Importing stuff from china

zamo27

I am starting a small business here in Ireland and i need certain bags and pouches for my product to go into. My product will be 100% irish and produced all in Ireland.

I looked and found these bags and pouches here as well as in the uk. The uk being the cheaper option even after postage and exchange rate.

The same product was found on alibaba.com for next to nothing completely customisable to my requirements but its in china and found on alibaba.com

the price comparison is silly
1 bag in Ireland is 24c
same bag in the uk 18c
in china 1c

how trust worthy is this site and has any one used these people or contacts found on this site?
what happens when my box arrives in Ireland is it opened and taxed making it not worth the hassel??

Peterdalkey

There are plenty of threads on this forum on the subject of importing from China and the costs etc. Just use the search box to get a list. Plenty of solid info in them.
Alibaba is only an online advertising marketplace, like a commercial eBay. They do not vet the vendors.
The risk in buying from an unknown company on Alibaba is that you really know nothing of the company and will have paid upfront. Unless you bring in a decent quantity the freight, export documentation charges, Duty, VAT, customs clearance and local delivery costs etc will soon make your unit cost very high indeed. If the goods are not up to spec, you effectively have no comeback.
I would guess that you would need to spend at least Euro 500 on product to get a decent price and that is 50,000 pieces at 1c each!!
How many do you use per annum? What percentage of your cost price is represented by the pouch? Have you room to store them?
Do the maths and see if it worth the effort!

relaxed

Peterdalkey wrote: »

There are plenty of threads on this forum on the subject of importing from China and the costs etc. Just use the search box to get a list. Plenty of solid info in them.
Alibaba is only an online advertising marketplace, like a commercial eBay. They do not vet the vendors.
The risk in buying from an unknown company on Alibaba is that you really know nothing of the company and will have paid upfront. Unless you bring in a decent quantity the freight, export documentation charges, Duty, VAT, customs clearance and local delivery costs etc will soon make your unit cost very high indeed. If the goods are not up to spec, you effectively have no comeback.
I would guess that you would need to spend at least Euro 500 on product to get a decent price and that is 50,000 pieces at 1c each!!
How many do you use per annum? What percentage of your cost price is represented by the pouch? Have you room to store them?
Do the maths and see if it worth the effort!

I'd be inclined to agree. Its all about volume. It may be worth approaching a UK wholesaler, or maybe an Irish one, and finding out what they can do on price based on what is a realistic quantity for yourself.

As regards alibaba if you are buying blind you must be prepared to risk losing the money you spend. You can ask for a small trial order first but don't be surprised if they ask for a sample fee of something like $200, if they ask for this they are probably legit.

Its to stop private buyer looking to buy 1 or 2 items, pretending to be a business when its really for themselves.

R0C

I use alibaba to source suppliers of various products on a regular basis.

They are simply the middle man, once you accept a quote you will be dealing directly with the company supplying the product.

It's easy to google and do some research on the individual companies if you have any concerns.

While most companies have huge quantities listed as 'minimum order quantity' they are usually open to discussion on quantities, price, etc.

If they can't lower their MOQ, they will often be willing to supply several hundred 'samples' in order to meet smaller quantity orders.

Or they will wait until they get a huge order from another company and they will add your smaller order on top of that.

Beware that most postage prices are quoted FOB which means them delivering to the port in China (from their factory) but the vast majority of companies in China will be able to arrange delivery to your door, and in my experience will happily seek/supply quotes for delivery via air/sea, etc.

I've never had a negative experience after several years dealing with various companies through alibaba.

jimmii

I haven't used their main site but I have used aliexpress maybe have a look on there as you will pay more per piece but can get them in much smaller numbers. You will probably still get it cheaper than there and on aliexpress you have more protection I have had orders not show up before and had my money returned straight away as I believe they act as escrow until you confirm delivery.

sandin

I use pandahall.com for bags and pouches. Have been using them for about 5 years.

Again, a bag that costs me 3c delivered from them is sold at about 20c in wholesalers - but I fully understand that additional retail packaging & additional distribution costs of a low price item add to the wholesale cost - that and the fact that I need about 100k of the item in several colours each yearmeans its better for me to go direct.

Pandahall's minimum are small and their choice is quite big. They primarily supply beads and other materials to the jewellery business and part of that is packaging.

RUDOLF289

R0C wrote: »

I use alibaba to source suppliers of various products on a regular basis.

They are simply the middle man, once you accept a quote you will be dealing directly with the company supplying the product.

It's easy to google and do some research on the individual companies if you have any concerns.

While most companies have huge quantities listed as 'minimum order quantity' they are usually open to discussion on quantities, price, etc.

If they can't lower their MOQ, they will often be willing to supply several hundred 'samples' in order to meet smaller quantity orders.

Or they will wait until they get a huge order from another company and they will add your smaller order on top of that.

Beware that most postage prices are quoted FOB which means them delivering to the port in China (from their factory) but the vast majority of companies in China will be able to arrange delivery to your door, and in my experience will happily seek/supply quotes for delivery via air/sea, etc.

I've never had a negative experience after several years dealing with various companies through alibaba.

Hello ROC,

Just a word of caution. For small quantities your supplier should be able to use post / FEDEX / DHL / UPS etc. Be aware that goods will need to be cleared and the carriers will charge an admin fee on top of the duty / VAT ranging in the order of € 10 to € 15.

I would urge caution in relation to seafreight. If you search boards.ie for the term : China Import Service Fee, you will see some stories of people who have been badly caught out. The chinese suppliers will get an extremely - unrealistically - low seafreight cost from the groupage operators / forwarders in China. That rate bears no resemblance to the market rates that should apply. Because everybody in the trade knows that shipments leaving China have already been paid for, the chinese groupage operators just love these shipments. They will instruct their overseas agents to collect this China Import Service Fee, which often is a significant premium on the market rates. On top, the agent at destination then adds his cut ......

Because the goods have already been paid for, you have two options ; either abandon the shipment and tell them to get stuffed (unlikely, you are already on the hook for the cost of the product, which will not get refunded) or pay the charges.

If the quantities you order warrant shipment by seafreight, negotiate FOB Chinese port of shipment terms and arrange shipment through an Irish based forwarder against a clear all inclusive quotation. That will avoid being overcharged.

Cheers,
Rudolf289