importing from east to sell in west

andydiysaver

Just been looking (mainly for fun at this stage) at importing and selling on Ebay - I've seen the potential in it because you only need to have the sites open side by side to see the honest reselling and not so honest reselling ( and at the worse end of it fake branded reselling) of goods bought in far east - i.e. goods on alibaba, on ebay marked up en masse.


I don't find it hard to do all the costing, and so made a little spreadsheet which gets from FOB price to margin, - and then I ran those numbers through the sheet I did with a few examples on what might be highly sought after items, mainly at Alibaba to Ebay/Amazon. What I find would challenge me and most people more is sourcing of an effective line which after costing and sufficient marking up, makes the profit at the other end. Esp with changing fads/trends.


Having experimented in this in the past a little more than my half day surf session today, It's my opinion that despite fees generally it's still viable despite the horrific final value and paypal fees if it's costed properly from the start, but because of those fees an increasing level of creativity needs to be applied to start to finish supply chain - specific considerations


1.Obv numbers are key - if you don't mark it up enough you'll lose on the fees/import duty


2.competition is pretty substantial most categories - but you don't want saturated markets. You want as unique as possible, bearing in mind all markets are represented to some degree


3. stay away from brands unless you're selling the brands (not fake stuff as the brands)


4. go for cheap light imports, postage/import levies are enemy all the way along supply chain


5. obv bulk is advantage, but stay focussed, sell the samples, see how they do, don't just jump in on a bulk order or your customers might find the defect and you might pay for it


6. (opinion only) the profits these days seem to be from literal expansion of words like "bespoke" - this could be as simple as buying a good from one place and a box for it from another- making the unique selling point. Once this is done, you've got a limited time (if it sells well) before you're copied.


7. People like familiarity - What sells well is brands. So the best type of product to sell if you're importing is something where a brand doesn't matter so much. I'd go so far as suggesting that if your import is boxed unfamiliarly, box it neutrally so it's nearer to a brand by look than something completely unfamiliar.


What does everyone think ?

Buzby

Tax and duties in small quantities can swallow most profit margin, and the clearance fees will put a final nail into coffin - yet to don't mention taking this into account. If you think PayPal is bad, there's more to come.

*Jelly_Tots*

bump. interested in hearing what peeps think....

soolin

*Jelly_Tots* wrote: »

bump. interested in hearing what peeps think....

You'll find a number of people already do this. As per the OP though the trick is to calculate all costs including stock which does not sell, returns (as a business buyers can return things if they change their mind), income tax and National Insurance.