Is it risky to import electrical goods from Ali Express?

[adnans]

I'm specifically thinking of lamps. How dangerous is it to sell them in the US/EU market? Anyone has experience selling anything electrical from china?

 

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[maverick]

DYOR

 

[adnans]

DYOR

This post is part of my doing research mate

 

[maverick]

Your question is very general. Hence me being harsh.

Are there people that import lamps from China and sell them on EU/US market? Yes of course.
Is it risky to just pull a random lamp of AliExpress and sell it on the EU/US market? Yes of course.

 

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[adnans]

Your question is very general. Hence me being harsh.

Are there people that import lamps from China and sell them on EU/US market? Yes of course.
Is it risky to just pull a random lamp of AliExpress and sell it on the EU/US market? Yes of course.

It isn't a very general question actually, and even if it is, still doesn't make sense for you to be harsh.

Nevertheless, I just wanted assurance of someone who perhaps import electrical goods on the regular and had little to no problem.

 

[eramart]

I think this might be useful (at least it will give some food for thought): Entering the European market for decorative lighting | CBI

 

[Walter Hay]

Nevertheless, I just wanted assurance of someone who perhaps import electrical goods on the regular and had little to no problem.

Whatever product you want to import for resale, don't look on Aliexpress for it. Here are a few reasons:

• Aliexpress is a retail site so you will pay more.
• A lot of products sold there are bought from places like 1688.com where sellers are disposing of rejects.
• You will often find it impossible to get continuity of supply.

It is obviously not the way to start an eCommerce business that can build a good reputation.

Walter

 

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[LeszekM]

Why you ask if it is dangerous? Think about all sales process, follow your country law&requirements and apply below.

If you check your product, you are sure about quality, you meet all requirements of your sales chanel i.e Amazon required certificates, you receive positive feedback from your customers it won't be dangerous.

 

[deliux]

I'm specifically thinking of lamps. How dangerous is it to sell them in the US/EU market? Anyone has experience selling anything electrical from china?

I would not advise you to use Aliexpress as supplier for electronic products. There are some type of buyers who asks for safety certificates that are required in specific country and most of those sellers do not have it. It most likely will cause you extra problems in future.

Whatever product you want to import for resale, don't look on Aliexpress for it. Here are a few reasons:

• Aliexpress is a retail site so you will pay more.
• A lot of products sold there are bought from places like 1688.com where sellers are disposing of rejects.
• You will often find it impossible to get continuity of supply.

It is obviously not the way to start an eCommerce business that can build a good reputation.

Walter

Walter, I do not aggree with you. You will pay little more, but you can buy lower amount. Regarding the quality of products you can allways chech other people feedback and info about seller. And beuty of Chinese manufacturers is that everybody copy everybody. If product is not available in one of stores, you almost can be sure that there are at least 2 other sellers selling same product.

 

[Walter Hay]

I would not advise you to use Aliexpress as supplier for electronic products. There are some type of buyers who asks for safety certificates that are required in specific country and most of those sellers do not have it. It most likely will cause you extra problems in future.

Walter, I do not aggree with you. You will pay little more, but you can buy lower amount. Regarding the quality of products you can allways chech other people feedback and info about seller. And beuty of Chinese manufacturers is that everybody copy everybody. If product is not available in one of stores, you almost can be sure that there are at least 2 other sellers selling same product.

Aliexpress and Alibaba are constantly changing. On Alibaba you can now buy smaller quantities than ever before.

By way of example I checked out prices for a current "hot seller" and this is what I found:

Aliexpress MOQ 1 piece @ $39.60 to $70.03 Freight $7
Alibaba MOQ 1 piece @ $4.70 each Freight subject to quote
Alibaba MOQ 200 pieces with custom logo $4.95 each. Freight for 200 $48.91

WARNING! Suppliers on both Aliexpress and Alibaba use Alibaba.com Freight. Here is part of what I say on this subject in the 2021 edition of my book ProvenGlobalSourcing:
"The big problem I have with this section of Alibaba is that they have patched together their flawed physical products suppliers rating system and the flawed Trade Assurance scheme and in my opinion the setup is not effective in helping an importer make a proper evaluation.

A two or three word commendation appears in quotes, with a number, which probably means the number of customers who have said what is quoted. It seems unlikely that 45 people coincidentally all said “Fantastic service” for one provider and 76 people coincidentally all said “Fast delivery” about another supplier."

There will almost always be many more than 2 suppliers on Aliexpress selling the same products. For the product I checked out there were more than 70 suppliers. There were also scores of suppliers for the same product on Alibaba. This is not a good thing. It simply means that many more people will find the same product and offer it for sale along with hundreds of others competing with them on eBay or Amazon.

Walter

 

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[Walter Hay]

Why you ask if it is dangerous? Think about all sales process, follow your country law&requirements and apply below.

If you check your product, you are sure about quality, you meet all requirements of your sales chanel i.e Amazon required certificates, you receive positive feedback from your customers it won't be dangerous.

You make it sound so easy, but there are risks that you are obviously not aware of.

In particular, the ""required certificates" needed to satisfy Amazon and others and also to reduce your product liability risks are very often forgeries when provided by suppliers in China.

See post #536 in my AMA thread:

GOLD! Sharing my lifetime experience in export/import. Product sourcing specialist.​

Walter ​

 

[Walter Hay]

My post #11 above included a link to my AMA where I posted regarding forged certificates.

If you check your product, you are sure about quality, you meet all requirements of your sales chanel i.e Amazon required certificates, you receive positive feedback from your customers it won't be dangerous.

"Checking your product" needs to be done before the products you ordered are shipped to you. If they are faulty you will have lost your money for the following reasons:

• If you complain to the seller on Aliexpress they will require you to return the product to them. Freight cost will be at your expense, possibly costing more than the product.
• Sellers on Aliexpress are notorious for saying that they did not receive the goods that you say you returned. (It gets lost in the mail!)

If you check out genuine review sites for comments by people who have bought from suppliers on Aliexpress you will find many sad stories of money lost.

If you buy from suppliers on Alibaba, and rely on their Trade Assurance scheme for the safety of your money, you need to know that the scheme is intended to make you feel that you can trust the suppliers, but in practice it is almost impossible to get a refund.

Do a search here on the forum for my posts on Trade Assurance and you will learn how risky it is to rely on that scheme.

Walter Hay

 

[LeszekM]

My post #11 above included a link to my AMA where I posted regarding forged certificates.

"Checking your product" needs to be done before the products you ordered are shipped to you. If they are faulty you will have lost your money for the following reasons:

• If you complain to the seller on Aliexpress they will require you to return the product to them. Freight cost will be at your expense, possibly costing more than the product.
• Sellers on Aliexpress are notorious for saying that they did not receive the goods that you say you returned. (It gets lost in the mail!)

If you check out genuine review sites for comments by people who have bought from suppliers on Aliexpress you will find many sad stories of money lost.

If you buy from suppliers on Alibaba, and rely on their Trade Assurance scheme for the safety of your money, you need to know that the scheme is intended to make you feel that you can trust the suppliers, but in practice it is almost impossible to get a refund.

Do a search here on the forum for my posts on Trade Assurance and you will learn how risky it is to rely on that scheme.

Walter Hay

Thanks Walter i have never thought about such forgeries. I read your post #536 in your AMA thread it opens my eyes. Our local marketplace is now not so restricted in that maybe that is why i told like it is so easy.
Products we provide do AMAZON was fully manufacture in our country so, all certificates were created here and AMAZON accept it.

I agree that checking product needs to be done before i order the shipment but i can check a sample quality before. For me it is huge trip to visit our suppliers in China and verify all, the range of my business is not adequate for this right now i think.

Trade Assurance scheme always makes me feel safer and but i have never used it. I think i wasn't aware of such troubles when you want to apply for Trade Assurance. If there was a problem with another order quality or other technical issues:

1. I return goods to supplier which i agree was very time and money consuming, so i decided it is not a good scheme to practice.
2. I count how many returns we have during the each month period and I negotiate with supplier to receive an extra 3% of goods from each delivery as a "spare parts" to fill any broken units.

 

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[deliux]

My post #11 above included a link to my AMA where I posted regarding forged certificates.

"Checking your product" needs to be done before the products you ordered are shipped to you. If they are faulty you will have lost your money for the following reasons:

• If you complain to the seller on Aliexpress they will require you to return the product to them. Freight cost will be at your expense, possibly costing more than the product.
• Sellers on Aliexpress are notorious for saying that they did not receive the goods that you say you returned. (It gets lost in the mail!)

If you check out genuine review sites for comments by people who have bought from suppliers on Aliexpress you will find many sad stories of money lost.

If you buy from suppliers on Alibaba, and rely on their Trade Assurance scheme for the safety of your money, you need to know that the scheme is intended to make you feel that you can trust the suppliers, but in practice it is almost impossible to get a refund.

Do a search here on the forum for my posts on Trade Assurance and you will learn how risky it is to rely on that scheme.

Walter Hay

Too dramatic. I have been selling for a while from Aliexpress and if seller ask to ship item back they provide return lable with tracking number. But in 90% of situations if there is something wrong (some times even if buyer is not happy with the purchase) they issue refund with no return request. And in those cases that they refuse to do so. You always can open ghe case on Aliexpress. Platform is build on concept "buyer almos always right". Sometimes I even feel wrong for those sellers

 

[LeszekM]

Too dramatic. I have been selling for a while from Aliexpress and if seller ask to ship item back they provide return lable with tracking number. But in 90% of situations if there is something wrong (some times even if buyer is not happy with the purchase) they issue refund with no return request. And in those cases that they refuse to do so. You always can open ghe case on Aliexpress. Platform is build on concept "buyer almos always right". Sometimes I even feel wrong for those sellers

That is another source when i heard that on Aliexpress if there is something wrong seller used to refund money.
Last week my college order backpack for Notebook 17", the backpack was to small definitely it was for 13". They return money very fast without resending it to seller.