Tips for New Amazon Sellers Importing Goods from China
With e-commerce tools becoming readily accessible and user friendly, budding entrepreneurs have started to take advantage of it and set up their own small scale online retail stores. Platforms such as Amazon have proved to be an excellent tool for such sellers. Moreover, online business directories such as Alibaba has opened more business avenues for such entrepreneurs, who can now import low cost products from other countries and sell them at profitable prices in the local cyber spaces such as Amazon.
Recently, more and smaller scale sellers are joining the Amazon bandwagon and are trying to tap the opportunities that China offers. Unfortunately, many sellers fail to survive this seemingly simple process because they fail to get the hang of the complexities that are prevalent in the Amazon-China business ecosystem. There are a few invisible potholes that many new sellers overlook and in turn end up incurring huge financial losses, and in some cases getting their Amazon seller accounts suspended.
It is important to understand that the business culture in China is very different from that in the west. Moreover, the language barriers make it further complicated to communicate smoothly. The problem escalates when sellers have to rely on Amazon FBA facilities to get their goods processed. Although the FBA facility is there to facilitate sellers, it has some strict protocols that cannot be violated and it becomes difficult for many sellers to strike a balance between Amazon policies and supplier relationships.
If you are a new seller who aspires to import goods from China and sell them on Amazon, there are certain tips that can help you get your orders processed smoothly and survive the competition.
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Be Professional with Specifications
China is currently in an industrialization phase where it is getting a plethora of orders from sellers around the world. This has given them a fine acumen to distinguish between professional and amateur entrepreneurs. If you end up leaving any hints that you are not aware about your product or the supplier market you will be more vulnerable to getting scammed or trapped. Therefore it is important that you do your homework well. Sound professional when you are communicating your product specifications to the suppliers, so that they can know that you know your product inside out. A loosely defined product specification is often judged as amateur.
Don’t be Desperate for Cheap Prices
Everyone goes to China for low cost products. However, a good entrepreneur will never compromise on quality. If you will sound too desperate to buy cheap, good suppliers will move away judging you as a cheap buyer, while at the same time desperate suppliers will try to trap a desperate client with cheap prices but will also deliver cheap quality.
Hire a Source Service
As a newbie in the Chinese market it can be very difficult for you to find a good supplier and strike a good deal. You will have to deal with language barriers, differences in business cultures and practices and finding a real cost benefit with a limited order size. Getting the inventory prepped for Amazon FBA and having it inspected for quality is another deal altogether. For this reason, a wiser route would be to incur some extra cost and entrust a reliable sourcing service such as Leelinesourcing to care of all your import and logistical needs.