so i recently received a comment from a
subscriber that asked me to make a video
breaking down the entire process of how
to import a product from china and what
happens during the entire process for
you to receive the products to your door
and that's exactly what i'm going to be
doing in today's video let's go
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what's going on people welcome back to
my channel if you're new my name is sam
and what i do here is break down various
different tips and tricks to help you
make money online but in today's video
what i'm going to be doing is walking
you through the whole process everything
you need to know from start to finish
when it comes to finding a supplier and
receiving the products to your front
door i'm gonna break down everything
when it comes to importing products from
china now if you're new to my channel
and you're not aware i've been buying
and selling products from china for the
past nine years now so i've got a lot of
experience when it comes to finding the
best supplier and the whole process that
you're going to need to know as a
complete beginner so make sure you stick
around to the very end there's going to
be so much value in it as always i don't
waste any more time i want to get
straight into the video so if you do
find any value in the video at any point
don't forget to press the like button
don't forget to subscribe as well hit
the bell notification let's jump
straight into it okay so first things
first what you need to do is contact
suppliers now there's various different
ways that you can find suppliers the
website that i like to use is
alibaba.com i've been using them now for
the past
six seven eight years when it comes to
finding suppliers to source me with the
products i want to sell on my e-commerce
stores whether it's ebay amazon shopify
i always go to alibaba first to find a
supplier now there's other ways that you
can find suppliers you can either find
them locally within your own country or
you can use different websites to find
various different suppliers that are
based in china and other places around
the world but the website that i've used
for the past few years is alibaba.com
now i'm going to quickly go through and
show you exactly what you need to do
when it comes to using it first things
first you're going to come on the
homepage just like this and you're going
to type in an item that you're looking
for so i'm going to use the first item
that comes to my head just so that i can
point out a couple things that you need
to be aware of okay so the item that
we're going to be using in today's
example is hair trimmer so when it comes
to finding a supplier for the product
that you want to source ideally i like
to look for supplies that have been
there for a minimum of five or four
years the longer that the supplier has
been on alibaba the more reliable
they're going to be in terms of the
quality of their service the quality of
their products so make sure that you
look out for the amount of years that
the supply has been on alibaba.com
there's a few other things that you can
look out for as well for example whether
or not they're verified now what this
means is that a third-party company has
gone to the suppliers warehouse or
factory to make sure that they're real
and make sure that all of the
documentation that they gave to alibaba
is real so you might want to also go
with a supplier that's verified but
there's a few other things that you need
to look out for so i'm going to link a
video at the end that's going to break
down everything you need to know before
contacting a supplier on alibaba.com so
moving on to the second step which is
that you need to decide on one supplier
and from there they're going to send you
a pro forma invoice so once you've
contacted a few suppliers you're not
just going to contact one you're going
to contact multiple i like to contact
every single supplier that is selling
the particular product that i'm looking
for and what i'm going to do is ask them
specific questions like for example
questions about the quality of the item
how long it's going to take for them to
ship it the lead time some other
important information i'm going to
contact various different suppliers and
ask them all of these different
questions and depending on various
different factors i'm either going to
continue communicating with some of the
suppliers that i've contacted or i'm
going to completely stop communicating
with others and the reason why i might
completely stop talking to some of them
is going to be dependent on how long
they take to apply their english because
i want to be able to make sure that i'm
going to be able to communicate with
them so if they've got poor english then
i may not want to use that supplier it
also might be dependent on their prices
and it might be dependent on so many
other things but i'm gonna focus on the
ones that are in the maybe column and
those ones what i'm gonna do now is
assess their pro forma invoices now for
those of you that don't know what a pro
forma invoice is this is gonna be an
invoice that's gonna have your name your
address it's also gonna have your eori
number on it too as well as the prices
of the items that you're buying and the
name of the item that you're buying and
the total amount including the shipping
so it's very important that you make
sure to look through the entire pro
format invoice and make sure everything
is correct now in terms of the eori
number this is something that you're
going to need to apply for beforehand
and it's a code that hmrc is going to
give you for you to be able to import
from overseas and it's something that
you need to apply for if you're planning
on importing products with the intention
of reselling them now it's very easy to
get you're just going to go onto the gov
website and go through this page read
through it make sure you have a full
understanding of why you need it so make
sure you go through this website make
sure you read through all of it and then
from there you're now going to be able
to apply for the eori number you're
gonna give that to your supplier you're
gonna see on your performance invoice
and then from there once you've checked
the invoice you've made sure that
everything is okay you make sure that
all of your details are correct your
mobile phone number is there just in
case the shipping company needs to
contact you make sure that all the
details on the invoice are correct from
there you're now going to make payment
it's very important to know before
sending any money to any supplier in
china that you use a payment service
that you're going to be able to request
a charge back if there's any issues the
service that i like to use is trade
assurance trade assurance is something
that alibaba offers so you're able to do
it directly from alibaba.com you simply
need to ask the supplier if they accept
trade assurance if they do i would
suggest using it because it's good when
it comes to the exchange rates and it's
also good if you have any issues because
you're going to be able to contact
alibaba within i believe two weeks after
receiving your products and let them
know if you've got any issues and
they'll be able to raise a dispute for
you and then deal with it that way and
advocate your money back or either offer
you some different products but at least
you've got some sort of option to get
your money back the method that i used
to use before is paypal now i still use
paypal now and then it all depends on
the exchange rates because paypal you're
also able to get a chargeback as well if
there's any issues but the only issue
with paypal is that the exchange rates
are a little bit high and i've noticed
the alibaba trade assurance is a little
bit low the payment services that you
shouldn't use is things like western
union or a direct bank transfer you
shouldn't use anything that you're not
going to be able to get your money back
once you've sent it it's very important
to know as a beginner because you don't
want to end up losing money at the
beginning of your business because it's
going to discourage you from wanting to
continue growing it this is what
happened to me i sent money to a
supplier using western union when i
first started i had issues with the
products and i wasn't able to get my
money back so make sure you bear this in
mind once you're at this stage when it
comes to sending money to your supplier
now moving on to step four which is that
the supplier will give your products to
a forwarder so the way that it's worked
over the years that i've been using
suppliers in china is that the supplier
will give the products to a freight
forwarder and then the freight forwarder
will now give it to the shipping company
so the folder is a middleman and it
basically connects the supplier to the
shipping companies so during my years of
importing products from china i've never
ever had any communication with a
freight forwarder before i've already
spoken to the supplier and the supplier
has direct communication with the
freight forwarder and they're going to
give all your information in terms of
your name your address all the
information on the pro forma they're
going to give it to the freight
forwarder and then the freight folder is
going to pass your information as well
as the package over to the shipping
companies now in china there's various
different shipping companies that you
can use but the ones that i've used is
fedex ups dhl maybe ems sometimes tnt
these are some of the main shipping
companies that i've used when it comes
to importing stuff from china into the
uk and bear in mind i only like to focus
on importing products through air
freight i don't like to do it through
c48 because there's two ways that you're
going to be able to import your products
from china you can either use air
delivery or sea delivery which means
that if you use air delivery it's going
to come on the plane and it's going to
take a quicker time for you to receive
your goods however if you use sea
delivery it's going to take way longer
it's going to take maybe 30 days 45 days
for you to receive your products but
it's a little bit cheaper when it comes
to the shipping cost so for me
personally i like to use air delivery
because i believe it's a little bit more
quicker and a little bit more efficient
and i just prefer doing it that way but
if you want to use c freight you can
also let your supplier know and they're
going to be able to give it to the
forwarder who's now going to give it to
the c company so that's something you
need to bear in mind once you're on step
number four
moving on to the fifth step which is
that the shipping company will send you
an invoice so whichever shipping company
the freight forwarder is going to give
your products to once they receive it
and once they process it through their
system they're going to send you an
invoice now this invoice is going to
consist of different fees that you're
going to need to pay but it's going to
be mainly import fees and duty fees
which is going to be all of the taxes
that you're going to have to pay when it
comes to importing a product from china
into your country you're not going to
have to pay any shipping fees to the
shipping company this would have already
been paid to the supplier when they send
you the pro forma invoice you're gonna
pay for the products as well as the
shipping however to the shipping company
you're gonna pay the import taxes and
charges now some companies they will
send you the invoice and they will need
the money before they actually deliver
the product so they will hold your
products before they actually deliver it
to you however some other ones will
deliver the products to you and then
they'll send you an invoice in the post
and then you're gonna need to pay it
within 30 days or a certain amount of
time and it's very important to make
sure that you pay this invoice as soon
as possible because what most people
will do is that they'll try to ignore it
but if you do that you're going to get
blacklisted and the delivery company is
not going to deliver to you or what
they're going to do is hold all of your
future shipments so i like to pay the
invoices straight away to avoid any
delays with any future shipments that
i'm expecting now if you want to know
how much you should expect to pay in
import duty and taxes there's a website
that i've been using over the years
which is called simply duty it's free to
use but you're only going to get around
five free calculations per day now the
way that it works is that you're gonna
enter the country that you're importing
from so in this case we're importing
from china and the currency that we're
using just to make it simple is usd and
we're importing to the united kingdom
again just to keep it simple let's put
usd and then you're going to enter the
product that you're selling now it's
very important to make sure that you put
an accurate description of your product
so that this website is going to be able
to tell you the amount of taxes that
you're going to have to pay because if
you're not aware different products have
different tariffs and different rates
when it comes to how much the government
is going to charge you but just to make
this video simple i'm going to put
bluetooth
speaker and let's say the product value
in terms of the unit cost of the item
that you're ordering is five dollars and
you're ordering only 10 pieces shipping
costs we're going to put 50
and we're going to leave insurance at
zero and then we're going to click on
calculate import duty and taxes so as
you can see it's showing us that we're
only going to have to pay 20 usd in
terms of the vat that we're going gonna
have to pay and we're not gonna have to
pay any duty because it's under the
threshold in terms of the numbers that i
put into the calculator so it's very
important to make sure that you check
this website before importing any
products if you are beginner because i
used to use it at the start every single
time i imported the product because i
didn't really know what to expect in
terms of the amount that i needed to pay
however now because i've imported so
many products i kind of have an idea of
how much the v80 and the duty is gonna
be
and then finally moving on to step six
is that you're gonna receive your
shipment five to ten days later so in
terms of this estimate that i just put
right here it's going to be dependent on
what shipping company you use some
shipping companies are quicker than
others for example i know that fedex
sometimes can be really quick however
ups is sometimes quicker than fedex dhl
might take a little bit longer but
sometimes they're quick too so it all
depends on the shipping company and it
all depends on what's going on in the
world at that time if there's nothing
happening then sometimes it's a lot more
quicker because it all depends on how
many planes they have available as well
like for example right now the world is
going through a little bit of a crisis
in terms of the whole russia and ukraine
issues that are happening and that's
having a ripple effect on various
different parts of the economy in terms
of fuel and in terms of things like that
so it's affected the way that shipping
companies are able to do stuff however
if anything is normal in the world and
nothing's happening then it's a lot more
quicker so it all depends on you know
various different factors but over the
many years of me importing stuff from
china sometimes it can take two days if
i send the money to the supplier on the
first day i may receive my products on a
monday however other times even if
there's nothing happening in the world i
may receive my products two weeks later
so this is something you need to be
mindful of before you send the money
just make sure that you get the tracking
number from the supplier so that you're
able to monitor it every single day
because there may be an issue where the
package is held up in a specific country
for example there's been multiple
shipments that i've ordered where the
package has been held up in dubai for
whatever reason or it's been held up in
hong kong or various different parts of
the world and then i need to call up and
get the problem sorted so it's very
important to make sure that you monitor
the tracking every single day and make
sure that it's not being held up in a
specific country because if it is you're
going to be able to raise a case and
then from there they're going to be able
to look into it for you and possibly
help you locate the package so those are
the basic steps that you need to be
aware of if you're a beginner that's
looking to import products from china
into your own country now there's so
much more that goes into it i made a
video recently breaking down a lot of
the things that you need to know a lot
of the little details that you need to
be aware of so i'm going to leave that
video right there make sure you watch
that video straight after this video
because it's going to give you a better
insight of what you need to do when it
comes to finding the best supplier and
sending your money to them in the best
possible way and if you enjoyed this
video don't forget to press the like
button don't forget to subscribe as well
hit the bell notification so that
youtube can let you know when a new
video has been released and if you want
me to make a video answering your
comment and giving you advice on what
you need help with put in the comments
down below and i'll add it to my list of
videos that i'm working on and if you
want to watch a webinar that i made
recently where i broke down my story of
how i went from 0 to three thousand
dollars per day in sales building up my
e-commerce business then click the first
link in the description down below
alright guys i'll see you on the next
one make sure you stay safe out there
peace
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you