Great thread. Lots of nuggets and charity here. Thanks!
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Free registration at the forum removes this block.Glad to hear you made your first sale! There is no better feeling then to get off of work or wake up in the morning and realize you made money! Glad I could be of some help!I just made my first sale of my first product today while I was at work! Yay for passive income! I think it's about time to order my next product.
Rep transfered.
Thank you so much Ecom Man. You rock!
Once you find products that don't have idiots in them you can be set for months or years.
I have found the more expensive the product the less competition. Also, the less the product sells the less competition (obviously). If you can get say 5 items that sell 10 each in a month i promise your profits will be higher per sale than if you find 1 item that you can sell 50 each month. A lot of people wont spend time fooling with a product that will only profit them $1,000 a month. I will take that all day long. Then just find 10,20,100 etcof those items.This has become quite an onerous task in the last couple of weeks. I've crunched the numbers on over sixty products now and I've only found two that I can make over $7 profit per transaction after fees, and already there are new people selling these products at a lower price. I've been looking at higher price items for the last couple of days; thinking that there wont be as much saturation as with cheaper products, but i'm really not excited about tying up that much money in inventory.
Continuing to grind ...
And all it takes is one supplier shipping out bad products to 5 of your customers and your eBay account is closed forever! Not a good idea to give your supplier complete control over whether you survive or not.eBay is amazing. I have made so much free money from it, it's actually insane. And I owned NONE of the products that I listed.
I never said avoid importing from China. I live on importing from China. I said dont drop ship from China. I don't want my customers to wait a month to get the products but if it takes a month from order to when I receive them that is fine. Then i list them for sale once they are in my possession.Ecom Man, the websites you refered as way to import products, they only have manufacters from china?
Or there is a way to filter manufacters from other countries?
You said previous in this thread to avoid importing from china(1 month to deliverin generally), but the alibaba,aliexpress and DH gate, they only have pratically manufacters from china.
I never said avoid importing from China. I live on importing from China. I said dont drop ship from China. I don't want my customers to wait a month to get the products but if it takes a month from order to when I receive them that is fine. Then i list them for sale once they are in my possession.
Your costs look to be correct. Just make sure you take into account that unless shipping flat rate you will spend more shipping to some areas of the country than others. Make sure to include printer, ink, paper, packages, bubble wrap in with your shipping costs as well as gasoline if you live far from the PO. In regards to certification, on Alibaba a lot of people will have their certification in the pictures when you go further down the listings. If you keep your items less complicated you shouldn't have to worry too much about that.Sorry the misunderstood. My mistake
you have any precautions when it comes to certification requirements? Did you have this in consideration when you´re looking for products?
i saw this article, http://www.chinaimportal.com/aliexpress/, and when i saw the term "lawsuit" it kind put me on alert.
So far i come up with this variables costs
- Shipping
-Paypal/CC fees
-Amazon/ebay Fees.
Am i missing any potential costs ?
I have used their escrow without any problems. I wouldn't use T\T until you have been using a manufacture for an extended period of time and feel comfortable they will not screw you.@Ecom man do you use T\T payments? If so, how do you protect yourself? What's your feeling about Alibaba's escrow service? I've been looking for manufacturers that take Paypal, but I'm finding a lot don't.
If they get caught with multiple accounts eBay will close all of them because that violates their terms.I've noticed that some products look like they have a lot of competitors, but it's actually one guy with multiple accounts. Seems smart but unethical.
Great job seeing through the fog and finding a great product! Way to go!@JustinBoshans I've also seen people list the same product multiple times. I recognized the trick yesterday, and today I was able to find a high-margin product with only two sellers.
I use normal text separated into paragraphs for the description. In my opinion it looks far more professional than all the crazy graphics etc. If people have already clicked into the listing you don't have to draw their attention. You just want to come across as business like and as professional as possible. Give them the info about your product, tell them your guarantees, and give your shipping time. You really don't need much more than that. I don't use a store and the only app i use is eBay's mobile/ipad app.@Ecom man
Quick question for the expert - do you subscribe to an eBay store, or use any eBay app for listing design? I'm evaluating different sellers I see, and there's an INCREDIBLE variety of approaches, sellers with/without a storefront, and ALL levels of design skill (some stores look like they were built in 2002 and never updated)... Any tips here? At what price point did you feel like buyers might start make buying decisions based on seller or store appearance?
I have never used a customs broker. I always have my products sent by DHL or fedex and they take care of customs. I get a quote for an item including express shipment to my door. I let them worry about customs.Hi Ecom man,
Have you used customs broker for importing goods from China. At what point do you think it is best to use customs broker. Do you have any recommendations for customs broker ? Please advise.
Thank you!
A lot of people will quote you a cheap price and then gouge you on the shipping costs. I always ask what is the total price including express shipping via UPS, Fedex, or DHL. That way I can compare the total costs versus other suppliers. Of course, the more you order the cheaper per item shipping will be.This is a very interesting thread and I want to thank you for posting about how to do this. I have been in contact with a supplier from China and am trying to order samples. The items I am ordering are fairly light weight but in the initial quote, the freight charges were astronomical for the actual weight of my product. I just ordered something of similar weight from Aliexpress (totally different product) and my shipping was negligible. Are they trying to scam me with the shipping/ freight charges or is this typical to pay 7x the cost of the actual items in freight? I had heard that you can generally get better prices on shipping if they use their account and roll the shipping charges up in the total amount they want me to send to them.
Ok, so they are probably not quoting me the cheapest shipping cost? The cost they quoted me for a sample of 2 items - weighing about 1.2 lbs total and costing about 10$ was 70$ for freight. I have ordered through aliexpress and for the same weight of product and around same cost (different product), they were able to give me free shipping. I was just curious how they were able to swing the free shipping for a much heavier package as I don't think the margins on the two different products would be all that different. I could see paying 20 or 30 for shipping via DHL or something like that but 70 seems pretty steep. I had them quote the shipping using their account because from what I have read, they are usually able to get better deals on shipping than people using their accounts in the US. Maybe I am making this more difficult than it needs to be This is the first time ordering from a manufacturer on Alibaba.A lot of people will quote you a cheap price and then gouge you on the shipping costs. I always ask what is the total price including express shipping via UPS, Fedex, or DHL. That way I can compare the total costs versus other suppliers. Of course, the more you order the cheaper per item shipping will be.
Yeah $70 is wayyyyyy too much! I have ordered $100 worth of product weighing prob 20 lbs. the $100 included DHL shipping costs. I have run across that tons of times on Alibabaa. I think sellers on there put cheap prices to get attention and then way overcharge shipping to make up for the lower prices. Always get quotes including shipment to your door. That is the best way to compare seller's prices.Ok, so they are probably not quoting me the cheapest shipping cost? The cost they quoted me for a sample of 2 items - weighing about 1.2 lbs total and costing about 10$ was 70$ for freight. I have ordered through aliexpress and for the same weight of product and around same cost (different product), they were able to give me free shipping. I was just curious how they were able to swing the free shipping for a much heavier package as I don't think the margins on the two different products would be all that different. I could see paying 20 or 30 for shipping via DHL or something like that but 70 seems pretty steep. I had them quote the shipping using their account because from what I have read, they are usually able to get better deals on shipping than people using their accounts in the US. Maybe I am making this more difficult than it needs to be This is the first time ordering from a manufacturer on Alibaba.
Again, this thread is awesome!
The above shipping "scam"...I see it every day. I've sampled dozens of products, and 90% of them pull this off. If I love the product and really want to sample it, I call them out on the shipping costs being outrageous (in a nice way) and advise them to check other couriers. Two things happen, either "sorry sir there was a mistake in my shipping quote" or "I tried a different courier and got it for x price". Better yet, if you really don't want to get scammed with shipping, create your own DHL/Fedex account and have them use your account for shipping and pay them the sample fee only. I've tried this myself and for the larger items, the factories get much better shipping rates, but at least you can have something to compare to if you feel like they're taking you for a ride on shipping costs.
Also, some guys will try to charge you 3x the item amount for a sample...you can't get away from that, I've tried. For larger items, I've had to pay 3X the amount or they tell me where to go, they don't have time to waste on me. Sometimes, you have to invest a little in order to avoid losing a lot by buying in bulk a lot of crap which is unsellable. In my experience, maybe 1/5 sample orders are duds, meaning I had to toss them down the shoot.
This is good to know. I just wrote them and asked them why their price is so high. Maybe I will go ahead and open my own account with FedEx or DHL. Thanks!
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