Import Products Importing products from China is easy! Just buy them, have them shipped and sell them in your home country, right? Wrong!
Before you are even thinking of importing products from China, you must do your homework and find out which products are actually in demand or will be in demand.
You must also avoid by all means looking for products which are already being imported by large buying organizations like retail chain stores, department stores or specialized importers with their own distribution channels. It will be very difficult to compete with their buying power and their own buying offices in China.
Since it takes usually several months for your products to reach your warehouse, a forward thinking strategy is needed to avoid piling up goods which nobody wants anymore at that time. This kind of evaluation and market research will become your most important task and you have to spent substantial time to figure everything out.
Since my eBooks do not specifically focus on individual products simply because I do not know the background of my readers companies, I will concentrate on teaching you the knowledge which can be universally used for a wide field of different product categories.
This is knowledge of more than 2 decades of working experience in China and not any theoretic stuff.
I believe that most of my readers represent smaller or medium size companies although the knowledge which I want to pass on, will also suit larger companies as well.
After you have done your homework, you will know which products are worthwhile importing and make you a good profit.
... you need to establish your own brand name and packing design concept ...
Unfortunately you still have to do a little bit more homework because you need to establish your own brand name and packing design concept (gift box).
Many importers underestimate the importance of this step and get into trouble later on. Why is it so important to have your own brand name and gift box design?
It has something to do with your corporate image towards Chinese manufacturers and your customers in your home country. It sets you apart from the rest of the crowd. It will also help you to make it more difficult for your competitors to penetrate your home market.
Creating your own gift box design may seem as wasting money since many manufacturers can also provide you with their own (mostly very simple) design at no extra charge. Unfortunately they will provide this service to everyone who is asking for it and these goods may enter your home market without your knowledge. The result would be more competition and you will be unable to achieve your planned profit margin. In other words you wasted a lot of time and money without benefiting from it.
Another reason is that the Chinese Government has implemented quite a lot of restrictions which help to protect you as an importer and prevent the factories to produce and ship branded products to other than the legal owners of this brand.
... there are quite tough laws in China which help to protect intellectual property rights ...
Yes, there are quite tough laws in China which help to protect intellectual property rights and even to assure that the quality of the produced goods is not sub-standard. Most importers think that China is still the “Wild West” but that is not so anymore. China has become a member of the WTO and had to comply with the demands of the major trading countries.
I remember very well one case during which the Chinese Authorities imposed the closure of one medium size steam iron manufacturer for more than 4 weeks after one person in Greece had been killed using their faulty product.
During that period the factory was subject to an extensive evaluation and was completely turned upside down until they could guarantee the safety of their products
