” I want to import from China in small quantities, is that ok? What’s the MOQ?”We often receive this kind of inquiry from small or startup sellers. They want to import products in small quantities from China to sell locally.
Many of them have no relevant trading experience and just think it should be easy to find a Chinese supplier. And buy products at a lower price, deliver them to their doorstep, and then add their profit to sell them in their domestic market.
However, this is not the case, especially when purchasing small quantities of products is less than the factory’s MOQ or the shipping cost is higher than the product value. In some cases, these sellers have to abandon their small business plans.
In this article, we will go over how to import small quantities from China, the most popular online resources for wholesale, and also some of the problems that may be encountered in the process.
1. What is a small business?
Different companies and different people have different definitions of small business. Most sourcing agents or consulting firms define a small business as importing less than $500,000 per year. But for most entrepreneurs, this amount is too high, and it is possible that they will not reach $500,000 in imports after 3-5 years. That’s why it’s so difficult for small buyers to find the right supplier to provide them with the relevant services.
I would define purchases as small businesses (an order can include different products) for orders of $5,000-$50,000 per shipment, based on this amount, the volume of products purchased is usually 5 cubic meters to 40HQ containers. This volume can usually meet the factory’s MOQ, thus allowing the buyer to purchase directly from the factory as well.
Products of 4 to 5 cubic meters are best suited for LCL shipments. If it is smaller than 3 cubic meters, the whole import/export process will become cumbersome and costly, which means that the unit price of individual products will become very high.
Smaller buyers are those buyers and entrepreneurs with less than $5000 per shipment. This article is also focused on helping these sellers.
2. What products are suitable for small buyers?
Importers who purchase more than $5,000 in a single order, probably know what to import and how to sell it. However small buyers don’t know what products they want to buy or sell in the first place.
2.1 High-margin or small-volume products
Shipping is always a big problem for small buyers because they have too few goods to consolidate, usually less than 3 cubic meters. They have to choose air freight or express delivery, which will cost 6 to 8 times more than regular sea freight LCL.
Large-size or large packaging products, like mugs or plush toys, are not suitable. Because express shipping costs and air freight costs are accounted for by volume size and weight. This means that your shipping costs are probably higher than the value of the product, while your competitors’ costs will maybe 50% less than yours because they are shipping the product by sea. This gives you no chance to compete with them in the local market.
Therefore, small-size and high-value-added products become the first choice for small buyers. Shipping costs are not too high, sometimes only one-tenth of the value of the product. For example, fashion accessories, small electronics, watch straps, etc. Because the shipping time takes too much time, most buyers will not choose sea freight, so there is no need to worry about your sea freight cost being higher than your competitors.
2.2. Choose niche products instead of regular goods
Small buyers can try to find some special and interesting products to ensure that these products are not available everywhere like regular products.
Some people think that products for daily use, such as socks, are easy to sell because they are a necessity, but this is not the case. Because many people import socks and sell them at a very low profit, it is difficult to compete with these importers. But you can consider importing some special socks, such as “non-slip children’s socks” or socks with really good designs.
Products that are common in everyday life are also not suitable for small buyers. For example, we received many inquiries from different countries (European and Middle Eastern countries) that wanted to import 20-foot containers of A4 paper. But they find that the price of importing from China is not very different from the price in their countries. Because there is no added value in this product, and the price depends mainly on the raw material. So although the quantity is large, the price is still really transparent.
Toilet paper is a very common product, but Czech customers choose some designs they like to print on it, such as the dollar sign, the euro sign, the Czech currency, or even the Indian Bible. These special toilet papers can then be easily sold at prices several times higher than regular toilet paper.
3. How do small buyers find Chinese suppliers?
Many small wholesalers look for Chinese suppliers online, even those buyers who purchase large quantities of products (each order amount is about 30,000-50,000 USD) rarely come to China to look for suppliers in person, unless they attend some exhibitions.
The reasons are as follows. First of all, the cost of coming to China is still relatively high, airfare, hotel accommodation, transportation costs, etc., not to mention that now because of COVID-19, China’s segregation policy, so many foreign customers are discouraged. Secondly, it is never easy to find a reliable Chinese supplier, unless you go to Chinese wholesale markets, such as Yiwu, Guangzhou, etc., or you already have a contacted Chinese supplier before coming to China.
So small and medium-sized sellers will prefer to find the right suppliers on the web that can provide the relative products and services that match their needs.
Let’s take stock of the well-known wholesale platforms that are suitable for small and medium-sized buyers, and supply lower MOQ.
3.1. Alibaba
Whether you are a big or small buyer, finding Chinese suppliers on Alibaba is most people’s first choice. Especially for Alibaba’s RTS (Ready To Ship)channel, most RTS products have a starting order quantity as low as 1-3pcs, which is especially suitable for small buyers and startups.
But there is a significant problem for RTS goods, basically, they are all daily necessities and ordinary goods, and there are fewer new and exotic products. At the same time, is that you will find many suppliers displaying the same picture on their websites, and you can hardly distinguish the difference between them and make the buying decision.
3.2. 1688.com
1688, the predecessor of Alibaba, is now the flagship business of the Ali Group, China’s leading e-commerce platform for the domestic trade of small businesses. 1688 has covered raw materials, industrial products, clothing and apparel, household department stores, small commodities, and other 16 industry categories. Which provides a range of supply services from raw material procurement – production, and processing – to spot wholesale.
This website has a large number of suppliers and categories. The categories are complete, the goods are available, and the prices are very affordable. Most of the products have a low minimum order quantity and also support one-piece delivery and one-piece batch. But for new buyers, especially foreign buyers, it may be a little difficult to choose goods, will have to translate the web page to browse.
Relate article: How to buy from 1688.com: Complete Guide 2022
3.3. Yiwugo
Yiwu Buy is Yiwu’s small commodity market online wholesale platform. Speaking of Yiwu wholesale strength it goes without saying, based on the Yiwu wholesale market of small commodities B2B e-commerce platform.
The website is positioned to rely on the physical market and service the physical market, covering Yiwu International Trade City, Zone 1 to Zone 5, Huang Yuan Garment Market, Yiwu International Production Materials Market, Yiwu Import Commodity City, etc. It is a collection of all kinds of small commodity sources, with high credibility, and an after-sales response fast.
Although there are many merchants on Yiwugo， the products uploaded are far from enough compared to Alibaba and 1688. Many merchants just use Yiwugo as a showcase platform and do not upload a particularly large number of complete full product ranges. So the correct way to use Yiwugo is to find the supplier of the type of product you want to purchase. Then communicate with them offline privately to ask for the full line of products and details.
3.4. Guangzhou Garment Wholesale platform- VVIC.COM
As the leading domestic clothing B2B platform, there are tens of thousands of real wholesalers stationed, mastering the major domestic physical market first-hand sources. It attracts thousands of local retailers to choose models from here. Search is the largest online wholesale platform in Guangzhou, covering the Guangzhou Shahe market, Shi san hang market, Baima, Jiefang South, Chaoshan Puning, and other wholesale clothing markets in the Guangdong area.
It also supplies to Alibaba, Taobao, Tmall, and other platforms, mainly women’s clothing, and supports small orders. The most important features of the products on this platform are fashionable style, and fast updates, but also can see the live stream. The selection area is classified by style: personality style, comfortable and casual style, temperament slim, fashion selection, etc…
3.5. Handbag wholesale platform-Bao66.cn
Bao66 is a website specializing in wholesale all kinds of bags, bringing together thousands of strictly certified and screened online manufacturers in Baigou, Hebei, and Guangzhou. To provide e-commerce sellers and wholesale retailers across the country with new design bags. Merchant information is one-stop convergence but also provides a home navigation function that allows you to easily navigate to the appropriate merchant.
Luggage styles are updated in real-time, with hundreds of new hot bags every day so you can keep abreast of industry developments. Sellers can publish the manufacturer’s goods to Taobao, Jindong, Alibaba, Shopee, and other e-commerce platforms through the one-click publishing application. Most of the inventory bags from Alibaba and 1688 are also from here.
3.6. Shoes wholesale platform-K3.cn
This is a wholesale information-sharing platform for women’s shoes, focusing on the field of Taizhou Wenling women’s shoe sources, providing the majority of eCommerce sellers with first-hand information on women’s shoes in the Wenling area. Just like Bao66, the suppliers in k3.cn also provides low quantity at wholesale price and also can offer photography and other services. It enables the sellers who are away from the local wholesale market to select the models and place the order and has been favored by most shoe sellers.
3.7 Wholesale website for children’s clothing-3e3e.cn
3e3e is a children’s clothing trade information service platform, based on China’s famous children’s clothing production base – the Huzhou zhili children’s clothing industry belt. Facing the national children’s clothing market, to provide professional integrated e-commerce services for the production source. And through the cross-platform distribution system to other third-party online wholesale markets to provide a full set of sales support. The above website, except Alibaba, are all local wholesale platforms in Chinese, so when you want to select the products from them, will require the use of a web translator to work with. Although it can be a bit more complicated to operate, it is worth it to keep you up-to-date with the latest product information and prices from the source manufacturer.
3.8 Toy wholesale platform- toybaba.com
Toysbaba is a professional toy B2B website. With a daily hit rate of over 100,000, with hundreds of new products on the shelves every day. It is a tool for global toy buyers to get first-hand information about factories and purchase products and seek for factories.
There is a wide range of toys and a large number of suppliers with reputable brands at home and abroad, such as Hua Wei, Xiao Bai Long, and Huan Qi. Toy Baba participates in international toy exhibitions every year and has a professional sourcing guide for the toy market.
As for these China domestic wholesale websites not like Alibaba, most suppliers from these websites, can’t speak English, and also the export process. So these sites can be used as a channel for you to select products and factories. For all the follow-up communication and shipping issues, it is best to work with the sourcing or buying agent. Let them help you deal with these tedious works, and act as a bridge between you and direct factories.
4. How to ship goods from China in small quantities?
I have to say that for small sellers, shipping is a big problem. Because most of the time, express delivery is the only way to import a small number of products, but the cost of express delivery is too expensive, so this is also the main reason holding them back.
4.1. International express and air freight
International Express is more suitable for shipments under 300kg, while air freight is more suitable for goods over 300kg. But the import process of air freight is the same as sea freight, the seller also needs to get a broker to deal with customs clearance and pick up the goods from the airport to the destination. But also the goods with batteries can not be transported by air, will need to ship by the express channel.
If you do not have a broker to take care of the customs process, you can go with air delivery. This is a DDP term, which means duty included.
It’s air transportation plus delivery. Airport of origin – airport of destination (first trip) by air, by air to the airport of destination. After customs clearance, then dispatched by the end logistics provider to the door / dispatched to the warehouse. And the tax is included in the shipping fee.
The shipping company takes care of all the work for you, and you only need to wait for the package to be delivered. And the shipping cost of air express includes the tax and inland transportation. In terms of delivery time, air delivery takes longer than air freight and express delivery, usually about 10 days.
Compared to air freight, the shipping cost of air delivery is slightly higher but cheaper than express delivery. It is suitable for cargoes with slightly larger volume and weight, and not particularly strict requirements for time efficiency.
4.2 Sea express, rail express shipping channel
The delivery range of sea express is wide, basically, the countries with Amazon FBA warehouses can be delivered, such as the United States, Canada, Mexico, Australia, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and other countries. Rail Express is mainly for Asia and European countries, where can reach the train.
Sea express and rail express, the first transportation is by sea and rail. After arriving at the destination country, the container will be cleared and unloaded at customs. The last transportation will be delivered by local express or truck in the destination country. Customers have to take care of the customs clearance and pay tax, all the fees are already included in the shipping fee they paid.
The minimum product starting weight for air express is generally 15 kg, while the sea dispatch channel will be different according to the shipping company and freight forwarder. Probably 21 kg as the minimum starting weight. If your cargo is less than 21 kg, it will also be calculated according to 21 kg. Normally 1-2 cartons will reach this weight, so these shipping methods are widely used by most small-medium sellers.
4.3. LCL shipping companies provide consolidation service
For small sellers, consolidation shipping companies are a good choice. Usually, they will provide a one-stop shipping price service. They will handle customs clearance and shipping, and you just need to pick up the goods at their warehouse. Also, they can deliver them to your home. Their prices are also very affordable, even if you only ship 0.5 cubic meters of product. As the price of a container is usually split between 10 to 40 customers.
But such companies are difficult to source and also not available in every country and region. It is better to ask some experienced importers, who may know some relevant LCL shipping companies.
I got some of these freight companies, and some of their routes are quoted as follows. For reference only, $80/m3 to Malaysian and Singapore with door-to-door delivery. $260/m3 to Kenya, but pick up at Nairobi warehouse, $260/m3 to Sydney or Melbourne warehouse, etc.
5. How to arrange the shipping if buying from various suppliers?
If you are purchasing products from different suppliers, then you better consider hiring a sourcing agent to help. To consolidate these goods together for shipping so that you can save on shipping costs. This is because even with international express shipping, heavy cargo is charged less per kilogram than lighter cargo.
And that makes shipping by sea more reasonable. If you import 5 different products from 5 different suppliers, each of which is 0.5 cubic meters. Then you might collect them together and ship them by LCL ocean freight. By doing this, your shipping costs will be 60% lower than express shipping. Or you will have to pay for 5 separate international couriers because there is no cheaper solution.
So, you need a sourcing agent to help you to collect all your goods in China. These agents normally have their own warehouses and can consolidate goods from different suppliers. Providing you with value-added services such as inspection, re-packing, and labeling. After the goods are collected, they will pick the most suitable shipping method according to the actual weight and volume of your goods. The price of different shipping channels, and your requirements.
Conclusion
For small sellers and new startups, China is still by all accounts the most suitable place to source all kinds of products. Although the amount of purchases is small at the beginning, China has a strong and well-established industry chain and logistic system. That can support the sellers importing small quantities from China easily.
