Exporting into China from the US

Also, I'm American but live in China, if it matters.

Shipping depends on the size of the shipment and how fast your need it. For very small shipments (under 5 lbs) EMS or Epacket are the least expensive.

Companies like UPS / Fedex are fast and do all the paperwork but they are quite expensive.

When you do larger orders then pallet size orders are more economical - either via sea or air. Sea is much cheaper but takes about 5 weeks. Air takes about 1 week.

The lowest rates are when you ship a full container by sea. For pallets and containers you definitely want to hire a freight company to make the arrangements.

Importing goods from the US to China is no different to importing goods from China to the US.

International trade is governed by almost universal rules and that is why I have people from over 30 countries (including China) all using my book to guide them although there are local variations in relation to Customs procedures.

Some countries , most notably India, but also to a lesser extent China have a bureaucratic system that lives on unnecessary red tape, but there is a simple way around that.

All you need to do is use the services of someone who understands the system. In the case of shipping small orders via mail or courier services, the postal and courier services do all the work for you and it is usually hassle free.

For larger shipments you have a couple of options. You can use Freight Forwarders or Customs brokers. Care must be taken selecting which you use because there are big differences between the services offered by those two different types. My book explains the differences so you can choose wisely.

Amazon FBA is available in China. So far none of my students are using that service so I can't comment from their experience, but I have read stories by others who are very pleased with the result. Vendors on Amazon.cn have been selling US brands, but if you intend to do that, you need to be sure that you are authorized to do so.

The Chinese government still has a long way to go to fully protect intellectual property (including trademarks), but US trademark owners have deep pockets and will almost certainly sue anyone who sells their brand products without authority.

If you intend selling on Taobao, do you really need to find a distributor? If you are wanting to sell wholesale, Taobao is probably your best venue, but you will need to aim your advertising at wholesalers and not consumers. Potential distributors will be turned off if they see you offering the product to consumers.

Thanks for the insight, Importexport.

Don't want to ask you to give out more free information then you're comfortable giving, but I just have a couple more questions if you don't mind:

1) If you were me, how would you go about contacting manufacturers of products in the US? As mentioned, I'm currently in China and not able to travel to the US at the moment. I don't have importing or selling experience, but I do have some advantages in that I speak and read Chinese and work for a digital marketing company out here, which I'd like to leverage if possible. Any advice on this?

2) I don't entirely understand private labeling. Are there certain legal aspects I should keep in mind? For example, if I buy product from a producer in the US, maybe change one tiny thing and then put my own label on it, am I at risk of being sued by the producer of that product?

Any other last tips for a young guy getting started in this are also welcomed.

As someone mentioned, Amazon does have a warehouse in China, so you can probably make use of their fulfillment services.

I personally am using a Chinese alternative to FBA called SFC (Send From China), but I'm using them to ship from China to the US and a handful other countries.

In any case, you will need to deal with the custom fees issue if you're planning on exporting large quantities. You will probably need to hire a broker for that, so take this into consideration.

1) if you can read Chinese, check the website buytong.com , it's an US express company specific on exporting from US to China. You need open an account, and send your goods to one of their warehouses in US , then you operate online to get your stuff shipped to different address. price will be something like ＄9 for the first pound , $4.5 start from second pound.

2) They will handle the Custom for you

3) One of place I know that you can post your offer at ½ø¿Ú»õ�"´ - ¸£²½ÍâóÂÛ̳(FOB Business Forum) |�-йúµÚ�'»ÍâóÂÛ̳ , again it's in Chinese, and you need open an account.

One other thing you may think about to get a "wechat" account (it's free), it's very popular in China, and you can build your distribution network with it easily.

By the way, what kind of goods do you offer?