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How to Find the Perfect Product to Import from China and Sell Online

Updated in January, 2018 with up to date information for finding products in 2018. 

One of the hardest things for any entrepreneur looking to start an ecommerce business is picking the right product to sell. In today’s ecommerce world the businesses that thrive and survive are those that have their own brands. In this article we’ll discuss how to find products to sell online, how to do research to get estimated sales volume,

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Product Liability and How to Hedge Your Risks When Private Labeling from China

There’s one important thing importers may overlook- you, as the importer, are responsible for all aspects of your products. This includes ensuring that they meet any special regulations and, more importantly, that you are responsible for any product liability issues.

This last point shouldn’t be taken lightly. Imagine someone, let’s say her name is Sally, is using one of the horse saddles that you imported from Shanghai Fine Saddles Inc.

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YiWu Guide: The Largest Wholesale Market in the World

Many importers, even those new to the business, have heard of the twice-yearly Canton Fair in Guangzhou. But less well known is Yiwu, a city home to the largest wholesale market in the world. This market contains nearly 40,000 shops wholesaling nearly every commodity you can think of. One of the best things about it is that they can accommodate very low order sizes – just one or two cartons is completely normal (try requesting that at the Canton Fair!).

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Visiting China for Business: My Goals and Itinerary

This week I am visiting China for 10 days. Originally, me, my wife Chrissy, and our daughter Kayla were scheduled to go for about a month together to see Chrissy’s grandparents, but the pollution in Beijing was far too bad to travel with an 8-month old so the trip has been delayed until later this year. Long story short, I’m traveling alone on this trip.

My itinerary is a bit whirlwind on this trip and includes traveling to Shanghai ->

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Five Tips On How to Deal with Chinese New Year as an Importer

Most seasoned importers have Chinese New Year firmly marked on their calendars. They know that the time leading up to Chinese New Year can do havoc on their shipments and business. The basic mantra is “Expect delays”.

In this article, I’m going to give five tips I’ve learned concerning Chinese New Years. While the basic mantra remains the same, “Expect delays”, I’ll try and give some more specific lessons I’ve learned over the years.

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How to do a Quality Control Inspection (and Why You Need One)

For importers and private labelers, there’s only one thing scarier than hearing the words “poor quality products”: It’s finding out that your shipment has been rejected by Amazon because it wasn’t labeled correctly.

This is why if you’re importing anything from China, you should be familiar with quality control inspections. This might sound intimidating and expensive but they’re both cheap and simple to do. For around $300 for each shipment you can drastically improve the quality of your products and in turn,

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Why Contracts Don’t Matter when Importing from China

We love contracts in the West. We’ve all had a grandparent or other older person remind us “I remember when a handshake meant something”.  And whenever I’m told this, I remind them that in their days they also never had Legal Zoom!

China isn’t necessarily a country frozen in time where handshakes still mean something. However, for smaller importers, contracts with your Supplier are rarely a necessity, at least how we know them in the West.

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Five Dirty Secrets of Importing and Private Labeling

All the books and online courses will exude that importing and private labeling is the most fantastic business ever, without any downsides. It is indeed a wonderful business for entrepreneurs to run but there are dirty secrets to it, like any business.

In this post, I’ll list the five dirty secrets of importing and private labeling rarely talked about. Check back in a couple of weeks, and I’ll have a follow up post on this about the five fantastic secret gems of importing from China.

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Four Considerations When Determining How Much Inventory to Purchase

It’s one of the most critical questions you’ll deal with on a regular basis as an importer: how much inventory do you buy? Often the answer may be a simple ‘whatever the MOQ is’. Other times, the questions become more complicated and involve capital, warehouse space, and sales forecasting.

In this post, we’ll discuss the basic considerations when deciding how much inventory to purchase from a Supplier.

The Most Basic Considerations

Some of the most basic considerations when deciding how much product to purchase from your Supplier are:

  • What’s the minimum amount that the Supplier will allow me to purchase (their MOQ)?
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