas is one battle but dealing with CPSIA and other liability issues is another battle that has kept me from pursuing ventures like this before. But not this time!

I should probably start a progress thread because I have learned so much in the last couple of weeks about importing children apparel and because I don't want to hijack your thread.

Thanks again.

 

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[Ecom man]

Great thread! Kudos to @Ecom man for all the value provided!

Here's a tip for high MOQ's, or almost anything you'd like to negotiate-- simply say it's "Company Policy" for whatever you're having issues with.

They want you to order 1000?

Reply: "According to company policy, I'm not allowed to order more than 1 case in the first order. We must start with 1 case as a sample to test product, sell thru and delivery before increasing orders."

They only take Western Union? Sorry, Paypal or escrow only, company policy...etc

Ultimately, you ARE the company, and YOU set your policies.

Awesome way to deflect the decisions onto "the company". Many times you won't catch grief over things that are " out of your hands"

 

[mosdef]

now i have excluded US from my shipping but putting the item on the co.uk site and from there excluded US. Now ive noticed that my product dont show up on the .com site. Should i list it on the .com and ship to us but for much more money and in that way make buyers from us not choose me?