How To Import To Sell Online

This post is aimed at people thinking about importing from abroad and then looking to sell online or even off line but mainly for online sellers of physical goods

i am going to write about the different aspects related to importing and the best ways of doing it, it will hopefully be detailed and concise and maybe even help someone who is deciding to import from abroad for the first time

Step one would be to decide what you need to import to sell, the best items to sell are items in a niche market with a few sellers, i guess this is the most important part of the business. If you find the right lines to sell you will be laughing all the way to the bank

If you sell items which are very common you will be stung by low margins and a competitive market so its best to find items which are unique and sold by few people, i know this sounds difficult but it is where you need to do your homework

Once you have decided on what to sell, you will then move on to sourcing your products. This can be anywhere in the world, with todays global market think globally, at the moment China is a hot spot for goods but other markets such as india, and sri lanka are also providing many exports such as clothing and textiles

When sourcing products the best thing would be to visit your supplier, however if you do not have a passport or the stomach for this you can use websites like Ali Baba which provide a huge database of sellers with feedbacks

When you have found the right seller, now comes the negotiating part, first try and see if you can get some samples, there is no point in making a huge order just to find out the item is totally wrong, uncompatible with your countries voltages, or even just bad quality

by getting samples you can narrow down to some good suppliers to make a test order

when you are ready to play your first order, you will usually find the more items you purchase the cheaper the individual items costs, this is called economies of scale

you do not have to import millions of one item to begin with, you can start by bringing in hundreds, just to test the waters

at this stage it is best to ask your supplier to quote you for both the cost of the items and the cost of shipping, your imports will be liable for customs clearance and also duty and taxes, so it is best to get a price with all this included then you know at what price you have to sell to break even and make a profit

when importing always be careful of the shipping costs, you have to research the customs clearance agent fees and also the duty and taxes to be paid

if you are importing large quantities then you will need to use a container always watch out for LCL (Less then container load) shipments this is where you pay for space on a container without renting the whole container, if the shipping costs are too good to be true then dont ship with that person. If you get to this stage of your business then its best to get professional advice on which "incoterms" to ship on

when making payments for your goods a good way to be safe is to obtain a letter of credit or use an escrow service this will insure you against any fraudulent sellers who will take payment and then not send the goods, most international trade is done through letter of credits

once you have found your items to sell imported them over and have them at hand you are ready for the final hurdle which is to sell them online, i am sure there are many threads on here which give good points on how to sell online

i just wrote this up to give an idea how the importing side of things are done

if you have any questions please ask awayI

 

To sell online has never been so easy you just have to create a profile and to post your products, for any problem use online help option. There are many global B2B portal available for selling your products all over the globe, one major portal is Mangob2b which help you to import products from various countries.