So I jumped into importing about a week ago.
Found a product not widely sold in the US and with my variation, it is not sold at all.
Im assuming it's because of the hoops you got to jump through to get it here and sell it without too much trouble.
or maybe people are just lazy, whatever.
So I found suppliers, ordered samples, and thanks to joining the INSIDERS part of the forum, decided to start asking for Hi-Res photos of the product INCLUDING the packaging.
I normally just ask for the product and not the packaging.
So I had every supplier that I bought samples from and some that I was planning on buying samples from, send pictures of the packaging...and guess what?
They all sent me the same exact packaging.
I normally see a lot of re-used photos on sites like alibaba and thought that must be normal.
Purchased a couple more small samples.
Had more suppliers send me photos of the packaging, and once again.
THE SAME PACKAGING
Some suppliers had fuzzy pictures, some had clear pictures of the packaging on a white background, others had pictures of the packaging in "their" factory.
That's when the question WHY really kicked in.
Like why are they using the same CUSTOM packaging that they did for "their" customer.
They couldn't all be selling to the same person.
So I observed the packaging a little more and found a factory name on one of the boxes. Checked the other ones, and found the same name, some pictures was easier to find it.
Now I never really payed attention to the suppliers factory name, only the representatives name but now my WHY was too strong to not look.
I needed to find out who the real supplier was so I could confront the rest that claimed to be the factory.
Guess what? NONE of the suppliers I talked to, had that company name. WTF? Only ordered samples from 3 suppliers but I talked to 30+ suppliers.
So I go onto Alibaba, enter the company name that I seen on the box and found them.
They have all their pictures listed on there. (Explains where all these "suppliers" got it from)
Their prices are FOUR TIMES cheaper than the cheapest supplier I talked to!
Also, as I type this, one of the suppliers I thought was "one of the best", emailed me back after I asked her why the company name on the box is different from her company.
She replied
"xxx company is our factory, my boss has the stock of the factory. My boss also has this xxx trading company,"
Now I know China business is much different than ours but you mean to tell me he has 2 companies, possibly more thanks to all the pictures I received about "their" packaging, of the same product??
On his main company, he is listing FOB prices 4X cheaper than all his other companies?
Makes no sense, so I contacted the main company and will go from there.
ALSO
I know China labor is cheap but DAMN she works for his company, and in her signature she has 1 company, her websites show 2 different companies, AND her email shows a different company?
Show that type of middleman work ethic here in the USA and she should be living good.
Also received another email as I type this from her
She states "my english is not that good, do you understand what means I said? This is a joint stock company, I have three bosses"
I told her thank you for clearing things up, I appreciate her honesty.
Time to talk to her boss then instead of her.
Moral:
If you find yourself asking WHY....find out why and don't stop until you find out why.
Pay attention to little things. I would have never found the main factory if I didn't pay attention to the little factory name at the bottom.
I never really understood due diligence until now.
PS: This is my first time experiencing this, so its quite fun. At least I know which factory my samples are coming from.
Lesson learned.
On paper my profit just quadrupled.
Found a product not widely sold in the US and with my variation, it is not sold at all.
Im assuming it's because of the hoops you got to jump through to get it here and sell it without too much trouble.
or maybe people are just lazy, whatever.
So I found suppliers, ordered samples, and thanks to joining the INSIDERS part of the forum, decided to start asking for Hi-Res photos of the product INCLUDING the packaging.
I normally just ask for the product and not the packaging.
So I had every supplier that I bought samples from and some that I was planning on buying samples from, send pictures of the packaging...and guess what?
They all sent me the same exact packaging.
I normally see a lot of re-used photos on sites like alibaba and thought that must be normal.
Purchased a couple more small samples.
Had more suppliers send me photos of the packaging, and once again.
THE SAME PACKAGING
Some suppliers had fuzzy pictures, some had clear pictures of the packaging on a white background, others had pictures of the packaging in "their" factory.
That's when the question WHY really kicked in.
Like why are they using the same CUSTOM packaging that they did for "their" customer.
They couldn't all be selling to the same person.
So I observed the packaging a little more and found a factory name on one of the boxes. Checked the other ones, and found the same name, some pictures was easier to find it.
Now I never really payed attention to the suppliers factory name, only the representatives name but now my WHY was too strong to not look.
I needed to find out who the real supplier was so I could confront the rest that claimed to be the factory.
Guess what? NONE of the suppliers I talked to, had that company name. WTF? Only ordered samples from 3 suppliers but I talked to 30+ suppliers.
So I go onto Alibaba, enter the company name that I seen on the box and found them.
They have all their pictures listed on there. (Explains where all these "suppliers" got it from)
Their prices are FOUR TIMES cheaper than the cheapest supplier I talked to!
Also, as I type this, one of the suppliers I thought was "one of the best", emailed me back after I asked her why the company name on the box is different from her company.
She replied
"xxx company is our factory, my boss has the stock of the factory. My boss also has this xxx trading company,"
Now I know China business is much different than ours but you mean to tell me he has 2 companies, possibly more thanks to all the pictures I received about "their" packaging, of the same product??
On his main company, he is listing FOB prices 4X cheaper than all his other companies?
Makes no sense, so I contacted the main company and will go from there.
ALSO
I know China labor is cheap but DAMN she works for his company, and in her signature she has 1 company, her websites show 2 different companies, AND her email shows a different company?
Show that type of middleman work ethic here in the USA and she should be living good.
Also received another email as I type this from her
She states "my english is not that good, do you understand what means I said? This is a joint stock company, I have three bosses"
I told her thank you for clearing things up, I appreciate her honesty.
Time to talk to her boss then instead of her.
Moral:
If you find yourself asking WHY....find out why and don't stop until you find out why.
Pay attention to little things. I would have never found the main factory if I didn't pay attention to the little factory name at the bottom.
I never really understood due diligence until now.
PS: This is my first time experiencing this, so its quite fun. At least I know which factory my samples are coming from.
Lesson learned.
On paper my profit just quadrupled.
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