[AMA] Importing & wholesaling for resale on eBay.

[Ecom man]

Your right, It was just a sample order of $50 plus shipping. They most likely would send the sample, I would be happy, then keep the bigger orders cash.

This info is straight from DHL's website
1. Apply for your Import Express account number at your local DHL office
2. Send your Import Express account number to your supplier together with a Routing Order
3. Your supplier calls their local DHL office to collect the shipment
4. Your shipment is monitored at every stage by the latest tracking systems
5. DHL customs brokers arrange customs clearance for your dutiable goods
6. DHL delivers the shipment direct to your door or to a designated recipient in any other country

Import Express is easy to use. If you would like to know more about how Import Express can help your company, please contact your local Customer Service Centre for assistance.

I personally just have the suppliers roll the cost in together and pay for it all at once so I have never personally set up one of these or given a DHL account number to a supplier.

 

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[Chazmania]

Hey Ecomm,

I'm loving your thread, thanks for doing it. It's kinda funny because to be completely honest, I used to think of ebay as kind of a joke, until recently understanding that many people are making serious incomes selling on it!

I laughed when I realized how wrong I was! I read some books that opened my eyes and some good info from the web in general, and of course your thread has been great.

I recently got started with selling used stuff from around the house, and I've also imported some small samples from DHgate and am already making sales. My feedback score is slowly increasing and I'm sure as it does so will my credibility with shoppers like you've said.

The cool thing is that I sold some items while having cocktails and cooking out, relaxing over the July 4th weekend on the deck. I've sold some items already while I was sleeping. I've sold while nodding out Sunday evening before bed! It's definitely becoming addictive getting all this selling done while doing nothing lol.

I've decided to block off 2 - 4 hours per day to find products and gain some traction so I can scale it up from there. This is a great introduction into e-commerce because we all need to go through the motions of finding products/suppliers/shipping channels, and then we leverage the traffic from the monsters that are ebay and amazon.

Definitely working great so far, thanks for all of your input!

 

[Meynstey]

So just had my first sale this past week, literally the first day I put the sample up on eBay. Unfortunately, it's the only one that has sold so far. I don't think this has anything to do with the product (my only other competitor is selling 2-3 a day), but rather what was mentioned in a previous comment about lack of seller feedback... so it's time to start working on this part of the business.

In terms of actual orders, how much money are people dropping on a single product? For example, the aforementioned product is going to cost me $2000 for 100 units. My concern here is how much capital is tied up in one product. If it takes 3 months to get rid of this product, that severely restricts what I can sell in that time. The margins are good, it's just the initial investment has me a bit concerned.

Which leads me to one more question... do you have an acceptable sell through rate for product in the $20-$100 category?

 

[Chazmania]

If it takes 3 months to get rid of this product, that severely restricts what I can sell in that time. The margins are good, it's just the initial investment has me a bit concerned.

Just my own personal opinion here - but if the margins are decent and it takes a few months...is that really a bad thing? Let's just say you make.....uh...... 50% (pulling a # out of thin air) profit on your item within 3 or 4 months. That's a 50% return on your money in less then half a year! Any other investment would be considered excellent by that metric. Of course we all want to double our money or better with every transaction, and of course if you find something better go ahead and do it, but hey - profit is still profit. Crawl, walk, then run. Money sitting there earning nothing won't help you progress.

 

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[mosdef]

you guys didnt joke when you said its hard to find good suppliers. Had so many suppliers simply not answering my questions and talking about other stuff.

Had a few products i was very intrested in but had to leave because couldn't any good suppliers. But it can also be me who is bad at negotiating/writing

 

[z6Evolved]

If you want to get a good deal, you need to be able to negotiate hard. The key to it is to get out of your mental comfort zone and start telling people what you want and what they can do for you. Think the price they offer isn't good enough? Tell them. If they're not answering your questions it may be how you're asking them. With a lot of suppliers on dhgate/ali/etc there is a slight to terrible language barrier but if you keep the questions straight forward you'll get your answers.

Also it helps to structure your messages in a way that asks for things you want while giving them the impression that you're a potential "whale" customer that they should go above and beyond for right now, because you'll potentially be big volume later. Don't ask if they can do samples. Ask how much for x samples, and then ask what the volume discount is for 500 units, 1000 units, etc. It doesn't matter if you don't intend to order that kind of volume right away. If they think you're interested in the future, they'll play ball now.

I never ask if they're willing to do samples. I always lead with "What is the best price you'll give me for (x) samples? I want to test the quality of the product before buying in bulk. Also what discounts can you offer if I buy 500 units or 1000 units?"

I really feel like with a lot of these vendors and suppliers that if you don't take control right off the bat they treat you like a consumer, not a business. Too many of these sites (especially, in my experience, DHGate) are starting to look like Amazon East to the suppliers. They're legit selling more single unit lots than bulk lots and they sell them for higher prices than I can get the item for domestically on Amazon! It's ridiculous.

A lot of those single unit lot vendors (unless it's a high ticket item that makes sense to single-lot) are probably resellers themselves and have no margin to give you better prices. If they give any indication of that, I try a different vendor. I don't need to buy from a middle man, I'm trying to be the middle man.

 

[Luke1213]

I never ask if they're willing to do samples. I always lead with "What is the best price you'll give me for (x) samples? I want to test the quality of the product before buying in bulk. Also what discounts can you offer if I buy 500 units or 1000 units?"

This is what I do. Besides, you're going to pay out the a$$ for shipping a couple of samples so why not bite the bullet and just order a couple dozen samples. I usually get the supplier telling me that they offer free samples but I usually reply to them that x amount of samples aren't enough to test the market so I will offer to buy samples. This seems to add a little more credibility to both ends. The good suppliers don't mind giving free samples and they see you as a real potential buyer when you offer to purchase samples. Sometimes it can work out to your advantage. One of the suppliers I am dealing with gave me almost 2 dozen of free samples of another product since I purchased the other samples from him. Granted this took approximately 15 conversations to get to this point but it will pay off.

 

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[mosdef]

If you want to get a good deal, you need to be able to negotiate hard. The key to it is to get out of your mental comfort zone and start telling people what you want and what they can do for you. Think the price they offer isn't good enough? Tell them. If they're not answering your questions it may be how you're asking them. With a lot of suppliers on dhgate/ali/etc there is a slight to terrible language barrier but if you keep the questions straight forward you'll get your answers.

Also it helps to structure your messages in a way that asks for things you want while giving them the impression that you're a potential "whale" customer that they should go above and beyond for right now, because you'll potentially be big volume later. Don't ask if they can do samples. Ask how much for x samples, and then ask what the volume discount is for 500 units, 1000 units, etc. It doesn't matter if you don't intend to order that kind of volume right away. If they think you're interested in the future, they'll play ball now.

I never ask if they're willing to do samples. I always lead with "What is the best price you'll give me for (x) samples? I want to test the quality of the product before buying in bulk. Also what discounts can you offer if I buy 500 units or 1000 units?"

I really feel like with a lot of these vendors and suppliers that if you don't take control right off the bat they treat you like a consumer, not a business. Too many of these sites (especially, in my experience, DHGate) are starting to look like Amazon East to the suppliers. They're legit selling more single unit lots than bulk lots and they sell them for higher prices than I can get the item for domestically on Amazon! It's ridiculous.

A lot of those single unit lot vendors (unless it's a high ticket item that makes sense to single-lot) are probably resellers themselves and have no margin to give you better prices. If they give any indication of that, I try a different vendor. I don't need to buy from a middle man, I'm trying to be the middle man.

So if they say x amount is the best for x samples do you still try to lower it?

 

[Luke1213]

I didn't try to negotiate a lower price for samples. Only time I would see trying to negotiate pricing is maybe when dealing with samples is on shipping. Some times these suppliers will over inflate the shipping cost. Save the negotiating for your bulk orders.

 

[z6Evolved]

Yeah, don't try to break them over a barrel over the sample prices. The idea is to get them to do the samples, not to push for margin on them (unless your "sample order" is dozens or hundreds of units that you plan on trying to make a profit off of, that's different I suppose.)

I never ask if they do samples because, realistically, if they want my business they'll do it. It's just a matter of the terms.

I am willing to go to bat over the shipping a bit though, because it can be ridiculous. For instance I'm negotiating on three products right now with maybe two dozen vendors on AliExpress. On DHGate the price per item is a dollar or so higher but shipping is free with ePacket. On AliExpress, the prices per unit make my margin look a lot better but here's the rub - 5 item sample of the one product comes with a $295 shipping fee.

Really? These things weigh half a pound each, max. Ten dudes on DHGate will throw them in the mail for free for me. I'm not paying that much. That bring my cost per unit from ~$3 to ~$62. For an item I can sell for MAYBE $10.

That's when I'll get into it with them over a sample.

 

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[mosdef]

Yeah, don't try to break them over a barrel over the sample prices. The idea is to get them to do the samples, not to push for margin on them (unless your "sample order" is dozens or hundreds of units that you plan on trying to make a profit off of, that's different I suppose.)

I never ask if they do samples because, realistically, if they want my business they'll do it. It's just a matter of the terms.

I am willing to go to bat over the shipping a bit though, because it can be ridiculous. For instance I'm negotiating on three products right now with maybe two dozen vendors on AliExpress. On DHGate the price per item is a dollar or so higher but shipping is free with ePacket. On AliExpress, the prices per unit make my margin look a lot better but here's the rub - 5 item sample of the one product comes with a $295 shipping fee.

Really? These things weigh half a pound each, max. Ten dudes on DHGate will throw them in the mail for free for me. I'm not paying that much. That bring my cost per unit from ~$3 to ~$62. For an item I can sell for MAYBE $10.

That's when I'll get into it with them over a sample.

exactly the same for me man! Some stuff just has crazy shipping even if they are small. Tried buying 10 books, they wanted 390 dollars in shipping

 

[mosdef]

when they say shipping is that much do you try to get it down to like 30-50 dollars or maybe 200?

 

[s168]

If someone quotes me such ludicrous shipping prices, I don't bother with them. Just reply saying that their shipping prices are extortionate, and that you will be searching for another supplier who quotes MUCH cheaper shipping costs.

If that's how they deal with you in the first instance, what does that say about your likely future business relationship with them? Would you be able to trust them?

 

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[z6Evolved]

^^^ This, exactly.

If they don't attempt to answer my basic questions, or they quote me something ridiculous (for instance, got a quote for 10 sample units today from a vendor that sells 1 unit MOQ, and he wanted more than the price listed in the shop per unit) I just don't respond. There's a ton of people out there who will work with you and won't give you that nonsense.

 

[YMCMB]

How do you deal with Import duties, taxes etc? I am considering making a decent size purchase down the road after I find some good sellers. What happens if I buy for example 1000 umbrellas? And with shipping it costs me $600, will I get a separate bill in the mail for Import duties, taxes? Not sure how to prepare for what these costs may be? Can you explain how this works?

 

[Luke1213]

I can't really add to much on this since my orders have been relatively small and dhl clears the customs for me. My suggestion is a customs broker for larger shipments.

 

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[mosdef]

whats keeping folks from just going into dhgate or aliexpress and buying there cheaper than ebay?

 

[debitandcredit]

Everything I was not supposed to do, I did..

Thanks for the post. I started doing the exact same thing full time since last Feb. I paused my software engineering career there. I started by importing pets products worth about $5k by ship. It took too long and I was killed by defect and margin squeeze. I used Amazon FBA and Ebay. I was doing about 5 to 10 orders a day. Then I started DHL importing counterfeit vaporizer which at that time I didn't really know, I was novice. I started doing about 50 orders a day on ebay then to Rakuten about 100 orders a day. One day, my ebay account was linked to my partner's ebay account and i was shut down forever by ebay. It was not due to counterfeit item on ebay however, I was kicked out by rakuten because of counterfeit So now all i have is amazon account. I started importing bunch of $1 items and started sending on envelope selling for like $6. Plus I was dropshipping furniture as I have an account with manufactures.(there is no money in dropship as far as i know, it's a freight discount game, big buyers negotiates with ups and fedex of 50%). Anyways, Again, I was doing about 50 orders to 100 orders a day after a couple of month amazon alone, until I started doing about $30k a month and I was tired as hell. Packing 200 envelope on weekends and backorder dropship took the defect matrix above 1%. It was not that bad, but amazon wants absolute perfection if you suddenly start selling large volume. So my account is shut down as well.

So I did all the things that I wasnot supposed to do by actually doing it. Left without any ability to open selling accounts on any platform. I created an account by opening up new llc and bank accounts without my trace still all legit. just opened up ebay and amazon account. This time around, I at least know what not to do. just my story.

 

[mosdef]

What the hell, because 1 procent?

 

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[debitandcredit]

Everything I was not supposed to do, I did..

Thanks for the post. I started doing the exact same thing full time since last Feb. I paused my software engineering career there. I started by importing pets products worth about $5k by ship. It took too long and I was killed by defect and margin squeeze. I used Amazon FBA and Ebay. I was doing about 5 to 10 orders a day. Then I started DHL importing counterfeit vaporizer which at that time I didn't really know, I was novice. I started doing about 50 orders a day on ebay then to Rakuten about 100 orders a day. One day, my ebay account was linked to my partner's ebay account and i was shut down forever by ebay. It was not due to counterfeit item on ebay however, I was kicked out by rakuten because of counterfeit So now all i have is amazon account. I started importing bunch of $1 items and started sending on envelope selling for like $6. Plus I was dropshipping furniture as I have an account with manufactures.(there is no money in dropship as far as i know, it's a freight discount game, big buyers negotiates with ups and fedex of 50%). Anyways, Again, I was doing about 50 orders to 100 orders a day after a couple of month amazon alone, until I started doing about $30k a month and I was tired as hell. Packing 200 envelope on weekends and backorder dropship took the defect matrix above 1%. It was not that bad, but amazon wants absolute perfection if you suddenly start selling large volume. So my account is shut down as well.

So I did all the things that I wasnot supposed to do by actually doing it. Left without any ability to open selling accounts on any platform. I created an account by opening up new llc and bank accounts without my trace still all legit. just opened up ebay and amazon account. This time around, I at least know what not to do. just my story.

I got so much stock from these days, i gotta get rid of. I am slowly importing generic new products with high margin. Eventually, I want to create a brand and become a dropshipper or some sort. Instead of selling directly to consumers.

 

[Thoelk]

whats keeping folks from just going into dhgate or aliexpress and buying there cheaper than ebay?

Haven't you learned by now that you should read more and ask less?
This question has been asked lots of times... But since I don't want to bash you, here it goes:

People are lazy and always looking for the fastest/easiest way to get something, by any means...
They are willing to pay (way) more for an item, if they can order it within a few clicks and get it within a few days/Hours...

And to draw the parallel: you rather waste time asking questions about every muscle that might move, instead of taking the climb yourself.

 

[debitandcredit]

Yes, matrix was not great but not that bad. I had 83% over all matrix. but I had about 5 late shipments and some of a-z claims and cancellations. I did about 5000 orders in 3 month on amazon alone. my perfect order rate was above 98%. Anyways, if you sell products that is within top 5 in a certain category, they want you to be the best. At least that's what i think happened.

 

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[debitandcredit]

Just a side thought...

In the past, you could order much smaller quantities from China for much cheaper prices too. Then the bigger players go involved and more buyers globally did the same thing, and the MOQ and prices went up. Suppliers have more choices to pick and choose now. I have friends who ran clothes stores and were middlemen to large nationwide UK clothing stores state they noticed this trend over the years. I wonder what the new China is? Some say places like Vietnam, Bangladesh, etc.

In the furniture business, they fled from China yes to Vietnam. Labor and fee all went up.

 

[debitandcredit]

im talking to a few manufacturers regarding a product with good margins, for 11kg they want 200 dollars in shipping? That means the products is almost 1kg and cost me 20 dollar each for shipping.

You need to call up ups and fedex and negotiate rate. Many times, chinese has a good rate however, I have a contract with ups which gives me like 30% off of shipping in the usa.

 

[s168]

In the furniture business, they fled from China yes to Vietnam. Labor and fee all went up.

I have connections in Vietnam. Just don't know what to import from there right now. I know they make a lot of clothing, footwear and furniture but quality isn't great. What kind of furniture do you import? I'm assuming wood based products?

 

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[z6Evolved]

So I'm looking into Alibaba for the first time and I notice 1) a lot of much, much better prices, and 2) everything is FOB pricing. I've never dealt with any kind of large scale shipping before, since all I've had to deal with thus far is DHL, FedEx etc. Can anyone recommend a good resource to read up on dealing with freight shipping overseas?

If I understand, I'd have to arrange for transport on the vessel from their port to my local port, unloading fees on my end and transportation to wherever I'm storing the items. Is that correct?

 

[Luke1213]

Try www.provenchinasourcing.com (not affiliated) but they offer a book about importing, suppliers and shipping. If you are dealing in large bulk, I would recommend a customs broker and a freight forwarder. I've looked into a customs broker and freight forwarder and the charge small fee to clear your inventory and then can forward it to either you or if you are doing FBA, they can forward it directly to Amazon as long as your supplier can fulfill amazon's needs when it comes to upc's on your products.

 

[z6Evolved]

Appreciate the tip. I'll have to start digging. I'd honestly rather have a professional handle it for me until I get some experience because it looks like there are so many ins and outs and things I can mess up in the meantime haha.

 

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[Dicky Dee]

Appreciate the tip. I'll have to start digging. I'd honestly rather have a professional handle it for me until I get some experience because it looks like there are so many ins and outs and things I can mess up in the meantime haha.

For your first few bulk shipments by sea DEFINTELY get a customs broker to handle it once it gets to your countries port. Thats how i started to learn how to deal with customs by just watching and asking what the broker needs and why, things like bill of lading(get telex release so you dont need the original bill of lading once its here), invoice, arrival notice, notify parties, export shipment marks (labels on the outside of your boxes like made in china, quantity, material).

I have yet used a freight forwarder in china yet as im unsure which ones are reputable so i ask them for a CNF price which is the price plus shipping to get it to your port of choice, then after that either you or your customs broker takes things from there. Im sure they tack a bit on when they give you CNF price but thats the price to pay until i can get a reputable freight forwarder, if anyone has recommendations on one please let me know.

Now i have a question for the experienced importers here, which channels do you use to sell besides your own website, ebay and amazon? Also which have you found to work best for you? I currently only sell on my own websites and ebay and would love to hear any advice from experienced sellers.

 

[Dicky Dee]

*definitely