Importing from China 101 - help a complete newbie!

Alibaba is the ecommerce site to look at for what you want. But do note that it's unrealistic to expect these business networkings to all easily be solved through passive searching.

Many suppliers for your product may not be found online at all. And no, there is no easy solution I can point you toward.

I used to spend weeks developing these business relationships and lots of long distance calls china and thereabouts. Don't expect it to be as easy as finding this site, but if you do Alibaba is the main site for this kind of problem.



No. The answers will vary from person to person, from location to location, from port to port, and from year to year.

And because of how low-tech the logisttics industry currently is, you should again expect to do a lot of time on the phones to get your logistics solutions.

A starting point is that word itself: "logistics".

You may want to find a consultant for these logistic issues you want to learn about.

If you want to avoid costly mistakes, don't expect to save a lot of money on the first runs.

You will want to get a reputable logistics firm that handles it all for you while you learn.

Later on, you can piece together the parts of logistics separately, but in the beginning use a consolidated service.

Furthermore, ask questions (again, expect to spend time on phones). Logistics is a busy world and people won't tend to explain things to you unless you ask.

Shop around for your logistics needs and ask ask ask...

FBB,

If you are still interested in finding sources in China, please drop me an email at [email protected], I can be help.


Peter

It is really difficult at beginning .
How to find the manufactures,many manufactures havnt English version website or even a webside.
I havnt any experiences with logistics but I have the ecperiencs with manufactures,I think the best way is email.
and I agree with Craven de Kere .there is not a book has all the info.you must learn from the process.

After you do your initial research through Alibaba, you will probably need to visit manufacturers overseas to really understand the difference. Communication is difficult through email and I barely even try the phone.

My recommendation is to pay attention to those that pay good attention to you. Most likely, these are the right people. Short list the best ones and take a trip to China or I imagine you can find a reputable broker. And you should probably focus on manufacturers with head offices in Hong Kong or other more English speaking countries. They can still have factories in China, but working with people headquartered in Hong Kong makes a lot of difference.

Besides Alibaba, the best way to get contacts/sources is from other people in the US. Ask other people you know or people in the business you can get to know who their favorite manufacturers are.

There's a lot to learn but if you have a product that you really believe in then you'll enjoy it too. But make sure you understand that getting the design and manufacturing done, although complicated, is still half or probably less than half of the real work.. which is distribution.

Manufacturers' info in China is not very organized. Chinese yellow page on web site does not release commercial info to public. Factories pay Alibaba to put ads on it. Actually, Alibaba.com.cn has much much more information than Alibaba.com. But it is in Chinese.

I got many factories and trading info from Alibaba.com.cn and its forum. Most Chinese factories are located in Zhejiang and Guangdong provinces.
I think the best way is spending some time to find a reliable rep in China if you do not take Chinese. Beginning with small quantity, little by little.

There are good reps in mainland of China. Also many large factories have salespersons taking English.