Before importing your goods and to prevent likely problems in the clearance of your merchandize, it is recommended that you familiarize yourself with the Customs and Border Protection of the United States. When your products arrive from their foreign destination, you have to shepherd them through customs, as an importer. This is usually be done through a customs broker. This is because you can’t take your merchandize through customs unless you possess an import license (which requires taking a government-administered test). Therefore, you are required to get acquainted with some tips, which will be provided here.
Know the customs rules
Each country has distinct customs regulations. It is required for you to get yourself familiar with these rules before engaging in any import process. With this knowledge, you will know what items you can import. The United Kingdom, the United States, and European governments provide customs information on their websites.
Entry process
Upon the arrival of a shipment to the United States, the importer (or customs broker) files entry documents for such products or goods with the port of entry’s director. The CBP then authorizes delivery of the merchandize, after the payment of estimated duties.
Examination
The shipment could either be examined or its examination waived. Shipment may get conditional release authorizations upon its departure from the origin country and up to just five days before its landing in the United States, for instance. The shipment is released when no legal or regulations violations are detected.
Entry for warehouse
If an importer wishes to delay the release of their shipment, they may have the cargo placed in a CBP-bonded warehouse for up to five years from the date of importation. During those years, the goods could be exported overseas without any need for duty payment.
Compliance testing
Certain items are always examined to ensure their conformity with legal safety standards. For instance, some foods and beverages may not pass the examination as a result of the standards in place by the Food and Drug Administration. The rapid increase in portable devices, for instance, has made quality inspectors to carry out some tests such as substance, EMC, or electrical safety. For instance, substance regulations, like REACH in the European Union restricts certain substances in some consumer goods. Such substances include cadmium, phthalates, lead, and formaldehyde, thus, making compliance testing mandatory. An importer, therefore, may select the extent to which its products shall be tested. The cost charged by testing companies depends on the number of substances and the number of variations (such as coating, colors, and component) of the materials.
Going through customs is often an unavoidable process while importing products; therefore, these are the few tips that will save you the time you would have spent with the customs officer. Overall, ensure you employ the service of reputable and experienced customs brokers, and test your products at a certified, respectable laboratory.
Importing and distributing non-compliant goods often result in a forced recall, major fines, or even litigation.
So just make sure you know all there is to know about customs and regulations.
God luck!

Alibaba Group has evolved over the years into a global scale leading company in the online and e-commerce sector. Today, Alibaba conducts world-class wholesale and retail online trade marketplace.
Placing an order on Alibaba is quite difficult. This is because of the bad services provided by some suppliers. Due to the problems encountered, it is very essential to identify the right suppliers.

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Problem Faced While Looking for Good Supplier
Good Samples, bad product
In a lot of the cases, the supplier sends excellent samples of the product , in order to convince the buyer to seal the deal . But- after the buyer places the order, and gets the shipment, he realizes the quality of the final products is very poor. This way the buyer can suffer from bad product reviews while his business goes down the drain.

Counterfeit
In a wide variety of orders, the products supplied are not a genuine model of what you order. According to the official Xinhua news agency More than 40% of goods sold online in China during 2014 were either counterfeit or of bad quality.

Money for nothing
In this particular case, you send your money to the supplier before you get the final product, And you never hear from them again. This means you receive NOTHING in return for your money. of course the financial damage could be immense, depending on the quantity and the kind of product.
Extra payment
Few days after paying for your order, your supplier contacts you and ask for extra payment to cover customs fees. If you refuse to pay, they say your goods can’t be exported out of China.

What can you do to prevent this?
Finding a good suppliers can be a little rough and give you real headache if you don’t know what you’re doing. There are several things you need to pay attention to when identifying a supplier on Alibaba.
Look for Gold suppliers
Gold suppliers are those suppliers that pay some fees to Alibaba. When you search for some product on Alibaba, you tend to see products from gold suppliers first. Alibaba also does some verification of these suppliers to check their legitimacy.

Make sure details are Verified
On the homepage of the supplier, make sure the supplier’s location, business type and year of establishment are verified by Alibaba. The more verified the information of a supplier means the more you can rely on the supplier.

Check the response rate
The response rate of suppliers is very important. It must always be above 70%. If suppliers are less responsive, then their businesses are not their priority which means they are not serious about it. You should be careful in dealing with these suppliers.

Book a factory audit
A factory audit is a test that verifies the information given by the factory. When you go to the factory and see the work protocol, get real contacts information, and see that this is a big and serious factory, you can be sure you should work with this supplier.

The development of globalization has made offshoring a predominant factor in many large companies such that it is an irreversible trend. Offshoring can increase a company’s domestic employment while also improving the quality of its worker’s skills. Offshoring manufacturing activities in China, for instance, comes with the benefit of low cost of labor and manufacturing. In other words, companies can save money on materials and labor by manufacturing overseas. Even with the lower cost of production, the quality of the product produced through this approach is often better than domestically-obtained one. This has contributed to the annual increase in manufacturing wages in a country like China.
Regarding international business, most companies consider the use of a third party to meet a part of their manufacturing needs. A company who plans to source materials overseas should be aware of the possible challenges that may arise during the process.
The first challenge is the location of choice. Some clients end up signing contracts with some manufacturers in offshore locations without appropriate understanding the risks that are associated with each location: skill availability, geopolitical issues, local labor competition, wage inflation, legal and intellectual property-related issues, attrition or currency fluctuation.
Also, it is possible to end up in the hands of the wrong supplier. For an adequate understanding of a manufacturers capabilities and differentiators, it is essential to evaluate their performance continually over a sustained period and establish an excellent working relationship with them.
Controlling cost overruns may pose a serious challenge. Many companies fail to control cost overruns as a result of their inability to realize anticipated cost benefits. Perceived or anticipated cost overruns is essential as most business cases are not built by a complete assessment of direct and indirect elements contribute to costs but simply by the wage cost arbitrage.
Data security is an essential factor for offshoring. It entails giving access to some classified customer data and information to offshore suppliers or manufacturers, and any fissure in data security could heavily impact both your business and customers.
Another barrier to a successful outsourcing experience is the language and cultural differences. For instance, there may be some language barriers between the country where outsourcing projects are sent and the country outsourcing. These disparities tend to impact on the ability of some offshore teams in fully understanding the nuances of a project and its effective execution.
Though the benefits of offshoring are numerous, they can be overwhelmed by the daunting challenges if not managed appropriately. However, they can be overcome through proper planning and due diligence. You only require to work with a team of professionals who are versed with offshoring. They will help you address each of the challenges one after the other – you will get a good location, the right supplier, effective control of cost overruns, data safety, elimination of language and cultural disparities, among others.

How will you feel if you order, for instance, a hand-blown Christmas tree ornament and get the whole container delivered, but only to discover that the small ring needed to get the ornament hanged from a tree is missing? As a retailer, this may ruin your business and make customers give you bad reviews if such a problem persists.
The fact that China is an advanced country does not rule out the possibility of their factories – particularly small scale companies – delivering products of low quality or standard. While your direct supplier may wish to get things right, the factory may just refuse to comply with the wish, probably because they don’t know you or they just have no reasonable reason to trust in long-term business.
China OEM factories agreement is based on five key issues: price, quantity, quality, date of delivery, and payment terms. Many of them only show concern for the price of products at the expense of the other four issues highlighted. When you do not clarify or emphasise the importance of the five fundamental manufacturing issues to the Chinese factory, you may end up getting products of poor quality. This, when not detected early, may result in customer complaints, loss of sales, and incurring of additional expenses. Early detection of quality problem before shipment is much better than an after-delivery detection.
Therefore, tackling this problem requires you to state clear quality requirements into the contract, with clear penalties upon the failure to meet such quality benchmarks. Usually, a factory has to support any of its claims by written documents.
Also, at the preorder stage, select a supplier that approves the factory of production to ensure delivery of the right quality of product at the right time. This is otherwise known as factory audit. Usually, it is done upon the screening down of potential suppliers to a few serious ones. The auditor typically verifies incoming materials, products that are in process, and finished goods. With this, the quality system of the factory, as well as their reliability, is assessed.
However, caution has to be taken at this stage. This is because factory audits seem to follow a scientific approach and as such, favor larger manufacturers. These manufacturers tend to pay little or no attention to small orders. To be on a safer side, ensure the pre-qualification phase of audits is oriented in the direction of suppliers of a suitable size. With the observation of the highlighted tips, your product’s quality assurance is certain.
Summarily, though some Chinese factories constitute the black sheep, other factories produce products of high quality. Good or bad quality products can emanate from any country. Therefore, it’s up to the brand which will take up the credit or blame for good or bad quality products to exercise due diligence in ensuring that its products are not only of good quality but also up to the standards. Thus, when you order any products from Chinese factories, remember to pay attention to quality.

After you have sent quotations’ requests to several factories and reduced the list to two leading ones that look reliable and made an attractive offer, you need to move forward with ordering samples.
Why are samples important? Because they show the highest standard of product that the plant can produce. As far as the supplier is concerned, the purpose of the samples is to convince you to order a large quantity of products from the factory, so he will send his best product.
In addition, samples can alert you of anticipated product quality problems in advance so you could know which parameters are important to check in the quality inspection.
While ordering the samples, make sure that both you and the supplier are talking about the exact same product. To be on the safe side, it’s best to resubmit the most up-to-date file of the product drawing and ask the vendor to confirm it.
Order at least two samples. A sample that meets all the requirements and is acceptable to you is called a golden sample with which you can determine the production standard of the factory, or later, compare the produced batch to it, during the product quality inspection.
Later we will explain about sending the samples to the supplier and inspection company.
Often, the sample production will require creating a mold. What does it mean? In order to produce your product, you also need to prepare a special mold into which you inject or pour the material and produce it in large quantities. A qualitative mold costs a lot of money, so initially you make a cheaper one to see that the product sketch is practical and correct. It is likely that the supplier will ask you for a certain fee for the mold and samples production and say that he will return the money when you’ll make the large quantity order.
Once you’ve confirmed your samples payment, do not be tempted to send your shipping details to the supplier. Many times (especially when the product is common and not complex) the supplier will send samples of a product already in his factory and not in the required measurements, to save the sample production costs. Then, when you receive the shipment and be surprised, the supplier will say that he sent only to check the quality of the material or color (depending on the type of product). To address this problem, we recommend that you ask the supplier to take a picture of the samples near a length meter so you can be sure to send the correct samples, according to the requested measurements.
Once you’ve seen the samples in the photos, confirm the shipment and provide the address to the supplier. Sometimes, when the samples are small, the supplier will offer to pay the cost of the shipment in order to encourage you to order of a large quantity. If not, he will most likely ask you for a DHL, FedEx, UPS or any other shipping company account.
Opening an account at a shipping company is very simple and can be done through their websites. Once you open an account, the shipping company will have your billing information and will automatically charge you every month based on what you’ve sent. Sometimes such an account provides reduced shipping rates.
It is common to send samples by air delivery (rather than by sea), which is fast, though slightly more expensive, because the samples are usually small.
After a week or two, you should get the samples. What should you pay attention to at this moment?
Is the product size correct?
Is the color accurate?
What is the quality of the material? Are there scratches?
Is the logo correct? Are the necessary warnings written on the product?
Is there a “made in China” declaration? How is the product packed?
If there is a user manual read it and check the text and quality.Try to stretch the product boundaries.
If this is a product that involves fabric, check what happens to the color that is being washed and dried.
If it is a product that can be used personally, try it yourself and see if it is useful and meets your needs.
Make sure that each problem with the samples is documented, number them and write comments, along with the date you checked it.
If the samples do not meet the expectations, but you’re on good terms with the supplier and it looks serious and capable of doing better, you can send him the necessary corrections with the bad sample. Another option is to look for a different supplier and order new samples.
If the samples were good, your next step is to mark them and send them back to the factory to represent the production standard for larger quantities.
When packing the sample, sign it and write it as your selected sample (gold sample) to avoid confusion. Pack them in such a way that will ensure the sample will not be damaged and will arrive to the factory as it left your hands.
It is recommended to send another golden sample to your inspection company separately, to prevent the factory from sabotaging it (it sounds like an unlikely possibility, but it might happen).

Choosing a supplier is a process that takes time, and for a good reason. It is important to find a factory that can deliver the product you need while meeting your quality requirements, and no less importantly – at your target price.
The most convenient platform for finding suppliers today is Alibaba, which has evolved over the years into a world-class company, the leader in the e-commerce sector.
The site’s home page has a default search tab by product, but it can be changed to supplier search. The first option mentioned is for those interested in purchasing an ODM product – a product that the factory specializes in manufacturing entirety and it will only change it’s branding according to the buyer. The suppliers’ search option is suitable for those who wish to make changes to an existing product or to create a new product, as well as those who seek to import certain materials according to the different types of industries.
While searching, it is important to note that a particular product can have different names in the professional language of the factories. You may want to try searching in a number of different ways to fine-tune your search words and find suppliers who specialize in your product.
For the demonstration we looked for plastic wall plugs. After clicking on the search button, there is an option on the top right side of the screen to narrow the search results by country. since we are importing from China, we will mark China to focus on it. Now we’ll explain a few things about filtering the relevant suppliers out of the variety offered. Choosing a factory that you cannot physically reach can lead to many problems – starting with working with an agent and not a supplier (which can make the process expensive and complicated) and ending with the supplier’s inability to produce your product or an unresponsive supplier that already received the payment.
In order to avoid these problems, we have compiled guidelines for safely choosing a supplier:

• Look for Gold suppliers: these gold suppliers pay a commission to Alibaba. When you are looking for a product at Alibaba, you will see the gold suppliers at the top of the search results. In order to maintain a certain quality standard, Alibaba examines these suppliers and verifies the details provided by the suppliers.

• Make sure the details are verified: even if you’re not looking at a gold supplier, in the supplier’s home page, you can see if the details this supplier provides were verified. Make sure that the location, business type, and establishment year are verified by Alibaba. If they are, you can believe this supplier is reliable and probably won’t disappear after receiving the payment.

• Check the supplier’s website: it contains essential information such as the proximity of the plant to the port (proximity to port means cheaper shipping costs), or other products manufactured by the supplier. Look for a product similar to the one you would like to import and if you find it, it’s a good sign that the factory is practiced in manufacturing this type of products and probably can do it well. Also note the number of years the supplier has been active, preferring suppliers with more years of activity and experience. Look for pictures of the factory to see if it is organized, whether the working stands seem professional, etc.

• Check the response rate: the response rate of the suppliers is very important and should be above 70%. If suppliers respond at less than 70%, their business is probably not their top priority, and they are not serious enough. Be cautious about working with these suppliers.

• Perform a factory audit: this is a standard inspection usually offered by third party companies and carried out before starting to work with a new supplier. This helps to show the factory you are serious about your business and maintains a certain tension level at the factory, to guarantee a professional work on their behalf.
  During factory audit, the third company verifies the information provided by the factory, documents working protocols, business cards of real contacts, it checks the production capabilities of the plant and more… Many quality assurance companies offer inspections to check the factory workers’ satisfaction with working conditions, or the environmental impact of production at the plant.

Before you move on to the next step that’s ordering samples, it’s best if you send quotation requests to several suppliers you reviewed by the guidelines mentioned above. It is very important that the quotation request will be detailed. Specifying exactly what you want ensures that the suppliers will understand you, show them that you’re serious, and that you’ll receive relevant offers. Specify the color of the product, the materials it’s made of, and (if you have it) it is very important to attach a picture or sketch.
If you still feel a little green and prefer to be on the safe side since this is the first product you import, you can always use the services of a sourcing company that will handle the process of searching the factory, managing the contract and the other required conduct.

After many years of isolation from the West, China has enjoyed unprecedented growth and has become the world’s largest economy when it ousted the US economy for the first time from its place at the summit, as a result of many factors: a change in government policy, integration of the villages into the industry, investment in education, development of new trade routes to the East, and more.
Today China’s export rate is about $ 2.41 trillion a year.
China’s market share is about 25% of Amazon’s total sales each year (the total annual revenue from sales of products in Amazon is $ 118 billion).
As in any meeting with members of a different culture, one must learn, albeit superficially, the customs and conduct of the people. As befits an ancient and developed culture, Chinese culture is complex, it has the strict and uncompromising nature of the communism, yet it gives great importance to personal connections between people.
As foreign importers who buy from the Chinese, you are in a more respectable position than Chinese exporters but make no mistake – hierarchy is very important in China and every business partner of yours should be treated with respect.
As you might know, westerns are much more direct and open, and not afraid to express themselves about their opinions and feelings, whereas the Chinese culture is very introverted. This cultural difference can affect business making processes between westerns and the Chinese. In order to bridge this gap, we have gathered some useful tips to help with proper conduct with Chinese businessmen and hopefully save a few moments of embarrassment.
As we’ve said, personal acquaintance is important in Chinese culture, so if possible, it is always better to meet face to face. Consider the option of investing in a one-time trip to China to get to know the partners. Lunch or dinner will strengthen your familiarity and business ties.
For respect, you should address the person as Mr. / Madam. You may also want to shake hands. It is important to be patient, to speak in a low tone and in a restrained body language that is considered by the Chinese to be respectful, as opposed to raising the voice or exaggerating gestures, which is perceived as weakness. It is important to arrive on time and not be late.
If you can – bring a business card. Exchanging cards is very common in China and it is customary to present the cards at the beginning of the meeting, facing up to the recipient and using two hands. The card symbolizes the dignity of the person so it is important not to scribble on it or put it in your wallet – just put it on the table in front of you or take it by hand.
Gift giving is also accepted in Chinese culture and can show your seriousness in building a lasting business relationship. It is recommended (but not obligatory) to bring with you a gift that has a symbolic meaning of abundance or good luck, and to pack it in red wrapping. If you know who will be present at the meeting, it is best to bring small gifts to the junior representatives, and give a slightly larger gift to the seniors.
The Chinese give great importance to the rank of a person and therefore, the seating arrangement in the meeting needs to be considered. As is customary in meetings in China, the high echelons sit opposite each other at the table with their assistants by their sides. The highest echelon will be the host and will lead the conversation.
Ask your business partners if it’s okay to bring an interpreter. This way- if they speak English, they can answer that they do not need it, and if they don’t, they will be able to say yes, without having to answer a more direct question like “Do you speak English?” which has the potential to embarrass them.
In addition, people in China usually don’t use the word “no”; out of respect they will use indirect ways to express a lack of interest in order not to hurt the partner. The most useful indirect answer is “we’ll think about it” or “we believe it’s difficult.”
If there is a presentation or documents that need to be reviewed, translating materials in advance shows that the company has invested time and resources before the meeting / visit in China and will also allow all parties to be exposed to the information presented in the clearest way possible. When you speak, be sure to use short sentences and make sure that you went over all the details exactly, because they won’t always ask when they don’t understand – out of embarrassment. It would be a shame if small misunderstandings should lead to major problems in the process of importing the product.
Since China is a communist country, it does not have access to the Western internet and therefore to Western sites such as Google. Before a business trip to China, you will need to download a VPN application that bypasses the Chinese internet and connects to a Western network. There are a wide variety of free applications with limited trial periods, and paid applications.
Since WhatsApp is blocked in China, the Chinese use a similar application – WeChat, so it is recommended to download it and talk to your Chinese partners through it, or by email.
Unpaid VPN apps (or such with free trial periods):
Yoga VPN, Nord VPN, Express VPN, Astryl
The Chinese holiday is the New Year in China and is a major factor to be reckoned with in China. During the holiday, the entire Chinese economy is shut down, causing delays in the production and shipments of the goods.
More about the Chinese holiday in one of our next articles.

Since the payment is transferred to a supplier who is not in your country and you don’t really know him, you should be very careful making the transfer. There are many frauds associated with payment to factories in China and involve changing the bank account information on the invoice to a fraudulent private one. Because of these scams, make sure that the bank account information you received in the quotation matches the one on the invoice. One way to do this is to ask for the supplier’s payment details as a part of the supplier selection process on Alibaba, and then compare it to the final invoice you need to pay.
The standard payment is 30% before the start of production, and 70% after production and before shipment, or after loading and receiving Bill of landing (B / L).
It is important to determine with the supplier that the payment before shipment will be made after verifying the quality and quality of the products and obtaining the results of laboratory tests when necessary. In case you pay before conducting a quality inspection and discover that the products are defective, the supplier doesn’t have an incentive to correct the defects or take responsibility for the products anymore.
There are several different ways to transfer money to suppliers in China, we will list six of them:
1.TT / Telegraphic transfer – a transfer made through your bank to the bank account of the factory. This is the preferred payment method for enterprises. It usually costs between $25-50 and takes between 3-5 days until completion.
2.E-commerce sites – this payment method operates through a third company that transfers the money to the supplier. For example:
A.Alipay – the company most commonly used in trading with China. A company owned by Alibaba, and therefore very reliable. You can also pay large sums. Alibaba offers Trade Assurance – insurance in case the supplier did not deliver the goods (the insurance level can be seen on the vendor’s page). It is important to know that sometimes their customer service doesn’t respond, and it is very difficult to obtain a refund in case you receive defective goods, since the insurance insures the arrival of the goods to the destination, rather than their quality.
B.PayPal is another platform for e-commerce, but most Chinese suppliers do not have a PayPal account and therefore will not agree to trade with it. Due to the high commission that the site charges, it is customary to use it for ordering samples and small transactions. In addition, like Alipay it is difficult to receive refunds for transactions since PayPal is not involved in the details of the agreement between the importer and the supplier.
3.Letter of credit – the money is transferred to a third party and released from it to the supplier according to the agreement. This payment method is accepted at large orders of $50,000. In this method you sign a binding legal document summarizing the terms of payment. The importer transfers the full amount to the third party at once, and the third party transfers the money to the supplier in a manner that meets the terms of the agreement. The problem with this method is that the paperwork is very cumbersome, and a very large initial capital is required because the money is transferred from the importer at once rather than according to the different stages that were pre-determined.
4.Cash – cash payment is very acceptable by the Chinese suppliers, and sometimes importers use it if they’re in China in person or if they’re represented by a local outsourcing company. This method is the most dangerous method to the importer because there is no way to claim the money in case the supplier breaches the terms of the agreement, but it saves many costs of mediation and commissions.
5.Western union (WU) – the importer deposits the money into a bank account in his name at Western Union and fills in the supplier’s account’s details. This is a fast way of money transfer because the supplier can withdraw the money within a day or two. Sometimes the account is a private one, so it is important to work with WU only with suppliers that you already know and trust. There have been incidents in the past in which manufacturers ran away with the money after the transfer.
6.Credit cards – a payment method which presents a potential risk in the case of an overdraft in the importer’s account since the money enters the supplier’s account only after a while, and therefore is often not accepted by the suppliers.
​Tip: in every payment method it is important to make sure that the details of the supplier’s account are correctly stated. It is not recommended to try to translate the Chinese name of the manufacturer into English yourself, so in case you aren’t sure, just ask the supplier. After completing the forms, it is advisable to photocopy them and send them back to the supplier for approval before submitting them; by doing so you can avoid delayed payment due to incorrect spelling or incorrect numbers.