8 Reasons Online Sellers Should Consider Importing from China

Most new online sellers hope and dream they can find a magical supplier down the road who will sell them their goods for substantially less than they are currently selling them for on eBay or Amazon.  However… rarely does this ever happen.  If a seller does find this secret seller, we can only wish them good luck on finding another similar opportunity!

The secret to making high profits not just on eBay however all businesses and not having to work your tail off, is to  “working smarter and not harder”.  That is, to buy items at the lowest possible price and make high profits as opposed to making skinny profits and needing to sell 10 times more of the same product to make the same profit. Buying direct from the source with no middlemen is one way to do this.

Here are 8 reasons online sellers should at least, “consider” importing items from suppliers in China.

1. First world countries simply do not produce anywhere near as many items as they used to.  With the high cost of labour in first world countries, we simply cannot compete with the low cost of labour in countries like China. We just need to look around to see how many items around us are made in China.
2. The market wants what the market wants.  If buyers want Chinese items, our job as sellers is to scratch their itch and supply what they want.
3. Finding products in China is so much easier than it ever has been with sites like Alibaba, Global sources, DHGate etc. My favourite is Alibaba, however everybody has their own favourite.  Alibaba is now bigger than Amazon and eBay put together!  If it is available in China, it’s on Alibaba. ( Do check out our China Sourcing Guide )
4. Security. Alibaba has gold ratings for their sellers, just like eBay has a feedback system for their sellers.  Chinese suppliers on Alibaba do a lot to keep their ratings just like sellers on Amazon or eBay have to.  If you only purchase from Alibaba Gold rated suppliers, you significantly reduce your risks.  “Touch wood”, we have never lost a cent on a Chinese supplier ripping us off.
5. Variety – There are literally hundreds of thousands of items if not millions of items to choose from and you can do all your research from the comfort of your favourite chair. I have been to more fairs in China than I choose to remember.  However these days with sites like Alibaba,  I do not see any point in taking a week off to attend them.
6. Many people worry that sellers from China can beat them on price and shipping and yes they can, however… only on small items which fit into a small or large “letter”. Letters are cheap to post from China, however parcels are expensive to post.  The way to win this war is to import parcel size items via cheap sea freight. Yes it takes longer, however personally I prefer profit than to speed.  Sure DHL is lightening quick at getting parcels from China to most countries in 3 days, however DHL can cost 10 times as much as sea freight.
7. Middlemen.  If an eBay seller can make a profit buying from a middleman located in their country, they could potentially double their profits and more by importing direct from the supplier and chopping out the middleman.
8. Less competition.  Importing will not be everybody’s cup of tea and there are always going to be many less importers than all the sellers.  Less competition of course equals higher profits.

As mentioned, importing may not suit everyone, especially importing via sea. Like everything new and unknown, it can be daunting at first, new skills needs to be learnt, however the rewards can be well worth it.  The more skills required, the more people are scared off, so it can be a fertile playing field for those who persevere.

Needless to say, ForwardToFBA provides prep and forwarding service which can be used to either forward your shipments to Amazon FBA or You can directly fulfill your eBay customer orders by using ForwardToFBA Direct-to-Customer Service. ForwardToFBA automates the time consuming packing and shipping to customer giving you more free time to research and source more products and grow your business exponentially