This is the second article in the importing series and this time I want to go over a few “Do’s and Don’ts”
As I have said in my first article importing is definitely a great way of getting your hands on stock at great prices, in almost all situations you will be able to beat any prices you can get in your own country for that particular item, but there are a few things to remember when you start your search for your stock:
Firstly if you find a site online the is offering branded goods don’t just take their word for it, there are plenty of large companies in the far east and other areas that only produce counterfeit goods, quite often they are professional looking firms with large manufacturing plants but this doesn’t automatically mean they are producing products legitimately.
Don’t be fooled into thinking “well if I don’t know its fake I can’t be blamed” You can! Anything you have imported into your country is your responsibility so you need to do some research into the company before making your decision. I have covered researching in previous articles so I won’t go into that now.
Import duty and taxes are the next thing to look out for, as I said above if you have ordered the products you are responsible for them so be aware you will need to pay something when it comes in.
Some suppliers will tell you that their consignments don’t often get checked by customs because they label them as samples, this is illegal and is tax evasion don’t let the manufacturer do this, if they come in without getting checked you can always go back to the carrier and tell them you need to declare the shipment.
You may get away with it a few times but it’s just not worth the risk, I can’t say for other countries but in the UK if you are found to be deliberately avoiding paying import duty you can be fined a huge amount of money and it’s not unusual to receive a jail sentence.
The last thing to be aware of is safety certification, again this will vary depending on which country you are from but the principal will be the same.
In the UK each item that is sold must carry the CE safety certification, and depending on what the product is there are other certifications they will need also. This is very important because if you try to sell something that hasn’t been checked and declared safe then you are breaking the law and not only that you could be putting someone’s life in danger by selling them a potentially unsafe product.
I have walked away from many a good deal from good honest suppliers of good well priced stock because they would not spend the money to get their stock certified by the relevant labs. It’s a shame but I will not sell stock that I don’t have 100% confidence in.
So when you start your search online check the goods are not fake, ask to see copies of the relevant safety certificates and check them online, and finally make sure you pay the import taxes.
Keep these things in mind and you should have a smooth trouble free experience.
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Hi Lisa, thanks for your kind words. There is plenty more to come in the next few months. Some more videos and articles just to start with. I can see by the reaction I have had to the site and youtube vids that there is allot of people looking for reliable wholesale information so I would like to help out where I can.
If you have any specific questions on any of the subjects in the site feel free to leave more comments and we can maybe create some interesting discussion threads.