Business Advice Required. Buying and Selling Goods

We went to see some people in australia who had made a new product and secured exclusive rights to sell it in the UK. We then went straight to china, where they're made and secured a nice shipping deal. Then we came home and took delivery of a couple of thousand units. We double the price and they flew off the shelves so fast that we have now almost trippled it and are doing great trade. At this rate, we can afford to sell a lot cheaper and turn a profit, should the need arise.

The point I am trying to make is you need to meet you suppliers and secure decent deals not just on the product, and then price for the market. we underestimated it, and it was a ballache to up the price. It's much easier to reduce the price of a product, but don't go in too high else you'll put people off straight away.

This is a bit of tight rope really, it's not easy to get it right in one go.

Best of luck with whatever you're importing though!
 
shoes said:
We went to see some people in australia who had made a new product and secured exclusive rights to sell it in the UK. We then went straight to china, where they're made and secured a nice shipping deal. Then we came home and took delivery of a couple of thousand units. We double the price and they flew off the shelves so fast that we have now almost trippled it and are doing great trade. At this rate, we can afford to sell a lot cheaper and turn a profit, should the need arise.

The point I am trying to make is you need to meet you suppliers and secure decent deals not just on the product, and then price for the market. we underestimated it, and it was a ballache to up the price. It's much easier to reduce the price of a product, but don't go in too high else you'll put people off straight away.

This is a bit of tight rope really, it's not easy to get it right in one go.

Best of luck with whatever you're importing though!
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can you say what it is?
 
Ok, some rules/facts

1. Most branded items that you see on chinese wholesale websites are fake.
2. If its too good to be true it normally is
3. If you are unsure about the supplier then contact them, find out about them and there location and how quickly they reply to your questions.


Also there are no hard and fast rules as to how much you can mark up.

Different sectors have different margins.

Also money is made by selling in volumes.

I've researched a lot about wholesalers and selling on the bay but after all the fees and the competition it wasn't worth the risk.
 
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I know what I'm buying and I've got samples, nothing dodgy about it.

It's a great product and lots of fun but with small margins it's not worth the work due to reletivly small amount of units per year, hopefully a good deal can be made with the UK distributor and I'll be back on track, waiting to hear.
 
Best bet is to contact the factory and pay them a visit, see what deal they'll give you. Shipping from China is quite competitive these days depending on volume/method of course.

Although depending what you buy in China, QC can be a pain - there's a lot of crap stock out there.

I don't buy that much there but do try and visit every few months to make sure all the stuff is up to scratch, and to resolve any problems that turn up. And I know a few people who speak Mandarin/Cantonese and English which helps a bit for sure.
 
As said it depends on the product.

We have things we import from China at £11 including import duty and shipping but retails for £85 in the uk.

I am sure I have heard that electronic stuff is 300% markup but not sure on that.

I saw a think on tv once about the poundshop things and the buyer for them was buying stuff in bulk in China for 11p and then they sell for a pound (of course there is shop and staff costs to come off that markup)

Equally I aware of very large quantity products sold by one of our customers where they sell 1.2 million per day but the markup is only 6% but at that volume they make enough to cover their overheads and make a reasonable profit.

So there is no rule of thumb however, selling for double before your costs and time doesnt seem like enough unless you can easily shift 1000's every month.
 
Cheers Greebo

How long does it take to ship from china? 2-3week? Are slots booked way in advance? So if I made an order today, would I get on the next ship or in say 1 month when the next free slot is?

Issue is if I buy from china I'd most likely have to buy my estimated full years supply in one go, which I don't have the money for and if I can't frequently order smaller orders I'm stuck. Tricky.
 
All margin is done before VAT. Margins vary massively between products, products groups and overall business models and competition.

It is a very vague question with a million possible answers.
 
NathWraith said:
All margin is done before VAT. Margins vary massively between products, products groups and overall business models and competition.

It is a very vague question with a million possible answers.
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Yes but I have given info to make it less vague, ie buying price, selling price, quantity etc etc.
 
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