Shipping from China is expensive

Yes it actually does make sense and here is why. Normally when you get a shipment from China it gets aggregated in a larger shipment either through air bust mostly likely over the water.

When they are sending you a sample, they will most likely be sending it via Fed Ex or DHL which is expensive from China.

The question I have, if you are doing tshirts, why not do them through spreadshirt?

This is a fact of life when buying from China. If you want to buy a sample, it will usually be sent via air courier or EMS. In either case the cost quoted to you seems reasonable.

I agree with Silas Hart that China is not usually the best place to buy clothing. On my last trip to Thailand I had 2 suits and some shirts made to measure and the quality far exceeded what you would expect from China, but the prices were comparable. There other countries that produce good quality clothing at low cost. Try looking in places like Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Burma, and Fiji.

When people think of buying any kind of cheap products overseas, they automatically think of China, but there are many Taiwanese owned factories now in other Asian countries producing many kinds of products. Under Taiwanese ownership they can produce quality goods at lower prices than the Taiwanese owned factories in mainland China.

Chinese owned factories abound in China of course, but they copy more than innovate, and that relates to production and QC methods, and they are often lagging behind latest developments.

Although most of my book buyers want to buy from China, I also cover many other countries, because I know that production capabilities and cost efficiencies move from country to country.

You paying for the express service not the weight my friend. This price is normal and any premium service like EMS, DHL, Fedex , UPS offer but in China.

Why don't you buy 10 shirts. Spread your costs and sell some samples. The price won't be much more because anything under 20kg is the same (provided the weight doesn't excede the cubic area).

Read Fedex or DHL dimensions. Air China may be the local service but could be linked with a DHL or FedEx in your country. They all work with each other in some form to expand they're global reach.

Lastly if your order 10 shirts and spread the costs like I suggest to re-coop your investment, if the shipping is drastically more, then the supplier is making a profit off the shipping.

Good luck

Nigel

if you dont like the price, dont buy it

Depends how quick you want and which shipping company you selecting else its really low price postage in china but still depends on size of article too.

for small package, started from 2usd/100g by register post mail.

I bought a phone cover on ebay from china or hongkong and it was $4 shipped! How the heck do they do that????

Hmmmmm. I wouldn't say that. It all depends on HOW someone wants to get into clothing and selling WHAT. China, by far, is the most vertically integrated when it comes to apparel manufacturing. When you go to other countries, you often have to deal with the effects of the reality that they have to import textiles and other components (zippers, buttons, etc). Also apparel/textiles has one of the most complicated duty/quota systems of all things you can import.

Having said that (over 10 years experience manufacturing apparel domestically and overseas), it's really tricky to get into apparel if you don't know what you're doing, because of sizing issues. When you're buying ready-made clothing from China often it's sized for an Asian body, or even a European aesthetic, not the bulk of the typical American body (for a man that includes things such as broader shoulders, larger neck, etc).

And if you think you're importing branded apparel, chances are it's counterfeit, so forget about that.

Plus the other thing about clothing that is a PITA (and I say this as someone who sells it) is can easily get expensive to stock inventory because size/color combinations greatly increase your SKU count. Returns are higher than most other categories (some categories within apparel have lower return rates, but again sizing/fit is a big issue), and there's a lot of seasonality within most categories of clothing (again, there are ways around that, but still).

These are just some things to think about since [the OP] really doesn't know a whole lot about importing, or importing clothing. Just make sure you take all these things into consideration. And again, sometimes you can fly under the radar when it comes to customs, but clothing is definitely one of those categories that will/can cause you customs headaches. And a mis-classification by a customs broker can make the difference between paying 8% and 18% and completely changing the game, which means you'll need to have serious understanding of what to import and what FIBER CONTENT and PERCENTAGE it should be made of to keep your costs down. And even which countries have more favorable trade agreements for which fibers/textiles.

And while you can import small parcels via EMS or UPS, there's only so much you can get away with before you have to start "playing by the rules" so to speak.

Just make sure you go into it "eyes wide open" if you plan to build a business in this category. It's completely doable, and profitable, it just often takes more effort than you may have thought at the outset.

What is range of shipping cost from China for small average item like the size and weight of an iphone? I just want to see the low end and the high end so I won't be ripped off too much by them.

Thank you.

for small post package between 2usd - 4usd.
For express, 15usd-25usd.

it depends on your choice.

I would look to buy larger quantities from that seller which would increase the weight an value in the package. They will then ship it through EMS which is much faster and is most often free to the consumer. Another option is to ask if they can send it to you by e-packet. It's an alternative to EMS and many Chinese sellers will use that method if requested.

For my first purchase from china I bought around 120 fitness bars, pull up bars etc, after being told it was free shipping. I payed around £800 for all of these bars and took months for them to produce and ship them. when they arrived I was hit with a nasty £600 bill for port charges (Because of weight and size of my order), tax, VAT and delivery and they went to the wrong port so delivery was much more than expected. If i didn't pay them right away or within a week or so then i would've been charged with storage fees too.

My advice to anyone buying from china would be to buy light weight items that can fit several into one box/pallet. Then acquire a VAT number so that you can claim any VAT back. And it goes without saying make sure the company is legit first. Then make sure that your load is going to the correct port as agreed with the company because they will most likely not give refunds but tell you that they will knock money of your next order for their mistake. In all do all your homework!

Good luck.