I’ve just completely re-written this guide from scratch, giving you the most advanced product research method available today ๐Ÿ˜‰ This is the Ultimate Step-by-Step Guide on How to Find a Profitable Product! ๐ŸŽ‰

You’ve probably seen my megaguides about how to start an Amazon / E-Commerce business from scratch…

Haven’t read those yet? Check ’em out sometime!

After reading those, youโ€™ll probably end up with the #1 most common question I get…

“How EXACTLY Do You Find a Profitable Product to Sell?”

Todayโ€™s mega-guide will answer that for you in-depth…

Iโ€™ll also give you some of my custom tools / spreadsheets Iโ€™ve been tweaking for over 10-years (since I started selling online) to help myself find those profitable products QUICKLY.

The truth is – product research & selection is super complicated and time consuming. Most people will literally drive themselves crazy and quit the business before mastering it…

giphy1 1
Follow this guide to make sure THIS won’t be YOU ๐Ÿ˜ณ

But today Iโ€™m going to give you all of these quick rules and awesome tools to quickly identify high opportunity products, compare those opportunities against each other, and ultimately select the product thatโ€™s best for you to build a new business out of.

Iโ€™m confident there is no better guide (paid or free) that will help you find success on Amazon quicker than this ๐Ÿ˜Ž

So letโ€™s get started!

Viral Launch Market Intelligence Amazon Product Idea Score

Who’s This Mega-Guide Made For?

If youโ€™ve been with me for a while, youโ€™ll know that there are several different forms of e-commerceโ€ฆ

To quickly simplify – the differences between the models is roughly determined by:

  • What product youโ€™re selling (are you flipping items from garage sales or having one product manufactured that youโ€™ll sell many times?)
  • Where youโ€™re selling it (are you selling on a third-party platform like Amazon, building your own Shopify store or selling on social media?)

If youโ€™re looking to make more than the average full-time income, then you can immediately eliminate low-margin e-commerce models like merch by Amazon, dropshipping and arbitrage.

Thatโ€™s not to say thereโ€™s not value in those models. I know a LOT of successful sellers who started with arbitrage (if you want to learn more about arbitrage, check out my mega-guide on getting started with retail arbitrage).

But if youโ€™re looking to replace your full-time income and obtain some real financial freedom, you need to be looking at wholesale and private label…

You want to be selling a few products to lots of people with potential for high profit margins.

Todayโ€™s guide will show you exactly how to do thatโ€ฆ

Weโ€™re going to be working with Amazonโ€™s sales data (almost exclusively). But because such a large share of all physical product sales are happening on Amazon – this method can be used to find profitable products for you to sell on either Amazon or your own Shopify store.

Alright…so letโ€™s get started for real ๐Ÿ™ƒ

Step 1: What Makes a Good Product?

Alright – are you ready? We are going to cram a LOT of value into this little section…

charlie day is so

Iโ€™ve now personally sold over $100-million in physical products online (for new readers – you can view my current sales stats here) and helped over 7,000 new entrepreneurs launch new Amazon businesses (through my coaching community & course)…

So when it comes to finding profitable products to launch new online businesses, I donโ€™t think thereโ€™s anyone who has seen more than me!

Iโ€™m going to try to package ALL of that into this ONE section. Letโ€™s see how it goesโ€ฆ

Why Most People Fail

Global e-commerce sales have consistently grown at about 25% per year. That growth has made Amazon worth over $1-TRillion (with over 50% of their physical product sales coming from 3rd-party sellers like you and me ๐Ÿค‘)

Those numbers prove there’s never been an easier time to get a profitable e-commerce business off the ground – either on Amazon or your own store…

Yet – most people who set out to succeed will never even find a profitable product to sellโ€ฆ

Hereโ€™s why that happens –

  • Perfect Product Paralysis: Most people get stuck looking for the โ€˜perfect productโ€™ and never get started at all…

    Thereโ€™s no such thing as the perfect product.

    Every product has challenges to overcome – and profit for those who do.In this guide, youโ€™ll gain a deep understanding of what drives product profitability (and what actually makes a good product).

    As youโ€™ll see – product profitability changes over time, and all products have proโ€™s and conโ€™s…Your job is to find ANY PROFITABLE PRODUCT and LAUNCH IT – then grow from thereโ€ฆ
  • Information Overload: Too much learning and too much information leads to confusion and a lack of confidence – making it seem like everybody has it figured out but you…

    Learning is NOT a productive task – NOTHING is being produced. Implementing what you are learning is the only way to succeed in business.

    Those who implement the most (messy as it may be) will be the most successful. And those who learn the most will be most upset about it.

  • Thinking Too High Level: I get emails every day saying things like ‘Will – should I sell pet products or iPhone accessories?’…That’s thinking WAY too broad for where we’re at in the process!

    What weโ€™re looking for right now is ONE profitable product to sell. We donโ€™t want a profitable niche, we donโ€™t want a profitable category – we want ONE…profitable…product…From one profitable product – comes two. And from there…well you know ๐Ÿ˜€

    When youโ€™re first starting out, itโ€™s easy to completely overwhelm yourself by planning the entire future of your empire. You get stuck on the tiny details like where to buy UPC codes. You instead need to wake up every day and take the next smallest step you can to achieve that dream.

    After youโ€™ve got some products selling and youโ€™re making some money, you’ll turn around and optimize your product catalog – sacrificing your low profit products for new opportunities and consolidating your best products into product lines & brands.

    Profit FIRST – empire later…

  • Following the Herd: You donโ€™t want to follow the exact same methodology everybody else is using. And there is no โ€˜Yes / No Systemโ€™ that tells you what products will be profitable…

    However, there are many that try. Even my personal favorite product research tool (Market Intelligence) has something similar –

    These types of things are designed to be sexy and sell the software, which it does. But Iโ€™ve yet to meet anybody who built a successful e-commerce business because they saw a high idea score…

    Following things like this robs you of a true understanding of what makes a profitable product (and thus, how to build a business).

    You need to be more concerned with the DATA these tools provide, and be able to forecast how that data will play out in the real world.

    Which brings me to my next point…

  • No Ability to Future Forecast: Most people who try to get into this business honestly never get beyond comparing prices on Amazon vs Alibaba vs Aliexpress.

    After reading this guide (maybe a couple times over ๐Ÿ˜‰) – youโ€™ll be able to future forecast out and get an accurate estimate of things like profit margin, order costs, shipping costs, net profit per order, and many other awesome metrics…

In this guide, Iโ€™ll be referencing my personal Product Research Workbook quite oftenโ€ฆ

Amazon FBA Product Research Workbook to Find Profitable Products
Get Your Own Copy of My Workbook (Free)

The workbook allows you to apply the principles Iโ€™ll cover in this guide quickly and efficiently – processing hundreds of products through my personal product selection system within hours.

Armed with the ability to forecast all of this information, I hope youโ€™ll finally feel confident enough in your product selection to finally move forward and take the leap.

So thatโ€™s what NOT to do. Letโ€™s get into what you actually WANT to do…

Basic Unbreakable Product Parameters

Like panning for gold, this is the first set of filters you’ll put your product ideas throughโ€ฆ

Unbreakable Profitable Product Parameters

Let me explain each one a bit moreโ€ฆ

  • Small, light, and simple to ship – The bigger and heavier your product is, the more expensive shipping is. And shipping is typically the 2nd biggest expense in this business.

    You also want to avoid fragile products and products with lots of moving parts. The more complex a product is – the higher your return rate, which again drives up shipping costs. So we want to avoid thatโ€ฆ

    By the way – the actual numbers in the table above come from Amazon FBAโ€™s classifications of Small Standard-Size (15-inches) and Large Standard-Size (18-inches). Staying within these size limitations will ensure your product fulfillment fees stay low (and your profit margins stay high).

  • Selling to consumers for $15 – $100 (preferably $20 – 75) – Any product selling under $15 is going to have almost no profit margin left after paying sales fees, advertising costs, shipping & handling, storage, etc.

    So if youโ€™re just getting started and want to make any decent sum of money in this business, you can automatically cross off any product selling under $15

    On the other end – the higher the selling price of a product, the more itโ€™s going to cost you to get started selling it (you know – inventoryโ€ฆ).

    While there is no high-end limit, you can simply add two zeros to the end of your productโ€™s selling price to get a (very) rough idea of how much investment will be required before reaching profitability…

    So a $15 will likely require $1,500 of investment before becoming a profitable revenue stream, while a $50 product will likely require $5,000 before becoming profitable.

  • Profitable product and efficient use of capital – You obviously want products that are profitable to sell (fair profit margin) and are an efficient use of capital (good ROI).

    When youโ€™re first getting started, you can simplify these complex terms down to what I call the โ€˜3x Ruleโ€™ – whatever price you buy a product for, youโ€™re aiming to sell it for at least 3x your cost.

    Weโ€™ll still use profit margin and ROI to compare products against each other (and find the very best opportunity to move forward with). But the 3x Rule is handy to have in your conceptual toolbox.

    Also – keep in mind that profit margin increases over time. Sometimes you may want to just break even on a competitive product, so you can launch that new revenue stream for your company. After launching the product, you can then work on increasing profit margins.

    Thatโ€™s why in my personal workbook, I calculate profit margin and ROI all the way out beyond the 3rd re-order. I need to see how my margins are going to change over time as I scale the product up (paying less per unit in both inventory and shipping costs).
Forecast Profits For Future Orders
You can see I forecast out to a Full Inventory Sea Shipment

Iโ€™ll show you exactly how to do that later in this guide…

Alright…still with me?

Like I said – this is going to be a pretty deep guide ๐Ÿ‘

Other Concepts You Should Know

  • Understand the Product Life Cycle – One of the most important concepts in e-commerce that nobody talks about. You can NOT succeed with products that are outside of the growth phase of the product life cycle.

    Instead of typing out an explanation of the product life cycle, hereโ€™s a video I did on my fancy Star Wars-esque lightboard
  • Donโ€™t Fear Competition – Nobody wins in business by avoiding competition. But for many people, thatโ€™s their primary concern while researching products ๐Ÿ™

    You canโ€™t attack this process from a fear mindset. You have to attack it from an abundance mindset.

    Get excited about the products you might birth into this world, and donโ€™t underestimate how much better youโ€™ll make your product for your customers over time. This is just the beginning of your empire!

    The only thing to fear is a LACK of competition – which signals a dead market not worth anybodyโ€™s time.

    Using the methods in this guide, youโ€™ll find rapidly growing products that are early in their life cycle – and then youโ€™ll launch into that growing demand and claim your market share ๐Ÿ˜€

  • You Must Add Value – When youโ€™re first starting out, you donโ€™t want to immediately start customizing your product…

    You might place a logo on your product, but in terms of customizing the physical product itself (or adding expensive packaging, bonus products/bundles, etc) – letโ€™s leave all of that for after weโ€™ve got this product up and selling.

    The trick to getting started is again – finding a product with growing demand, and growing with that demand. That allows you to start with a relatively simple, unmodified product.

    And then with each order, you want to keep trying to add more value based on customer feedback and ranking data….but I am probably getting a little ahead of myself here.

    The point I want to make here is – try to find products youโ€™re passionate about…

    I would say that about 80% of all sellers I know are not at all passionate about the product they sell. Itโ€™s simply a business to them – they donโ€™t even have the life experience to innovate or improve the products much.

    this is doing business

    However โ€“ sellers who find products that hit all these parameters AND fall within their passions and life experience?

    Those sellers are so in-touch with their customers that they end up defining the market and dominating their competitors. And they have a lot of fun doing it!

    So understand that you will likely start with a relatively generic product, but you can quickly start tweaking things with your supplier to REALLY differentiate and leave all your competitors scrambling to keep upโ€ฆ

    The trick is again โ€“ get profitable first, then build the empire.

If youโ€™ve read this far, youโ€™re already ahead of 95% of all new sellers. These are damn important concepts, and those who understand them will WIN against those who donโ€™t…

Advanced Product Selection Concepts

At the risk of getting waayyyy too advanced, Iโ€™ll give you a few more important concepts Iโ€™ve picked up over the years (I might even remove this section)…

  • Too many sales is worse than too little sales – There is a sweet spot for sales numbers…

    Too Many Sales Worse Than Too Few Sales
    Too little sales means that you just wonโ€™t make much money…

    You might have a good margin, but there just wonโ€™t be much volume. Youโ€™ll have to launch more products to increase revenue. Not too great, but not too bad either

    Too many sales means you literally wonโ€™t be able to keep up with any inventory demands…

    It will require way too much capital to keep up with sales. Youโ€™ll end up going out of stock constantly, potentially racking up debt, and not being able to keep up with the evolution of the product.

    As Iโ€™ve said many times now – the trick in this is finding a product thatโ€™s early in its life cycle…

    Something that has relatively low sales right now, but has a ton of growth ahead of it. Those are the markets you can grow with and dominate over time.
  • You want products with a low number of average reviews – In this guide (and specifically in my workbook), I will show you how to collect the Average # of Reviews for your product. This will tell us how many reviews your top product competitors already have.

    Average Reviews Per Product

    The higher this number is, the tougher itโ€™s going to be for you to compete (for the most part).

    Thereโ€™s a sweet spot for this number that will show you which products are early in their life cycle (and thus – which products you want to go for!)

    Iโ€™ll show you how to find that sweet spot later in this guide…
  • This is a comparison process – Like I said earlier – if youโ€™re just clicking around looking for the perfect product to sell, youโ€™re going to drive yourself crazy (and fail)…

    Amazon allows us to get incredibly accurate estimates of how profitable each product will be. So we should obviously use them!

    The trick to efficient product research is separating yourself from the products themselves, and just strictly looking at the data that matters. Use that data to future forecast out and compare how each product will perform against each other product youโ€™re researching…

    This way – you donโ€™t need to find the perfect product. Youโ€™ll be extremely confident in the BEST product youโ€™ve found – the one thatโ€™s beat all the others…

    The truth is โ€“ big sellers like me barely even research products any more. We simply launch a ton of products, and accept that 30% โ€“ 50% will fail. The ones that win end up being profitable revenue streams for years

    But for YOU โ€“ you need your first few products to WORK! So you will spend more time with this data, and you will filter and compare all your estimates until youโ€™ve found your BEST product opportunity.

    And then you will move forward with confidence ๐Ÿ˜‰

    the most interesting man in the world says you got this

Alright – so youโ€™ve just gotten a masterclass on product research & selection concepts.

Letโ€™s move into actually performing this research and selecting productsโ€ฆ

Step 2: Brainstorm Products to Research

Now you know exactly what makes a great product for a new sellerโ€ฆ

In the next section, weโ€™ll walk through the actual comparison and selection process. But before we do that – we need to actually think of products to research and take through that comparison process!

Time For YOU To TAKE ACTION!

At this step, youโ€™ll need to start keeping track of all the different products you want to research. Iโ€™ve made my own personal Product Research Workbook available to you for free as part of this guideโ€ฆ

Amazon FBA Product Research Workbook to Find Profitable Products
Get Your Own Copy of My Workbook (Free)


If for some reason you don’t want this awesome tool Iโ€™ve spent over 10-years tweaking and perfecting, then you can also build your own from scratch…

In that case – you can open up either Google Sheets or Excel and start keeping track of product ideas as they come.

Either way – now you need to take action!

My Favorite Brainstorming Methods

So at this stage – we are not really thinking about prices or profitability. We are simply trying to find high-potential products to then check and compare their profitability later.

Thereโ€™s no right or wrong way to brainstorm products. Most people start by randomly walking around and looking for products that catch their eye. And that sometimes works!

But you know Iโ€™ve got a better method for you ๐Ÿ˜‰

Hereโ€™s some of the different brainstorming methods I recommend in my e-commerce coaching program

  • Passions, Interest, Hobbies & Problems: Roughly akin to walking around and looking for products that catch your eye, but way more focused on products that you can actually build a business out of.

    Iโ€™ll give you just one more freebie from my coaching program – a worksheet to track your Passions, Interests, Hobbies & Problems. Youโ€™ll want to print this out and carry it around with you while youโ€™re brainstorming products.

    Private Label Profitable Product Brainstorm Worksheet

    The idea here is to identify some of the less-obvious product opportunities that you could sell better than most other sellers. Products that fall into these categories are typically higher margin than most others too.

    So think about the passions, interests, and hobbies that drive you. Start thinking about some of the cool products youโ€™ve seen recently in there. And start writing those products down!

    I also like to think about pain points. Most products on Amazon are bought because someone wants to solve some problem or eliminate some pain point. So any time I (or someone I know) complains about some problem or pain point, I am thinking of how that complaint is going to look as an Amazon search term.

    If youโ€™re still having trouble with this concept, you can also download this example worksheet that I pre-filled with sample ideas…


  • Trend Hunting: The idea here is to explore up-and-coming product trends. And thereโ€™s a few sources that are great for this (and a ton of sources that are a waste of time).

    Thereโ€™s not much to explain here. You simply go through some of these websites and look for things that catch your eye (and are within the unbreakable product parameters, of course) –

    Thereโ€™s many other sources, but Iโ€™ve found those to be the best…


  • All the Amazon Methods: Youโ€™ll often hear people recommend browsing the Amazon Best Sellers List to find potential products to research. However, this is a waste of time for new sellers…

    If youโ€™re going to spend time mindlessly scrolling through Amazonโ€™s catalog, make sure youโ€™re in the Movers & Shakers or Hot New Products.

    While itโ€™s not my favorite brainstorming method, you can find some great product ideas that way…

  • Spying on Other Sellers: Although this is the โ€˜sexiestโ€™ and most powerful method, I have to warn you…

    I do NOT recommend blindly following other sellers and just selling whatever product they are. Thatโ€™s a recipe to always be behind the curve playing catch-up to the real winnersโ€ฆ

    But I do LOVE the idea of spying on my competition, and seeing what products theyโ€™re currently investing new money into…

    So use this method to gather intelligence and brainstorm – not simply become another โ€˜me-tooโ€™ seller.

    With that being said – hereโ€™s how you do it…

    • Spy on Sponsored Product Ads: These little ads on Amazon can tell you a lot about whoโ€™s making money…
Spying on Amazon Sponsored Product Ads
Look for ‘Sponsored Products’ all over the Amazon platform…

For a seller to be pushing a product with these ads, they MUST have high enough profit margins & volume to cover all their typical costs (inventory, fees, etc) – and ALSO pay for advertising expenses on top of that. All while still making a profit!

And these are exactly the kind of products I want to be selling. To quote the man who has forever changed the way we buy things –

Your Margin Is My Opportunity.
โ€“ Jeff Bezos (Founder @ Amazon)

Since sponsored product ads (and advertising in general) show you who has high-ish margins, they can be a great source of product ideas.

  • Spy On Other Sellerโ€™s Product Launches: This one is a little dirty, and will certainly rub some people the wrong way. But I want to give you the best chance of success, even if it pisses some people off (including some friends)โ€ฆ

    One method I stumbled on long ago was spying on other sellerโ€™s new product launches. These are the product launches that theyโ€™re investing big bucks into โ€“ products theyโ€™re hoping will soon become a reliable revenue stream for years to comeโ€ฆ

    This will get a little advanced (like it hasnโ€™t already ๐Ÿ™„), but many Amazon sellers in the most competitive categories will use free product giveaways and โ€˜launch campaignsโ€™ to drive up โ€˜units soldโ€™ on the Amazon platform.

    This in turn tells Amazon their product is awesome, and so Amazon starts to show it more often to itโ€™s real customers.Long story short, itโ€™s a greyhat-ish way to increase your sales on Amazon

    So what you can do, is sign up as a customer/buyer for the launch services that these sellers use. Then you will see the exact products they are spending thousands of dollars to rank well on Amazon.

    Some of these launch services will not even require you to sign up. You can just go on their websites and see which products are currently being launched โ€“

There are many other ways to spy on sellers, and many other launch sites that can be used. But since I am friends with most of the people who run these services, I am going to save the more advanced version of this method for members of my e-commerce coaching community ๐Ÿ˜‰

Spend some time trying out all the different methods above, and try to get 10-20 solid ideas out of each oneโ€ฆ

After that, you should have a spreadsheet with 40-80 products that we will take forward and research in the next step.

Once you have that, you can move on to the next stepโ€ฆ

Step 3: Use Historical Sales Data to Forecast Future Product Profitability

That sounds really complicated, but itโ€™s actually simpleโ€ฆ

Youโ€™re going to use simple tools to find a few pieces of sales numbers for each product. And youโ€™re going to put those numbers on a spreadsheet…

Then youโ€™ll use some fun little formulas that crunch your data and forecast how each product will perform for you in the future. Youโ€™ll be able to see extremely accurate estimates of sales volume, profitability, and even how much your first order will cost you (and how much money youโ€™ll make after you sell it all).

After you have all of this information – youโ€™ll be able to quickly compare huge amounts of products against each other. Youโ€™ll translate the โ€˜big dataโ€™ of Amazonโ€™s real sales history into a comprehensive story – and youโ€™ll be able to visualize how each product will play out in real life.

I know this sounds absolutely crazy. But this is where I have personally taken it since I started selling physical products online over 10 years ago. And I will help you take your product research to that level with this guide!

My own personal product research workbook makes my entire comparison model readily available to you. I really suggest using my workbook from here on out – as most of the formulas I use to compare products against each other are simply too complex to explain in this guideโ€ฆ

However, Iโ€™ve made those formulas are readily available to you for free as part of this guide!

Amazon FBA Product Research Workbook to Find Profitable Products
Plug Your Products Into My Research Model (Free)

The Only Tools You Need

Right now there are only two tools you needโ€ฆ

How to Actually Do the Product Research

Youโ€™ll see that my Product Research Workbook has the following pieces of data you need to input from one of these product research tools –

Core Product Research Metrics
These are the core numbers we care about (right now)…
2018 09 21 19 05 321

Youโ€™ll want to pull these numbers from Amazon using your Product Research Tool –

Market Intelligence Product Research
And here’s where you find those core numbers…

Two important things I want to note as you go into thisโ€ฆ

My entire product research methodology revolves around this idea of becoming one of the top 10 Amazon sellers for that product (which is super easy)…

So when I use these product research tools, I am not really looking at the data for any individual product…

Aggregate Product Research Data

I am looking at the aggregate sales data for the top 10 product listings for that keyword.

Market Intelligence Detailed Statistics Product Research

This shows me how the average product in the top 10 currently performs, and gives me a more reliable idea of how my product might perform (compared to any one individual product listing, whose data can be skewed by external promotions, sponsored product ads, and discount campaigns, and lots more).

Why I Split My Research Into 3 Stages

My research is split up into 3 separate โ€˜stagesโ€™ – which allows me to quickly filter out bad products before wasting any unnecessary time on themโ€ฆ

Three Stages of Finding a Profitable Product
I split my research into 3 stages to speed up the process…

So when I perform product research, I am QUICKLY filling in the Stage One data points for each product – and then I only take the BEST products into Stage Two (and so forth).

By continually feeding small bits of data into the machine, and filtering out any products that donโ€™t make the cut along the way – youโ€™re saving countless hours you would have spent cluttering your mind with bad products that you should have known would suck anyways…

The name of the game right now is SPEED and EFFICIENCY. You do NOT want to spend the next 2-weeks doing product research. This is an over-the-weekend kind of task…

Now go through and fill in the data for each product idea youโ€™ve come up with…

  1. Search for your product on Amazon

    Search For Your Product on Amazon
  2. Analyze using your product research tool

    Market Intelligence Product Research
  3. Input the numbers you need into your workbook

    Core Product Research Metrics

Stage 1 – Is the Product Even Viable?

Your workbook should now look something like this –

Product Research Workbook In Progress Stage One

You now have all the data you need to quickly check the viability of each product, and knock out all the products that obviously suck.

All your time will now be focused on your best product ideas.

Thereโ€™s a few things you’re looking for before taking any product into the next stage of research…

  • Average Price: This number now shows you how much each of the top 10 sellers is charging for this product.

    Most of the time youโ€™ll sell at a slightly higher price than this – but consider this your worst-case-scenario price.

    Any product with an Avg Price under $15 is NOT going to make it into the next stage. These products just wonโ€™t be profitable – you canโ€™t start a business out of them

    Any product with an Avg Price over $50 is not necessarily a bad product, but it will cost a fortune to buy inventory to start selling it. These products are best left for the future, after youโ€™ve got some profitable cash flow coming in?
  • Average Unit Sales & Average Revenue: Like we talked about (way) above, too many sales is bad for new sellersโ€ฆ

    Weโ€™re aiming for a sweet spot โ€“ a product we can get started with on a relatively low budget, achieve profitability quickly, and then grow with the market naturally from there.

    Any product with an Avg Revenue under $3,000 is NOT going to make it into the next stage. 

    These products might be profitable, but there is just not enough volume to make them viable products to build a business out of.

    Any product with an Avg Revenue over $25,000 is not necessarily a bad product, but it will cost an absolute fortune to get started and compete for a market this large. These products are also best left for the future.

    Ideally, you can find some products with $3,000 โ€“ $20,000 in Avg Revenue that are early in their life cycles. The idea is (once again) that you can launch into that growing demand and become a market leader by the time the market reaches those higher revenue numbers.
  • Average Reviews: This number now shows you how many reviews the average seller has (out of the top 10 sellers). It roughly shows you how many reviews youโ€™ll need to be perceived as an obvious market leader to all new customers (which is when things start getting real easyโ€ฆ)

    Any product with Avg Reviews under 25 is not necessarily a bad product โ€“ but itโ€™s a red flag that the market may be too small to launch a business out of. More investigation is required before taking these products through to the next stage.

    Any product with Avg Reviews over 200 is not necessarily a bad product either โ€“ but itโ€™s a red flag that this market is already matured. Products have been perfected, marketing has been automated โ€“ and it might be very difficult to compete in these markets (compared to products with less reviews).

    The sweet spot here is products with Avg Reviews between 25 โ€“ 200. Anything outside of this range is generally not going to make it through (especially on the high-end of 200, unless youโ€™ve got experience and a big budget!).
  • Broad Search Volume & Search Conv %: Youโ€™ll see this metric on my personal workbook, but I do not recommend you use itโ€ฆ

    I do go into this metric and how I personally use it in my e-commerce training program, but itโ€™s simply too complex to explain via text here (and requires additional tools to perform).

    So for you right now โ€“ just skip Broad Search Volume and Search Conv %โ€ฆ
  • Sales / Revenue Per Review: These are really cool metrics that I love to use. Both roughly show the same thing โ€“ how many sales (or how much money) are sellers making for each review on their product listingโ€ฆ

    Using this metric along with Avg Reviews gives me a rough idea of where a product is at in its life cycle. A product with low Avg Reviews and high Sales/Revenue Per Review would mean the product is relatively new, has few reviews (and thus no market leader), and is STILL making crazy amounts of sales/money.

    Those are obviously the types of products you want to be selling!

    Any product with an Avg Sales Per Review under 2 OR Avg Revenue Per Review under $40 will NOT make it into the next stage. You can eliminate all these.

    For these metrics, higher is better. Any product with high numbers in these columns โ€“ youโ€™ll want to take forward into the next stage.

Using the rules above, youโ€™ll typically eliminate the majority of the products on your workbook. This is a good thing!

You should be left with about 10-20 products to bring through into Stage Twoโ€ฆ

Stage 2 – Is the Product Profitable?

Now youโ€™ll collect just 3 numbers for each product that made it through to this stage. With just these 3 numbers (and the data youโ€™ve already collected) – youโ€™ll be able to eliminate any product that would not be profitable enough to support a new business.

Hereโ€™s the 3 numbers you need to calculate profitability –

1. Desired Selling Price: New sellers should be selling premium products at premium prices. In almost every circumstance, your product will sell at a slightly higher price than the Avg Price of the Top 10 Sellers (which we calculated in Stage One).

So on my own personal workbook, I make all estimates from Stage Two forward using both the Desired Selling Price (ideal scenario) AND the Avg Price (worst case scenario). Doing this gives me (and thus you) the ability to see what profitability will look like if I decide to abandon the product and liquidate it instead (I prefer to still profit in those situations!).

Minimum And Ideal Profit Margin for Each Product

So your Desired Selling Price is just…your desired selling price. What do you want to sell this product for?

This question is second-nature to experienced sellers. If youโ€™re a new seller and confused by this, just add 20% to the Avg Price for the product and move on…

2. Estimated FBA Fees: The second biggest expense in this business (sometimes the biggest expense) is SHIPPING โ€“ both getting your product from the supplier (sourcing/importing), and getting that product to the customer (fulfillment).

Typically shipping is pretty difficult to estimate. But this guide will show you how to get extremely accurate estimates of what your product will cost to fulfill

All you need to do isโ€ฆ

  • Search For Your Product On Amazon
Search For Your Product on Amazon
  • Pull the ASIN for 1-3 Products
Pull Product ASIN From Amazon Product Listing

(I usually copy the ASIN from the URL of the product listing…)

Pull Product ASIN From Amazon Product Listing
  • Plug that ASIN into Amazonโ€™s FBA Calculator with ANY โ€˜Item Priceโ€™ to see the REAL fulfillment cost of that product ๐Ÿ˜Ž
Pull Product Fulfillment Fees From Amazon FBA Calculator
  • Input the โ€˜FBA Fulfillment Feeโ€™ or โ€˜Total Fulfillment Costโ€™ into your workbook

Youโ€™ve now got profitability estimates that account for the real-live fulfillment costs of each product.

Quick note – since my personal product research workbook is built for new Amazon sellers, it automatically accounts for the ‘Selling on Amazon Fee’ you’ll see on the FBA Calculator (which is of gross revenue).

3. FOB Costs:

Now we need to find out what this product is actually going to cost us. How much will each unit of inventory cost from the supplier?

This is the final number we need before we can calculate and compare the profitability of each product!

Youโ€™ll want to use Alibaba to search for your product and grab a quick FOB pricing estimate

Search For Product Pricing Via Alibaba FOB Price

At this stage youโ€™ll need to start applying some creativity to the process. Youโ€™ve already searched for the product on Amazon and seen what the competition has to offer. And now youโ€™re looking at all the available products readily available from suppliers around the world.

FOB Product Pricing on Alibaba

So which of these products do you think you can sell? Which of these products do you personally think is awesome?

Browse around for less than 2-minutes per product and put your best estimate of the FOB Price into your workbook…

FOB Cost Product Research Workbook Profitability

If youโ€™re feeling unsure about your estimating skills, keep in mind that this is a comparison process! So if you underestimate or overestimate pricing across all your research – it wonโ€™t matter much. Youโ€™ll still be able to compare all those products and find the outliers that stand out among the rest.

And if you want more information on how to use Alibaba, check out my Alibaba Mega-Guide

Youโ€™ve now got all the data you need to automatically calculate those extremely accurate estimates I keep ranting and raving about ๐Ÿ˜Ž

Stage 3 – Future Order Forecasting

Now you can start comparing the profitability of all these products against each other to find the best ones ๐Ÿ™‚

Your workbook should look something like this –

Step Two Comparing Product Profitability

This shows us both the Profit Per Unit and Gross Margin for each product. And it shows us both the minimum results we could expect (based on ‘Avg Price’ from Stage One), and it shows us the ideal results we could expect (based on ‘Ideal Price’ from Stage Two).

The reason this is Gross (and not Net) is because we are still missing one major expense – shipping from our supplier into our fulfillment center (usually Amazon FBA). Weโ€™ll grab this number in the next stage, but only for the products that make it through this profitability checkpoint.

Iโ€™ll make this section really simple for youโ€ฆ

Any product with a Profit Per Unit under $5 OR Gross Margin under 30% can automatically be eliminated. You simply canโ€™t build a new business out of these productsโ€ฆ

Youโ€™re really aiming for Profit Per Unit over $8 and Gross Margin over 40% at this stage. But the higher the better (did I mention itโ€™s a comparison process?)…

How to Forecast Product Costs & Profits

By this point youโ€™ll start to understand why I stress speed and efficiency, and why I split this up into 3 stagesโ€ฆ

Itโ€™s freakinโ€™ time consuming! And you donโ€™t want to do this much in-depth number-crunching research for products that could be eliminated early in the process.

Luckily – this is the quickest step of all, and probably the coolest too ๐Ÿ˜Ž

Thereโ€™s just two numbers you need to input into your workbook to complete your data destinyโ€ฆ

Stage Three Product Research Find Profitable Product
These two numbers will allow you to forecast future order profitability for each product…

Here’s how to get those two numbers –

  • Weight (lbs) Per Unit: You can get this number the same way you got the FBA Fees earlier…

    Since Amazon is actually fulfilling these products for current sellers, you know this is the actual verified shipping weight!

    Just open the Amazon FBA Calculator and search for your product on Amazon. Then pull the ASIN for 1-3 products, and input that ASIN into the FBA Calculator…

    How to Find Shipping Weight Of Your Product

    As you can see, Amazon will show you the shipping weight right here on the calculator. This is the actual shipping weight this seller is paying Amazon for via FBA – so you can count on it being pretty accurate!

    Quick Note – As you get the hang of this, you may also want to start simply inputting the Weight Per Unit when you are collecting the FBA Fees using the calculator earlier in Stage Two. It’s just a little quicker that way…

    Once you have that number, enter it into your workbook!

    My workbook (that you are hopefully using by now) will automagically take this one number, convert it into kg, and then use it throughout the Stage Three results to produce extremely accurate shipping estimates…

  • Duty Rate: This is the final number you need to input into your workbook ๐Ÿ™

    To be honest, you probably wonโ€™t ever find another product research guide that takes duty rate into account. Even some of the most successful sellers I know donโ€™t know how to estimate duty rates.

    But I have a method to quickly pull accurate duty rate estimates. And once you have those, youโ€™ll have accounted for every predictable and repeated cost of doing business with each product.

    And you’ll have no excuse not to finally pull the trigger and get started!

    Thereโ€™s two good sites you can use to estimate duty rates –

    Thereโ€™s one additional way to get duty rates even quicker, but I do need to leave that private to members of my coaching program – as it will get locked up if made public…

    Youโ€™re basically just searching around these systems to find something that would accurately describe the product youโ€™re importing. When you find an HS Code that applies to your product, take that duty rate and input that number into your workbook.

    Sometimes this will be easy, and the product will come up right away. But other times you will have to dig a little bit, and maybe even go with a very broad category (maybe you canโ€™t find Stainless Steel Garlic Press, but you can find Steel Kitchen Products).

    How to Estimate Duty Rate for Importing Products

    If the duty rate for your product is outrageously high, look around for another classification that might have a lower duty rate. YOU determine the classification, and there is some flexibility with these things…

Youโ€™ll also see the term โ€˜Merchandise Processing Feeโ€™ or โ€˜MPFโ€™ come up often. This is a small fee (typically $25) that US Customs charges to process each and every shipment coming through the borderโ€ฆ

My workbook (that youโ€™re hopefully using by now) automatically accounts for this in all calculations. But if youโ€™re making your own workbook, youโ€™ll need to account for that fee as well.

When you input these last two numbers, youโ€™ll see the workbook light up with all sorts of resultsโ€ฆ

Future Order Profitability Forecasting Calculations
BINGO!

Youโ€™ve now collected every piece of data needed to forecast several orders out into the future (and see the exact cost & profitability of each and every order).

If youโ€™re using my workbook, youโ€™ll see the following calculations made (which will be very helpful in comparing which product you want to move forward with)…

  • Order Quantity: Most new sellers will start with an initial test order of 100 units. Once those units have sold successfully, youโ€™ll start ordering more inventory (larger order quantity) to keep up with increased sales.

    My workbook calculates a rough estimate of how many units youโ€™d want to buy for your first 4-5 orders. It does this by using the Avg Unit Sales for the product to estimate how many youโ€™d need to keep up with demand.

    You can even change the Order Quantity number to modify the calculations and see what any specific product would look like with a higher/lower inventory order.

    Changing Order Quantity to Forecast Prroduct Profitability at Different Volume Levels
  • Shipping Cost Estimate: On my workbook, youโ€™ll see that I actually account for using different shipment methods earlier in your business…

    This is because all new sellers will start with Express shipments, and as their product starts selling more – they will move into Air Freight Shipments or even Sea Shipments…

    Let me simplify a LOT of complex knowledge down to this for you…
    • Express = $7 per kg
    • Air Freight = $4.5 per kg
    • Sea Freight = $0.50 per kg

    Because my workbook does all of this for you, you donโ€™t really need to worry about those numbers yet. I just want to let you know whatโ€™s happening with my calculations.

    And remember – you already told your workbook what the Weight (lbs) Per Unit, and the workbook is using that number here to fuel these shipping estimates ๐Ÿ˜‰


  • Total Order Cost: If you’ve been following along, you’ve just built a very intelligent workbook. It already knows…
    • How much inventory youโ€™re going to need
    • How much that inventory is going to cost you
    • How much it will cost to ship that inventory into your warehouse (or fulfillment center like FBA)
    • How much youโ€™ll pay in fulfillment and seller fees for each unit sold

    With all of this information, we can easily determine what the total cost of each order will be.

Now keep in mind, youโ€™ll likely end up paying a bit less than this. Most sellers easily negotiate a 30% up-front deposit for their inventory, and then pay the remaining 70% after its shipped.

Remember – this step is about comparing data to find the most profitable product opportunities in your list of ideasโ€ฆ

Now we get into the really cool stuff that 99.9% of sellers will never research…

  • Net Revenue: This is the exact amount of money youโ€™ll receive back into your bank account from Amazon after your inventory sells out.
  • Total Profit: This is the exact amount of profit youโ€™ll make after paying for EVERYTHING (shipping, handling, importing, fulfillment, seller fees, etc).
  • Net Profit Per Unit: The same thing as Total Profit, but expressed on a per unit basis (rather than showing total profit of the order). This allows you to see how product profitability changes with different order quantities.
  • Net Profit Margin: Here is the real-live net profit margin you could expect on this product across different order quantities & shipping methods.
  • Return on Investment (ROI): This is very similar to net profit margin, but instead shows you how efficiently youโ€™re using your capital. This wonโ€™t be as useful when youโ€™re first starting out, but will become very useful when you have lots of different products (and youโ€™re looking to sell only the one that make the most sense for your business).

Keep in mind my workbook shows all of these results based on both Minimum Price (based on ‘Avg Price’) AND Ideal Price (based on ‘Desired Selling Price’).

Final Step: How to Actually Pick Your Winning Product

Youโ€™ve now done more product research than most sellers ever will. You have every piece of relevant information needed to make your decision (and none of the useless clutter that slows most people down)…

Your job now is to scroll around and compare all these products against each other, and to SELECT A WINNING PRODUCT!!!

As youโ€™ll see by looking at your data, there are some products that simply wonโ€™t make sense. They might have extremely low profit margins / profit per unit, or they might require such large inventory orders that itโ€™s simply out of your current budgetโ€ฆ

All of that is fine. Because somewhere in your data, lies at LEAST one incredible product you can use to launch your business and build a new life for yourself.

Ask Yourself These Final Questions…

Itโ€™s pretty obvious at this stage how you can compare these results youโ€™ve got, so I wonโ€™t spend much time explaining thatโ€ฆ

Instead, Iโ€™ll give you some additional questions you may want to ask yourself to make that final choice between your winning products…

  • Is this an impulse purchase that would not require much research before buying? You want to be selling impulse purchases for your first few products (and luckily, most products in our desired price range are impulse purchases).
  • Is this product fragile or hazardous to ship? That could severely increase shipping costs & returns.
  • Do some of these products have more/less moving parts than others? More moving parts is BAD when first starting out.
  • Could the top 10 listings for this search term use improvement? Are the current sellers missing images, or could their images be improved?
  • Can I match (or exceed) the current product & listing quality of existing sellers? You want to be selling high-quality products that your customers will love (thatโ€™s where the high margins are at).
  • Is there a passionate community about this product? You might want to leverage influencers, FB Groups, and similar things in the future. A product with a thriving and excited community is better than selling something without that spark.
  • Does this product somehow encourage recurring purchases or have an obvious product pathway? The final thing I think about, is what ELSE comes AFTER each product? Are there some products on your workbook that have an obvious pathway to launching MORE products to those same customers? I like to turn my products into product LINES and BRANDS, so this is important to meโ€ฆ

Now – Pick Your Winning Product!

Iโ€™ve worked with over 7,000 new sellers over the past few years, and I know that THIS is the MAIN point of failureโ€ฆ

MOST new sellers never get past this point. They freeze up and get scared, and they go back to the 9-to-5 grind…

You MUST understand – youโ€™ve now done more product research than almost anybody I know. You HAVE all the information you need to KNOW which products will win or lose.

The next step is for you to TAKE THE LEAPโ€ฆ

You must accept that there is SOME RISK INVOLVED with starting new businesses. And now itโ€™s time for you to TAKE YOUR RISK.

Iโ€™ve given you more here than any existing successful seller had when they first got started. So now YOU NEED TO GET STARTED!

Have More Questions For Me?

This is one of my main mega-guides that I keep constantly up to date. So you can bookmark this and come back to reference it in the future ๐Ÿ‘

If you have additional questions or confusion after reading this guide, you should do one of the followingโ€ฆ

For continued reading and learning, hereโ€™s some awesome mega-guides that go well with this oneโ€ฆ

That’s it – you did it! Congratulations on consuming the most advanced piece of content I’ve ever written ๐ŸŽ‰

Let me know what you thought, and make sure to go do the damn thing!

how to find a profitable product to sell online

Author

Avatar for Will Mitchell
Will Mitchell

Will Mitchell is a serial entrepreneur and Founder of StartupBros. You can learn more about him at the Startupbros about page. If you have any questions or comments for him, just send an email or leave a comment!

859 comments add your comment

  1. Thank you for the great article. I just found out about you and I wonder if you update the sheet for products as this article is 2 year old. I and many new students like me would be very happy if you put new list out there. thank you

  2. I really appreciate the well written and beautifully described tactics in business. i am an aspiring amazon entrepreneur and all the info here has been very useful but i just want to know where i can buy products from and how do i get them to amazon fba centers and how do i actually get started.(after finding my product).

  3. Hi in your guide you recommend pay the tool viral launch but what pricing plan do you recommend me, I want to start selling my first product because I saw the beginner plan is very simple so is it better buy the pro plan or the beginner?

    • Hey Abraham, you want to keep your costs as low as possible when you’re starting out. The beginner plan should be good to get started and to launch your first product. Remember stay lean and don’t spend all your money quickly.

  4. I have been looking for products in JS to start in FBA I have been doing different searches in Amazon Mexico for more than 1 month but it sends me to very saturated products or where there are no possible improvements in the product, apart from not meeting the criteria to start selling that product in FBA and in some cases I find very limited searches where there are only a few sellers selling but they do not have many sales or even are prestigious brands.
    Amazon Mexico is a small market compared to Amazon USA so there are products with good sales but a few sellers are making those sales.
    In this case they recommend me to do since if I continue doing searches I will see the same products.

    • Hey Abraham, thanks for reaching out and reading the article. It would make sense to start selling on Amazon US because its a larger market where you can reach sellers. It happens often with these smaller markets where there aren’t many products or opportunities and then the solution becomes to sell on Amazon US. Is that something you’re open to doing?

      • Yeah, I’m thinking about but if I sell on Amazon is more expensive well with the fees of FBA. I need to think what is the market for me thanks for the help

        • Yea it completely depends what you want to do. Amazon is a great place to start when you don’t have an audience. Once you have sales on Amazon and an audience built up you can move on to your own website.

  5. Thank you so much! I read every your post about Amazon niche sites. Theyโ€™re so great and useful for me.

    Thank again!

    Good luck for you!

  6. Thank you for this very interesting blog post ! I read it 3 or 4 times. ๐Ÿ™‚
    My question is as follows: you refer to the 3x rules. Does your coefficient include costs such as freight or comissions on sales by Amazon or is it just selling price of the manufacturer x3?
    (sorry if my english isnt that good)

    • Hey Obso the reason you want to sell a product 3x the cost is because there will be fees associated with selling and you want to account for those. So to answer your question the 3x coefficient does take into account the fees. Your profit will be less than 3x but it will still be a good profit.

  7. I NEVER comment on blogs but your blog is amazing and this spreadsheet is a lifesaver so I had to. I am going through a list of products and this makes it so much easier to decide! I’ve had “analysis paralysis” for a couple months now and feel this will help me get over it. Thank you so much!

    • That’s incredible to hear! Thank you so much for commenting and taking the time out of your day do it ๐Ÿ™‚ If you have any questions at all I hope that you come back and ask!

  8. Fantastic content, iโ€™ve learnt so much just from spending afternoons reading through your blogs!

    After getting started with my Amazon I was recently hit with a โ€˜design right infringementโ€™ with Amazon removing my product. From some research I can see this was likely due to the design rights already being claimed by another company who I imagine strategically reported my product (manufactured in china wholesale) after it started selling so well. I was really disheartened, as thought I had considered everything!

    I guess my main question is, how do I avoid this happening in the future? Iโ€™ve found some other viable products but now concerned Iโ€™d get another violation and have my account compromised. I have no idea how I can find out if somebody already has the โ€œrightsโ€ to a design before I list it, do you have any advice or tips on avoiding this and what considerations to make?

    You can read my full story on the Amazon Seller forums here:

    https://sellercentral-europe.amazon.com/forums/t/design-right-infringement/199391

    Look forward to any insights you may have, keep up the amazing content!

    • Hey Nathan, we would love to talk through this with you. It seems to me like you’re being targeted and that happens when you’re making sales and other sellers are threatened. Can you email us so we can dig into this further. bros@startupbros(dot)com

  9. I used to do a lot of ecom (retail arbitrage and dropshipping) and still do a bit today – but my agency takes up so much of my time. I think you’re spot on when you talk about impulse buying. The brain is literally wired to be biased towards impulse buying! I’m a huge fan of using psychology to understand and leverage people to take action *cough cough … buy*

    I use Triune Brain Theory anytime I’m selling or pitching …

    Basically, there are three parts of the brain.

    The reptilian brain [responsible for instinct / fear / desire]
    The limbic brain [responsible for emotion and sensation]
    And the neo-cortex [responsible for logic]

    When we pitch impulse level products, we make it EASY for the reptilian brain to say “yes” and make it HARD for the neo-cortex to say “no.”

    That’s why I love love love that range.

    Great stuff Will!

  10. To determine successful product sales, first thing first, we need to understand what makes a product profitable. Criteria like popularity, competition, category, and shipping weight all play a big role here. Then we can identify items which meet most of the criteria. Let me know if you can think of any other ways of finding the best items to sell on Amazon.

  11. The number in unit sales column is the sales per day or per month?
    How to find out this number without Viral Launch?
    I have been analyzing BSR in FBA toolbar to find out # of sales in particular category per day. But, the numbers look much lower then you have in your spreadsheet “av. unit sales” column. Even with lowest BSR of 250, # of daily sales is around 87. Do I need to multiply that by 30 days and put in my spreadsheet? Is there another way to find out this number? I know it is easier with Viral Launch but, it is a bit pricey for the beginner.
    Thank you

  12. Hi guys, info is spot on and made this whole process a lot easier. I have a product that fits perfectly in the parameters on Amazon.com, and in an industry Iโ€™m genuinely passionate about, however on the UK site revenue volume isnโ€™t as high (Iโ€™m based in UK). The product goes by lots of different names which the viral market intelligence free version wonโ€™t give info on so I wonder if I took them into account Iโ€™d be in that โ€˜sweet spotโ€™.Iโ€™m thinking to go ahead with the product on the basis that if I can get to understand the product and process on the UK site I can transition over to the US market when Iโ€™ve got my head round it all. Thoughts?

    • Hey Zach thanks for reaching out ๐Ÿ™‚ In general, if you found a product that you’re passionate about then no matter what problems you run into you are more likely to push through them. The easiest and biggest market to launch in is the US because the demand is there. However if you launch in a smaller market like the UK then there is more room to learn the process which makes launching in the US later much easier. The worst thing you can do is not take action. Launch in the UK and aim to break even. Then lower your costs by launching in the US and then scale with PPC ads inside the US. I think you’re heading in the right direction. If you need anything else at all please ask away!

    • You don’t want to ship directly to Amazon warehouses because Amazon has specific requirements to accept products into their warehouse. Once you learn how to do it yourself you can hire a company to prep the products for you like FBAinspection.com

  13. Iโ€™m happy to have somebody on my side when i strat in to a new business:) i whant to read more from you. Great information.

  14. Wow…Thanks a million sir. I have never read any report or article as comprehensive as yours. Coincidentally, I ran into your article as I was planning to start my e-commerce business. And it was a miracle that I found you. Thanks for all you do for young entrepreneurs like myself. God bless you sir!

  15. Hi Will:

    Thanks for your guide!! It has so much useful information. However, I am not able to download your workbook. Is it now only available to your coach membership only?

  16. Hi, unable to download sheet, would really wanna take a look at it. I read the whole article, dont you think i deserve it?๐Ÿ˜€

  17. Will, great article. Most actionable guide I have yet found.

    If a product otherwise looks good (using your worksheet and the other parameters you outlined), but has a high keyword competition ratio on Amazon (at or near 1.0), should that be a disqualifier for someone just starting out?

    • Hey Matt, not necessarily. If a product looks good and there’s opportunity then you can potentially outrank competition organically with a killer listing, images, reviews and all the other signals that Amazon likes to see. Keyword competition is mainly for PPC and that just means that it’s worth going after if you have some money to put behind ppc ads because other people are finding their ads profitable. See it more like an opportunity ๐Ÿ™‚

  18. Hi, the link for the excel work book seems to be broken. when I try to enter my email id, it keeps hanging out and does not allow me to download. Is there any way to get the excel file downloaded.

  19. Great guide. However, what about product liability? I plan to source consumer electronics products and I want to know how to cover that, what is the cost, etc? Anyone who can help me?

    • You are more than able to source any product you want but we don’t recommend consumer electronics. They are usually low margin and require product liability. Until you’re comfortable sourcing and doing quality assurance it might not be financially worth it to source consumer electronics.

  20. Yes, I can’t download the workbook. This site won’t let me complete my email address in the box to download it.

  21. i can’t download the excel sheet!!
    i found this really helpfull but please provide me with the excelsheet.

  22. You my friend are a fuc#%*^ legend!
    Iโ€™ve been doing little bits of selling over the last few years, just with niche products or great deals Iโ€™ve found. Youโ€™ve opened the floodgates now on how I should be selling.

    Thank you for passing along some of your knowledge pearls, hope you get some kick-arse karma in return!

    P.S You are my new messiah!

    • Thanks Tyson…
      Wait til you see the new version of this mega-guide I just posted – it’s even more valuable!

  23. Great guide, Will.
    I’d like to add Google trends as a solid recommendation for discovering up and comping products (and even categories). We used that to find 69 trending products that worked great on our own online stores too that we later published on our blog.

    • You can use Google Trends to see Keyword Search Data over time, which can be useful. But no way I am checking that for every single product I research. That would be something in my very final stage of product research and selection…

      Trust the process!

  24. If ecommerce is not one of the MOST COMPETITIVE THINGs and it’s getting even harder. You can’t bet someone with half a million budget.

  25. I thank U for all that information i be happy to start my own business soon.congratulations what you doing helping others

  26. Your new Amazon FBA Product Planner has made my world much easier. Thank you!

  27. Hi,
    Great article and very helpful! However I was wondering how to know if a product has a “consistent buyer”that part was hard to know practically what the looks like.

  28. What a monster of an article. I’m looking to sell a ton of stuff because I am moving soon. Will need to save this for later so I can read it on my desktop. Thanks for creating it.

  29. Who do you use as a supplier here in the us or how do you search for one here.

  30. Hi will, thanks for your insight. I want to start importing products into my country, Nigeria, I still don’t know which product to go for. I need your advice please.

  31. Hi
    Thanks for the useful article, It helped me a lot.
    Now I have a question..

    How can I send a chosen product directly from China to the Amazon FBA ?
    actually what is the process?

    Thanks
    Reza

  32. Awesome and very helpful article! Thanks for sharing. Niche selection can be difficult especially when most online sellers carry the same niche and products. Tools are helpful. I use DSM Tool to help me look for products based on customer demands.

  33. Hi there,
    I’m sure there’s no one right answer for this, but how much competition is too much? Do you have like a process you go through when deciding?
    Thanks

  34. I started niche site business, and it was a disaster. I have started study on Amazon niche selection again. Your guide really in-depth and make sense. Thank you for sharing.

  35. Hi, what should the product criteria be when I am looking for products in the Canadian or UK market? I assume it should be lower than say 700+ monthly sales, less than 100 reviews, because the British/Canadian markets are not as big as the US marketplace and people are not buying that much in comparison. Is your approach to the UK/Canada market research any different from the US?

    Thanks for your support.

  36. Hi Will,

    it is not clear to me how I do it on ebay, once I have inserted the type of object to be found, to understand in the list of results, which are the best selling items and which sales statistics have, can you give an example?

    Thank you

  37. Dude,
    I literally cannot believe how much solid information you are giving out in this blog post. Really just kind of amazed about it.
    Detailed, SPECIFIC, actionable information, tips and guidelines that other parties in this same ‘arena’ charge mega $$$ for.
    So, you are either crazy or some kind of saint. I am kind of leaning towards the saint thing, but, whichever it is – thank you so much, I appreciate you. ๐Ÿ™‚

    • Hey Karen ๐Ÿ™‚

      Thank you so much for reaching out! Will is awesome and we all work super hard to create content that is better than what people pay for ๐Ÿ™‚

    • Rock on Karen ๐Ÿค˜

      Is there a crazy saint hell-bent on freeing people from the 9-to-5 grind? ๐Ÿ˜›

  38. How much one can earn by importing from china and selling it online in normal scenario ?

  39. This is one of the best written and most detailed articles for beginning entrepreneurs that I have ever read.

    The step by step with actual experience and usable information was incredibly helpful.

    • Thanks Derek, happy to help!

      Re-writing this article once every year – so it will always be the best guide out there ๐Ÿ˜‰

  40. I have already started my business with some different products like ready made kurties, imitation jewellery,phulkari dupattas,leather jackets n bags. Selling leather jackets in winter was nice but not that great that i can make further purchases through it. Still i have some stock of kurties and dupattas and leather jackets with me. I dont know what to do now . Could you please suggest me what should be my next step in business ?

  41. Sir,
    So nice of you.It is a great piece of writing about all the steps involving Product.
    My question is that is selling on Amazon possible from Pakistan?

  42. Hello Will,

    This is so deep. You nailed it with every single word. I’m sure this is the best tutorial on the internet about running a profitable mini importation business.

    Thank you so much for sharing.

    Emenike

    • Thanks Emenike!
      I’m also sure it’s the best tutorial out there on how to find a profitable product. I made very sure of it ๐Ÿ˜€

  43. Hi Will
    Many thanks for all the detail. I have read many blogs on the subject and I think this is among the best. It’s very good of you to give this info away in the knowledge that it will create more competition for you !

    I see this was written in 2013, I believe the majority of the information is still relevant today (2018) but what if any updates would you make if writing today ?

  44. Hi,
    Just wondering what the least expensive method is to get the products delivered.
    If they come by sea to you need to order a container.

  45. Hi Will, I heard Amazon can handle all of your shipping returns if necessary for a monthly fee. Have you considered this?
    Thanks for the post.
    Olivia

  46. Hi Will, Thanks a lot for this article. Will Iโ€™m planing to start my little buseness on amazon and ebay. Do you know what is the best prodcut I can sell and make a profit for now . I feel like they are already selling all outhere. Does anyone have any idea and Will can I please have any opportunity to talk to you buy email ?

  47. Hi Will
    Thank you for this educational article
    I found a product on Amazon that I want to sell. It is currently being sold by one other seller who has private labeled the product. I found the exact same product on Alibaba. The sellers listing has their company name in the listing. Can I purchase that same product from Alibaba and become a seller using my own brand? The product does not look to be customized at all based on the pictures. The pictures are the same as on Alibaba.

  48. I rely appreciate your article.I live in Lagos Nigerian and am just thinking of going e-commerce.How do handle payment issues and shipping issues.

    Thanks
    Michael Onwuegbuzie

  49. Hi Will,

    I live in Romania and I am exploring the idea of selling on Amazon. I have some products in mind and I would like to ask you if it is possible to sell as a person not a start-up or registered business when I test my first products?

  50. 1. Who can sell me items with wholesale price in small quantities, where can I find wholesalers?
    2. if I want to buy 155 pieces but sell one by one, where I can keep the items and sell it to a buyer.
    3. I don’t have a garage, Where I should keep it and give the buyer the addresses to send it one by one?

    4. Look if I buy 155 pieces smth from the wholesaler but I do not have a garage, what a process is it, I am not a citizen but I want to sell the items to the USA.
    Where should I send the items?

    Thank you

    Best Regards

  51. Thank you for this informative article !
    My question is: I noticed that some suppliers provide a B2C (business to consumer) price much higher than their MOQ range of units price. For example fabric has a range unit of 6meters-9meters at a much lower price than price of B2C they provide.
    1- For me to buy 6 units ( which is reasonable quantity anyways) and avoid the high cost of B2C, must I provide a business card ? (I do not have a business card.)
    Thanks !

  52. Hi,
    I was planning to import larger amount of stuff from China but have a question does someone knows the good way to secure the payment in case the product is not what I ordered.

  53. Thank you very much for this post.

    I have been wondering about starting an online retail business and this answered a lot of questions. However, I am a college student lacking funds. I was wondering how much money should be saved before starting up. I currently have 1000 dollars in savings. Would that be enough?

    Thank you

    • $1,000 is almost enough to get profitable in this business, but not quite.

      I’d recommend getting started with something like Retail Arbitrage (or Online Arbitrage). These models allow you to start profiting almost immediately, and you also build up your Amazon account & skills as a seller.

      Check out this article (my mega-guide on getting started with arbitrage) – https://startupbros.com/retail-arbitrage-amazon/

      The downside to arbitrage is that you can’t get rich. You gotta hustle for those profits. So after you build up $1,500 – $3,000, start putting some of your profits towards your Private Label / Wholesale business (or whatever).

  54. hello, thanks for all your advice . I am from tunisia and I have no idea how to start contacting amazon that they know I want to sell.I am dong my best understanding all what you have said. I got it all step by step , still the first step : contacting amazon and making my name familiar remains always the first obstacle fror me.could you please help me? I will really appreciate it

  55. Hi, I have a question. What do you recommend for taking high-quality pictures of your product for an Amazon listing? Do you send a sample to a photo studio/company? Do you take them yourself and use a photo editing software? What are you thoughts

  56. How do I find out if the product I’m interested in selling has a patent on it? If it does, what do I have to do in order to legally sell the product and avoid lawsuits?

    • Mat, you’re allowed to sell products with patents on them. What you can’t do is sell products as your own with trademarked brands. You can’t sell “Apple iPhones straight from the manufacturer” because that doesn’t exist. You can’t use established brands to sell your products. If you buy a potato peeler from a supplier in china you don’t need to know if it has a patent or not. You just can’t sell it as a “Martha Stewart Potato Peeler” You have to sell it either unbranded or under your own brand like “Mat’s Peeler”. You don’t have to worry about patents, you have to worry about trademarked brands.

  57. you are amazing for sharing your experiences as a seller. thanks! good karma to you! may your tribe increaseโค๏ธ๐Ÿ‘โœŒ๐Ÿป

  58. Hi Wil!

    This article was very interesting and thank you for the break down of everything. I haven’t found my “niche” yet still testing the waters. I am a little scared but excited to just leap in and yo!ur detailed article was great

  59. I don’t have much capital. They want to charge US $140 for the sample and shipping. Is this too much?

  60. I have completed all your steps, and the supplier says they want to see my website. I don’t have one yet. What can I do?

  61. That is one selfless article right there. Thank you so much for sharing! A good read indeed! ๐Ÿ‘

  62. Can amazon or ebay…send the products to the customers?
    Can i just buy the products and sell it and amazon handle the rest?

  63. 41 year old Occupational Health and Safety Adviser Zerbe from
    Owen Sound, spends time with interests for example pets, Blaine and
    bowling. Has travelled since childhood and has traveled to numerous destinations,
    for example My Son Sanctuary.

  64. A little confused and worried about patents. Let’s say I found a really cool product on Alibaba. Let’s go with headphones. Also I so far can’t find these specific headphones being sold on Amazon. #1 – how do I make certain that these specific headphones are not already being sold on Amazon? Do I have to look through the 3000+ headphones to make sure?
    #2 – after I customize the headphones with my design and my logo how can I be assured that there isn’t some type of patent on these headphones that’ll prevent me from selling?

    I keep seeing videos of people just adding their logo on an item but aren’t checking these 2 things. Maybe I’m misunderstanding something .

    Thanks

  65. I want to know more about having my goods inspected as they come into the U.S. so that I don’t have to hold the inventory at home. I would like to have them shipped directly to an Amazon Fulfillment Center. How can I find companies that will inspect my goods?

  66. Best article I ever read on this topic. I intend selling on amazon alone simply because I want them to handle shipping for me. Do you think this is a good idea?

  67. Just opened my own amazon seller store and starting the process of finding a product. This was very helpful. It was suggested to me to have amazon ship the product for me. Do you have any opinion on this?

  68. very informative and straight to the point article. thank you for impacting lives.

  69. Thank you for any other great article. Where else may anybody
    get that type of information in such an ideal way of writing?

    I have a presentation subsequent week, and I am at the search for such information.

  70. FYI regarding selling on Etsy — it started out being for hand made products only. It has since expanded to allow for vintage (20+ years old) items and craft supplies. But it’s not supposed to be for reselling ready-made items such as those purchased on AliExpress / Alibaba, even though there are lots of sellers doing just that. However, if someone reports you, Etsy could shut down your shop.

  71. I’m not certain the place you are getting your information, however good topic.
    I needs to send some time finding out more or understanding more.
    Thanks for great info I used to be onn the lookout for this
    info for my mission.

  72. I was curious if you ever thought of changing the structure of your
    site? Its very well written; I love what youve got to say.
    But maybe you could a little more in the way of content so
    people could connect with it better. Youve got an awful lot
    of text for only having one or two pictures. Maybe you could space
    it out better?

  73. One from the best way is to use google trend analitic tool and chack what people from some country are looking the most

  74. Everything is very open with a clear explanation of the challenges.
    It was really informative. Your website is very helpful. Thanks for sharing!

  75. Does this business idea also apply for Pakistan…Because paypal is not introduced here…And is it profitable to export goods to other countries like in Middle East, Europe etc.

  76. Hi Will!
    Thanks for the really great info. I have been doing my research for a few days – going nuts and almost talking myself out of this business opportunity. I am an entrepreneur and have a few other businesses I am working on growing. I don’t have the time to dedicate to doing this full time and you have saved me, I’m sure, a gazillion hours of research!! So thanks for that! I have a couple of questions:
    1. I have been looking into doing a Pro Seller FBA account with Amazon… Mostly because I am not in a position to store a bunch of stock, nor the time to label and ship each item. I am doing my best to automate this process. Have you had experience with the Supplier shipping directly to Amazon?

    2. What are your thoughts on selling Via Amazon FBA versus eBay or even Shopify (Which I think is drop ship only) ?

    Any thoughts and insight very much appreciated!

  77. Hi Will,

    This post has been extremely helpful – thank you! Question: if I want to sell an item with my branding on it, should I expect my samples from the suppliers to have my branding on it or am I looking at the item before branding is placed on it? What’s the process for evaluating quality of branding (placement, font, font sizing, etc.) – does this happen only AFTER I’ve made a bulk order?

  78. I want to make an indestructible dog toy. My dogs ruin toys in minutes of receiving them. I need a design, tough materials and then someone to manufacture. How do I begin?

  79. Do I need to set up an LLC or Corp to do this? Or is that really for down the road when I start to brand my own products?

  80. Although I have been interested in setting up a internet business for some time, I had been frustrated and mislead so many times that I was on the brink of giving up. Your articles and information has given me a kick-start and a new approach after attending many webinar’s and, experiencing quite a few guru scams. I now feel a new serge of energy to carry on. Your approach to internet selling is clear, concise and practical. I look forward to more from you. Paul

  81. Hi friend I want to knowโ€‹ more about shipping even more my friend want to know more about shipping f.x if I buy 100 psc watch from a seller than which is best and cheap way of shipping air or sea.if I buy 100 from this supplier and 100 from any other suppliers than which is the best way of shipping.and one more question is this you say sell sample first if they sold than order bulk than how can you set the cost that I have to sell sample in this price. Because you not know the clear shipping price between samples we got from air and bulk we get from sea. So please clear my confusion.

    • Hey Amit, air is always going to be more expensive but not much. Please don’t overthink it. Pick products with a high margin and ship them via air freight. The reason for this is because you want to receive your products quickly. The shipping price varies but keep it simple ๐Ÿ™‚
      If you’re not sure where to start I have something that will be a HUGE help: https://startupbros.com/import-replay

  82. Wow, awesome weblog layout! How long have you been running
    a blog for? you made blogging glance easy. The overall
    glance of your web site is excellent, as neatly as the content material!

  83. Excellent post. Keep posting such kind of information on your blog.
    Im really impressed by it.
    Hey there, You’ve performed a fantastic job. I’ll definitely digg it and in my view recommend to my friends.
    I’m sure they’ll be benefited from this web site.

    • Thank you so much! Will loves to write and we have so much stuff planned!

  84. I m a beginner to this .. I am intending to start up a buying-selling business. So what should be my very first step. Please help me out.

    • Find e-commerce web-site where you want to start, either it would be retail sales on eBay or bulk sales in Amazom etc.. register an account, find items to sell, posting them, receive money and ship items. =)

  85. Hi๏ผŒ

    I’m a random person who thought of re-selling stuffs from Alibaba as a side income and just found this website from Google and I would like to ask some questions.

    1. Is there a way to get lesser shipping fees from Alibaba? Because a shipping fee of 20 USD and over is really too much in my opinion.

    2. Are there ways to create listings on Amazon and eBay for free?

    • Hey Chris,

      1. Ask your suppliers what MOQ(minimum ordered quantity) would you need for free shipping.

      2. It’s really different, because on eBay you will always pay final value fees when free insertion fees can be increase by your subscription. On amazon you can buy also a store and avoid paying $1 per sold item and 10-20% commission, it would be less I guess.

  86. Please reply I’m really stuck on finding an item and whether to pay that much for shipping on only one sample …. ?

  87. Dear will,

    I have just recently read your two pieces on buying and selling from the internet. (Thank you very much by the way so helpful.)
    I am trying to get in touch with suppliers like you said for samples but the shipping is very expensive from ali baba to Ireland. Around 30โ‚ฌ even for one piece of a sample. Is that right? &: that what I do? Do I pay for one sample and the shipping ?? Or is there another way?

    Kind regards,
    Lisa

    • Hi, I don’t know if you have gotten your reply already. You have repeated this question without a reply so I will do my best to answer your question, I hope this helps. first I think you should determine how high the equality of products from that company is by looking for reviews. If you think the products are pretty high quality, you may want to order more than one if it will reduce the shipping cost. You also need to find out what the shipping cost will be if you are buying in bulk that way you know that if you decide to go with this supplier their shipping cost is okay with you. If that’s fine, you may just have to place that order at that expensive price.

  88. Excellent information! This is a dynamic I was looking to develop recently having difficulty keeping and finding work in my industry. I’ve had enough. I’ve been considering engaging in an entrepreneurial activity such this since I have a bit of capital, and I’m grateful that you’ve opened up to share your experience with others (and I didn’t even have to ‘buy the book’.). I understand I have much to learn , but you’ve nicely answered most of the immediate questions I had.

    Thanks again!

  89. What a great article. I’m from Australia and this has been most helpful.
    Thanks

  90. Hello everybody!
    I am a trade business owner from Riga, Latvia (Europe), currently I am looking for some new trade partners from all over the world to provide our consumers with new and interesting products.
    If you are selling (or willing to sell) anything what qualifies for European union standards, I would be happy to review your products. So as if you are willing to sell in your region European origin products . I can advice and get you very competitive wholesale prices for almost everything (Now concentrating on food & beverage items) to start your import business whenever you are located.
    I’ll be happy to discuss what is demanded by consumers in our regions and what we can Import or Export to make some profit. I have many ideas and I look forward to establish new connections from different countries. I look forward to build long lasting cooperation with people who run their businesses or just thinking about becoming entrepreneurs.
    Don’t hesitate to write me – [email protected]

  91. I expected to read more about how to find intresting products not by a random search, but by analyzing g first the demand for a certain nische. Can you elaborate?

  92. Will, thank you very much for this guide. It is very informative and still very relevant.

  93. How can you track how frequently products are selling on ebay?

    ~~~eBay search filters โ€“ When searching for products on eBay, always make sure you have the โ€œCompleted Listingsโ€ button checked. This will allow you to see what prices things are selling at and how frequently they are selling.~~~

  94. Hi I will like to know how do you know how many items are being sold and the traffic.
    Than l s

  95. sounds interesting… hope i will find someone oat koocam to provide personalize info.
    thanks

  96. Hey StartUpBros, do i need to be a legally registered company and will the samples be given free and how do i package my items? Sorry i’m a 14 year old interested in getting to know the business.

  97. Hello!!!
    What is your email please?
    I couldnt find it and i have some questions to ask…
    Thank you for all of the good information. Its really great!!

  98. Go form t if you can undercut them all, it’s a good thing because it means there is a high demand, but only if your an get a cheaper supplier and hence sell cheaper

  99. I’ve done something similar, but going to the post office every day to so was a killer… Do you just have to do it or employ someone? And what’s th eal with prepaid packages for shipping?

  100. Well there we go, thanks. Breezed through, and will take another look. We are a specialty paint contract service company. Currently doing research (especially water based paints) to invent a market interest that maintains our goals. Looking for funding options this article helps us resource our research as well in several ways. Thanks, timetwopaint

  101. Of all the people who read this blog, has any one of you actually started making money using this method?

  102. Hi Will,

    It is very great writing, very good. Not only helpful for sellers on E-commerce, but also helpful for Chinese suppliers to do better to meet the request and care the concerns of customers.

    As a Chinese supplier on alibaba, hope our experience to deal with different kinds of issue can help friends here.
    Leah

  103. Hello Nick,

    As a Chinese supplier, here are some tips hope can help you.
    Do not take too serious on price or MOQ that is list on alibaba, it is not true. It is better send mail ask supplier about price and MOQ.

    Regarding MOQ, usually there is some chance to negotiate a lower MOQ with further communication. Leah

  104. only prob I see is you light bulb example…you buy per see a 100 units..1 dollar a piece..you sell for the 9.50..but shipping is 5 to 10 bucks…who is going to buy 1 bulb and pay 10 extra dollars..when I can goto store and get for 10 myself…

  105. I attended the webinar and am following the tips you provided. I have found a item I want to sell, and have requested the 10 samples like you suggested. However, the shipping is insane. is there a way to negotiate the shipping costs.

  106. Hi, I would like to ask a burning question. Few years back, I got a great idea to solve a daily problem and assembled a team to make it and it kinda failed. So, I decided to go through Alibaba and purchase them bulk and sell the product which has similar traits to my idea. But, I think I can set up booth at my university and sell the product at my university. Do you think it is better than setting up an online shop? in my country, online shops are still a new thing and a booming sort of industry. Apart from that, I was thinking of putting it in a nice packaging to sell it in my university compound. Usually a nice packaging might trick consumers and I can increase the price of th e product just because it looks much more premium looking. What do you think?

    • Why stop at the university, it is easy to try and sell online(do both in parallel).

  107. Greetings everyone

    So I have been in contact with a few suppliers on Alibaba regarding purchasing a few products that are related to a niche market that I want to sell into. After searching through a few suppliers I found one that looks very professional and have been trading on Alibaba for about 8 years.

    They make the same product that alot of the other suppliers do. The difference is the other suppliers are making the same old looking product over and over again. This supplier is making something that looks pretty pleasing and everyone hat has seen the images say it looks really good and that they would buy one.

    I sent them an email regarding buying this product, and they told me it is still just in design, and that they dont actively make it. They told me if I wanted to actually have it made that they would require $3400 to cover the material costs and labour costs of producing it. This does not include the cost of the MOQ which they are saying is 500. I am trying to negotiate with them to get a lower MOQ, but they are not budging and are saying it is not worth their while to go lower.

    I am trying to get samples from them but they are saying they will only 1-2 samples, and those samples would be without the part that needs to be designed and produced, hence the $3400 i was quoted earlier on. Which really dosnt seem worth it to me. Without samples, and samples with the main part how can I even know how good the product is

    My questions is really why would they actively be selling something on Alibaba and then saying it requires $3400 to go in to production, which dosnt include MOQ. To order MOQ + cost would be $5500. They dont look like a scam company and have been trading on Alibaba for 8 years, and they are a gold supplier, and have been site assessed, and I really want to source this product. Does anyone have any advice?

  108. How do you calculate the volume on your spreadsheet? I don’t seem to understand how you get the low medium and high for that.

  109. You did not discuss import Duty/tax all things imported from China to the US has to clear customers and Duty must be paid. How did you deal with this? Also did you have your suppliers send the priducts directly to Amazon or disntounhave them shipped to yourself and then forwarded to Amazon.

    • Hi,

      In China, we can ship directly to Amazon FBA, and also have shipping method that is free of import tax during delivery. Means tax is included with the shipping cost .

  110. HI Will,
    I read your full article as I have been following Anik Singal and Mark Ling on Youtube and have been thinking about purchasing their courses to start up the affiliate business. Again, after I read your blog, you have pretty much laid out all the detail 7 steps (they always refer in their course) for FREE.
    Awesome Will, thanks a bunch!
    Andy

  111. Great Article. Thank you very much. I have one important question about all of this. Is it important to incorporate a company for this kind of thing so that you are not personally liable? If so, would you give the same answer if this was something I wanted to try once or twice to even see if i’m interested?

    Thanks!,
    Anthony

  112. When you get a request for return and refund, how do you process it? How do you get the item from the buyers’s address? Do you pay him back in the specific method he opted for to buy your product? How do you make a proof for COD orders?

    And thanks a pile, for this detailed post. It gave a great insight into the entire process!

  113. Will,
    This was a great article, it is inspiring and insightful.
    I know you say you look for specific items – Silver Owl Pendant Necklace, etc.
    But at the same time you caution against using brand name items.
    If you have a minute could you help me resolve this apparent contradiction?
    I’m sure this is a matter of my not reading closely enough.

    Thank you for the article,
    Look forward to a response,
    -Taylor

  114. Hi! I could have sworn I’ve been to this blog before but after checking through some of the post I realized it’s new to me.
    Nonetheless, I’m definitely happy I found it and I’ll be book-marking and checking back frequently!

  115. great points altogether, you simply gained a new reader.
    What could you recommend in regards to your publish that you just made some
    days ago? Any positive?

  116. Hi.
    I so appreciate wah u guys r doing.

    Question.
    Am in Nigeria. Wah do u know about the nigerian market regarding how to source for hot in demand products here. Which platform can I best make use of.

    In fact jst give me your generic thought about Import from China to Nigeria and stuff

    Thanks in anticipation.

    • Great article you have made. Actually I have known this business mode for many years ๐Ÿ™‚

      We are a paper roll factory and supplier in Chiina (www.pandapaperroll.com). our product is light,small but profitable. Many of our US customers are importing them from us, then resell in the US. But one thing is different, they are not sellingon Ebay or Amazon, they are building their own website to dominate the traffic, and it does work.

      Believe or not, try to search “thermal paper roll”, the 1st suppliers you find on Google are using this way for many years, and they got MUCH profit.

  117. Great article! Im still confused on how to pick a product to sell. Reading this article, it seems I would have to select items I see are selling on Amazon, Ebay, Etsy etc. but I wouldn’t know if they are actually worth selling until I get a price list from a supplier. Is that right? I feel like I missed a step.

    Thanks!

    Maya

  118. Hi, your website is awesomely helpful. Just one comment, it would be great if you allowed the date of comments to be posted. Without the date there’s no context as to whether the information being discussed is still relevant. Thanks so much, best wishes.

  119. I found your GREAT site 2 days after contacting a seller in China. It’s our first contact and our first use of Alibaba so obviously we don’t know what we are doing. After reading your site we are beginning to learn that we really don’t know what we are doing.
    The item sells from $2.00 to $2.10 from several vendors in China and is already on eBay selling for $6.97.
    From your teaching we know the spread wont leave any profit after shipping so we will walk away from that item.
    The one vendor we contacted has a MOQ of 100 but backtracked from that when I asked for 3 variations of his product. It is a jewelry item, just with different designs. They said we could mix the 3 to meet the MOQ.
    I asked for a sample, thinking it would be free, because other vendors with the same item advertised free sample. I assumed I would have to pay the shipping but at that time had no clue as to what it would be.
    Here is my question:
    They sent me an invoice for one sample product each of the three designs with a cost of $8.20 each, plus $30.00 shipping.
    Is this a rip off because they have correctly figured out I don’t know what I’m doing?

  120. I comment whenever I like a article on a website or I havbe something to valuable to contribute to thee
    conversation. Usually it is triggered by tthe passion displayed in the article Iread.
    And on this post Step-by-Step Guide on How
    To Find A Profitable Product To Sell – StartupBros.

    I was actually excited enough to post a thought ๐Ÿ˜› I do have 2 questions for you if it’s
    okay. Is it only me or doo a few off these comments appezr like coming from brain dead visitors?
    ๐Ÿ˜› And, if you are postingg on other online sites, I’d like to follow anything new you
    have to post. Would you make a list all of your
    community pages like your twitter feed, Facebook page or linkedin profile?

  121. I am wanting to start to sell and I love the advice that you gave. I did what you said and went onto Alibaba to start to find a product. The first supplier that responded to me was willing to send a sample but is charging $20 for shipping. This price seems very high to me. What do you suggest?

  122. I must say that this have been very help full, thanks for sharing and all the lesson I will be starting and I hope that I can call on you for in getting started. Once again thanks.

  123. amazing stuff
    I’m having trouble on what to sell
    the reason is because of shipping. I’m clueless on what to buy so it won’t cost a lot on shipping and what people want but not a lot sell. please help me.
    i saw that you said 500 was good to start but how much should an item cost to actually make profit? is an item selling for 10 dollars or less profitable?

  124. Hi sir will thank you very much for your honesty in exposing this kind of business topic,Im Eric Zapanta from the Philippines,im interested to try the business by importing,but since im in the Philippines,isc amazon,ebay esty n alibaba can cater orders?are you familiar with copy paste from amazon to ebay the ds domination?or since china is nearer in my place is alibaba can I do same? our local here like alibaba ,amazon,is lazada.hope you can help me to start with small capital.

  125. sigh…it seems so many barriers to selling even if you found a great product but there are already Powersellers selling tons of the same things…

  126. I’ve been reading up on a lot of different articles about importing from China and it seems that the more I research, the less I know. I have some questions that mainly deal with costs that I can’t find the answers to anywhere: Is DHL different than FOB followed by someone in the US delivering to final location? How are Chinese sellers able to profit off of $2-3 items with free shipping listed on Ebay, and yet samples can cost “$25-45”? I guess my main concern is the landed cost that could actually cause me to lose money. I did a rate estimator on DHL today for 300 small LED accessories that I estimated could fit into a 30x45x60 cm box at 7.35kg. Because the volumetric weight was actually around double that, they charged me for ~15kg, which ended up being $500+. At $500 to ship with shipping costs to get the product to buyers, I would be losing money. Does this just meant that I need to find a better product with better margins, or did DHL grossly overestimate the international shipping ($500 sounds ridiculous for such a small, lightweight box, but it could just be newbie ignorance).

  127. Hey Will! I want to start my online business but am concerned about shipping to the customer – how do they pay for the shipping cost- how do you give them an estimate and what is the process on your end as far as packaging, etc. Is it expensive? Also, how much do you usually spend before turning a profit?

  128. I am looking for a Chinese Importer of Switchblades. They are already being sold in America but I want to bypass the middle man?

  129. Amazing guide, really. It made me want to jump right in (but I’ll be dipping a toe first, promised ^^).
    One question, which I hope isn’t a stupid one : in the “sample” phase, should one already have a registered business ?

  130. Will, if i see a product in amazon at lets say $400 and i can import it and sell it at $200 and make a lot of profit, im i gonna have problem with amazon or ebay for listing the same article but for $200 less?

  131. Hi Will, great article! I just have a question about pricing. If I have found a product and there is one other person on Amazon selling the same product, should I list it for the same? For lower? Will they change their price once they see my listing?

  132. Hypothetically, if i ordered a bulk of a product and sold out.. Are people allowed to keep ordering it even though I have no inventory? Should I restock before I were to sell out?

  133. Hello, I just finished readind your post abd it was really interesting, I have been looking for a while now to start selling online. I’m from canada, I live in Quebec city. I’m a frenh canadian .
    I’ve read a lot of other posts, I’m interesetd of selling with Amazon using their FBA options, so they take care of the shipping and support and they take their %.
    Where I’m most uncertain : choosing a good product. I understand the criterias, but it seems that everythings already being sold by a lot of people. I watched a couple videos where they insist on “creating a brand” … taking all reviews on a product , keeping all the best and the worse and trying to get manufactured a product that have all the advantages and none of the downsides.

    Ok, so now….what to do ? ๐Ÿ™‚
    I was also wondering, you seem like you have made really good in this business…why helping others achieving this , people who might be your competition ??

    Thank you very much

    Alex

    • Hi Will,

      I love your article and can’t wait to get started but I am having trouble finding products that I want to sell from Alibaba on Amazon, EBay and Etsy. Is there a certain way to look up products on these sites? I have just been typing in the product names from alibaba in the search engine of these websites. Am i going about this wrong? Is it that these products are just not on these sites?

      Thank you,

      Ryan

    • A lot of times you want to even TRIPLE the original price!

      It’s important to consider what you can actually sell the product for though. This is a big part of the process–testing out the market.

  134. Hi Will,
    Great information. Do you have any advice for a Canadian seller?
    Would I use the Canadian or American versions of eBay, Amazon, etc.? Any issues with shipping from Canada to the U.S.?

    Thanks!

  135. This is one of the most helpful readings I have done for a long time on getting the good product to sell. Thanks alot.

  136. Hi! I love your post! I am really wanting to get into this, as a way to make a little something on the side for now and eventually hopefully use it as a way to stop working. I have a question, when signing up for Alibaba, it asks for a business name and a phone number etc etc. Did you give these things? I don’t have a business name, and it is therefore not registered with any government. I am confused as to why they need this, and if I will get spam calls or messages if I supply my number. You cannot sign up without these things ๐Ÿ™

  137. Hey Will,

    One thing I’ve noticed is that all the products being sold on Alibaba have a price range. As an example, if they are selling a air soft gun it would say $5-25 US. Clearly, the more product you buy, the more it will be discounted, but one of the most important components of figuring out the numbers as you stated is the Buying Price (high point). Whats your process when you see price ranges like this, especially if the volume requested to buy is quite substantial?

  138. Hi Will,

    I was toying with an idea to sell t-shirts (and maybe other products) with a certain digitally created image I have yet to actually create and was wondering how would I then get a sample of a couple t-shirts with the image I have in mind? I’m so anxious to see if the samples would sell. The only problem is even if they sell, I don’t know how I’d come up with the money for a bulk order.

    It’s so true that you need money to make money.

    Thanks!

  139. Hi Will!

    I need help, the thing is I found like 8 suppliers of my product and their other product categories have no relation with the product (for ex Im looking for speakers and they make phone cases)

    Should I keep them as an option or should I discard those?

    Thank you!

  140. Hi Will, when receiving things from alibiba were labels always in other language? My question is how do you sell without English labels?
    Thanks

  141. it really helps me a lot , and i have more question to ask, where do i get the link to get assistant

  142. Hey guys!

    Great posting on here! So as I’ve gone through and read the article I’ve come to the part on my end assessing my product to see if it’s worth being imported and resold.

    So my question if anyone can answer is : Im hoping to target the Canadian Market as that is where I am based, with the niche product I am wishing to import and sell in canada I am seeing that the competition up here is about maybe 1 – 2 other resellers.

    My issue is that there is a bunch of resellers of my niche product based out the US. So when determining if your product is worth being imported and resold, I want to retain my Canadian buyers so will I have to compete with the US re sellers as well?

  143. Hi Will !

    Do you think this could work out for the (small) Dutch market as well?
    To sell items bought on Alibaba (in bulk) to the Dutch market.

    Thanks Alot!
    Sincerely Peter

  144. I know this is unrelated but the part where you write. “They really believe in karma over there.” LMAOOOOOO

  145. Thanks for this very interesting blog…I’ve learned so much from it!…’wish you all the best!

  146. HI,

    I’ve read both articles you’ve written and its a great end to end explanation of how and what to do.

    I have some questions regards seperate things i’ve found whilst looking in to alibaba and with your experience i thought youd know (much easier to ask a chinese woman anyway)

    1. Some items are buy by 1 Carton, how may single products are usually in 1 carton?

    2. Shipping to me for any product or sample, if i buy a product from a supplier, do i have to pay for the posting of the product also seperate, or is that part of the product price?

    3. when the product is shipped, does it get shipped to my address and how?

    Sorry for the bombardment, i’m just looking to invest some money, and investing in my own business seemed like a good option

    Thank you

    Antony

  147. What is your feeling on products where no 2 are alike. Let’s say hand carved widgets. Is that too niche? It would be difficult to get estimates from multiple sellers for something like that. The only thing you can do is compare it to similar hand carved widgets on Ebay to get a basic idea of what you may sell it for. What is your feeling on products like this?

  148. Hi, Will fantastic blog which has helped loads!
    Question: How to pay using Paypal with suppliers on Alibaba? It says on Alibaba “Currently, you are not allowed to use PayPal for Secure Payment on Alibaba.com.”
    Again great blog.

  149. Thanks a lot for this amazing blog I believe I may have learnt more here than I would have if I had taken class in college. I have been thinking about this for a while now but just got bogged down with lack of information but now having read your blog twice so not to miss any piece of information I believe Iam ready to wet my feet per say in this new venture. Once again thanks.

  150. HI Will

    Thank you for the amazing post. I am just starting out and in the 1st phase of looking for a product. Your post is super helpfull.
    A

  151. Good Afternoon Will,

    i am determined to take complete control of my financial future and I believe this import business is the ticket!! I’m in the information gathering mode and your blogs are giving me the courage to go for it. Question: What are the cons to Filement by Amazon? I’m thinking about buying, branding my product finding a package designer and having amazon sell it takes the headache out of me doing that work the margins are less but I can focus on “scaling” as you say. I’m 52 and on a mission but I’m not trying to make any avoidable mistakes

  152. Hey Wil!
    Thanks a lot for the usefull information.
    I wanted to ask about the samples that you try to sell first.. How many samples do you order ?

  153. This could have been an ebook on its own thanks for sharing all your experience here.

    Can you or anyone else give advice on the tax situation….is it still collect sales tax for sales within your state or is there anything on the horizon for a universal Internet tax. I’ve seen stuff in the news but haven’t kept up on it..

  154. hi i have not website yet, just asking where you ordered your LED lights.

  155. Hi Will

    Love the post, it’s really easy to understand and will help anyone to stand a chance of achieving what you have.

    Couple of questions;

    What would be your minimum profit that you would be looking to make per unit after unit costs, shipping costs, advertising costs… What would be the % you would look for?

    How can you find out how many units have sold on a listing on eBay in a week/month?

    Look forward to hearing from you

    Thanks
    F

  156. Hi Will,

    first i wanna thank you for your great work.

    I wonder if its possible to set up an import business in Germany. There are a ton of customs, regulations and taxes you have to cope with when importing from outside of europe. Do you have any experience or information if it is profitable?

    I imagine that it is profitable if you find a really specific niche in a market where customs aren’t that high. So it is probably a bit harder to find good products for europeans.
    Would love to hear your opinion.
    Keep it up!

    Regards,
    Mick

  157. Great post on picking a hot product.

    My question is about trademarked items. Are you speaking specifically about importing products from other counties with US trademarks?

    To be more specific, what if you wanted to buy products from another country, such as China for example, and the company has a trademark in China. The product would be authentic from the country of purchase and not a “knock-off”. Is this practice permissible?

    Thanks, and keep the good work coming.
    Jeff

  158. Hi Will,
    I am going to develop online business in Vietnam.
    This is so helpful. Thank you so much.

    Regards,
    Minh

  159. Hello everyone,
    I must say that having gone through all the comments so far on this site, I can confidently and safely delve into the importing world. I had gotten samples of a couple of niches that are hotcakes here. But sadly I am bereft of funds to fully invest into them.

    Please I would appreciate if there is anyone out there who can help me with some little funds to start with. Or anyone out there who is ready to invest in me. We could get a partnership agreement drawn up to that effect.

    Please I need help.

    Thanks

  160. How much profit do I need on each product to cover all expenses and still make money?

  161. Hi Will,
    This is so helpful. Thank you so much.
    I got confused when I compared the top sellers or shakers and movers on Amazon and could not even find them selling on eBay. How can a top seller on Amazon not be selling at all on eBay?
    Also some of the potential items you mentioned above like “pet bedding” does not really fit the criteria of best products, for instance it is sold at Walmart and is a very common item that people buy.

    Thanks
    Reyna

  162. Thank you very much for this post, it inspired me so much that today I received 2 of 3 samples I ordered. Just for fun I went on Amazon and started up a seller account. One of my items is clothing, They want UPC, or register for one, then brand name. Opps, I had no idea about this. Do you know any shortcuts for this issue? I think I have a really good product and I think I should pursue it. You are awesome and I so much appreciate you sharing this info. If we just had more of your kind, we didn’t have to look for money so much anyway!

  163. Hi,

    Very good post. I loved reading it. I have a question. I also want to sell product online, i am new in this field. I want to sell in India firstly then i will move on another one. Then, how much minimum money will be required? and which site will be good for me, if i will get order then how i can send to the customer. is this site will be ok for me http://www.shopify.com?

  164. Thats an awesome post and I loved reading it…thanks! I have a question.. the product that I have short-listed is “maternity cum nursing dresses”.. Now this probably doesnt qualify as a great product (quality / higher return rate, etc etc) but would still like to get your view

    – Is that specific enough? I cannot be more specific as different dresses would have different styles/patterns etc
    – Yes I understand return rate could be high.. but I plan to serve a niche segment in terms of style/price.. any thoughts?

  165. Hi i wanted to ask a Q i contacted a few suppliers on Alibaba asking for samples 1st they said no problem but one problem keeps arising the delivery cost which is absolutely ridiculous they keep asking for 30 to 40 dollars saying that is the cost to ship and the delivery company is DHL and the product is pretty small too, so i dont know how they come to that figure Startup Bros can you plz clarify shipping costs which are the norm.

  166. Reading through your article I found nothing about picking up items on say alibaba or aliexpress that are commercially popular items (like well known figures from movies etc) and selling those. Do I have to worry about licensing issues? Is this something taken care of by the manufacturer?

    • You absolutely have to worry about licensing issues! Trademarks and patents matter in the US, even if they don’t much in China

  167. Hi Will, Mind-blowing article…Got a lot of insight on how the world of e-commerce works.Keep up the good work ๐Ÿ™‚ Cheers Siva charan

  168. Hey Will,

    Are there sellers that have a lot of random products in their stores? I tend to see sellers picking many variations of the same item, for example, pool inflatables–, they don’t have random other products, clocks or pet toys.

    Will my etsy/amazon store look weird if I have 10 different random items selling at the same store?

  169. Hi Will,
    First of all thanks for sharing this, I’ve read your 2 articles on the rise and fall of your importing business and this one and it was quite interesting.

    Here’s my question for you:
    when you start buying in bulk, how do you deal with taxes and customs duties? Are these included in the transportation price that are charged to you (what does it say in your invoice)? I assume that you let the vendor take in charge all aspects of transportation.

    Taxes and customs duties represent extra costs that can be very dissuasive for some products, and it requires work to calculate. But you’re not mentioning it or I’ve read too fast. How do you deal with that part, do they send to you as a particular person or company? Do ‘sample’ still appear on the invoice when your supplier actually send larger quantities?

    Don’t hesitate to send me a private message
    Thanks
    Antonin

  170. hi there,
    can u please tell me how can i figure out that the ad on alibaba i am interested in is not fake.the supplier is gold supplier.

  171. Hi people
    My question is related to determining whether or not a product is viable given its competitors already on the market. I understand that I need to gauge whether or not it will sell by looking to see if it is already currently being sold successfully by someone else. This is where i’m confused however. From what I can see, finding a product already selling on ebay/amazon etc is both good news and bad news. The good news is you know it can sell, but the bad news it might already be taken care of, so to speak. So how can I tell if a product has healthy competition and sellers that I can sell alongside or perhaps even undercut slightly, or if the competitors already have the monopoly and trying to compete would be pointless? More to the point, what sort of sales figures relating to the product and its current seller/s on ebay or amazon would indicate that the market looks safe and worth competing in? Say I notice there are already 3-4 different people selling a marked up toy on ebay that I have found on alibaba and want to resell myself… say these sellers, while perhaps not necessarily power sellers, each have around 150 sales in the last couple of months and ongoing. Should I consider contacting suppliers and attempting to enter the market for them as well, or is it already saturated? I mean when you say competing with power sellers is difficult, how can I determine if they are power sellers or just healthy competition? what should I be looking at? Also if I decide to compete, will I go completely unnoticed alongside others whose profiles make it clear to buyers that they are more experienced with the product and have more sales? Any feedback here would be really appreciated

    Regards Chris

    P.S Thanks for the information you’ve already provided through the guides and apologies if I’ve missed something while reading through the comments that answers this already.

  172. Any articles on getting started on Amazon? Having some luck importing for eBay, I’d love to get going on Amazon but it seems a little harder to break in to than “The Bay”

  173. A few things have changed, site’s have been updated.
    Is everything still valid? (site settings @ Ebay etc.)
    (i can’t see any sales records or evidence that something has certain amount of sales or how frequent they are being sold. >> Completed listings > Ebay )
    sorry, I’m confused

    And how do i know if a product is having a consistent base of buyers?

    My problem is, i cannot decide if a product is crap or golden.
    And i have difficulties finding products from ebay/amazon on alibaba or the other way around.

    I hope you’ll help me thanks!

  174. Hey thanks for your blog, starting a fashion accessory business trying to sell unique items and found your blog very helpful. Going to outsource the shipping to a family member and wondering if you’ve got any advice on figuring out a payment structure. Would you recommend a days wage? Or a price per unit packaged?
    Thanks
    Chris

  175. Awesome post, planning on building a website and your post gave me very good insight. Thank you sir

  176. First off thank you for sharing all your knowledge with us. Quick question: I have just tried contacting my first potential supplier (using the email template you suggested) The supplier asked me to send how many pcs I need? What are pcs? (and how might you respond )

    Thanks (for everything),

    Cassandra

  177. Hi Will,

    Thank you for all this information. I’ve just gotten on the band wagon. It’s really made things clearer for me. I’m sorry to ask, as I know the question has been posed in many ways to you. But i need to be clear on the process of shipping products.

    So the steps you are suggesting is the following :
    1. posting myself – initially buy a small amount of product, to be sent by me through the post to customers (so that i am certain the product will sell and i build a reputation with my wholesaler)
    2. outsourcing drop shipping?? this is where i am confused by some of the comments and responses. I am unsure if you meant, I should negotiate drop shipping with the wholesaler to do this for me and directly send the product to customers? or do i find an independent dropship company within America to delivery products for me from my wholesaler ?

    I have a friend who is has this business and the wholesaler in China does her shipping for her.

    Bit confused but hope I was clear about my confusion ?

    Any help would be fantastic ๐Ÿ™‚

    • 1. exactly ๐Ÿ™‚
      2. Send your products to FBA and have Amazon distribute them to individual customers for you ๐Ÿ™‚

  178. What attributes do you look for in a seller on AliExpress.com. I know you discussed what you prefer on Alibaba.com. I am just staring out selling on eBay,random items,single dad here so i am trying to be real smart and not taking huge financial risk in the beginning. Any advice you can give would be very helpful.

    Thank you.
    Richard

    • If you know how to navigate Alibaba, there is really no reason to use AliExpress (if you read the importing posts here you’re competent enough to not get screwed)

  179. Good morning!

    I wanted to see if there are times when you get no responses via alibaba. I have messages 8 gold suppliers of one specific product and have yet to hear anything back and it’s coming up on 24 hours. Is this normal?

    Thank you!!!

    Marc

  180. I find this article very interesting. I just want to know what year it was written in. Could you please tell me?

  181. Hello Will,
    I want to start a lighting shop..for thatI need to import LED light, Spot light, Wall bracket, Decorative light. Plz suggest me how can buy me those product. also inform me the procedure of payment. Your help will help me to get better opportunity.

    Thanks
    Rashed

  182. I want to start on this type of business. But i have no experience in this kind of business.Will it be a bad idea if instead of buying in bulk, buying in smaller quantity until I understand it better?. Also i want to say thank you for posting all this information.

  183. Hi Will

    Now that was an interesting article/blog, read it from start to finish, which is a first for me, and will go over it in more detail at the weekend when I have more time off.
    I have just come out of a really expensive divorce(put violins away I am ok ๐Ÿ™‚ .. For a while now I have toyed with the idea of selling something, online or at shows for example. The reason I mentioned the divorce is that I need to get something going, some way of making some decent dosh after my split, and if it takes some hard work, fine. Now I am old enough and wise enough now to know that nothing moves in a straight line or comes easy, I am probably a little too cautious, hence why I have not taken a risk just yet.

    I only have a few thousand ยฃ’s to play with, but after reading your advice I was lifted more than I have ever before. I run a small electrical business, so I know a little about marketing etc, and more than anything I know it’s all about the product and marketing and trying to get something that’s half the planet is trying to sell as well.

    Anyway.. thanks again

    John

  184. hi there can some one help me here please. i already have suppliers From china i just need to know how much profit should i add on my items also how do i recover the transport and VAT or duties that i have to pay upon arriving. for instance an item is costing 12.10 usd how much profit can i add on top how do i recover the transport and duties. bear in mind that i have to pay the business expenses and rent plus two employees. pls give me the final amount and do break it down. i need to sell an item at 100% profit meaning i should recover the 12.10usd back plus transport and VAT of 16.5 or duties of 45%

    please help

  185. This post is worth everyone’s attention. Where can I find out
    more?

  186. Fantastic article!

    One question I have had, is even if you find a product that has good margins on ebay. Is it a good idea to check if the item is selling or not? Maybe check auctions to see if people might be interested or not in the product. I see alot of possibly profitable items that no one is bidding on. That leads me to believe that the product will not sell. Maybe it’s because people set there price too high? But then again maybe few people are willing to by said product in the first place.

    Thoughts?

  187. Hello Will, very interesting and informative article. My wife and I are interested in pursuing the sales of products in the very way you have so generously described. The one question we have (forgive me if this sounds stupid) but how do we determine which products are available for resale and which are not? Basically in an effort to comply with laws, trademarks etc. Thank you for the helpful information your articles have already provided, and for answering our question if you so kindly choose to do so.. Thank you Will

  188. Just wondering how it would work with buying a product from alibaba, putting a brand logo on it and selling it for a totally different purpose. Is that legal?

  189. Sir I want to is it profitable in india too??if yes what are the best products you would suggest.

  190. Hello Will,

    The words cannot describe how mazing job you have done to give us all a hope to do bissiness.

    I couldn’t find any dates on this article or on the comments, to see if this can still apply to the year 2015?
    If I’m little behind in finding this great article, it’s still ok because it’s an awesome and a life lesson!
    Thank you!

  191. Hi Will,

    Thanks for your helpful information. We have a warehouse with lots of extra space and a shipping area. We are interested in having a service where we ship products for other companies who would prefer to outsource the shipping. How could we get started on that?

  192. Thanks for the great read. In regards to the Q&A above “Is there a way to know the exact current volume of sales before choosing a product to sell?” you mention you check how many items were sold within a week on ebay.

    My question to that is how do you get that data on ebay? I can see how many total items are sold but I can not find any way to filter how many items were sold within a given tiime frame.

    Thanks for your input.

  193. Hey Will,
    First of all, the blog is gold! Thank you for the great advice!
    Second, I have a question regarding to the shipping procedure. You said that to hire someone such as a friend or a family member to take care of your shipping is a good idea. My question is, what if I open an amazon warehouse and let my supplier ship the products directly to my amazon warehouse so amazon can take care of the shipping? I’m only considering amazon at this point. And of course, that would be after I’ve been satisfied with the sample.
    So, what are your suggestions?

    Again, thank you for this great blog,

    Matt

  194. Hi,i am new and looking toward a business online.
    while looking through your tips, right now i am look at supplier at alibaba.
    Just want to know from your experience if OEM product etc watch wallet is it illegal?

  195. Do you have any ideas about making a decent business off fair trade products. I love the idea of small imports, but I’m concerned about the working conditions in these factories that Alibaba brings in.

  196. I almost never leave a response, but I looked at some off the remarks here Step-by-Step Guide on Howw To Find A Profitable Product To Sell – StartupBros.
    I actually doo have 2 questions for you if you tend not
    to mind. Is it only me or does it look like like some of these remarks
    look as iif they are left by brain ead individuals?

    ๐Ÿ˜› And, if you are posting at other places, I would like to follow you.
    Could you make a list of evrry one of all your public pages like your Facebook page, twitter feed, or lnkedin profile?

  197. I have been trawling through information for weeks in prep for starting an on line business. I was just about to place my first “bulk” order and found your blog. Whew. Thank goodness I did. I think you saved me a great deal of angst.
    I am now back to the drawing board, armed with the knowledge I needed to start. Thank you for posting.

  198. Hi Will,

    thanks for this great article.
    what would you recommend in case a product is sold by amazon itself. would you still consider the product a good product (considering the margin are good and the products is a best seller)?

    Thanks!
    Mat

  199. Hi, I asked you for help previously on helping me find a product but I accidentally used the wrong email, please use this one to reply. Thank you so much

  200. Hi, awesome blog, I’m really keen and trying to start an online business but I’m having a lot of trouble finding a product, there’s just so much to pick from, help?

    Thank you

  201. Hi Will, I’m very,very new to Import Marketing. But, I have to tell you just from your website you have inspired me to succeed. You have a way of just laying it out there and getting it understood. If, I can help forward your message or help you in any way contact me. I want to find a niche and get myself selling products on-line. I thinks it’s great that your so young and very accomplished.
    Thanks,

    Tim

  202. Hi Will,

    Awesome article!

    Regarding the search product, do you mean that it is worth looking for products with a price of $ 10 or more?

    Cheers,
    Alejandro

  203. Hi Bro,

    Thanks this post really helps! My questions is this; I have what I think a really great niche that could sell in US and European markets and beyond. I was wondering what the best way to start was to initial minimse outgoings ie use shopify, amazon and ebay – set up amazon / ebay associate and start selling their products on my site right away while I go through the sample /finding suppliers route you suggested. Thoughts? Also im in the UK so do you still think the Alibab approach is best? Should I start selling in the UK, European MArkets (I live in UK) or go straight for US? Last question – I dont really have much capital to get me tarted so worried about having to buy products in buld initially – any thoughts/advice? Or do I need thousands before I can get started on getting products?

    Cheers so much!
    R

  204. Hi Will,

    Love your blog. Been searching for products for a few days and still searching. Just have a few questions though. I am from Canada, should I look into selling only to Canadians? If so, do you know how I could filter ebay listings so I can see products sold only to Canadians? It seems like I can only filter from Canadian sellers, which is not really helping.

    Thanks,

    Antoine

  205. Hi Will,

    I watched your webinar and I am working on a few products, where can i get a spreadsheet like the one you used for finding products, to list 50 products.
    Thanks in advance
    Adilaj

  206. Regarding Alibaba Suppliers: I understand that is important to use Gold Supplier and onsite check. What about Assessed Suppliers? There are several products from suppliers that I would look at that are not mark as an assessed supplier. (They are listed under the trade assurance though).

  207. I noticed you mentioned you don’t care for adwords, but your giving away adwords coupons?

  208. Thanks for sharing this article. It gave me some really great actionable tips. I thought it was a great point about narrowing on your niche. Necklaces isn’t enough it has to be owl, clock etc. I still find it amazing that such a specific niche can be profitable but that is demonstrated again and again in a number of different business types.

  209. Hello Will, Thank you for the tips but how did you find it best to manage your inventory levels across all the selling platforms?

  210. Hi Will, thanks for sharing this. Although I live in Australia, I definitely can use your tips and tricks here. I’m not sure if these questions have been posted and answered. You mentioned: “just make sure they are sending via EMS, TNT, DHL, UPS, FedEx, etc to your house and you shouldnโ€™t have any issues. The samples will likely be sent the same way your future orders will be sent, so getting the sample is good to try that out as well”. Are you saying that even when you buy more bulk items, you use these couriers even though they cost a lot? I’m assuming you take these courier costs into your margin, and yet you’re still making 50% margin? Do you normally enter into a formal agreement with the supplier when you decide to buy bulk? Cheers,

  211. Great information and I’m excited to put it to use since I’ve been looking to move away from services and into physical products. I have one question about Teraspeak.
    I signed up for the free 7-day trial but it looks like the sell-through data, etc is only available for “professional users,” at a cost of ~$15.00 monthly, billed annually. Do I need to upgrade or did I miss a specific area that has the information we’re looking for? Teraspeak is not the most intuitive of websites to use.

  212. Hi!

    Great post! I wanted to ask about taxes: is there not any import taxes if you import from China? I live in Estonia and if i want to import goods from outside of European Union then i have to pay about 30% extra.

    Thanks.

  213. Hello,
    I just want to say thanks for your articles. I have read through your articles and have now just ordered a few samples. At the same time I am looking ahead to see what else I can get my hands on that will make a profit. I think most of my time since I am barely starting has been doing research and re-reading your articles. thanks

  214. Hi!i’m just starting to plan my ‘shop’ and your blog is really helpful!i’m glad i found it!
    Thanks for all the good advice!

  215. Hi, my problem is a product that I sell and it’s already selling but a do mine by hand and stronger and better I would like to know how how can I make more we quantity is hire people to do the product faster I reader he’d my product and gotten good reviews. Need help on how to produce more. Thanks

  216. Sweet article!
    Scrolled through comments, didn’t see this question asked:
    Your friend who was branding the subwoofers — did he physically brand them himself (and how did he do that?) or did he reach out to his supplier and have them brand each before shipping?

  217. Having trouble finding a product to sell any suggestion to get me off on the right track?

  218. Don’t wanna disappoint you guys, they just need to pay $3300 to become Gold Suppliers.

  219. Hi!
    I was wondering that when you were younger and without a credit card, how did you overcome paypal payments? Is it by parents? Are there any other way to pay suppliers without creditcards? ๐Ÿ˜›

  220. I know you said don’t worry about tax on the front end, but do I need to setup a company in order to be legal? I ask because when I joined Ali it asked for a Company Name and said “Must be exactly the same as that registered with your local government”

    Thanks –
    AJ

  221. Hi Will,

    I’ve been buying product samples and listing them either on amazon or eBay. My question is…

    What’s a good measurement to determine whether or not it’s a good product to sell based off of the information gathered from selling the samples?

    I have one product that took 6 days to sell under a preexisting listing on Amazon.

    I have another product that took 24 hours to sell on amazon under a different listing.

    I have a product on eBay I listed about 12 hours ago…

    If sample sales are an indicator of how quickly it will sell on amazon… None of these are likely to sell 5-10/day.

    Is that sales per day number too high of an expectation at first? Or do I need to keep looking?

    This site is awesome and part of me is kicking myself for not going through the holiday group you guys had.

    Thanks,
    Dan

  222. Really great post with common sense info, thank you for taking the time!
    I’m just getting started with this and trying to find a product to start with, any suggestions would be much appreciated.
    I’ve been forced into a lifestyle change because of arthritis in my neck and I’m hoping this will be the ticket..

    Thanks again!
    Wish me luck

  223. Hi,

    Looks like you have a lot of great info here, but PLEASE PLEASE put a date to the article. Even the comments have no dates.
    I’m not sure if you do this on purpose so the information doesn’t look outdated, but I can tell you that if that is the intention, then it has the opposite effect, as if there is no date to go with this information, I can assume it is 10 years old and therefore not relevant anymore.
    It is a big turn off for this article and any further information/products you have. Without dates it is very difficult to gauge the relevance of the information and whether it is worth investing any time into it.
    PLEASE, please assign dates to your posts and comments. I usually turn immediately away from any site that does not have dates, but I’m willing to give this another go as it seems you have some really substantial and valuable content.
    From skimming the comments, all I can see is someone saying they are reading this on their new iphone 4, that is the only way I can estimate a date. An earlier reply from you to a comment asking about the date was “this year”, again very vague and of no use to me. “this year” could be 2014, or it could be 2004, as there is no date associated to the comment I cannot tell.

  224. And to think some people charge good money to do classes for the information you provided with this in-depth article.

    Good value to readers, I like your approach! Way to go and keep up the epic work you put in.

  225. Hi Will,

    Thank you!!! Great article…

    Would you suggest trying product that does not exist on eBay / Amazon ??
    So the only real data would be from similar products that seem to be working.
    (e.g. “gause sponges” for medical use but the ones i’m looking into aren’t online)

    Regardless weather it’s a good idea or not, would you know of any added steps to determine if it were a good buy?

    Thank you for your help, and a great read!

  226. Awesome Article. My first question is this: Why would so many of these suppliers not sell their own products directly to the general public through these well know avenues (Ebay, Amazon, Etc.)? Seems like it would be fairly easy for them to monopolize their product/niche.

  227. Hi,

    I appreciate your blog which you share with all based on your experience. i am looking to start import business in india.

    Hope you will revert back soon to discuss further.

    Thanks & Regards
    Vishal.

  228. Hey,

    What is the best way to start selling on eBay?
    Is it through Seller Account or eBay Store?
    What is the difference?

    Thanks

  229. Hi will,

    Thank you a lot for the great content!

    I also sent you a message about this but I found two potential products to sell on amazon.it and I want to ask you your advice about it here in the comments as you suggested.

    Since I don’t know how to really evaluate market demand for a potential product to sell on Amazon I’m not sure if the items I’m thinking about can be profitable for Amazon.it

    I know there’s a formula and I can assess the sale rank, checking google trends and keywords. Although, in Italy FBA and the Amazon market in general it’s not as huge as in US so I just want to make sure that it’s worth trying the Italian market.

    Do the number of reviews about a product can help me to predict whether or not there’s demand for that product?

    I’m thinking to private label this 2 following products:
    http://www.amazon.it/Eastpak-0-Zaino-40x30x18-cm/dp/B0018M67GU/ref=zg_bs_luggage_3

    http://www.amazon.it/Kaiser-Muffin-World-646237-Stampo/dp/B004YIUJF0/ref=zg_bs_652471031_18

    What’s your suggestion about it?

    I’d really appreciate your help to get me started.

    Talk soon,

    Marco

  230. Hi Kyle

    This is a great website, thank you so much for putting valuable information out there!

    How do I get barcodes onto the product that I’m buying from Alibaba? so I can get it sent to FBA directly?

    Thanks again for sharing your valuable information!

    Francis

    • Hi Francis,

      I’m glad you’re finding value here! You can buy barcodes/UPC codes straight from Amazon, eBay, or others.

      You CAN send straight to FBA. They have a low tolerance for returns though so you may want to use an inspection service first (you can even use Amazon’s).

  231. Hi Will,
    I have read your article and would love to get started but as I live in the UK and not the US, do you not think this would work as week due to VAT reasons?
    Thanks,
    Nichola

  232. Thank you so much Will for what you have done. Its amazing. Do you keep the products in your home and then send them to whoever buys them online? or does the eBay stores it for you and send it to your customer. What is the best thing to do in regard to the place where to keep the products.

  233. Hi There

    I’ve spoken to a few people who reckon you can get suppliers to ship directly to amazon who will then deliver the products to customers. Do you know if this is possible, and if so what would be the disadvantages of doing this?

  234. Hey Will,
    Thanks for the article. We just started a marketplace called Peerhub: https://www.peerhub.com
    Peerhub is very easy to use and very low cost. It’s more like Ebay & Craigslist combined and you can accept Bitcoin. We are also trying to build a community too so hopefully you guys join and grow with us. Feel free to check it out and let us know what you think. Thanks!

  235. Hello,
    Thinking on starting a business like but the thing is that I live in Romania (east-europe) and that raises several issues:
    1. E-bay and Pay Pal is not a big fan of Romania, meaning that a lot of scams where from here so there is a thrust problem and maybe the people avoid products sold from this country…can I verify that somehow?

    2.I don`t know where are the buyers from, on Ebay and Craiglist. How much it will cost me to ship to other countries, or USA?

    3. Any other tips for a seller from Romania?

    Thanks in advance!

    • I’m also from Romania, I was thinking exactly the same, what is your progress on Amazon asa a romanian seller ? Any succes ?
      Thanks.

  236. Thanks for the info. I would like speaking to you, when you have a chance please call me @ 718.249.5602
    thanks
    Joe Ruby

  237. Hi Will,

    Not sure if this is a better place to reach you than email. I had a question for you though.

    I plan on selling this item on amazon. What are your thoughts on these margins based off of your experience?

    Cost per item – $12.05
    Import shipping cost per item – $9.00
    Cost before Amazon fees – $21.05

    The sale price for Amazon Prime for this exact item and brand is $38.99

    It’s ranked in the #1,000’s in all kitchen products and top 10 for a more specific niche.

    So it looks like just under $18 per item profit minus amazon fees. What are your thoughts on this opportunity?

    Thanks,
    Dan

      • Well, as an update… I have listed the product under the same listing that made it to the #10 item. It has been listed for 5 days and I have yet to sell one. Luckily I took the advice written to try to sell the sample before purchasing a large order. I guess I have two questions.

        1. Since it is not an Amazon Prime item, do you think that has a big reason to do with why it isn’t selling? A good product would probably sell at least once a day, right?

        2. Some products aren’t already selling on Amazon, and would require a UPC code. Have you done this before? Where do you suggest getting a UPC at a good price? Or do you think it is better to stick to items that are already selling on Amazon?

        Okay… so that was more than 2 questions… but I am starting to actually DO this and not just think/talk about it. These are the initial questions I have as I am doing it. I am going to try listing it on Amazon Prime but I am wondering if this is a hurdle already jumped over by you.

        Thanks,
        Dan

        • Hi Dan,

          Congratulations! You’ve already gone farther than almost anyone else.

          I know that you will find our live presentation today profitable. Check it out here: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/8037508426663537154

          1. If others are offering the same product as you as Prime then you will definitely have some trouble. There are ways to get around this though. There are a lot of tweaks that you can make to boost your sales. I would need more details on your situation to figure out exactly what you need to do.

          2. You’ll need to get UPC codes, you may want to start here: http://www.gs1us.org/get-started/im-new-to-gs1-us

          We’ve pretty much dealt with every hurdle you can come across in this business!

          • Thanks for the quick response. I would give you the product info through email for more detail… But I don’t want to tell the world what I’m selling and add competition ๐Ÿ™‚

            Nobody is selling this product FBA anymore. In fact there is only one other person selling it and not FBA. The ranking has dropped quite a bit now. I’m wondering if I just missed a random surge and the product isn’t as hot as I thought… Or if it isn’t selling because there is no amazon prime available. I am going to send it out to FBA to see if that changes the demand.

            Also, is the webinar being recorded. I’ll be at work and can’t listen.

            Thanks,
            Dan

  238. Sorry, another question…I just want to make sure I understand everything…I found a product, I am negotiating with a supplier for samples, and then I will put those on Amazon and ebay…could you write a follow-up on seller fees for these seller’s platforms…explain what you did to reduce those fees.

  239. How are your thoughts on amazon FBA (fulfillment by Amazon)? Have you ever imported from a supplier directly to Amazon warehouses, or do you always ship to your personal warehouse and/or home? If so, how did you go about choosing a warehouse? If you used Amazon FBA, how exactly did you set that up and avoid any problems with them? (i.e. closed account due to accidentally selling a counterfeit item, or broken item, etc…)

  240. Hi Will,
    I am always interested in on-line business. I love your article and very impress with your listing page. How can I have my product listing page look professional?
    Thank

  241. Hi Will
    really like the readings and suggestions. Very informative and easy to follow. I m currently in New Zealand and i have difficulty getting exposure to a large population from here in NZ. The local online website for selling is trademe.co.nz which is good however it is always flooded by major market players. I do want to start with a small amount of capital to build basic aknowledge…Any suggestions at all.
    I know its a hit general but any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
    Kind regards,
    Avish

  242. Hey! U did a wonderful job here and I find interesting, pls what I will appreciate u do for me is by give me some goods that are sellable, that one quickly recover capital and profit back on time. Thank u so much for this highly intresting ebook. HOD baba.

  243. Thank you Will for this amazing blog that you have created with such detail and amazing tips. Hats off to you. I have been meaning to work with Alibaba but had so many questions that I was not sure where to begin. But your blog answered all my questions plus more.

    I am from a sales field by profession and would like to venture on my own for fun, excitement and hopefully growth. I know now where to start from…

    Thank you!
    Happy Selling !

  244. Hi,

    This site really is amazing, it has given me the info and confidence i needed to jump in. I’m in the U.K and things are a little different but i agree with all of your core principles. Think i have managed to find 2 good products, with decent margins to sell here in the U.K. Will see how it goes.

    Thanks for being unselfish with your information, really, really appreciate it.

    Cheers
    JC

  245. I was looking at trying to sell a popular party card game from a seller in China. The price per unit is quoted as $8.35 but they’re talking about shipping a min of 100 units Fedex at a price of $6.40 per kilogram and say the package will be 100 kg, so that’s an additional $640 USD. So I am looking at a total investment of $1475. They games sell on eBay for $25 – $27 with free shipping. Does the shipping amount seem too high? How do you get your margins up? Also, I have no way of knowing whether the game is pirated or not. Maybe it is – would this fall under your “stay away from trademarked things” rule?

  246. Would I get a better deal if I had a Chinese friend message people for me on Alibaba in Chinese? I am looking into buying android tablets. Are there any advantages to this? Will it reduce my shipping or price point in any way?

  247. You said I should be getting responses from most of my suppliers within a couple of hours. I sent messages to about 18 following your steps but only got replies from 2. This about 7 hours afterwards.

  248. Hi Will,

    Enjoyed your post. Very helpful. I wanted to know if you paid the supplier in full before the product is shipped, or after you received the product? Meaning, once you place an order with the supplier, do you pay them in full via Paypal, then they manufacture your order and ship you the merchandise?

    Thanks

    Rolan

  249. Hello Will,

    First let me say thank you for providing so much “free” information on the importing business. I live in Clearwater Florida and am a 55 year old, stressed out of my mind communications salesman. I have two children living at home and your information and ideas have brought me some renewed hope and excitement in my life.

    I look forward to putting your plan into action and will continue to do research. I’m definitely starting from square 1 and will continue to read your posts and maybe we could arrange a meeting someday.

    Thanks again,

    Paul Baird
    Clearwater, Florida

  250. This is a great article! I have one question though, a lot of what I’m finding on ebay for sell prices shows me that people are starting at around 1 dollar and then letting people bid to get a higher amount (sometimes 7-10 times the amount they listed it for). Have you done it this way, or do you simply price it at what you want to sell it at and leave it there?

    Thanks!

  251. hi will.

    your blog is really interesting and i really want to do this importing and exporting thing. it sure is alot to read and learn! but i dont mind. i just have couple of questions for you.

    1. i live in belgium and the government here is known for being in the top 5 of taxes to pay. how do i avoid hidden fee’s and or taxes that would probably kill me?

    2. so lets say i have a good product to sell and set up my channel on ebay and get an order outside the country where i live. so i just put the item in a box and send it to them and then they pay me? its that simple?

    that was all, thanks i advance!

  252. Hi Will, Must say an awesome post.. Just a question, i wanted to buy some branded items such as Kingston pen drives, Ray ban sunglasses etc. Just wanted to know would i be able to buy these branded items from Alibaba.
    i have searched & not been able to buy any such things.
    Could you please help me.
    I am from India. Thanks

  253. Hello will. Very interesting and lots of information on your articles. i ve been reading your blog for about an hour now .
    We are from Venezuela, ( i apologize in case my english gets kind of shitty) and we also use ali baba, we have a litle import distribuition company, and actually we import cosmetic products and pregnancy tests , since people are not brand related to this products and you can get them at a low cost and with a nice earning range.
    I had a question, that maybe you could give me some advise, we are actually expanding our distribuition in latin america and thats great, but we also wanted to try to get into the us! the thing is that we have lots of permits to distribute the products but the company does not have the Fda certificate.
    do you know if Its very difficult to get it ? or a difficult process to get into?
    take care bro, have a nice one

  254. I noticed your guide about finding a profitable product to sell on ebay from alibaba and was wondering if you could show me the ropes on how to import airsoft guns and bows and arrows and knives specifically and how to get your bussiness off the ground with big bussinesses (like yours) surrounding it. Thank you for any help in advanced nd have a nice day ๐Ÿ™‚

  255. Hey hows it going, my friend and i are 15 and have started to try to make money my importing from china and reselling at a marked up price. For the last 1 year we have been selling shoes and have been doing poorly making only around $800. We are now looking into selling multi tools similair to that of the victorinox brand but a knockoff. They are good quality knives which we got as a sample from Ali baba but they aren’t selling on eBay. Any tips? We can have customized a logo on the knives for free as per our supplier if we buy more (not on the samples which we bought). Our supplier is great and uses paypal and everything we just need to find a better place to sell these knives because we get absolutely no traffic on eBay. Also we looked into selling airsoft guns and buying from Alibaba but could not see any suppliers who sold them.

  256. Hi Will,
    I just stumbled upon your site, and I’m so glad I did. There is so much great advice and practical steps that you provide, and the level of detail and clarity you provide is awesome.

    Thanks so much.

  257. Very informative thank you I want to import a item that retails for $10 it is very light approx 12oz.each but a little bulky approx 20in.x20in.X 4 in. Packed 100 per box 500 MOQ MY COST AROUND $2.50 PLUS FREIGHT how do I get a quote for shipping cost and from whom do I get quote and who do I use as a agent if needed I am from Connecticut there is only two importers of this product the cheapest I can buy from wholesaler here is approx. $5.00 each with frieght. I have bought them and sold them quite well what would you do if me?? And how do I import thank you in advance ron

  258. Thanks for the article. Unfortunately, the link to your spreadsheet in Step 2 is broken. Hope you’ll be able to fix that.
    Thanks

  259. Hi Will. Thank you very much for the excellent and informative article. This is a guide to action.

  260. Thanks Will great article

    I am 15 and was thinking of importing products and selling on eBay/amazon.

    You have given me an idea of what I’m up against

    Thanks!

  261. Hi Will,

    Very interesting information on your website, thank you for sharing it. My friend and I (from New Zealand) want to start importing duvet covers, pillows and eventually other bedroom/homeware items. We have discovered a gap in the market here for lower priced items such as this.
    Ideally we would like to create our own artwork and then get a overseas supplier to print this onto the fabric (just like Urban Outfitters buys from Deny Designs – who in turn get the duvets manufactured in India. However, we want to cut out the middle-man (Deny Designs) and go straight to the overseas supplier with our product design.
    Do you think this is a wise step given we are just new to this? We could just go straight to Deny Designs to begin with, once we get used to the process?
    Also, what are your feelings on Chinese suppliers versus Indian suppliers?

    Many thanks,

    Steph ๐Ÿ™‚

  262. Howdy! I’m at work browsing your blog from my new iphone 4!
    Just wanted to say I love reading your blog and look forward to all your posts!
    Carry on the superb work!

  263. I do not even know the way I ended up right here, however I assumed this publish was once great.
    I don’t realize who you’re however certainly you are going to a well-known blogger when you aren’t already.
    Cheers!

  264. “Expect the shipping alone on your sample to cost $25-45”
    Why? Is shipping that expensive? Does that mean that every real order will cost many times more that?

  265. Dear Sirs Mitchell and Eschenroeder,
    how old is this article? I canยดt find a date anywhere.
    Thanks and best regards from Germany
    Matt

  266. Hi

    I really liked your article. I wanted to know best places to sell the items after buying them for less price

    Thanks

  267. Hi Will – great article. Just a quick question, whats stopping me from finding out which products are already successful and then just cutting the margin down by 10-15% to offer the same product as my competitor, for a lower price to the consumer?

    And furthermore, how do I prevent this from happening to me?

    Thanks for your time.

  268. hey thanks for the ideas and info,im having trouble selling my products .But one of mine has had 3,000 views but no sale yet. Any ideas thanks

  269. This is fantastic! Very informative, I’m planning to start my own importing business, your posts greatly help me understand the process in alibaba.

  270. Great articles here. Did you find yourself in pricing wars ofter after undercutting? I think I have found some products, but am concerned the big dogs with more buying power will mess with my plan to undercut.

  271. Hi everyone,
    Great posts and advice Will!

    I Recently discovered the site as I’m looking to start importing and selling online on a very small scale to start with. I have dabbled very briefly before and did OK but never actually gave it a proper, sustained shot which is what I;m aiming to do now. Over the last few days I’ve been trawling through possible products and talking myself in and out of buying them. Pretty uch everything I fins that is decent seems to have already been taken by ebay powersellers (I’m in UK btw). Would you say this was reason alone to not other with that certain product? It just seems that the whole point of checking ebay/amazon is to see if the chosen product is selling but if it is then that usually means LOTS of otehr sellers are already selling it or maybe a few powesellers with 100’s & 100’s of feedback and it’s quite daunting! I have actually found a potential product today which I’m quite excited about and the potential mark up looks great BUT the item will only sell between ยฃ3 – ยฃ4 from what I can see although it should only cost me around ยฃ0.50p per item (I haven’t contacted suppliers on this one just yet). The profit margin is great but my main doubt is am I going to realistically sell enough to make good money? Having read your previous post about the $10 – $200 bracket I’m thinking I would be having to sell LOADS of my item to make it worthwhile but again this seems to be the most promising thing I’ve found so far so it leaves me undecided. Note – there is accesories I could possibly sell alongsdie the item which could boost profits but was hoping to sell something more exensive originally. Any advice appreciated!
    Thanks

  272. I am from India and I want to purchase goods form china (trough supplier’s) and to sell in European market.
    How should I do it?

  273. Great article, I’ve been an eBay seller for a while but there is always something new to learn and always need to beat the competition with better prices

  274. Hi Will excellent article.

    I would like to ask you about the taxes, if you are selling on line on eBay, amazon, in Europe or America, what is the process to pay the taxes, or how this works. .?. Thank you

    Keeping with your nice work ๐Ÿ™‚

  275. Hey will great blog I am still having no luck with a product is there any way you can give me some more ideas

  276. Please Help! I have a sample product research document that I have made. I have read your blogs and would like to begin doing this. I need some further guidance as I am weary of many of these companies. Your experience and input would be greatly appreciated. I can email you the document.

    With gratitude,
    Brandon

  277. Wow! great tips, thanks for sharing your wealth of knowledge with the world, may God increase your knowledge and impact.

  278. Hi Will, Great Articles !

    I am just starting out. I am hoping it will work, fingers crossed. Ha Ha.

    I do have genuine connections in China.

    Do you think Wine is a good product? I know you mentioned to avoid any possible fragile products, but this is European wine. Do you think USA or Canadian customers have interest? at the same time I would like to export Canadian and American Wine.

  279. Thank you so much for your posts! I feel I can finally get a great idea on how to get started my business. I do have a few questions regarding samples:

    – What are the quantity of your samples?
    – Do you order samples from multiple suppliers at different price? Or you only order from the cheapest supplier?
    – Do you have to pay for custom fees of your sample/products and how much do they usually cost?

    Appreciate in advance for your insight!

    Monika

  280. What fantastic information and how good of you to share it!
    You have inspired me……many thanks!

  281. Hi WIll,

    That is one amazingly valuable and detailed post. Tons of advice gems in-there.

    Thank you so much!

    Best regards,
    Sammy

  282. Hey Will,
    My name is Ronny and I am 17 years old. I have been attempting to start my business but have failed several times. Long story short, I have been scammed when I tried to start my business. I have read your importing article and step by step guide article, and i must say they are real eye openers.Thank you for that. I am reaching out to you because I have a few questions. 1.When I tried to sign up for alibaba it asked for my company name, but I do not have one, what do I do? 2.I do not think I can open a selling account with ebay etc, because I am under 18 what do I do?I was planning on opening one with my sisters account who is 18.I currently have an ebay account with all my dads information but I do not think it is right to sell items under his name. 3.Also I opened an account with worldwidebrands.com, are they really a scam? Also(this is a bit off topic) Did you go to college?
    I am very ambitious and would like to start my business, I started doing online marketing through a website called wealthyaffiliate.com on February.Therefore the revenue is not so grand and would like to sell rather than refer.
    Oh also,I clicked on your gun listing link to ebay and was surprised that you were the seller who I brought my airsoft gun from a while back ๐Ÿ™‚
    thanks again,
    Ronny

  283. Hi! Your article was full of great information. I’m looking for a product to sell at events. (Not on line) like a product that you have sole selling rights in a general area. Excuse me I’m new at this. Any suggestions on how I can find a product and the inventory to sign me up to sell the product. Any help would be so greatly appreciated. Thank you so much
    Monica

  284. Hello Will I just wanted to let you know that 2 days ago I was looking for a way to make money, and almost signed up for WUN (Wake Up Now) or Xplocial thinking it was a good idea. Shortly after talking to a couple people that basically told me I was stupid I decided not to take that route, but still continue to use this great tool called the internet to help me figure out my next move. Then I stumbled upon this post, not reading your first post related to this same topic I read that and then came back to read this. For the first time in a long time I have hope, and it is a glorious thing. Within the past 24 hours I set up on Alibaba.com, researched products and suppliers, found one that I have chatted with live, negotiated the price, and gotten price lists for multiple other items I think I can make money on, set up an ebay acct, a craigslist acct, and a paypal acct. I am placing my first order tomorrow and will let you know how successful I become. Anyways the reason for this post is to say Thank You for your time and help I appreciate it more than you will ever know.

    Thanks again,
    Mark

  285. This is really interesting, You’re a very skilled blogger.
    I have joined your feed and look forward to seeking more of your great post.
    Also, I’ve shared your website in my social networks!

  286. Great blog here! Additionally your site lots up very fast!

    What host are you the usage of? Can I am getting your affiliate hyperlink in your host?
    I desire my web site loaded up as quickly as yours lol

  287. Hi Will,
    Heading to China for a tourism stint and am interested in making a contact or two there. I have a couple ideas of products but still not sure if they’re good choices.
    My specific questions are
    1. Is it possible to get your advise on a product idea.
    2. Should I just buy ( after getting a sample) the minimum amount, bring them over and see what happens on eBay ?
    3. Is it possible to get your advise on a product idea?lol . Obviously everyone’s biggest fear.

    I looked on eBay for a similar product and there are quite a few similar. How can I tell if they are actually selling in quantity or not?

    Thanks

  288. Ok, so about after 2 weeks I’ve managed to find one supplier & they want to charge me $20 for a sample of a item that cost .6 cents & $50 dollars for shipping & insurance. Plus DHL Express is not responding to me to setup a express account. EPIC FAIL

  289. Hi,
    I wanted to know how do I figure out how much the shipping will be when importing products from Asia? I am researching a product to sell and want to make sure it will be profitable. Do I just ask a vendor for their shipping prices even though I am just doing research first?
    I have already subscribed to your website and stuff.
    Regards,
    Amy Ward

  290. Hi Will,
    I am actually going on a 10 day trip to China for another, less commercial, reason and was thinking that maybe I could reserve chose a product…..like find something cool there and then look into importing it?? Not having been to China previously this. May be utterly futile.
    I am wanting to find a product that I somehow relate to- like a fashion item, purse, beauty product etc. having said that I am a doctor but assume the medical market is a disaster to get into.
    I guess, like everyone else, I am asking for advise on choosing a product (and using my time in China in a potentially profitable way!!)
    Thanks for sharing your hard won wisdom.

  291. Hi Will:
    I have read your article; it seems pretty streight forward and easy to understand and follow. For a long time, I have been thinking of going into this type of business but did not have the necessary information and tamplate i can use to start off. Reading from your experience and knowledge, I feel more confident in going into the marketing business. I hope you will be able to support me along the road as I will always need a becon to move forward. I will continue to read and try to communicate with the suppliers and get a concrete idea how I am going to start this business. I’d like to continue to interact with you from time to time.
    Thanks
    Serge

  292. Great articles and posts Will. I though I found a niche in ladies sexy undergarments but I checked on Ebay and everything I ordered is there. So I will be cancelling this order today 5/15/2014. I just got laid off and just when I thought I had a plan it’s over. Do you think that If I try and sell to an Island it could work? Any advice would be helpful. Thanks!

  293. Hello, i want to say that i found your articles very inspiring and i’ve learnt alot from them . I am from an East European country and here the laws can e bent more easily so that’s why i am trying this nieche . Can you tell me where did you get the counterfeit clothes and what suppliers did you use ?

    Thank you, looking forward for your answer

  294. Alibaba’s online reviews are overwhelmingly bad. So much so that I don’t know if I could bring myself to use them. Have any re-assuring words for me, or any alternatives?

  295. Thank you for the advice, you cover everything I was looking for,

    Proud for your success

  296. Hey, your info was so great– my next question would be how write up my start up budget once Ifound my product?

  297. This is great stuff! thank you so much guys, I can’t wait to start practicing this helpful tips… I just sold my restaurant, my first attempt for business in which I didn’t lose much but I didn’t gain either…but I learned a lot…now I want to start importing and just in time I found your blogs…thank you once again

  298. Did you ever send your bulk orders to the Amazon warehouse and have Amazon send out your orders?

  299. Great information, it must have taken sometime to pull together. It should be part of the school curriculum. Keep up the good work.

  300. Hey, I like that you are using marketer’s delight for your theme since that is what I use on my website! Quick question, what plugin are you using to generate your share buttons? Thanks.

    Jennifer

  301. Hey Will,

    I love the article! I’m excited and curious at the same time. I’ve been toying with the idea of importing from China for a long time and even tried a niche product a while ago but didn’t take it very far. After reading your articles I’m optimistic to try again.

    Naturally, I have a question. When you asked for samples, did you pay the full price that they were offering? I’ve had correspondence with multiple manufacturers and it seems like they’re not willing to budge much on the sample price. Most say that they would be happy to give a discount on bulk orders but on my sample order, the price is the price. I’m sampling 5 – 10 products per manufacturer FYI.

  302. Will,
    First off, congratulations on the well-written and informative article.
    I originally left an attaboy and emailed you with questions I have, however after reading the hundreds of questions that you answered fantastically below ( and probably above) I decided to repost with my original letter to you So that other people in the group can learn from your answer to me, just as I have learned from your answers to them – here it is:

    Hello Will,

    I read your great post on ” step-by-step guide to find a profitable product to sell”. Yes it was long, but man was it ever informative! It had a lot of detail that I critically need as I am also starting a business and plan to sell on Amazon. I do have a few questions on the process, and appreciate any assistance you can give me.

    I have picked a product (from a list of about a dozen), contacted six suppliers, got replies and communication going with four of them and ordered samples. some were free samples, some I had to pay for, but all of them cost about $50 shipping. When the samples arrive I plan to take them to a local group of experienced individuals for evaluation. I feel that having a professional group evaluate the samples and give me their preferences, will allow me to pick the best sample from the bunch. I will also ask this group their opinion on the quality, texture, practicality, anesthetics, and usability of this product. I will also ask them how much they would be prepared to pay for this product to gain further insight in the pricing options available to me at Amazon.

    The Amazon sellers account costs about 30 bucks per month but they give you the first month free, my question is: Since opening up an account with no product to sell seems useless, but you do need somewhere for the supplier to send your product, which comes first? I think you must have an account open, and hence an address for the manufacture to send your product to.

    A few of the suppliers I contacted stated they had a good working relationship with the shipper, since they have experience with the shipper and I have not been, would it be best to take them up on their offer?

    When shipping from China, are there any hidden fees in the shipping process? What about insurance? How complicated and long is the customs receiving process in the US? Is there a website that I can access that gives customs fee rates for a variety of products so I can estimate the customs taxes, duty, port charges, delivery to Amazon charges, and anything else I have not thought of?

    Does Amazon require a UPC label on each and every piece of product that I ship to them from the manufacturer? And if so where do I get the UPC code, and how do I get it to the manufacturer, and does the manufacturer put the UPC label on each and every one of the products prior to filling each carton?

    Is fiverr and Odesk a good place to shop when looking for graphic artists for logo, branding, and copyright material for both the product, and advertisement on Amazon?

    You mention a markup of 100% is the general rule of thumb. If I purchase a product on an late Abba for $15, then sell it on Amazon for $30 that’s 100% markup, but out of that I must pay for shipping, insurance, customs and landing fees, and the Amazon FBA fee. this would severely cut in to my profits and I will have two do the math to see what I am left with. Do these numbers seem feasible to you? Man, now I’m rambling on and on so I’ll quit while I’m ahead.

    I gave you a great reply on your blog post, because you have done a marvelous job in describing this process from start to finish.

    Best regards,

    Carter

  303. Hi Will,

    Thanks for taking time to write this article. This is very informative. I’m a married women in mid 20s and I’m planning to start selling on ebay. Right now looking to do the research for a product and supplier.

    I had a question about the free shipping offered on ebay by most suppliers. How do they do it as shipping through AU post is very expensive. Could you give me some tips please?

  304. Hi Will
    Thanks for so much info! Wondered if you could give me a bit of advice..? The quote I have received from Alibaba supplier for 4 samples seems a bit excessive.. for 4 x dog collars, $30 usd each.. then after that the 500pc order is from .80 – $3 ea.
    Would you negotiate a lower sample price or is this normal? The total for sample and postage would be $160 usd.
    Thanks so much for all your super advice and ideas.
    Rebecca

  305. Hey Will,

    Great follow-up post. When you look up possible niche products, do you just search on places like Amazon, Ebay, and Etsy or do you utilize search engines as well?

    Thank you!

    Latasia

  306. Hey Will (or anyone who can answer this),

    I’m a little unclear about specific products listed on Amazon and the numerous sellers who sell that one specific product. For example, let’s say I search for product XYZ and there is only one exact match. I find it strange that there are 10 different sellers I can buy XYZ from, yet no seller has listed another product that can compete with it (we’ll assume there are substitutes for this product, just none listed on Amazon).

    Am I missing something here? Does Amazon not allow sellers to post a new product for certain searches? I can’t figure out why 10 sellers would compete to sell the same product when they could easily offer a replacement.

    Matt

  307. Great info Will I been looking for ways to sell on Amazon this one is a winner for me,I’ll bookmark this page and read it a few more times

    Thanks!

  308. I skimmed through and found this article very helpful and informative. I am currently in China doing business and from my own experience with Alibaba and dealing with factories and with what I read here, the information is very spot on. Good article and thanks

  309. Hi Will
    thank you for your advice. When it comes to listing products do you take your own photos of your products or can your supplier provide these? Are there legal issues with using pictures from another persons listings?

    thank you

  310. Hi Will ! I loved your articles! very helpful , very detailed, informative and absolutely everything that i am looking for! Im glad i met your articles!

    I wanted to ask you whether this site called salehoo.com are reliable and worth it if you happen to join before? ๐Ÿ™‚

  311. This is brilliant! I’ve read a bunch of books on start ups with products but this was way more informative than any of them!
    Great job.

  312. Hi Will,
    How did you get a UPC code for your Chinese imported products? I have a whole batch of products that don’t have UPC so I can’t sell them on Amazon. I can buy one for $100 per product but it’s not worth that for a test run. I don’t know if they will sell.

    What did you do?

    Ebs, THanks!

  313. Hey Will,

    I absolutely LOVED your article. I am in the process of starting my own business online and this has truly inspired me. I am still looking for products that I could import/sell, but am having no luck. Do you have any suggestion as to what to do or even product suggestions?

    Thanks
    Arashk

  314. Hi, thanks for being such an inspiration. i wanted to know if you have to have proffesional pictures taken of the items you want to sell before you post them?Thanks again.

  315. First off I wanted to say thank you for the awesome advice! Not many people want to share their success for free! I’m hoping I can be successful with it as well!
    I do not have an eBay account and I was wondering how much harder it would be to sell my product being a new user. Should I wait until I build up some feedback before I start trying to sell things?

  316. Hi Will,

    Did you setup a business for the importing with company bank accounts, etc such as a Inc, llc, etc?

    I own a consulting company that is setup as a corporation (.Inc) in Canada and wondering if I go down this route if I should setup a new company or run any truncations through my existing corp.

    As well, any specific comment on how this may change in the Canadian market?

    Thanks,
    Tony

  317. Podcast? Podcast? I see no podcast?! How do I listen to the podcasts?

    Excellent articles, thank you so much, inspiring and helpful, much continued success to you and your readers

    *Marina

  318. Hello Sir,
    For the first time am reading your blog.Can you tell me from where to get the products to place on sites like ebay, amazon etc for sale. Whats the procedure.
    Also how the products are delivered to clients means by site or thru us.
    Am a third year student and dont want to be fooled by wrong people so asking your help. Please reply. Regards

  319. i’m an older person who has done physical labor my whole life and need to stop. iv’e read and started your program.please help me to get going and learning! on alibaba i found 3 things i thought were unique,a primative bottle opener,collapsable bucket and a salt water powered car toy,then i went to ebay and amazon and found lots of all 3 and at the bottom of the page was a co. called zps that was selling all 3 for less than i can get them at alibaba??? can you tell me what you think of that?and when i tried to open business acct. with paypal they wanted email address,if a new email gets shut down how will this effect paypal acct. and/or payments?

  320. Hi Will,
    I have been a regular visitor to your blog for the past few days. What an amazing stuff! Following your procedure, I looked for products on Ebay. However when I copied the title of a product on ebay and searched for a manufacturer on Alibaba, I’m told to input a search term less than 50 characters.
    If I discard some of the words, I get “0 matches found”
    Using your example “500 FPS NEW WG AIRSOFT FULL METAL 1911 GAS CO2 GUN PISTOL Sniper Rifle w/ BB”, which words would you put in Alibaba search box and what makes you choose those words?

  321. How did your friend make his own brand name? Were his items from places like alibaba still?

  322. Great info! What about shipping to customers. Craigslist. Do I have to price shipping to each customer? Yes, small and light items. Easier way?

  323. AWESOME INFORMATION I HAD. THANK YOU. I WAS JUST THINKING TO INVOLVE IN SUCH BUSINESS FIRST TIME AND I FIND YOUR ARTICLE ENCOURAGING AND INTERESTING. I WILL COME TO YOU FOR SOME CLARIFICATION LATTER. ONCE AGAIN THANKS FOR VERY VERY USEFUL INFORMATION. REGARDS
    VINAY KUMAR

  324. Hello Will,

    I am having a real hard time locating a reputable company abroad to manufacturer plain 100% cotton t-shirts.
    I want to make a good profit and a US manufacturer is pricey.
    Do you have any recommendations.I would really appreciate any suggestions .

    Thank You,
    Joli Alfani

  325. I wanted to start an import-export business a few years ago and wanted to either export American products to Eastern Europe (which is my background) or import stuff from Eastern Europe to the US but found that the US mainly makes high tech stuff and Eastern Europe mainly has stuff like coal, steel, grain, and oil. I didn’t know how to deal with any of that and didn’t have that much money at the time.

    Now, I have more money to build a business and after seeing your amazing blog want to have another go at it. I do have a few questions though, what do you think of my product being kids guitars? Is that enough to qualify to be a niche market? Or do I need to get even more specific?

    Also, did you ever drop ship when you were importing? Or did everything always get sent to you first and then you would go and send the imported items out once customer orders came in?

  326. Hi Will

    It is fascinating to find your information.I currently own 2 businesses that are labor intense.I am 46 yrs old and need to look at restoring my body and use my mind instead.
    I found a product with a great margin but it contains liquid and supplier says they can’t ship by air because of that.I am not buying a container only 500 pieces.
    What suggestions do you have for me?

  327. Hi Will,

    This blog really has been invaluable for me thanks a lot.

    I am based in the UK but really want to start importing to generate an extra bit of cash. I have a few questions and wanted to run some product ideas by you. Could I grab your email to have a chat with you about them if thats at all possible?

    Thank you in advance

    Daneil

  328. Hey Will, this is some really good stuff and has been really helpful as well as intriguing! Much Love for that
    I was wondering how can I assess whether I should sell the product to its brand name or trademark etc. I.e. I found a product but alibaba says It is likely a brand name, and that I may need proper proof of authorization, I’m in a pit with this, any help?

  329. I have started to buy and sell items made in China and received a sample wallet that I tested out and am wanting to re-sell. The only concern I have is that there was a trade mark on the wallet. I found the wallets on alibaba.com and when I asked for the sample they wondered if I wanted to customize it with my own logo. I’ve read your articles about selling trademarked items and don’t want to do anything illegal. Is it safe to assume that if it is listed on alibaba.com and they are a gold member that it is safe to purchase and sell these items?

    • Hi D,

      Definitely not. As a manufacturer I have to spend about an hour a day scouring the net for counterfeiters and many of them are on Alibaba. Even if they have a gold listing they can still be counterfeit. See if you can track down the original manufacturer or inventor if it’s a new product. You can find out quickly and order straight from them.

      Julie

  330. Hi Will:

    You have some great knowledge and info about importing products from China. I have done some of this myself in the past and have shared some of your experiences. I was importing erosion control steel T-posts and Dog Wire up to 2009 when the market went bad with the RMB changing from 8 to 1 to 6 to 1 to the US Dollar. I was fortunate that besides importing the products I also ended up importing a Chinese lady who I married in 2006 bring her to Atlanta, GA where I live. She was able to make good contacts and suppliers in China which made that part of the process easier. At this point we have some very good friends in North China (Liaoning Province) and can make easy arrangement with honest people who are our partners to locate good products and get them shipped to the USA. We would like to get back into this business but at this point are not sure what products will sell from China in the USA. The previous business with the erosion products was okay but the margins were relatively low. We have some very good access to steel products as my wife’s hometown is Anshan (Liaoning) and we also have good access to jade products. Any suggestions you might have or if we can be of assistance to you would be appreciated. I am currently working on project management projects for AT&T to bring in income but would like to begin importing again as the economy seems to be improving. Please comment as necessary.

    Best regards,
    Scott & Wenran Massie
    (770) 578-6583

  331. Hi Will,
    I have read both your articles and am impressed with the way you have structured the information. It is really informative and along with the your responses to queries covers almost all aspects.

    Just a few quick queries though:

    Can I buy from China and sell in UK/Europe sitting in India? What additional challenges do you foresee from commercial viability and logistics perspective? Can you also recommend any ecommerce sites more popular than ebay.co.uk or amoazon.co.uk or are these the standard ones in UK as well?

    Regards Vivek

  332. Firstly, thanks so much for this. So many things I know now than before I started my business venture.

    Please help me with the following… What is the legal procedure for buying a product in bulk from ex. a supplier on alibaba and then selling them in an area where the product is not yet available?
    Do I have to keep the original suppliers name and logo? May I sell it as my own product? Does there have to be a legal agreement of some sorts?

    small example: Importing wholesale teacups made in china and selling them here as a product of my own store/brand?

    thanks in advance!

  333. Hi! Do you know if they make any plugins to
    protect against hackers? I’m kinda paranoid about
    losing everything I’ve worked hard on. Any tips?

  334. Great information, I can relate to negotiating with the chinese. I am an american currently living in Southern China. I can assist anyone on this side of the world who is interested. I will act as your middle person here in China when it comes to negotiating and get you the best price possible.

    I have 8 years experience in International Trade as a Compliance Broker in the States. I am aware of some but not all custom regulations. If you are interested you may email me

    Sincerely,
    Anthony

  335. Great blog!! If anyone is looking for products cheaper than wholesale, please feel free to hit me up! I have lots!

  336. Will im wondering why someone experienced such as yourself tells people to go after cheap items, items that can be shipped in small boxes as well. I understand a lot of guys here may not have much startup capital… but maybe they should just wait then or try this in a different way. There are literally almost no barriers to entry to get started in some of these things you went over.. how long can they really last? I have a friend who imports used oil drill bits and the margins are excellent, and its pretty niche the way he does it…. but they fly out of his hands as soon as they get to him. He also started with one used bit for about $300 i believe. We both approached our first product the same way as listed below.

    One strategy i think you should talk more about it breaking even to test potential buyers. So for instance i once got a price for a product at $1 per linear ft. I asked if i purchased approx $10,000 of product what would my cost be then. It was around 65.c

    I said ok, spent $500 worth @ $1 per linear foot…. got it to the states, sold it for $1 per linear foot, all of it and fast. Sounds stupid to everyone right, i made $0? But i then went and purchased $10,000 worth and then
    a) knew i had a market for it
    b) even had the old buyer waiting for more

    So with the $10,000 invested i made the spread between 65.c and $1 which is 35c profit per linear foot. So $3,500 was made very quickly, im in a much higher barriers to entry type of businesses now as well because of this strategy. Most people say…. ok but i cant get money. I can guarantee you that if you show a relative or someone you know well with money… hey i just sold (X) amount of this product for $1 per linear foot…. but i payed $1 per linear foot…. with $10,000 i can get it down to 65c…… many people will be willing to fund you and split the profit. I think this is a form of leverage at its finest and surprised more people dont do this. Everyone wants to drop ship something… well what are you doing to differentiate? I understand there are ways but seems it would be a constant fight. With more barriers to entry, things seem more consistent and life a little bit easier.

  337. Hi will. Great article. I have decided to sell ladies bags by $10 margin on each bag. when I did research i found out that same bags people are selling on ebay and amazon for less than what they bought from aliexpress or alibaba. how is it possible? How are they making money then? even if they pass customers address to drop merchandise in their location but still they are loosing money. Whats the technique they are using here to make money?

    thanks
    Sama

  338. G’day Will,

    I discovered this site lastnight and have already found a product and ordered samples from a couple of suppliers, so far so good thanks to your write ups.
    I’m just wondering how I will be able to be competitive on ebay against established sellers with massive amounts of sales and great feedback, when iv got a fresh account with no sales or feedback (good or bad)
    The only way I could think of would be to sell cheaper then the competition, but even then Im not sure if buyers would choose saving a couple of dollars over paying a little extra knowing the seller has great feedback?

    Not sure if you still reply on here but any ideas would be appreciated.

    Sam

  339. Hi Will,

    Firstly, I am a big fan of your work here! Thank you for your detailed information!

    A friend and I have decided to team up on an importing business, because we both have full-time jobs and neither of us could ship orders alone. Some things are throwing us off a bit, and we were hoping to get your insight as we are only in the planning stages:

    1) Alibaba requires you to list your business’ name when signing up with a buyer account. We have a name picked out and used it, but we are not recognized by any government (local or whatever) as a real business. Will listing a not-yet-established business name in any way interfere with the receipt of shipments? Do we need to hire a lawyer to tell us if we’re breaking any laws? We’re US citizens, hoping to sell only in US.

    2) Do we need to get any licenses for this kind of work, or for specific types of items? I imagine it is state-by-state, but what’s your take on it?

    Thanks again! I look forward to hearing more from you!

  340. What’s Going down i’m new to this, I stumbled upon this I have discovered
    It absolutely useful and it has helped me out loads.
    I’m hoping to contribute & aid different users like its helped me.
    Good job.

  341. Hey superb blog! Does running a blog like this take a large amount of work?
    I have very little understanding of coding however I was
    hoping to start my own blog soon. Anyways, if you have any
    ideas or tips for new blog owners please share. I know this is off topic however I
    just had to ask. Cheers!

  342. Hey Will, I just read both your articles and I’m trying to interpet it. I’m 17 and I starting selling in school around 16 first soda then expended into candy and chocolate. I made some mistake like buy in bulk and buying to much products but that because I had to go buy my own products and can’t buy products that often.There are a lot of other sellers selling a little of about everything or something different and I try to get to most common candies. Any advice about managing products and money because I’m wasting money instead of benefiting from it, not wasting but I’m not wreaking any benefits.

  343. This is a fantastic article. I have sold quite a bit of stuff from China on Ebay. you describe the process here perfectly except I had to find out the hard way. seriously anyone interested does not need to buy courses just read this blog. I also produced an audio recording of how I managed to find hot items if anyone wants a copy let me know. I don’t ask for money etc for them. Seriously this blog teaches you what most expensive courses cover without the useless filler.

  344. Hi Will,

    I love both these articles you’ve written, they’ve been incredibly informative and have inspired me to take the next step which I’m right in the middle of now thanks to your awesome advice.

    I have one question regarding markup, we’re looking for products that will sell for double what we bought them. When you’re trying to determine your markup do you include all of the fees associated with buying your product into your initial price? For instance shipping can cost a good portion of the purchase price so should I add up all those fees and THEN double my price to see if I’m getting the kind of markup I’m looking for?

    Thanks,

    J.R.

  345. Hi Will,
    I found a household electrical product that I might be interested in selling. However, the company is a OEM company. Now, doesn’t that mean that the product that they are selling could belong to another company which has asked this OEM company to manufacture for them? If I sell this product, can I be sued? Can I even put my own brand on it? Thanks.

  346. What does FOB price mean?
    For example, how do I interpret this:

    FOB price: $8-$16/piece
    Port: Shenzen

  347. I have read both your articles and I feel like I understand everything thankyou for the help, but I still can’t find a profitable product, any ideas?

  348. Hi Will,
    I just read this article. Do you think that boutique-goods are a scam?
    Their prices are so damn unbelievable

  349. Hello Will, Happy New Year!
    Just read through your post and sort of confused on the topic of trademarks and reselling goods. So if I want to buy a Barcelona soccer ball from Alibaba and resell it on eBay, I obviously can’t do that legally. I would probably get away with it at first, but then If I start scaling up I will into problems. After looking at Alibaba, many of the products are branded or have the ability to be rebranded with your own logo. Many of the unbranded items already sell on eBay for pennies. Generally my question is about your airsoft guns. Were you rebranding them or reselling as a certain packaged brand.

  350. Hi Will,

    I am a college student who wants to start a side business of importing from China and selling on Amazon and Ebay.
    I have read your informative article very carefully, but after 2 weeks of research I have yet to find a product that meets your criteria of a good product.

    Maybe I am missing something, but do you have anymore suggestions of how I can find random profitable products ?
    Can you please help ? Thanks!

  351. Hi, great blog covering all the basics to starting up! I have been researching a range of different products and I am particularly interested in famous and celebrity party paper face masks, I have looked and found a supplier yet will I be able to re-sell them on ebay as this could be an infringement of copyright or trademark? I am from the UK and unsure on the laws on this as I have seen others selling them stating they are official and licensed? My other product is a non-branded accessory to a branded product, if the quality of the samples are similar and satisfactory to the official branded accessory would I have no issues selling this as long as I advertise the product correctly as un-official? Finally any advice on tax laws and VAT from importing and re-selling as I am from the UK, I have struggled to find accurate and reliable information?
    I look forward to your reply ๐Ÿ™‚

  352. I just started importing and doing eBay and Amazon, I got busted selling counterfeit headphone and got suspended on Amazon and $4000 on hold for 3 months on my money account. And now I getting lots of returns for reasons like ” I used them and they work great but I do not like them, I want a full refund?” And I have been giving it to them. So, Amazon never told me if I am suspended for life or till the 90 days are up. What is the story, I have a 100% satisfaction rating still? Will they ever let me sell on that site again? I learned my lesson on that experience. Sad thing is I thought they were real, never did find out how they found out they were counterfeit ? Also when listing a product they ask for a product code, do most of your Alibaba suppliers have a product codes for the products, the headphones did not.

  353. First of all thank you for sharing such a wealth of information.
    After all knowledge is the key to success and that’s what all
    Importers including myself need.
    My question is how do I compete with China based eBay sellers offering what I am attempting to sell myself.Their price
    Points,free shipping,warranties and guaranties seem to be tough obstacles,but the toughest fact is that some could actually be my suppliers
    Your reply is greatly appreciated.
    Thank you

  354. Hi,

    Im from Spain, and soon im gonna start drop-shipping in US from places like Wallmart and etc…as you know when doing freight delivery’s like furniture’s and stuff, i have to coordinate with the local shipping service to schedule delivery time with the buyer and i can’t give my shipping guy my customers number because they’ll call my customer and then my customer will find out where i got the item from, plus it’s gonna be difficult for me to do so because im outside US and the shipping guy has to call me and i have to call my customer back for coordination each time i make a sale. My question is, is there a company/group/people who would do this for me for a monthly fee? like when ever someone buys something from me , I send my customer’s number to that company/group/person and i put that company/group/person’s number on the order form instead of mine so the shipping guy will call them/him and ask them/him when to deliver and then they/him call my customer and ask when would be a right time for delivery and then call back the shipping guy with the deliver time. So in the end my customer wouldn’t know where i got the item from. Hope you understood what im trying to say. Please HELP!!!!

  355. Hi there, wow I have read books and searched a great deal of websites about ebay and importing, never found so valuable information so easily explained. Thank you!!!
    Here is my little ebay story, I started selling on ebay about a year ago although I have my account since 2007. I have 100% feedback and never had any problems until last year when started selling “otterboxe cases” from China. After making about $1000 in profit in about 4 days I thought I found the gold mine, but deep inside I knew that the knockoff business was not for me. Well after selling a bunch “otterbox” cases I got a letter in the mail. Otterbox was threatening to sue me because of the knockoffs I sold, I called them the same day and I told them I was never going to do it again and I didn’t do it anymore. I kept looking for other items to buy because I was very committed to quit my 9 to 5 job and work on importing stuff to sell on ebay. I tried a couple products and didn’t work and I started to slow down until I completely stopped selling on ebay. About a month ago that same entrepreneurship feeling inside me started bugging me again about importing from China and I started looking at stuff again and doing research and that’s how I found this article. I am very comfortable at my job and I make ok money. I live in New jersey , I have two beautiful children and a lovely wife but I have no time for them because although I work from 9 to 5 in he office as a manager for ExxonMobil I have to go to meeting after work and also always on my phone. After i read this article i said THATS IT!!!!I want to be a millionaire and it is very possible for me because I loved when I was doing it not just because of the money but also the excitement of people wanting to buy your stuff and bidding on it and fighting for it. If you could help me on this new path on finding the first products and helping me I will give you everything I make in profit. I would appreciate if you could help me on my baby steps and I will help others as I learn and I will always make sure people know it was because of your help that they are being helped. Thank you and join me in This marathon if you could please.
    Take care
    Henderson

  356. Awesome Blog Post!!

    I just wanted to know I live in the UK, and every item that I think is a little niche turns out to be already on eBay. and in abundant numbers and also being sold by established eBay sellers.

    I just wanted to know in your experience do customers tend to side with the more established sellers, or is it more open to everyone and will I actually have a chance at selling some items.

    Also are there any current niches that you could reccomend haha.

    Cheers,
    Reece.

  357. I want say that your website and your wonderful advice are very well pleasing, and wish to say thank you for all these free kind advice that some other people will only give for a fee. I hope you continue to propser in all you find your hand into as you willingly and freely give unto others to succeed……..you are very kind person, hard to find!

      • Hey,
        this is a very good and in-depth article ๐Ÿ™‚

        About airsoft guns, so they are banned in China now? The thing is, I cannot find them anywhere (Alibaba, Aliexpress, DHGate etc.) but on the other side, I see people from US and UK still selling Chinese airsoft guns. So where do they get them from?

        Also when checking ebay.com I see that there are only certain models that sell well, e.g. some sellers did auctions that ended with $2-3 only ……
        So is there any special model you would recommend for selling? The thing is, I do not have any good knowledge about airsoft guns *lol*

        Thank you!

  358. Yea im keen toknow if it is fine to use western union too. For sure i wouldnt buy it if it is directly into their bank accout

    • Maybe I should write a post on the billing side of importing soon ๐Ÿ˜€

      Check out the comment above, and note that Western Union is actually a bit less safe than wire transfers :-\

  359. Hi Will

    Thank you so much for such useful and valuable info. I have found a diaper company in China and I am interested in getting them and selling them in South Africa. The customer care of the company is excellent and they are very efficient.

    The only problem so far is that they don’t use Paypal. They use Western Union and their bank account only. Now what do I do since they don’t do paypal?

    • Awesome to hear you’re taking action Nyameko! I wouldn’t recommend using Western Union or a direct wire transfer on the first engagement with a supplier, but you certainly can. You just won’t have any financial protection – so if they never speak to you again, don’t expect to see your money again.

  360. Hi Will,

    Very simple question.. How can you buy “top rated seller” account on ebay?
    Is it possible?
    Reading this and previous article about importing I saw that you mentioned that option.
    Thanks alot!

    Darko

    • It’s probably possible to do that Darko, but I wouldn’t recommend it. You open yourself to a lot of risk not only from eBay, but also from the FTC and others. I think it would be much better to go around your house and sell some old things, or sell some things from local garage sales. You’ll get enough positive feedback to get the ball rolling that way.

  361. Hello, i was wondering what year this post was made? im just wondering because im afraid some rules have changed with shipping products and tariffs and such. Further, when the supplier says FOB can i still get them to ship it via the carrier services you mentioned?

    • This post is from this year Kevin, still very recent! I would put the dates on here, but my Wordpress shows the wrong dates ๐Ÿ™

      FOB refers to liability transfer. Once the supplier gives the order to the shipping company, it’s no longer their liability. If they give it to UPS or whatever, it just means somebody else is liable for it getting to you safely from there.

      Hope that helps!

  362. Hello Will,

    Excellent information. Your article has made me realised i went on the path of branding (bought a whole lot of products and opened a store) instead of product focus to build my base (im totally new to this).
    I did tried to search for specific products to sell but it seem alibaba has zillions of items therefore it was really difficult to shortlist a couple to try out. Your points are so true and I will follow your advice to try out the points to shortlist items.

  363. Hey just wondering how shipping costs enter into the equation, is there a bulk discount with air shipping..? It seems that at 6-10$ an item to ship domestically you are eating through all your margin, what was your experience?

    • Yep Nicholas, shipping is one of the main costs for importers and online sellers. There are bulk deals, you’ll hit them once your company gets up and running – but I wouldn’t depend on it beforehand…

  364. Hi, firstly thanks for some good info! Me and my business partner are looking to source a manufacturer for a new product. Very simple to manufacture but not sure if/how we can find a good reliable manufacturer in china, Any advice would be greatly received.

    Thanks

    Lee

    • Awesome to hear you’re getting started and taking action Lee! Best of luck to you ๐Ÿ™‚

      The process for finding a manufacturer is pretty similar to finding any supplier. Just make sure you make your prototypes in the US, then have them duplicated in China. China is great at duplication, but not great at prototyping. And the US is vice-versa. I would also send prototypes to a bunch of different suppliers and get a quote to see what it will cost.

      Hope this helps!

  365. Extremely in depth article indeed. I’ve learned a lot from this, especially the part about negotiating with suppliers. Thanks a lot. And j can relate to receiving counterfeit goods from aliexpress. Lessons are great teachers

  366. Thanks Will for such a awesome post, Really appreciate the effort mate. This is one of the best posts that I have found online about importing from China.
    Everything you said made sense and after a couple of intense days scouring the net on this topic, i feel like you have helped cement and reinforce what I have learnt on the THEOREY behind all this.TIME TO TAKE ACTION and see what the best teacher in the world is going to show me-time for Mrs Experience.
    Thanks again Will.
    Chamaldo

    • Awesome to hear that, glad I could make the list Chamaldo ๐Ÿ™‚ Couldn’t agree with you more – nothing makes me happier than people actually using the stuff I write ๐Ÿ˜›

  367. hello:)

    great article will:)i followed every step you wrote but still can not get it right.i really want to try with this business.i will do anything to succeed i promis!!!i read your article but i still dont understand everything.i dont know how to choose a good product.i tried with your choice of product decorative pillows.i have contacted the supplier.i am talking with him on emails.but than i dont know how many i should order,what size,material,…how to fix the shipping,how to put a product on ebuy:(
    can you please give me an advice or some of your thoughts on this or some information that will help me!

    please please please!

    regards from Slovenia:)

    uros

  368. I love you will!!! I’m going to hunt you down, kidnap your girlfriend, and become your best friend ever. You will never be able to get rid of me and I will never let you go

  369. Heading to Beijing mid October. Where do we start in regards to finding a product with a healthy profit margin. Do you recmnd the Canton import/export fest

    • Absolutely, Canton Fair is a great place to start! I’d recommend grabbing as many catalogs from as many suppliers as possible, and shipping them back. Then, go through and start seeing what you think you can sell and make money on. Good to go ๐Ÿ™‚

      Have fun!

  370. Hi Will,

    Great article, both this one the “How You Can Make Big Money Importing From China โ€“ The Rise and Fall of My Empireโ€ฆ”. Thank you for them.

    On the topic about selling trademarked items, one is surely likely to get into trouble selling fake big brands like fake Sony, Nike, and Louis Vuitton. Would you consider board games like Settlers of Catan, for example, as a trademarked product? Would you say it is risky to sell such board games that you buy from Alibaba, since they are certainly fake, selling at $0.50 per box?

    P.S. Thanks again for your blog!
    Thanks,
    Adrien

    • No problem Adrien, glad you liked the importing articles!

      If you sell any product with another company’s logo on it, you could get in trouble. Does that company care enough to find out and put the money into chasing you around? That’s a different question entirely ๐Ÿ™‚

      Good luck,
      Will

  371. Hi,

    I like to know, is it possible to pay the money to Chinese company after checking product quality at my own country. If the product is not working than I do not want to pay for those products. Is there any paying method for it? I want to stay at totally safe side at while paying.

    Best regard
    Kushal

    • That’s basically what Escrow is Kushal. But, it’s still better to do your Quality Control before they ship it from their factory.

  372. Will,

    Between these two posts you’ve put together a pretty comprehensive beginner’s guide… maybe could even charge for it.

    As you know, my son Pierce and I began a service biz and it’s going grrreat guns. But also as you know… a service biz’s profits are limited to how much time you can spend on the job. With a PRODUCT biz it’s possible to leverage your time, outsource, dropship, et to the proverbial cetera.

    For that reason, and because he’s recently gotten into paintball, we’re looking next into getting paintball supplies from China, maybe setting up some kind of importing biz for his friends to validate and maybe scale from there. Any thoughts?

    Keep Stepping,

    Kurt

    • Thanks a lot Kurt, glad you saw some value in the importing articles!

      I absolutely know that game – I’m still working on firing all my consulting clients so I can focus on product development. Like you said, it’s no fun trading time for money. But, it taught me TON about business and marketing – definitely a necessary stepping stone for me.

      Haha, that’s awesome – Kyle and I are big paintball fans. As you might know, we used to play professional paintball with Tampa Bay Damage when were were 16-19. We will have to play sometime, though I haven’t in years ๐Ÿ™‚

      Not a bad gig for him to do. I have some experience with selling paintball gear. Plastic stuff like pods, squeegees, swabs, mask straps, etc you should get from China – he can make good money if he becomes known as the guy at the field who sells cheap, decent gear.

      You can make good money on paintballs themselves too, if you can find a good supplier. When we were playing with Damage, we would get as many cases as we could for $15 and sell them for $30-50. But, they are tougher than the plastic stuff to make money on.

      Then everything else you need to be a distributor for the big brands (Empire, JT, Dye, etc.) Not too tough to become one though.

      There’s still a lot of potential for innovation in there too – things like the Speedfeed and all the custom headbands and JT straps – all decent money-makers. You won’t be a billionaire, but maybe a millionaire ๐Ÿ™‚

      Hope this helps!

      • Cool man! Yeah, I’d love to play you and Kyle. I get Pierce!

        It sounds like a market worth testing, if even for the object lesson. Thanks for the tips!

        What do you think of a paintball subscription? F’rexample, a guy wants to try out a variety of paintballs but doesn’t want to have to think about it and do all the searching. Would you nibble at something like a prepaid no-brainer subscription where an endless variety of paintballs arrived on your doorstep, courtesy of UPS?

        Heh… gotta quit “working” and get back to my vacation with my son and my Dad. Talk atcha later!

        Keep Stepping,

        Kurt

        • I personally wouldn’t do the paintball subscription, just because they are a nightmare to ship (and players know this). I believe that’s one of the reasons they have such a high markup, a lot of the shipments get damaged. One broken paintball per bag of 500 will discount a whole box (2000) of inventory.

          Now, a subscription service for swabs, pods, stuff like that – that might work. If you don’t go out of your way to hold on to those, you usually lose a few every time you go out.

          Hope this helps!

  373. How do you know if there are import fees and what they would be, and how does this affect your taxes? Also are there any items illegal to import and how would you find this out?
    About Alibaba, are there any drop ship companies that you only have to buy 1 item at a time instead of 20 or more? And I know you mentioned something about this but I wanted clarification. If a company says it only sells 20 items minimum should I contact them to see if they will sell less?
    Also any help on a good website and web hosting company that makes it easy to put products on there site for someone not so good with computers.
    Thanks

    • Sherry, the only way I know how to check for this is to ask your shipping company, your customs broker (usually affiliated with shipping company), or your supplier. They are usually pretty small, except when importing highly regulated or valuable products. But this is all based on Florida, USA. Other countries, and even other States, could have different laws and fees.

      There are definitely items that are illegal to import. I would steer well clear of cocaine, children, volatile weapons – things like that. ๐Ÿ˜›

      Again, every place has different laws – down to the city. I don’t know how to figure them out in your area, I usually use Google or call a lawyer. There are also legal forums and things like that.

      Most MOQ’s aren’t concrete. Just ask your supplier.

      There are some good websites out there now to build e-commerce sites in a snap. I’d recommend Shopify, Volusion, or BigCommerce

      Hope this helps, and good luck!

  374. Wil why do you say this ?
    Selling for twice as much as your buy price – I would not even look at a “product with less than a 100% markup, which is a 50% margin. That means if I cant double the price, I am not looking at it. I suggest you use your worst estimates here, which Iโ€™ll explain further below”.
    Isn’t true that if you are making 100% margin profits the business is good ? for example I’m getting a product at %9,8 and selling at $25,6 that is 100% revenue , isn’t that good , I dont get it ? It has to be more than 150% revenue to be good or what ? and why , please explain …

  375. Hi!

    First thing:

    This page really is absolutely awesome and the fact that the detailed information you share here is for free makes it even more awesome!
    On top of it you answer everyone personally, which is really cool ๐Ÿ™‚

    I was looking into that kind of thing you described here even before I found your page, but now Iยดm really motivated, but still have some kind of an issue:

    Does all the stuff (you explain here) only apply for people living in the US?
    I am from Gemany and I really want to get started in that kind of import business.

    I just donยดt know if it is possible to make good profit here, too?!
    Is there any special thing to the US making that kind of business very profitable for you guys (like no [or very low] Import tax, no VAT, etc.)??

    Or do you have the same in the US, when ordering from China?
    Do you just calculate that in, when calculate your profits, or are these kind of things just not an issue where you live?

    I know this post of yours is old, but I still hope you can answer that.

    ThX guys ๐Ÿ™‚

    • Glad you like the page Flo, thanks for the kind words. I figure it people take the time to message me, I should at least have the decency to reply. I will say though, comments are my favorite ๐Ÿ˜‰

      This was all done in the US, but I’m sure most of it applies in Germany. Yes, you’ll have to deal with VAT tax and a couple other things that I didn’t. But I’m sure there are tons of different opportunities that are less saturated.

      Yea, you want to estimate your total costs obviously. ๐Ÿ™‚

      Hope this helps

  376. This was a useful article , well done and thanks for sharing. As somebody setting up a branded company in Asia, who also works with some suppliers in China and exporting worldwide I am interested in how Ebay/Amazon will work and if I can run it myself or through importers such as yourself.

    You obviously know your stuff regarding checking product quality, market research etc. I think you got lucky with the airsoft gun though, apart from the strange ease that you were able to get these items through custom, one lawsuit for a faulty gun could have wiped you out. It could have been worse.

    • Thanks Brian, it’s always nice to get positive feedback from somebody with experience in the field! Perhaps I got lucky, it was a good couple years ๐Ÿ™‚

  377. I just started importing a couple weeks ago and have been looking for information on how to grow a business, as I just started mine in the past couple of months. I’ve basically been reading business articles for 19 hours straight now, and yours are the best I’ve come across (including other days’ worth of searching). Y’all keep up the good work, it really helps.

    With thanks,

    Michael

    • Awesome to hear you’re taking action Michael, hope the article helped! Glad to hear we are “top-tier” – I try my hardest ๐Ÿ™‚

      Thanks for the comment!

  378. Thanks a lot will, such a great article! I’m starting my fashion Womens clothing business online here in my country and hopefuly soon i will open my physical store if i found a reliable supplier at alibaba. As of the moment ordered at Aliexpress for the first time since i can buy 1 piece per blouse,shirt,tops etc. at the same time as a sample product to check their quality. I believe quality is very important for buyers satisfaction.

    Will u enlighten me with my doubt, because as i’ve said i already place an order at aliexpress spent 200$ all in all and i read some Bad reviews and feedback at aliexpress stated that many are scammers. Hopefuly all of my products will arrive soon. WIll i have some questions, i read alot of forum saying that it is better to place an order at b2b portal like eSources,WholesaleDeals,WorldWideBrands etc.. but the website has a registration fee. Is it necessary to register there or alibaba is fine? im looking forward for my business to grow. Thanks will and Godbless! thanks once again for sharing your knowledge to us newbie.

  379. Hi, you really have a great blog going here. I just had the first of my questions before I take the plunge. You mentioned that in many cases you asked the supplier to ship directly to the customer. Doesnt that reveal the manufacturer to the customer. He may want to deal directly with the manufacturer to save on his costs. That means I get eliminated. Can you explain how you protected yourself. Thanks.

    • This only works of the supplier had a wholesale site that chances the address of where it came from so buyers don’t ever find them. I doubt Chinese trading companies and fabs do this.

      • Joe has it right Rohit. It’s almost unheard of to dropship from Asia to the US, or continent to continent in general. You can do it, but it’s going to take forever and arrive in strange Chinese packaging. You need to find a warehouse/distributor domestically.

  380. Hi Will,

    You did an OUTSTANDING JOB on your blogs. It has helped clarify a lot of questions I had regarding the importation of products. I am tired of working for others when I can use my energy to profit myself and potentially grow my company.

    My question is this: while I know that selling these products on existing sites is profitable, what is your take on selling through an existing retailer? Do you think convincing a retailer to buy from you would be a problem? or do you think that they could very easily sideline you and order the products directly from the manufacturers being that they are financially capable? You also talked about trying to stay away from bulky products which I kinda agree with; however what is your take on importing them all the same? The product I have in mind is a furniture for the home (Kids) and though I see it on some sites, I have not seen the product in any physical store.

    Thanks a lot for your blog. Will be following your blogs

    • Thanks a lot for your kind words Tee! Glad you could get some value out of it, hope it can help you escape the grind ๐Ÿ™‚

      That’s definitely a good strategy, to import products and sell to retailers. It’s a little bit tougher, and could take some creativity/differentiation, but it’s possible.

      Furniture will be a tough market if it is tough to ship, because every mistake will cost you much more. Especially if you’re new, big heavy products can kill importers. That being said – I’ve never tried!

      Good luck to you ๐Ÿ™‚

  381. Thanks for the detailed information and tips. It’s great to see in-depth information, that is really useful.
    -April

    • Yea, Freight/free on board refers to the liability transfer that occurs once they give it to your shipping company. It means if something is damaged in transit, it’s your responsibility to deal with it (or your shipping company, insurer, etc) – but definitely not them.

  382. Just when I thought I’d cracked it, having evaluated samples and sold them easily on ebay, and having satisfied myself that I am dealing with a quality supplier, they are telling me that I need to pay 100% in advance if I want to order from them. The order is for $2600, they say they won’t do 30% deposit + 70% balance on orders below $5k. But once they have my money, will they have the impetus to come up with the goods in a timely manner and with the right quality? I strongly doubt it. I know I should have clarified this before I got to this stage but I was speaking to dozens of suppliers at the same time and couldn’t remember what I’d asked who. Will, I have total respect for you getting as far as you did. You must have the patience of a saint. Is there any way round this without starting from scratch with a different supplier? Thanks again.

    • It’s ok I have negotiated better terms now (50% up front). Still having 2nd thoughts though as it turns out that the stuff will take 3 months to arrive! I didn’t realise how long it took to make simple things.

      • Awesome to hear that Jon! Yea, shipping can sometimes take a while. The bigger customers usually get shorter lead times. If they can’t do any shorter than that, it’s possible they are middle-manning it. Not always a bad thing, but something worth knowing.

        Good luck!

    • Awesome to hear you found a product to import Jon, the first obstacle is jumped ๐Ÿ™‚

      Usually you can arrange for 50% up front and 50% after delivery, or at least 70% deposit. I would just try to negotiate, and mention that you want to build a long term relationship and are willing to re-negotiate in the near future, after a few good orders.

      Hope this helps!

  383. Hey StartUp Bros, I’ll be quick. Just call me Jay.

    So I’ve read about your “Rise and Fall” article and thanks to you, I now know where to get a really good supplier not to mention how good the quality is. However, I still require some assistance.

    1. I live in Malaysia and the rates for items are expensive for me. 1USD is tripled in my currency. I have contacted a supplier but they said that delivery fees are under my coverage. (FedEx) What’s your advice on delivery?

    2. They have agreed to send me samples. How much should I get? 10 or less? Or more?

    3. After getting my product or sample, should I sell it?

    4. How do I validate my product/idea?

    5. I need consistent help. Please, if possible, continue to email me.

  384. thanks for you share
    2 question:
    1,if you will buy things in new aliexpress store ?
    2,if there are many different kinds of thins in a new store ,you will not trust them ,right ?
    thanka again
    Karen

    • Hi Karen,

      I have nothing against AliExpress, but you can get better prices than you will see there. It’s a good place to buy samples.

      You’re correct there – if a supplier sells everything from toys to matches to silverware, that’s a good sign that they aren’t actually a manufacturer. You want to find the source of a product, where it’s actually made. The more specialized the factory the better.

      Hope this helps,
      Will

      • Great advice! I too had wondered the same thing about such a broad array of items being sold in one “store”/by one supplier.

        • Yea, they can be decent for low MOQs sometimes – but they are not the source, and thus not as cheap or reliable or flexible. Good to know ๐Ÿ™‚

    • I could tell you 90% of selllers on Aliexpress are middle-men, only a few are factories, lots of them ship via China post air mail which is the cheapest way for package under 2kg, normally 2-3 weeks to arrive

  385. hey will! i’m 14 and have been researching products,still having some issues. many suppliers are not getting back to me! Anyways I am looking still to find a product, could you point me in the write direction?

    • Hey Andrew,

      Suppliers sometimes won’t respond if they feel like you’re not a serious buyer. I would suggest emailing them again from a separate email (as a separate person), and just casually asking for a price sheet/catalog. Don’t talk too much business in the first email. If you can get them to respond to the first email, they will be much more likely to respond to you in the future ๐Ÿ™‚

      Hope this helps,
      Will

  386. When it comes to selling on Ebay for profit, are there any licenses or anything needed? And are you required to pay taxes on profit? I don’t want to get in any tax trouble or anything like that.

    • Hi Michael,

      All of that depends on your local regulations. In most States and for most products, you don’t need any licensing. Regulation-heavy States like New York or California may require something, I’m not sure. It’s smart to at least get an LLC either way. You will need to pay the taxes that are required wherever you live.

      Hope this helps,
      Will

  387. Hi
    Thanks for this article, it was super helpful! A quick question about shipping: The items I am ordering total somewhere in the $400 neighborhood but the shipping cost is insanely expensive $300! Is there a cheaper way to do this? My items are small ceramic furniture hardware.

    • Glad you liked the article Krystin! I would imagine that ceramic hardware is pretty heavy, so I’m assuming that’s where the shipping cost comes from. The only way to do it cheaper is to ship it via sea freight, which would probably raise your MOQ as well.

  388. Hey Will

    Your article is awesome. Got me real motivated to start asap.

    I read it when on holiday close to two weeks back and the search and negotiations on Alibaba are still on.

    I am from Mumbai, India.

    The shipping charges quoted are killing and so will be the import duty.

    Would you recommend negotiating on the shipping charges as well?

    I am currently planning to order samples and then place the main order.

    Awaiting your suggestions.

    Regards
    Poonam.

    • Hey Poonam, glad you liked the article! Congrats on taking action and getting started.

      There isn’t much you can do to negotiate shipping prices. When you start shipping high volumes, you can negotiate with UPS/FedEx/whatever to lower your prices.

      Chinese factories won’t try to rip you off on shipping too much. I think you would have much more luck negotiating the price of the product rather than shipping prices, which they don’t control.

      Hope this helps,
      Will

  389. Just one quick question I still have, when looking on something like Terapeak I know I should be looking for like a 25% and more sell through rate, but about how many listings per month on average should there be for that product?

    Thanks

    • Hi Ghoro,

      It really varies from product to product and person to person. Obviously you probably don’t want to go after something that is only selling 1 per month. You might not want to go after a market selling 50,000 per month either. It really depends on the product and your own goals.

      How have you been using Terapeak so far?

  390. Will, as many have said before me, thank you! Your blog has been an essential part of my “kill time at work” bookmark collection and your Chinese importer articles are definitely a highlight.

    As a huge fan of the Craigslist arbitrage/hustle I feel like this could really take my side-cash to the next step. Now just to figure out which product… laptops on CL to prospective students?

    • No problem Peter, glad I could help! As somebody who has already seen some success on Craigslist, I’m sure you could combine your skills and come up with something great. I don’t even recommend Craigslist just because I don’t get it. But I know there are some people who make a killing on there!

      Let me know what you end up doing,
      Will

  391. Hi all,

    I came cross an expert named Importexport. I was wondering if anyone purchased his ebook and think it is worth the money. It seems there are other safer sources to find real manufacturers than Alibaba. Let me know your opinion please!

    Thank you

  392. Will,

    Thanks for all of the good advice.

    I, currently, am looking at a specific product to sell. I received information from the seller on alibaba that the price of each item is $10, however, the shipping will be $23.50 per item in a carton of 9 pieces at 10kg (57*34*73CM). So, I am looking at the total cost of each item at $33.50. First question, is that a reasonable shipping price? They ship DHL out of Guangzhou and I looked up the shipping rates and I got a totally different quote (it was actually a lot higher than the quote from the seller).
    Next, most of the items sold on eBay are between $30 and $60. When you say that you want at least a 100% margin, are you factoring in shipping costs? I feel I can sell the items for between $50 and $60 on eBay/Amazon/Etsy.

    Since the margin has come down quite a bit due to shipping costs, is this something that you would suggest that I proceed with? Your response would be greatly appreciated.

    Thanks so much for your time.

    • I’m not sure what will would say, but if this is your first order, I’d say go for it. Sounds like it must be a heavier or larger item. You can work the margin a bit on larger future orders. The important part is getting it and verifying the viability of selling it.

      Recently, I discovered there were regulations I was unaware of. The registration was outside my price range currently so I’ll have to revisit that item further down the road.

      Good luck and let us now how it goes!

      • Completely agree with this advice!

        How did you end up finding out about the regulations? I get that question often, but never know where to send people. Any advice?

        • Will,
          Lol it was through the very scientific process of receiving an email from DHL at the port of entry in LA. It, unfortunately, stopped this shipment cold because its about 90 days and $2500 to go through all the registration. I at least now know what has to be done when I revisit this product down the road. At this point I think it’ll be a $175 loss. Not near enough to break me.

          I’m working on figuring out how to find this info Will. I have an idea but don’t want to post it until I’m sure as neither one of us wants to hear the screaming and whining that I was wrong. Lol I’ll keep you updated.

          Now, a side note. I’ll make the money back shortly. Over the weekend, my father and I wandered into a local membership warehouse store and I spotted something on the shelf that seemed cheap to me. So, using an app on my iPhone, I scanned the barcode and it cross referenced it on Amazon. Turns out that on Amazon, it was selling for about $27.76. The store had the product for $12.99. I checked ebay and saw sales records recently for an even higher price. So I bought a pile of them and just sent them off to Fulfillment By Amazon for my first experience with them. Not a huge gain but a good start.

          Cheers.

          • Well sorry to hear you took a loss on that product, but $175 isn’t too bad. I’m sure you can turn that knowledge into more than $175 ๐Ÿ™‚

            Awesome to hear about that product you found. I also see products like that sometimes, and wonder “How in the hell?”. Way to jump on the opportunity rather than playing the “what if” game. It goes to show you that there is opportunity everywhere if you know how to see and act on it – even when doing some weekend shopping with your dad ๐Ÿ™‚

            Definitely let me know if you figure out that regulatory issue, and keep me updated on your business!

            Will

    • Hi Curtis,

      Yes, shipping is often the largest expense in the import/export business. That shipping price sounds about right. Suppliers often get bulk discounts with DHL/UPS, so it’s normal for you to see that price drop. Of course, still pay with PayPal or Escrow to be safe.

      Your net margin needs to be 50%, which is a 100% markup from your total cost of goods sold. So yes, always include your shipping prices.

      Your products will become marginally cheaper once you start buying in bulk, so I wouldn’t dismiss the product all together. But, some items won’t work. For instance Bubble-Wrap has ridiculous margins until you calculate the shipping costs.

      Hope this helps,
      Will

    • Curtis,
      If you look at a freight consolidator like “we deliver the world” you can actually use them to give you a quote to collect the product and deliver it to you. The get prices from all the big guys like DHL, TNT and FedEx but at discounted rates. The online quoting system takes about one minute to get your price. Start an account and they offer more discounts. All the way bills and shipping docs get emailed to you which you would then in turn email to your supplier, freight is paid for by you so all good!
      I sent some candles to a hotel in Langkowi from Australia. I have a FedEx account and they wanted for a box that weighed 2 pounds 280.00 to deliver it. I got onto these guys who I used when living in the uk and arranged it for 85.00 dollars.
      Lots of ways to skin a cat Curtis!
      Jim

      • Hi Jim

        I wondering how is this. How would they collect the product? Is it possible to rent a pellet box or a 20 feet box and have a lot of things shipped?

        Thanks

        • Yes, this is how it would work. You would have your supplier ship a container to your consolidation warehouse. Then the warehouse would break it down, stock it, and ship it to your customers. It’s a great option!

          Hope this helps,
          Will

          • Thank you for your reply Will

            What would the process be? Any sites to where to start?

            I also have a question: is there a way to decrease the MOQ? I found a profitable product and I asked for a sample but they quoted me $22 dollars for shipping and $2.50 for it. I Am not sure why I would even think of buying that sample. It doesn’t make sense to buy samples. At least 85.512% of the sellers I have asked for sample have quoted me an average of $24.215+ unit price, I know these products will sell but that is way too much for a sample.

          • The process for finding profitable products to import and sell? That’s exactly what the article is! A Step-by-Step Guide on How To Find a Profitable Product to Sell ๐Ÿ™‚

            Actually, those are extremely low shipping prices for samples. Your average item costs about $30-50 to ship from China to the U.S. – it is very expensive to ship one small little box to the other side of the world in a few days. If those prices seem like too much to buy samples, and buying samples doesn’t seem to be worth it to you, I would suggest staying out of importing. People that don’t see the value in buying (many) samples tend to be relieved of their money pretty quickly when importing.

            Hope this helps,
            Will

          • Hi!

            Your logic here doesn’t make sense at all. What makes a profitable product is being able to find it for cheap and sell it for ridiculous mark up prices. Its what you have been promoting here. To be honest, you are the first person online I have found to recommend buying samples. If you think about, if you try selling 5 products, these samples add up. When you can be buying 1 single profitable product in large quantity and using that sample budget towards the shipping for that product here. Its not like these products are NOT profitable, no they are very profitable but the idea here is not wasting money just on samples. You also talk about selling those samples to test them. Well, there is no real point in that because these samples already belong to a niche that IS selling. As you said, that is the whole point of this blog. To find a profitable product. Well, the simple fact that you took the time to check them out through Terapeak and ebay completed listing kinda defeats the point of testing to see if that sample actually sells. Would make better sense to just buy something from a different seller and then reselling to “test if its profitable”. Its true its a best idea to spend 30 bucks for a sample to see how their service is but at the same time, isn’t that the whole point of Gold Status and whatnot? Because they have proven themselves that they are reliable manufactures?

            Thanks

          • You don’t buy samples to test if a product is profitable. You’re testing suppliers.

            I think the mistake you’re making here is thinking that every supplier that offers a similar item in China is the same. You will find massive differences between every factory in any market. So when I say to buy samples from several different suppliers and sell them to see what feedback comes back, I’m telling you to test the quality and partnership of each supplier. Anybody can upgrade their Alibaba account to a Gold account, and indeed every decent scammer is on the prowl for new importers out to get rich quick.

            Buying samples is a prerequisite of buying anything in bulk. I don’t know any importers who don’t get samples of everything they buy in bulk. It’s really just standard practice. I’m surprised I’m the only person you’ve heard of recommending it.

            tl;dr – I don’t recommend skipping that step ๐Ÿ™‚

            Hope this helps,
            Will

  393. Hi again Will

    Just a quick question, you said about not putting your current email onto Alibaba as you would receive endless spam messages. Does the same apply to putting your address or mobile number? Probably a stupid question I know, just wanted to double check.

    Thanks

    • Hi Jacob,

      That’s a good question. For some reason, I’ve never had any issues with that. You would think they would mail you a catalog or something, but I’ve never been mailed anything I didn’t request. Surprisingly!

      Good to ask though, better safe than sorry…

      Will

  394. Hey!

    I have a question, you say to start with a few products but how can I make it so that I only pay one shipping price to get them here? Is there a way I can fill a pellet first then pay one flat fee to get them here?

    • Yes! You can work with companies on the ground in China to take in all of your orders, organize them all on a pallet, and ship them to you. I believe they’re called shipping brokers or consolidators, but I may be wrong (about to go to sleep!).

      Anyways, yes you can do it.

      It’s a little more complex for just a short comment, but I will go in depth with this in my upcoming course I’m working on. I’ll be sure to give you a free copy for your help with this great question.

      Hope this helps,
      Will

        • Hi Jon/Will

          Sorry to ask another question. I have been looking around on Google and the website you suggested, and im not sure which licenses I would need to get. Im only just starting so will only be small time.

          Cheers

          • I assume you’re not looking to import missile launchers or plutonium or something, so you won’t need a licence. You’re looking for the commodity code relevant to the product you are interested in. Look through the trade tariff to find your product. For example, garden umbrellas have the code 66 01 10000. Clicking on the code will show that there is a duty to pay of 4.7%. I don’t know how to be any clearer than that! **Info relevant to UK only**

          • Thanks Jon, I did think that it was strange to get a license given the products and amount of products that I will be importing.

  395. Thanks for the advice Will, that’s helped me decide to steer clear of anything with a brand name on it.

    I just want to add to your reply to Jacob above; True that you have to pay 20% VAT on all imported items to the UK, however, import taxes (duty) depends on the product and is usually around 5% or less. You have to find the code for the product and this will give you the duty to pay. Lots of people are importing stuff from China into the UK and making tons of cash and I’m hoping to be one of them!

    • Thanks for the added information Jon, I didn’t know that! Combine that info with the info somewhere else in these comments on how to avoid VAT taxes, and you’ll have turned the taxes into an advantage against domestic competitors ๐Ÿ™‚

    • Hi Jon/Will

      Any idea of how to find out these codes? I have seen general items that are low on tax e.g books, however no where to find the codes/tax rate of a specific product.

  396. Hi Will,

    Great article, I have been looking at starting my own business for a while and this has given me a kick start.

    Do you have an idea of the taxes I would have to pay living in the UK? Would these taxes make this idea not profitable?

    Also do you have any other general tips for importing into the UK?

    Cheers

    • Glad you liked the article Jacob!

      Unfortunately, the UK makes it very difficult to import. When you bring it into the country, you get hit by VAT tax at 20% and importing taxes at 15%.

      If you manage to make money after that slaughter, they then tax that money another 30-50%+. I might have it slightly wrong, but the UK has a very bad tax system.

      If you go through these comments, there was somebody who found out and shared a way to get around some of the taxes. It’s possible to make money importing in the UK, it’s just more difficult.

      Don’t forget the real reason for these ridiculous taxes is to control people – they don’t want people easily importing products from overseas. That’s a problem when you’re starting out, but once you’re experienced and know the loopholes, it becomes advantageous.

      Good luck,
      Will

    • Hi Jacob,
      I import into the UK on a regular basis. The things to watch out for are VAT charges applied to anything with a value over GBP32.00 and then duty will also be applied. You need to check the customs and revenue web site to see what % the items you are looking at will be classed at.

      If you are VAT registered then you can claim back the VAT every quarter when you do your VAT return. So you just need to watch these few things and make sure the extra charges don’t tip you over the edge and make it too expensive to compete with.
      Cheers
      Jim

  397. Hi Will,
    Your website has been very helpful for me and I used your guidelines as much as i can.

    I have recently received a sample from a supplier and I was able to sell it on, which was a good start I guess. I asked the supplier for a bigger order and it was going well until he told me the shipping price for UPS (which was huge), I asked if we could do the shipping with another company, but he won’t agree to any other.. what shall i do? bite the bullet and pay the price? or just leave?

    Hope you can help.
    Thanks
    James

    • Awesome to hear that James, glad to help!

      It depends on what your product is, how much money you’re looking to put into it, and some other things. If you’re just looking to do 50 iPhone cases or something like that, then UPS is probably the best. If you’re looking to do 50 sets of weights, then UPS definitely won’t work.

      The only way to bring those costs down are to ship over sea freight. There are a few ways to do this, but it would be a lot to talk about in these comments. Hopefully I can do a post on those soon.

      Hope this helps,
      Will

  398. Will

    Another question has sprung to mind and I thought you might be the man to answer it. You touched upon avoiding branded products in your article. I am not sure if one of the items I am considering would be classified as branded. For example, would a T-shirt with a Harley Davidson motif be classed as branded? Or a whiskey brand depicted on a sign? I would guess not as it isn’t an attempt to counterfeit (unless Harley Davidson make T-shirts), but I want to make sure there won’t be problems at customs. What’s your take on this?

    • Hi Jon,

      Yes, any trademarked brand can give you trouble. If you use the Harley Davidson logo, or even the look and feel of their brand, they could take legal action against you. Most of the time you just get a cease and desist, and you’ll end up with a ton of product you can only throw in the trash. You shouldn’t have any trouble at customs, as they don’t know if you’re authorized to use the brand, or constitute what intellectual property infringement would be. That’s for the courts to decide.

      Hope this helps,
      Will

  399. Will,

    Thanks for your prompt replies.
    I don’t think there is a good market in electronics for new starters either.
    I am at the stage of finding several exceptional products that can sell themselves. Found one so far, it is a chincese product, contacted the suppliers, received three quotes on samples and two of them seems reasonable and similar. I think i would go with one of them and order the sample, they are shipping by DHL and I would be able to receive them in 3-5 days. I will give it a shot once i receive it, but i am not sure if it is the right product.
    I will keep you in the loop.

    Thanks!

    • Awesome to hear that Shafi, it seems you’re really progressing and learning a lot about importing. If you keep it up, I’m sure you’ll be successful with it soon enough.

      Let me know how the new samples turn out, and more importantly if they sell! I’m working on an importing course now that I think will help you out a lot, I’ll be sure to give you a free preview copy to get your thoughts!

      Hope the new samples are great,
      Will

  400. Will,

    Great Article again!
    let me ask you this and i am sure you can help me out on it:
    You mentioned about counterfeit products and their problems on Ebay in another article of yours. I want to avoid selling these products as well. If, for instance, i am importing electronics or any other product that is made by big Manufacturers like Dell, Apple, etc. and sell them online, while they are not fake ones, is this considered to be an issue as term as counterfeit rules?

    I need your input man.

    Thanks
    Shafi

    • No problem Shafi! Just make sure the products don’t have any trademarked brands on it and you should be fine. You can get hit with patents as well, especially in electronics. I’m not sure how to look into that, like I said I try to avoid electronics. One piece of advice if you’re going into electronics – you usually want them manufactured in mainland China, and the components from Japan or America. The quality just isn’t there on Chinese electronic components.

      Hope this helps,
      Will

  401. Hey Will

    Working 90 hours a week leaves me very little time for much else so it has taken quite a while but I got my first shipment from China two days ago. I decided to take a chance and skip the “check out the sample” step. I did that because their Alibaba reputation was excellent, their dealings with me were good, and I would rather risk $800.00 than lose time. I got lucky. The product arrived quickly and it’s perfect!

    Thanks for all your help and I’ll keep you posted.

    Danny

    • Awesome to hear that Danny, it’s always nerve wracking, especially without the samples ๐Ÿ™‚

      Let me know how selling them turns out for you guys – good luck!

  402. hi will

    hey just wondering i would like to know what website or supplier that you could recommend me to that will be good for hair and beauty product or even car detailing products thanks….

  403. Thanks Will for your reply. Now here’s where I’m at after deciding to persevere. I’ve finally hit a sweet spot with spotting products but it’s been an extremely arduous task communicating with suppliers. What should take 2 emails seems to take dozens. Getting a price is sometimes like getting blood from a stone. Many are clueless to what product you are enquiring about, even though you make it perfectly clear in your email. Most have been rock solid on their MOQ’s. Just when I think I’ve got somewhere, a supplier will tell me they can’t send a sample.
    Does this sound like a legit response? This is from a 5th year gold supplier for a belt:

    “Dear Jon โ€‹

    Thanks a lot for your fast reply.

    But I am so sorry that we could not sell 1pc only,because we don’t have them ready in stock! We have to make production,and the MOQ is 200pcs.

    Thanks a lot for your kind understanding!”

    This is the 2nd time this has happened. I finally find a supplier with the right product at the right price, only to be told they can’t send a sample. Or other times they wouldn’t budge on their MOQ. But can they really have legitimate reasons for not sending a sample or do I need to stay well clear, even when no other supplier has the same product? Anyone else run into these same problems or am I just being unlucky?

    • Awesome to hear you’re an official product finding pro Jon – at least that is a silver lining!

      Very weird to hear that you’re having trouble with supplier communications, especially since I rarely hear that. There are some products that suppliers just won’t budge on, but not a ton.

      I’m not sure what your product is, but maybe if it’s some industrial product they won’t budge. For instance, I could see a nail and screw factory that sells to construction companies reluctant to send samples to many people. In a market like that, there are probably other elements at play. Suppliers producing a low-margin, high-volume product may try to weed out anybody who isn’t going to order a certain amount per month.

      I’m not sure of the solution either. I would just email back and forth with suppliers and try to get to the bottom of it. Maybe you can get one of them to tell you why they’re not responding often…

      Other than that, I’m not too sure unfortunately! Be sure to let me know how it goes, we’ll get to the bottom of this ๐Ÿ˜€

      Hope this helps,
      Will

  404. Hey, thanks for this thread and the related ones. I’m using them, along with some guidance from members over at http://www.thefastlaneforum.com (I think that’s how I found you originally it was either that or Tropical MBA) . I just wish the people at the mfr’s would respond quicker. lol I’m hoping to have the first of my sample orders in by the end of the week.

    • Awesome to hear that – you’ll have samples in hand in no time! Yea, you would think they would try to respond quicker, I’m always surprised by that. I think it’s due to many new importers coming into the market, they never know whether an Alibaba lead will be serious or profitable. Oh well, as long as it works out ๐Ÿ™‚

      Let me know how it goes!

      • Well my first order is on the way. After I placed it, I found another supplier for a lower cost. Still profitable and ok for sales testing. I’m also figuring out how to source multiple different parts from different suppliers and assemble them into a package here.

        Thanks for the help and guidance so far!

        I have a question I’d like to ask via email or phone call but not sure the best way to reach you.

        • It could definitely be worse! Usually when you find a cheaper supplier, you’re getting closer to the actual factory that makes that specific product. If you can find the original factory, it will pay you dividends for years to come. You’ll get lower prices, higher quality, more options and flexibility, and quicker response times. Keep hunting!

          You can email me at will (at) startupbros.com – I usually answer all emails within a day or two.

          Talk to you soon!

  405. A nicely written article, keep up the good work and thanks for educating me on this subject. That said, I have been glued to my computer screen for 2 weeks now and feel exasperated with trying to find the right product. As soon as I think I’ve found something, I’ll find it on ebay for about the same price as Alibaba! I just can’t figure out how they’re doing it at their prices, because I agree with you that you need a minimum 100% markup, especially on a sub $100 item. But when you add shipping costs and tax, I am left with maybe no more than 20% on most items compared to lowest ebay price. The only remotely promising product I have found so far can only be bought at the right price with an MOQ of 500! It makes me wonder whether importing from China is always the cheapest option compared to sourcing from a local wholesaler. What are your thoughts on this? Thanks again, Jon.

    • No problem Jon, glad to help!

      Sorry to hear you’re having trouble finding a good product to import. As you probably know by know, this is one of the most difficult parts. It’s also a lot of your competitive advantage – not everybody can find a good product to import. It takes time to develop the skill, like anything else. Sounds like you’re well on your way…

      You could try to local wholesaler, but it’s important to realize what’s happening there. What you’re really doing is buying imported products from China, through a local distributor. You’re essentially getting middle-manned. While that’s not necessarily a bad thing, and there can be advantages, you’re still getting middle-manned. In most cases, you could buy the products from overseas for substantially cheaper prices. But, in some cases, the MOQ will make that impossible, or the factory sells exclusively to one distributor, or the distributor will help with shipping. In these cases, maybe a local wholesaler is the way to go. But again, you’re going to pay higher prices on it than you would if you could locate and purchase from the source.

      Hope this helps,
      Will

  406. Will,

    Thanks a lot. I have a great idea to improve your site. Why don’t you put a wholesaler/importer list that you know will not scam and are legit. I would love to be on that list. Many fellow bros would much rather just buy from each other than risk all this scam in China. People losing thousands of dollars. I got lucky and found an alternative source. I would love to do business with fellow bros even at a reduced profit.

    I know how hard it is to do importing business. Its not easy. I literally spent 100s of hours (late nights). Talking and networking overseas. Your guide is great but lets move on to the next level. I think you should give this a consideration. Thanks.

    • Hi Joe,

      Awesome idea! I’m definitely going to include something like that in the upcoming course/community I’m building up around selling imported goods online. You definitely found a golden source, I’ll be in contact with you when building the course ๐Ÿ˜€

      Would love to hear more of your thoughts on how to move it up to the next level, especially as I move towards building the course. I hope the course will quite literally be the next level ๐Ÿ™‚

      Thanks for the help,
      Will

  407. Hi Will,
    I’ve been reading this article for a month.I think we guys could really form a community or forum and list members according to their country much similar to Alibaba but here we guys can get spot light to export from this small genuine circle of trading members ๐Ÿ™‚ We can strictly adhere to escrow or paypal payment policy.

    In this way, we don’t need to rely on chinese suppliers for almost any products on this planet ๐Ÿ™‚ I think Joe made a wonderful effort. Congrats Joe.

    • Hi Saravana,

      Couldn’t agree with you more, awesome idea! I’d love to put together a community! It’s on my list of “things to do eventually” ๐Ÿ™‚

      And yes, congrats to Joe – he’s killing it ๐Ÿ™‚

      I know you’ve been a Bro for a while, so I’m sure you’ll see when we roll out the next iteration of this post!

      Thanks for the help,
      Will

  408. Hey Will,

    Thanks for this awesome post. I have found a product that fits all the criteria you listed so I am very excited but I am having some trouble with samples.

    The three manufacturers I have contacted have given me quotes of between $20-30 per unit when ordering 100 units. For a single sample unit however they want between $200-300 which is much more than the product sells for. Is this normal?

    Thanks in advance,
    Anthony

    • No problem Anthony, thanks for taking action! ๐Ÿ™‚

      Shipping prices for samples vary widely based on size and weight. There’s no way for me to tell you without knowing all of the information regarding the shipment, but maybe this will help –

      For a small object in a envelope or small box, it’s usually $20-40 to ship from China to USA. If you’re shipping to a different country, or your samples are larger/heavier than I described, then it will be more expensive.

      Hope this helps,
      Will

  409. Hey Will

    I know almost nothing about importing and my son sent me a link to this post. I absolutely LOVE the ‘nut & bolt’ kind of approach you lay out, even the way you lay out the ‘fuzzy’ parts of the process. My son found a product that fits a lot of your criteria but I think it’s knockoff/counterfeit stuff. It’s perfume. Mark Jacobs “Daisy”. I also know nothing about the perfume industry. Maybe there are many factories that produce perfume for the Mark Jacobs brand according to their specs or maybe this is counterfeit perfume. I’m pretty sure I saw other people including links in their comments so I’ll put a link here and maybe you could tell me what you think.

    Thanks for everything!!!!!!

    Danny

    • Hey Danny,

      Haha, that’s an awesome way to find us! Tell your son I said thanks for the help spreading the word ๐Ÿ™‚

      Glad to hear the guide could help you guys out, and congrats on getting out there and taking action on the idea (something tells me you’re raising a good kid!). Unfortunately, that is probably a kockoff. The only way to know for sure is to go through a intellectual property firm, or to contact the company. But, with a brand as big as Mark Jacobs, I’d guess that they are pretty strict with who they sell to. I’d keep looking :-\

      Hope this helps,
      Will

      • Hey Will

        I had two product ideas that got stuck in my “Bros Post” checklist hopper.

        First was a sleek Mens Electric Shaver. Found it on Ebay then found a similar one on Alibaba. Then I started re-reading what I now think of as the “Little Guys Kickass Chinese Import Bible”.

        *Sells for more than 10 and less than 200 – CHECK!
        *Sells for at least twice what I will pay for it – CHECK!
        *Small and light – CHECK!
        *Lots of tolerance for manufacturing error – BzzzzzzzzzzzzT
        I figure moderately sloppy factory setups will end up pinching a lot of customers faces and my ass with returns.

        Another idea is a Digital Infrared Baby Thermometer.
        I’m not sure if it fails for the same reason or not. I started researching myself but I got lazy as I was about to search some PDF schematics and figured I’d ask you first. If Google Digital Infrared Baby Thermometer you’ll immediately see pics of these things. I usually do all my research myself but you may know already.

        Thanks a bunch …

        Danny

        • Hey Danny,

          I love seeing this! Clearly, you followed things more than I even expected, and it saved you some time! Maybe my writing isn’t so bad… ๐Ÿ™‚

          You’re right there though, I’d be nervous with an electric shaver for that exact reason. Maybe worth a shot still, but it’s important to realize that product will carry a higher risk. Which you did, of course…

          Wow, that ones tough too. I’m in the same boat, not really sure. My worry with those would be consistency of the sensors across 100, or say 10,000 units. I’d bet that their sensors aren’t the highest quality, but then again I don’t know much about sensors…

          With both the shaver and the sensors, I’d be worried about long-term durability as well.

          Don’t mean to discourage at all, hope I don’t have that effect! But, these are just a few things to keep in mind. Remember that buying some samples and trying to sell them is the only way to REALLY test a product. I’ve never bought things like electric shavers because I was afraid to, but that could have been my unknown mistake!

          Hope this helps, and keep me updated…

          Will

          • Sup!

            This post is probably years old. Idk because there is no timestamp around here. Anyways I was just reading your articles and had to respond to this post. I’m an american currently living in China and my ayi (maid) used to work in a factory just north of Shanghai that produces digital baby thermometers. She has told me in conversation before that they’re very unreliable and overall a total crap product. Just an FYI for you. ๐Ÿ˜‰

            Oh! 4/4/2014

  410. Hi Will,

    I just have a few questions for you if you don’t mind. I may have found a product, but am concerned at the MOQ of 3000 units being outlined by the supplier. I’ve never done any thing like this before and I’m not confident that i would be able to sell the 3000 units on Ebay or Amazon.(i’m not sure yet how to ascertain amounts being sold) In your experience would you advise me to ask the supplier to drop the MOQ? and if so to what amount? Also am i right in thinking that 1 unit represents 1 item of the product. For example, if i was looking at toy guns each unit would represent one toy gun? Finally, when searching completed items on Ebay what is the quickest way to find out the amount of product being sold? Is adding each completed item up as you search each page the only way of getting a figure? (Sorry for the dumb questions) ๐Ÿ™‚

    • Hi Grant, thanks for commenting!

      You’re right not to be comfortable buying 3,000 units, that would be needlessly risky! In the article above, I go in pretty deep detail about it. Yes, you can typically negotiate your MOQ down. One unit is whatver the supplier calls a unit, it could be a case, a carton, an item, a pallet, etc. This will usually be easily found on their pricing sheets and catalogs.

      Like I said in the article above, there is no way to get an exact count on those statistics without using Terapeak. You’re looking for relative values, that’s why the research taks time! You have no baseline going into it, you have to get a feel for everything.

      Hope this helps,
      Will

  411. Well as many have already said, thanks for all the great information. Currently I just have one question, but what are your thoughts on selling name brand items that you get through liquidated auctions? Is this something you have had experience with or know someone that has? No doubt wholesale with a good supplier is more stable, but I was mainly thinking of starting off with liquidated items because you can get them for pretty cheap to help build up some income, to then invest in wholesale later and I would think there is less risk, but Iโ€™m not really sure. Any thoughts would be great.

    Thanks

    • Hi Ghoro,

      I’ve heard of a lot of people having success with liquidation companies and auctions, but I’ve never done it personally. Definitely something to look into, but not something I could help with all that much! Sorry I couldn’t help more…

      Thanks for commenting,
      Will

  412. Hi Will – thank you so much man. I love your posts a lot, great info!!!

    In the past few years I have been thinking to go in this exporting business but didn’t know how to pull the trigger. The product I want to buy is seasonal, something you SUGGESTED not to get into.

    I have an uncle lives in GuangZhou, China. He has been in the trading/middleman/look for suppliers for many buyers in the past 20 years. I know he has a great source of suppliers for the products I want and he will help me to find the suppliers, but he has never shipped anything out to U.S and he doesn’t know the process. I have a few question i hope you can answers…

    1. I only have about $3k to start – is it too small?
    2. Let’s say my uncle pays for the products – should he ask the supplier to ship them to me directly, easier? (with such small order – estimate about 500 piece, not heavy) or my uncle can do the shipping through DHL for a lower cost on products ??
    3. If ship by the supplier or my uncle to my house, do I need to pay any taxes when they get in the U.S?
    4. I read some posts and watch video on Youtube, they mentioned something like to visit U.S Custom and Border, fill out forms, look for a port….etc. Do I need to do any of those for such small order? At what size of the order I must done those U.S Requirements?
    5. What advice and recommends that you can give about my advantages & disadvantagaes?

    In addition – how can i get into the middleman business and how should i start? Buyers Me My Uncle Suppliers

    I wish I can learn more from you. I hope you can help me and walk me through how to get start this business. Please email me at [email protected] whenever you could find the time.

    • No problem Jeff, glad you liked the importing posts!

      Sounds like you have a great connection there, I’d definitely try to leverage that. I bet he knows a TON about finding suppliers, so much more than I will ever know! Haha.

      Unfortunately, I wouldn’t be able to tell you what’s needed on his end. I’m sure it’s not as simple as just calling up UPS with the Chinese Govt. But then again, maybe it is! ๐Ÿ™‚

      $3,000 is plenty to start with, you should be able to find a great product and start profiting from it long before you run out of that. Then, it’s just a matter of scaling up!

      I would assume that it would be best to have the supplier to ship directly to you, just because it cuts more touch points out of the shipping process. But, again, that would be something to look into more deeply.

      You won’t have to pay taxes until after you’ve sold things. There might be customs, duties, tariffs, or whatever else as it comes across the border, but you’ll only pay taxes on your profit in the US. It’s unbelievable to me that the EU and UK tax 35% (accumulated) when you BUY the items! So even if I lose everything and the products were terribly made and I didn’t even sell them, the tyrannical UK/EU will STILL tax me, just for the privilege of importing into their borders! What garbage! Luckily it’s not like this in the US (yet). Most of the time, UPS/DHL or whatever will pay the customs and pass them on to you, but it’s always good to make sure for yourself.

      I wouldn’t go out to any ports or anything with smaller orders like that. Once you’re looking at importing containers you can start doing things like that, but not this early.

      Your main advantage is your uncle, that’s the thing your competition doesn’t have!

      Hope this helps, and good luck…

      Will

  413. Hi Will,

    Can you help me? I am new to this and am trying to get my head around the Alibaba website. For some reason i do not get a price of the product that i am looking for when i search for something using the supplier filter. I notice that there are prices under the products filter, but there is nothing under supplier. Does this mean that i have to contact every supplier to ask for a price per unit?!! Please help thanks
    Grant

    • Hi Grant,

      Glad to hear you’re taking action and getting started! You won’t find any prices on the Alibaba site itself (only AliExpress). The reason for this is because there is no real price, you negotiate with the supplier to set it. So yes, you need to contact each one individually. That’s why I show my process of mass messaging suppliers efficiently in the above article ๐Ÿ™‚

      Hope this helps,
      Will

      • Hi Will! I just came across your blog and I am so grateful for all of this wonderful information you’re sharing…To piggy back off of Grant’s question about price, if you dont know the price yet how do you determine your margins? I guess I got confused somewhere and thought you narrow your choices based on profit margins before contacting the wholesaler. Did I confuse the order of steps?

  414. Hello Will,

    Thanks so much for all of the info that you’ve provided in these blogs! I’ve been reading and re-reading for weeks now and have finally started ordering samples! This is exactly what I am supposed to be doing with my life and I am so glad that I ran across your thread on the Fastlane Forum!

    I do have a few questions though (that I believe haven’t been asked yet).

    1. Is it typical that a manufacture will list their FOB price for a product, but then when you inqure about it they are greatly over their FOB price?

    2. When using Paypal, is it normal for the supplier to ask you to pay the Paypal fee?

    I have been asked by most of the suppliers that I pay the 3% Paypal fee for them and I haven’t figured out if I should be doing so or not. So if you could give me your insight when you get the chance, I (and I’m sure many others) would greatly appreciate it!

    Thanks so much!!

    • Hi Ben, glad you have been finding it valuable ๐Ÿ™‚

      Awesome to hear you’ve already started ordering samples, sounds like you’re well on your way! Congrats to that, keep the momentum up!

      It’s common for suppliers to have a higher FOB price for smaller orders. So if you’re looking on their page, they may be quoting their average order size, rather than any concrete prices. Or, they could just be trying to trick you, no way to know for sure! But yes, it’s pretty common for these prices to fluctuate greatly, especially in smaller order quantities.

      Yes, it’s common that you’ll have to cover any third-party costs. You’ll have to pay Escrow, Shipping Insurance, Paypal, Bank Fees…almost all of it will be passed to you as a buyer.

      Hope this helps!
      Will

  415. Hi Will, really good articles here. Impressed to hear that you managed to start this all at the age of 13.

    However I do have a question, and its about payment. A supplier has offered; Western union, Moneygram, T/T, HSBC(Company account), but not paypal. Shall I carry on through with this supplier or shall I ditch them?

    Jamie

  416. Hey Will, thank you very much for this! Thanks to your guide, I had the confidence to browse through alibaba. While busting my brain trying to think about what I can list on ebay/amazon with all those parameters, I got hit with a great idea. My dad is a contractor, and there is a certain widget he goes to Home Depot/Lowes to buy every week. He also gets this widget from wholesalers, but the price is just about the same as home depot lowes. I looked at suppliers, looked at the guide to not getting scammed, and ordered 500 of this important widget from a gold supplier with iso certification who specializes only on this type of widget. The pictures and blueprints match the same widget you see in store, minus a brand name. It usually retails for around 20, and I’m getting them at just under 5 bucks each. My father will be saving over 1000 bucks, and he said that he will tell all his contractor friends to order more through me. I only need to mark up 2-3 dollars, they save money, and I get my cut. I’m going to be pre-ordering by the thousands. I’m soooo stoked. Thank you thank you!!!

    • Art – that is AWESOME! Way to see opportunity and grasp it. This is where the real money-makers differ, they can take a method and tie it together with their own skills, connections, and knowledge to create an exponentially larger opportunity. That’s exactly what you’ve done – congrats!

      Be sure to order some samples to make sure the quality is up to your father’s standards, but I think you’ve hit a possible gold mind here.

      Congrats again, and be sure to keep us updated!

  417. Hey Will – Both of your articles on Importing are very informative! Thank you for sharing your experiences (both positive and negative). It may have been answered already, but I was wondering if you ever used a letter of credit rather than paypal? I have read a few books and publications on IM/EX that put heavy emphasis on letters of credit to cover your arse!

    Another question I have is regarding some of your larger transactions. Did you ever use the services of a customs broker for larger sea-bound container shipments to get them through customs? If so is it worth the $$? It sounds like a lot of your suppliers had the HTS codes ect figured out and handled a lot of the customs related logistics but it seems like in some cases a customs broke would still be needed.

    Thanks for your time!

    • Hey Lewie, glad you liked the importing articles! From my understanding, a letter of credit is usually going to be used with larger purchases. In the small scale importing game, you’ll probably want to use PayPal or Escrow for financial protection. They’re all essentially doing the same thing though – acting a third party to verify a smooth transaction before releasing any funds. I might be wrong though.

      My answer on the customs broker is unfortunately the same as the one above. I’ve never dealt with a customs broker one-on-one, only when helping friends and clients. Customs brokers are typically going to be reserved for much larger orders, the same types you’d be using letters of credit with. Even if you’re going big enough to require these things, you’ll still usually be dealing directly with UPS/Fedex/DHL/whatever. It’s not until you’re shipping full containers with some frequency that you’ll need to set up a custom supply chain. One of my close friends uses UPS and their brokerage department to ship a full container a month with no issues. I think the shipping couriers make it as easy as possible.

      If you have further questions, it might be good to call UPS/Fedex/DHL and ask them. I’ve had some readers email me telling me that their support staff helped them understand what they needed to do.

      Hope this helps!

  418. Hey man,

    Thanks for all these articles man, they’ve been extremely helpful. One question I have is, how does shipping work out? Most of these suppliers list an FOB price, so who takes care of making sure the end product reaches me (the retailer) from the port?

    • Hey Nomaan,

      No problem, glad they could help! You have to work out shipping yourself when importing products from China, with your own courier. FOB means “Free On Board”, it refers to a transfer of liability. Once your supplier gives the product to your shipping courier, then the liability of getting it there safely lies with you. Most of the time, you transfer it to your supplier with shipping insurance and things like that. But, you’re probably not going to be shipping to a port any time soon. If you were, you would need to hire another company to ship it from there to you with a rig.

      Hope this helps,
      Will

  419. Well many happy returns for Sunday Will, don`t party too hard! ๐Ÿ˜‰

    You sound like the next Zuckerberg in the making. If ever any of your businesses are floated on the markets, drop me a line as I`m always looking for individuals like yourself to invest in, as you have real drive and belief in what you do.

    • Haha, thanks Ben! No big plans, just seeing an Orchestra play 2 hours of The Doors with the girlfriend tonight ๐Ÿ™‚

      Thanks for the kind words, we’ll see how I do! Keep me updated on your ventures as well. ๐Ÿ™‚

    • Hello,
      Please can we talk via private email? I would like to introduce myself to you and probably get you interested in a private venture I am into for possible funding. Thanks

  420. Hi Will,

    Fantastic article`s, how old are you now if you don`t mind me asking ?

    I work in the web industry and also dabble in affiliate marketing, so know only too well how you should keep relaying the message home about product niche research and saleability…

    I notice alot of your ebay sales are at $0.01.. ??! Can one assume you are making a loss on the product, but a profit on the postage ?

    Cheers

    Ben

    • Hi Ben,

      Glad you liked the articles! I’m 22 now, but 23 on Sunday ๐Ÿ™‚

      Yes, I’m sure with your experience you already knew a good amount of the information in the article. Hope you found some new things and reinforced the old…

      I’m not selling on eBay any more, I just run my marketing agency and StartupBros now ๐Ÿ™‚

      The people that sell at $0.01 are generally still making a profit somehow though, probably on shipping.

      Hope this helps,
      Will

  421. Thanks for this amazing article, it was fun to read and also very informative! I’ve had some experience on ebay (dropshipping iphone cases) and I was wondering how did you make your ebay listings look that professional? Did you design it yourself or outsource the work?

    • Hey Eric, glad you found them fun and informative. I figured I beat informative to death, but might be lacking in fun ๐Ÿ™‚

      Hope you had success in your first drop shipping venture. My eBay listings were honestly just swiped from other sellers that were selling well. I know there are places out there that sell templates and things like that. If you’re serious about selling on eBay, that $50 investment would definitely be worth it.

      Your sales page doesn’t need to be too beautiful though, very few people would refrain from bidding due to a simple listing. But, you can get people to bid that otherwise wouldn’t with a good listing.

      Hope this helps,
      Will

  422. Great article! Devoured it whole!

    A question about Etsy….I thought they limited their items to things you YOURSELF had made. The only exception being for vintage items (think antique shop stuff), and supplies for crafting (like necklace clasps and earring backs, etc). Can you comment on this restriction?

    For example in your Google Spreadsheet you listed the throw pillows, then linked to an Etsy page with throw pillows. I thought that your Alibaba throw pillows would have been rejected by Etsy since you didn’t make them.

    Did this rule change?
    Here is the link that tells what you can sell: http://www.etsy.com/sell?ref=so_sell

    Thanks for any comments you can add.

    • Hey Jon, glad to hear you liked it! Hope you’re a quick reader ๐Ÿ˜›

      Honestly, I’ve never sold on Etsy. So I wouldn’t know! But, I do know that I have found things selling on Etsy that I can buy from Alibaba. Not sure how it works!

      Hope this helps, though I’m sure it didn’t ๐Ÿ˜›

      Will

  423. Thanks for a great post. Made things very clear for me

    A week ago I finally found my “product”, emailed the text you provided above to 5 suppliers and… only one responded (it’s been 5 days already…).. the one that responded never responded back to my next email.

    Am I doing something wrong ? is it typical ? should I resend my email ?

    Thanks !!!

    • Hey Shac,

      Awesome to hear this cleared things up for you! Some suppliers can be a little weird with email, just try emailing again. They are usually more reachable via Skype, if you want to try that. If not, on to the next supplier! There are better ones out there ๐Ÿ™‚

      Hope this helps,
      Will

  424. Yes, I used an alternate e mail that I usually use when I expect to be spammed.

  425. Thanks for the reply. You were certainly right about the incoming spam to the e mail address that I used. One of the offers is for incredibly cheap iPhones. It looks like an attractive offer but they don’t accept PayPal. I’m assuming this supplier would be one to avoid. Your thoughts?

    Thanks,
    Rich

    • No problem! Hope you took my advice and used a separate email account – I’ve had more than a few people regret ignoring that part haha ๐Ÿ™‚

      I would ignore any emails you get into that spam box honestly. Unless you message the supplier first, it usually doesn’t turn out too well. The products will generally be very bad, either completely fake, or non-existent ๐Ÿ™‚

      Hope this helps, be thankful you’re smart and didn’t fall for it ๐Ÿ˜€

      Will

  426. Hi Will,

    I’ve been looking for a way to make money online for a long time now. A person I know from work mentioned he knew a guy who sells on Amazon and is doing very well. That started me on the path of looking into the process and I found your page via google. I’ve been doing some research and I have a product in mind and a supplier lined up. My concern is: It almost seems too easy. Is there more to this than meets they eye? Is there any hidden cost such as tariffs or a customs tax that I’ll get hit with later on? I’ve really been enjoying your posts here and I thank you in advance for your feedback!

    Rich

    • Hi Rich,

      Awesome to hear you’re getting starting, and even more awesome that you checked out our site! ๐Ÿ™‚

      It’s just like anything else I suppose. It looks incredibly easy, then turns out to be incredibly difficult, and then back to incredibly easy. It’s a pretty simple business to run, and quite literally anybody could run it. However, most things are like that. If you want actual results and real growth, you’ll need a concrete understanding so you can think in abstract ways about whatever task you’re mastering. So, it’s simple, but there’s a lot of variables that you can learn.

      You’ll have to pay the IRS their typical fee for the privilege of being their loyal subject. There are some duties and tariffs on some items, but they are few and far between. Most of the time, your supplier or shipping courier will be able to help you with those things. If not, it’s just a short Google away, but it’s always going to depend on what product you’re importing.

      Hope this all helps!
      Will

  427. Hey Will,

    I enjoyed reading your blog. I could not stop reading it. I’m just starting my first online business and have a few questions.

    The manufacturer has a warranty on there products, should I advertise to my customers about the warranty? It seems to me that it could be a lot of work. With returns, exchanges etc.. I don’t mind doing it for my customers but I don’t want to be left hanging with the bill when the manufacturer doesn’t want to exchange for a new item. The manufacturer told me that any defective item will be replaced in the next order. Any advise on this subject?

    Would it be better to sell a bunch of items or just a few that you know will sell regularly? I’m just starting so I don’t have the funds to buy a lot of products. So I was thinking about just buying a few items in bulk and slowly add one or two new products as my business grows. Or just buy a variety of items in less quantity?

    Again Awesome blog. Thank You
    Rija

    • Hi Rija,

      Thanks for reading, glad to hear you enjoyed it!

      When I was importing from China, my suppliers would always replace defective items. I advertised that any defective items would be replaced, but nothing more. I think most buyers expect that kind of service now, so most don’t even think to look for it. They just assume that a defective item would be replaced. Moreover, you’d want to, or else they might give you bad feedback!

      In this article, I explain that it’s always better to sell one product you know will move, rather than trying a whole bunch of different products or a product niche. You’re describing the method in this article, so obviously I agree and think it’s a good idea ๐Ÿ™‚

      Hope this helps,
      Will

  428. Hey Will, thanks for sharing your knowledge on this topic – something that a lot of people are not willing to share. I was looking into importing micro fiber cleaning cloths a few years ago, long before they became readily available everywhere. I found a couple suppliers on Alibaba but decided not to proceed because I did not know if they would sell. There was certainly no step-by-step guide like what you have provided. It would have helped me a lot. Thanks for your effort in putting this guide together and keep up the good work.

    • Hey Simon, glad to hear you found the articles helpful! I guess it’s too bad that they weren’t written a few years earlier. I have to assume there was money to be made importing microfiber clothes when it was blowing up. Too bad, but at least there’s always another product!

  429. Thanks Will, the info is really helpful. I am looking for a good product to sell as well. Just one quick question, I read what you said about the volume on ebay, but what is a good ratio that you would find the volume to have a decent amount of volume? Also, how can you tell if the competition is too tough, because I saw some products with thousands of listing on ebay? Thank you for your time answering my questions.

    Tan.

    • No problem Tan, glad you found the importing articles helpful ๐Ÿ™‚

      I’ve answered this question in a few other comments in your look around a bit. There is no right or wrong number, it’s a relative comparison based on hours of your own research.

      If you want to skip all that, you can try the free trial over at Terapeak. That’s eBay’s analytics tool, it will actually show you the number of sales for your product over time, and even the ratio between sold and unsold listings over time. That will save some time when looking for products to import.

      Competition is too tough if you can’t sell into it!

      Hope this helps,
      Will

  430. Hey Ed,

    No problem, thanks for reading! Glad you liked them.

    I’m guessing you saw my other article that was linked in the post above – that’s just about all of the tips I have for importing from China!

    If you have any specific questions though, feel free to ask.

    Hope this helps,
    Will

  431. Hey Will,

    Thank you for your awesome posts. Would you be able to give some useful pointers on importing from China (shipping, import taxes etc)?

    Ed

  432. Thanks a lot Will for this Awesome Post! I am bookmarking your site for my reference. You will definitely help me in starting up an import business.

    As I said in your previous post, I live in Australia and will be selling the product at amazon.com. You mentioned Australia in the post but the problem is I don’t wan’t to handle packing, storing, shipping & customer service because I don’t have a warehouse, so, amazon.com is my only option. I am trying to set up a Delaware LLC so that a US Bank Account for the company could be opened because amazon.com accepts Bank Account opened in a US Bank.

    I hope my import business will prosper with your guide on your site.

    • Hi again Maria ๐Ÿ™‚

      Glad to hear you liked this one as well – hope it helped.

      You don’t need a warehouse to play the small time importing game. Just grab some samples and start selling! Don’t overthink.

      Good luck,
      Will

  433. Hello Will,

    Thanks for your great article! It’s been a very helpful reference guide for my ecommerce endeavor! I have a question about branding. I’ve been reading through the comments and there is one talking about private label manufacturing. Is there a reliable company you could recommend to me?

    Thanks!

    • Hello Childes,

      Thanks a lot for reading and commenting, glad to hear it’s been useful for you.

      Pretty much any industry will have private label manufacturing. It is just a little more expensive, and the MOQs are much higher. Just ask in your emails to suppliers if they offer private label manufacturing, and you shouldn’t have any trouble. If you can’t find anybody, it may take some searching. It’s going to be different for every product.

      Unfortunately, I’ve never done any private label manufacturing, so I have exactly zero contacts for it ๐Ÿ™‚

      Hope this helps,
      Will

  434. Great follow up Post to the previous-definitely answered a lot of the questions I still had lingering.

    I’m working on some ideas now and thanks to this post, my research over possibilities has been made much easier. Also, thanks for the tip on the site for drop shippers- Becoming fully automated is ideally where I’d like to end up with a business like this.

    I’ve been browsing your site for the last couple days and it really is helping me get this thing off the ground- still at my full-time job during the day but dedicating my free time to building my business on the side (and reading your blog while at work, of course!)

    Looking forward to more great posts like this one, thanks again!

    -Jamie

    • No problem Jamie, glad to hear that this post fulfilled it’s purpose ๐Ÿ™‚

      Let us know if there is anything else we can do to help you get started! And by the way, if you have trouble with product selection moving forward – you may want to try out Terapeak. It’s eBay’s analytics tool, and it’s got a free trial ๐Ÿ™‚

      Thanks for reading,
      Will

  435. Great information that you’re giving away here. I very much appreciate you sharing all your knowledge.

    I’ve read both of your posts on this topic and I’m stoked to move ahead. Somewhere you mentioned the real money to be made is by getting my customers info, like email address, so that I can directly market to them. Exactly how do you do go about doing this? I know on eBay that when you use their messaging system it hides your email and I believe it strips out any email addresses and URL’s. Assuming etsy works the same way. All I can figure is to include something in the package when you ship the product to them.

    I have already bought a domain name and partially built a website around the product I plan to sell hoping to eventually sell directly to my customers and cut out ebay, etsy… listing fees.

    • Hi Tony,

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting, appreciate the kind words!

      I’ll probably be writing a post in the next month or two specifically on that subject. It will deal with scaling up the importing business and how to build a brand with a recurring revenue stream. To get to that point though, you will need to have a product that you’re ready to scale up; a good problem to have but a tough one to get to.

      Yes, that’s the easiest way to do it though. Product packaging can be a great promotion medium. Think of what would make you give a company your email – maybe a “go here for a discount” or even “go here for a free thank you gift”. Same principles as an email optin online.

      Hope this helps,
      Will

  436. Hi Will,
    Great blog it has really motivated me into trying to start a little part time ebay business on the side. I have an idea of a product that is fairly small in terms of competition on ebay, however the margins may be quite small and I’m worried that if I dive into it i might end up losing money. The prices i’ve been looking at on alibaba range from 2-20 dollars. However on ebay they are selling for around ยฃ8-10. I might be able to get a good deal on alibaba that allows for a good profit margin but do you think its a good idea going through with it or do you think its too risky?.
    Mat

    • Hi Mat,

      Happy to help, and glad you liked the article! I think risk and reward are proportional, and the only way to find out the truth is risk. There’s no way for me to know more than you about your specific product’s market at this point.

      Those margins seem fine if you can buy them at the low end. Buying for $2 and selling for $8 works well, but you have a huge spread for your cost estimate. Again, I’d assume the only way to find your true costs will be to buy samples.

      The key is to compare a LOT of products to know which ones to take the risk on. The more you compare, the better your odds.

      Hope this helps,
      Will

      • Hi Will,
        Thanks for your reply.
        I have continued my research into my product yet not placed an order for any samples. I’m in the UK and one thing that puts me off is the import tax. By the time I add import tax, packaging, delivery etc im worried that the margins might be very small. The product I have found and considered is selling at around 100 a day for top sellers and have an average of 3000 sold.
        Your advice is much appreciated
        Mat

        • The import tax and VAT taxes completely kill this method (and a lot of other ones). Such a shame.

          Many readers have been telling me that you are exempt from the import tax if your items are under $10, or something…Maybe something to look into.

          But your concern is definitely legitimate!

          Keep me updated,
          Will

  437. will.

    I would like to send you a private email about another product I been looking at and maybe go for a big purchase. I just need your feedback. did all the research. looks promising but afraid to pull the trigger. what’s your email. thanks.

  438. hi will

    I got a question for you. found a product on alibaba.com. but I see that on eBay there are two powersellers with more than 100000 feedback selling it. my buying price is good
    . I could beat them by a few cents. and still make a decent profit. do you think this is a good idea. should I go for it. thanks.

    • Hey Joe,

      There are very, very few cases where I would compete for a few cents per sale. I need at least a few bucks per sale. Profit margin is everything in importing.

      Hope this helps,
      Will

  439. Will,

    The information on this topic and the China topic is great stuff!
    I have a few questions:
    1) Do you need to have a website to promote your products?
    2) Do you choose products that are geared toward women or men? Which tends to sell the best?
    3) So you choose products based more on margin than on popularity?

    Thanks,

    Michael

    • Hi Michael,

      Thanks for commenting – glad to hear you liked the article.

      1) You don’t need to have a website to promote your own products, but that is one way you can expand after you max out Amazon, eBay, or Etsy. Obviously, your own website will take more time. I think it’s good to get the cash flow and validation from the existing sales channels before trying to create your own.
      2) I don’t really try to choose a product that is good for one or the other specifically, it is more based on the numbers I can buy and sell it at. Women spend way more money than Men on consumer goods though, so it might be that those sell well. But again, I think it’s so different from product to product that this is almost a dangerous question to answer, really the data is all that matters.
      3) Definitely. If I’m not making money on a product, then it’s popularity would only scale up my problems ๐Ÿ™‚

      Hope this helps,
      Will

  440. I’d like to say that if you two wrote a book I’d buy it lol. I guess it’s a little early in your entrepreneurial careers for that but the amount of information you guys are providing is amazing, I’d pay for it lol. Now I’ve emailed some prospective suppliers on some products I’m interested in and I have a few questions.

    I’ve gone through all the comments and I see you’ve advised those of us living in anti business states to LLC. I live in NYC unfortunately lol, next January I’ll be moving to FL(no income tax woot!) Should I LLC or first test the waters?

    I was thinking of ordering a little more than 1 or 2 samples, I want to about order4-5 or maybe even 10 and sell 3-4 of them to guage interest. I was wondering your thoughts on this. I think this could save me money in the long run if the samples tank as opposed to ordering 1 sample, falling in love and then ordering 100.

    I know I asked something alongs these lines already but do you guys have any advice on branding/packaging. I’d like my brand to resonate with the consumer, ordered something generic like HID bulbs for my car and I honestly can’t remember the name on them. Did you guys custom package your products?

    • Hey Keon, thanks for commenting – Funny you should mention that, I think Kyle is getting the first print of the first StartupBros book – “Self Made U”. We’re also thinking of doing a book on importing, but we’ll see…

      Awesome to hear you’ve already gotten started and began contacting suppliers. Weird coincidence, I’ll be in NYC this weekend (and obviously we live in FL). Sounds like a lot of reasons to grab a drink!

      I typically test the waters for a few months before filing for an LLC, just because it gets annoying keeping up with LLCs if you have 5 or 6 failed ideas in a year ๐Ÿ™‚ Another option is to just start an LLC for yourself and file a DBA for each new company, but again I’d try to get this done in Nevada, Wyoming, Delaware, or maybe FL/TX. We’re in FL for StartupBros, they’re not too bad for small companies.

      Yea, the more samples the merrier honestly. Obviously there is more risk, but it seems like you understand that (and also understand the risk in not having 5-10 samples).

      Our packaging wasn’t customized in any way, but you could definitely start a brand. It’s just a different route, more risk and potentially more reward. Branding is tough, a little more than I could talk about in these comments – I’m thinking that might be my next blog post topic though!

      Thanks again for commenting,
      Will

  441. For some reason on my ipad I cannot stay signed in, so I can’t rack up any points haha. Has this happened to anybody else? The only option I have is to input my email, but this will re register me rather than sign in.

    • Hey Omar – I’ll take a look at that, it definitely shouldn’t be giving you issues! Thanks for letting me know, I’ll keep you updated

  442. Hey guys,

    Was doing my product research and was very interested in the Etsy marketplace. I ran into this site which you gives you the top sellers on etsy…http://craftcount.com/
    Hopefully it helps you guys out. Im having a hard time finding good products myself :-/ but best of luck to you.

    P.S. Im interested in a potential partnership with someone whos serious and wants to create something special and of course make some mula $$$. feel free to contact me. Thanks again will!

    • Hey George,

      Awesome resource – thanks so much for posting it here! Tons of people have been asking me for a tool like that, so I can’t thank you enough.

      Good luck with the newest venture, I’m working on some more follow up material that will hopefully continue to help!

      Talk soon,
      Will

  443. Hey Will, I love the blog! Thanks for taking the time to not only provide this information, but answer questions as well.

    I know that you did not used Etsy to sell, but do you know if there is a “completed listings” option similar to eBay? I am trying to gauge the demand for a product!

    • Awesome Ben, thanks for reaching out! I’m not sure if there is a way to see that data in Etsy, but I have to imagine there is some way. I’m working on another follow up about product selection and finding better data, so I’ll definitely take your advice and look into it for that.

      Hope this helps,
      Will

  444. Hi Mitchell,

    This is great info. i can’t believe your giving away free secrets that are REAL!!. The only difference between me (and others trying to do this business) and you is that you already did it. You found that product. I am still looking. I know if i get that first one, it will give me the confidence to go all out and be successful. I have a question. I have a friend overseas (GIANT ASIA MARKET). He is a factory owner. Manufactures clothing for the big boys walmart, gap, burberry etc. A few times he tells me the brands will cancel a order after the production for whatever reason, maybe the buttons were pointing the wrong way or whatever but the difference is small. He tells me foreign importer not the orginal brands (Americans, THATS US) buy this clothing. This are called stock lot. How are they legally importing this brands? For example, a Disney character little mermaid may have a red tail instead of regular blue. can they do this? is it legal.

    • Hi again Joe ๐Ÿ™‚

      Glad to see you liked this one too! Keep me updated on if my writing is improving or declining, I need more reader coaching! ๐Ÿ™‚

      It looks like you understand pretty well that you’re looking for a product rather than a niche. You just need one product to get things started, then use those profits to expand into your niche or whatever.

      I can’t really speak to the legality of that arrangement, especially since it sounds like it is more of a case-by-case basis sort of thing. I’m sure factories do this for smaller, non-trademarked things all the time as well. Definitely something to explore for you, even more so since you have the personal connection to that supplier. In my experience, personal connections get the best prices most of the time!

      Hope this helps, and sorry I don’t know much about that specific question.

      Thanks,
      Will

      • Will,

        English is not my first language; when you make reference to looking for a product not a nitche what do you mean?

        Thanks

        SAS

    • Hey Omar,

      I’m not sure if there is or not, I’ll look into it though. You would think there is someone out there…

      If you find one, let me know – I’ll do the same!

      Thanks,
      Will

  445. Now when it comes to branding, how can you brand something that isn’t yours? What I mean by that is, if i have a supplier of say paintball guns, how can I put my brand on that if there are 10 other people importing the same product? Am I trying to sell the brand name at that point?

    • Right on the spot Keon, branding is just branding. You’d start by setting up a private label manufacturing deal to put your logo/design on it. From there, if successful, you could start to discuss custom products from the factory, but it becomes more expensive as you’ll need to pay for huge runs of products. Private label manufacturing is a great way to get started in it, I have a friend who started private label with a factory and now that factory runs specifically for his company. It is much more expensive/risky to build a brand though!

  446. Hell Will I wanted to know if you recieved my email and if you could help me. Thanks in advance

  447. Hi Will,

    Thank you for your great insight on this topic! I have a question regarding your competition when researching a product on ebay…When you are considering a potential product, when or at what number of sellers do you decide that there is too much competition?

    I fear this may be a case-by-case basis, but regardless let us know if you have any opinions on how you personally would go about evaluating this. Thanks Will and keep up the great work!

    • Hi Michelle,

      Yea, your fear is correct. It is really case-by-case, but you are really trying to compare and get a feel for different products. I never really quantify anything when comparing sales volume via ebay, it is more rough estimates and gut feelings based on the data I can get.

      If you want a premium option, a few readers have been using Terapeak.com to dig down and quantify sales data – maybe try that. They have a free trial.

      Hope this helps,
      Will

  448. Hi Will,

    Thanks for the write up – very educational. When contacting the people on AliBaba – do you ever just write and say ” Hi blah blah, Can you do product XYZ for $XX/unit, shipped to my address “? I just find that often the products look good, can be priced well, and then shipping makes it hardly worth my time – so I almost want to start with a low-ball offer…

    Does that make sense? Thoughts?

    Thanks ๐Ÿ™‚

    • Thanks for commenting Guy, glad you enjoyed the article. You could definitely go around messaging suppliers with low ball offers, but obviously I don’t think that’s the best route. Try it out though, action is better than my advice!

      Will

      • Hi Will,

        I found that it worked with filtering out the guys that weren’t really interested in shipping under 500 MOQ.

        I love that people say 1000 MOQ, but you say ” I can do 10 for the first order after the sample” and they’re like “Ok”, haha.

        Found that it’s easier to negotiate on MOQ than price. They dont move on price very much.

        Again, thanks for the article, Im a new eBay store now with a few imported products, and importing new bits and pieces as I find them, along with a separate eCommerce website, a bit of branding and we’ll see how it goes.

        Fastlane all the way, right?

        Cheers.

        • Hi Guy,

          Interesting filter technique – an ironic one. You’re probably right about it though!

          I’ve found the same thing. Chinese factories tend to work on low margins, so they can’t budge too much on price. MOQ is just a matter of somebody having to do something different, like pack an order in a smaller box. Inefficient for the company, but much less “do-able”.

          Awesome to hear you’re moving on both eBay and your own store – let me know how it goes.

          Keep me updated,
          Will

  449. Great post Will! I have imported a couple of products very similar to how you recommend here. None of them really took off like I had hoped, but I learned a ton in the process. My question is in regards to shipping. The samples I order were sent via UPS, but it cost something like $105 and it weighed less than 2 pounds. It arrived in two days, so it was definitely shipped express. The only other option I was aware of was FOB. What is this shipping method you mention that is $25-45 and takes 7-20 days? Is there a method that allows for UPS or another similar carrier to handle the pickup in China, the customs at the port, and the transporting from the port to my house that I’m not aware of?

    Also, a little advice I learned the hard way for your readers. I used my own UPS account for samples and used PayPal for payment for protection. If you ever file a dispute with PayPal (like I did), you can’t get the shipping refunded if you pay for that separately. Plus, the manufacturers usually have a better price than you if you’re just starting, so it might even be cheaper to pay the manufacturer for shipping and keep it all in the PayPal payment ๐Ÿ™‚

    Again, great post!

    • Thanks Austin! FOB (free on board) just means the liability transfers to you once they drop it off at your designated shipping port. I want to say you didn’t have to go Express – you can usually give them your UPS/FedEx account number and they will ship it whatever way you want through your account. They just don’t want the liability. There are also companies that manage shipping and customs in China and act as a third party, but they are massively expensive and generally don’t do much you couldn’t do yourself (at this scale at least).

      You say in the 2nd paragraph that they did use your UPS account, so that is weird they shipped it express. I’m not sure why they would have without approval, maybe some misunderstanding? Or maybe the item was shaped strangely? Fragile? Something? Lol…

      Good advice on keeping the shipping costs protected as well.

      Thanks again for commenting!
      Will

    • Funny you should mention that, I was just talking to my friend Jim yesterday about Terapeak! I think Terapeak is an awesome way to get great data during your research phase. Even better, they have a free 7 day trial ๐Ÿ™‚

      I’ll probably add this into the post (or a future one)

  450. Hello Will,

    Great article! What do you think about selling products with my location being independent? I hope to travel anywhere and simultaneously conduct business as long I have super-fast internet and phone service. I would maintain a PO Box somewhere in the states and meet with clients every so often.

    Best,

    NOLAMAN

    • Hi Nolaman,

      It is certainly possible, but it sounds like you’ll definitely need a dropshipping supplier! If you could get one, you would just need some steady online sales – you could travel wherever you wanted!

      Hope this helps,
      Will

  451. Such an awesome post. Thank you so much for detailed explanations.

    What do you think about glass products? Do you think they worth the risk if there is a good opportunity?

    Best regards.

    • Hi Matt,

      Thanks for commenting, glad you liked it!

      There may be some glass products that are good, but I have always considered them too risky. Lot’s of shipping risk!

      Hope this helps,
      Will

  452. ey bro i love you (no homo) your such a good person for posting all this info respect people realy need this.

    ๐Ÿ˜€

  453. Amazing, simply amazing. You have inspired me to get started and I will pick a product ASAP. Would you recommend me to stick with one and only one product when starting or should I diversify and try to look for a winner with many different products?

    • Hey David, thanks a lot for reading – glad you liked it! I would try to find one good product and sell that one, because you’ll be able to scale it up and bring your cost per unit down quicker.

      Good luck!

  454. Another great and informative post from you guys! Keep up the good BROS!
    Thanks for another great post, and I look forward to learning more in the future.

  455. Will, thanks for the info and the read. I will definitely refer to this when I want to startup my drop shipping business.

  456. I found a product that fits all of your criteria. 50% margin. Niche market where brands aren’t a focus. It seems as if one a day has been selling on ebay. However it appears that ALL of the sales of this specific kind of product (there are plenty of variations but none that are consistently selling daily (certain size and color) are being sold by ONE ebay seller.

    What has been your experience in this type of scenario. Is this guy consistently selling because he’s the only one selling this product, or (he has a ton of positive feedback) is it because he has built some loyalty with his customers. When you enter into a competition with other sellers, have you run into scenarios where you compete for lower bids and price each other out of your niche market?

    Any advice is greatly appreciated.

    • Hey Dan,

      That is a tricky situation. From what you told me, I’d have to guess that the one seller is either loving his single seller status and bring in all the sales – or he is operating on an extremely thin margin and has priced everybody else out.

      Unfortunately, the only way to know for sure it to buy some samples and try to see what happens. Short of that, you just have to compare and contrast the product options you have come up with. If you aren’t comfortable enough to try the samples out, then just find another product. They’re out there (as you’ve tasted).

      Hope this helps,
      Will

      • Hi,
        Thank you for writing your blog. I live in LA, CA and just started a new business. One of my goals for my business is an online store, which I’m working on right now.
        1. If I buy items from China that get shipped directly to my door, do I have to pay importing fees? What’s a good resource for dealing with importing taxes?
        2. Somebody else told me that if I import goods I may have to clear the goods in customs or hire a broker to clear it for me. Have you gone through this process? Could you share your experience?
        3. I was also told that if the items are not tagged properly that I may get in trouble with the law if they find out. Have you ever had any goods shipped to you from a gold seller on alibaba and they weren’t tagged properly?
        4. Amazon: have you lost money or barely broke even after paying all the Amazon fees? I was looking at their storage fees and the rate increases after 6 months. Do you remove your items and then ship the items back out to them? How do you go about their fees and still make money.
        Thank you!

  457. What do you think about bundling a couple unique products together as a “kit”? I feel like you’d be able to charge higher margins

    • Hey Alex,

      I think that is a great idea! I once did a Fake ID creation kit with everything needed all sourced from China. It is obviously more complex, but definitely a viable option!

      Good luck,
      Will

  458. Hi Will! I absolutely LOVE this blog. This has given me great motivation because I have been thinking about starting to sell things.** Just saying ahead of time, I am a complete newbie in this business and would love your help!** What I’m stuck on and trust me, I have been google searching and trying to find a solution to this but have not yet found one. I found some great products at Alibaba and would love to order them but they do FOB shipping which I have come to an understanding of the term. But what I’m wondering is, what do I do? Do i pay them the FOB price and then also have to pay for shipping and customs? If so, who do I pay it to? The supplier or the shipping company? How do I know the products has been transferred to me? It’s just alot of tedious things that I don’t know what to do and how to deal with. I guess what I need is directions on what to do after let’s say I buy the products from them using FOB shipping.

    ** As stated above, I am a complete newbie to the trading business but would love to start!

    • Hi Bao,

      If it is FOB shipping, you’ll need to give them a FedEx/UPS account to charge the shipping to (that would be easiest). Or you can ask them to ship for you for the first couple orders, and they probably will. Just ask them, they want to help you get samples as soon as possible ๐Ÿ™‚

      Hope this helps,
      Will

  459. Hello,

    I am a consistent reader of your blog, and i was inspired so i created a eCommerce website called thetabletmarketplace.com, which launched today. Given that it is a marketplace, it is nothing without traffic from buyers and sellersI was curious if you could check it out and maybe give me tips on marketing and or give me a shoutout. thanks.

    • Hey Dan,

      That is awesome! Congrats on the quick execution!

      The site looks great. Like you said, the tough part is getting people there. You will have to spend some money to get people in and hope you have the back end system built up to retain enough people to turn your investment into a return. If you want to bounce some ideas around email me!

      Hope this helps, and good luck with the venture.
      Will

  460. Hi Will,

    Can you give me a quick step-by-step for finding the percentage of completed sales on ebay? Thanks, and thanks even more for writing these articles.

    • Hi Adam,

      Unfortunately I don’t really have a system for finding out the exact percentages, I just kind of relate them to the other products I am looking at and see if more or less are selling that others. You can get a good idea of what price your item starts selling at, or if your item is the kind of item that no matter the price is only bought a few times per month. Ideally you’ll be looking at 20+ products, so after a while you should get an idea of the “sales volume ranking” of each compared to the others…

      Hope this helps,
      Will

  461. Hey Will, thanks for taking the time to sit down and write this follow-up to your previous post. Just wondering, but could you elaborate on your record-keeping for tax purposes? You mentioned handing over your records to your parents accountant, just wondering what your system for that was. Once again, thanks for the content! I found you guys a month ago and have definitely been pushing your blog on my friends.

    • Hey Chase,

      Thanks a lot for commenting, and for helping spread our content around! Really appreciate the help!

      I handed over all my transaction data pretty much. This means report printouts from Amazon, eBay, PayPal, credit cards, banks, etc. Pretty much just put these things together and handed it to them (and obviously there were a few more things they needed as they went through that I got for them).

      Not all too far off from how I do my taxes now, except now I use some creativity ๐Ÿ™‚

      Hope this helps!
      Will

  462. Great article guys!

    You said somewhere that one way you try to figure out how good a product is, is by looking at how many of that exact product was sold on Ebay that week using the completed-section. When I go to the completed-listings I can see how much the items sold for… but not how many were sold. Where do I look to determine this??

    • Hi Sean,

      If you click on the sold auctions, you will sometimes see that they were selling multiple pieces under one listing. It will say something like “xx sold” or something near the price/quantity information.

      Apart from that, you should be able to get a good idea of the price that your item sells at and what percentage of them sell just by looking at the completed listings results page.

      Hope this helps,
      Will

      • So what you are saying is that if the item’s price is green in the “completed listings” then it means that item was sold at a good price and i should price my similar products at that price?

        We are only using it as a gauge to test to see if my product will sell that that price?

        Thank you for posting this article.

        • Yes, you’re trying to get a general idea of what prices your product will move at, and how much will move at different prices. That’s why there is no “Look at this number” sort of thing, you just have to browse around and understand the prices and what prices are right. That’s why the product selection phase can be frustrating for some people, you kind of have to learn how to do it by doing it.

  463. Ok, So I listed my product on ebay and it has been about 4 days. At this point should I assume my product is a dud?

    • It depends… are similar products with better descriptions selling? Are your listings getting views but no bites? You may be able to just change your description and make some sales. It just depends on your problem.

    • Not necessarily a dud, but it definitely isn’t a good sign. You will have to try to figure out why it isn’t selling and move from there. It may be the price, it may be the headlines/titles, it might be any number of things. Definitely not as ideal as hitting it right away, but I would encourage you to drop prices until you sell your samples so you can make some money back and see what price things start moving at.

      Hope this helps,
      Will

      • Hey, Will!

        I am always wondering about something strange in eBay. Some sellers put super overpriced listings. At the same time they have sold items, but when one click on the history, all of them are sold at a normal price. So do you know is it just a listing mistake or it is a strange trick?

        And again YOUR GUIDE IS AMAZING! ๐Ÿ™‚ Thank you!

        • Glad you liked the guide Ivo! That is a strange trick actually, I’m not sure of what they’re doing exactly – but I believe they’re transferring money in some way. I might be wrong on that though ๐Ÿ™‚

        • I believe you’ll see this happen when eBay has a free listing promotion – sellers will put auctions up to fail on purpose during this period and be able to relist it for free later at their leisure.

          That is my understanding, at least.

  464. Hi –
    I am a newcomer to your site but I wanted to start off by telling you how I am thoroughly blown away by the content in this article and the top 10 on your site. I already added your blog to my RSS reader and someday soon I will definitely be reading some more back posts! You offer so much value here and I am really grateful and excited to have found you!

    Now on to my question – I am looking at products on alibaba and eBay and I think I have a couple of good ones that might be viable – but they look to be low volume. Does that matter starting out? On one product, there isn’t even a relatively good match at all (I suspect it is an untapped market) but the ones that are there do sell consistently, just not often…I think because the ones that are there suck. And on the other one, the volume is more like 30 sales over about 3 weeks across all buyers. Do you ever throw out a product because it’s just not selling (enough)?

    Again thanks so much for the article!

    • Hi Olivia,

      Thanks so much for reaching out with your kind words, I really appreciate it! Glad you like our content, and I would love to hear how you think we are doing in the future. Somebody has got to keep me up to quality!

      I don’t necessarily discount an item like the ones you’re describing, but it does discourage me. Ultimately, it comes down to risk. It is much riskier to import something that is not already selling more, and it will require more time, money, and effort to get selling steadily. But, in the long run, it may pay off. Again, it is just riskier.

      Hope this helps,
      Will

  465. Great article, one question though: If you are using Aliexpress with free shipping do you still need a 100% markup on the product? It seems to me that you could be profitable even with much slimmer margins.

    • Hey Edward, thanks for commenting. You could be profitable with slimmer margins, but it leaves less room for growth, scale, unexpected events, taxes, etc.

      I like the 100% markup minimum, but I’ve gotten by on less.

  466. Should we be negotiating with the suppliers? If so, how much wiggle room is there usually? What percentage of their initial asking price should we be starting at ? And thanks again for another great article!

    • You can and should negotiate with them, but know that you don’t have much to bargain with at first. At best you can bluff. Once you start buying a lot, you become more valuable and reliable to them, and they will work with you more. It is much easier to negotiate your costs down when you are already buying a lot consistently.

      Hope this helps,
      Will

  467. I am guessing the best way to counteract that is to buy in bulk once you know you have a sellable product.

  468. This is a great article! Extraordinarily informative and probably the best source for advice on finding products to import!

    I fully agree on the advice to only buy from suppliers that accept PayPal and Escrow. Does anyone else find it odd that many vendors “lose” their PayPal accounts right before you’re ready to place an order with them?

    • Thanks a lot for reading! Glad you liked it. I don’t have much of that specifically, but I’m sure it happens. Gotta avoid those scams.

  469. How do you keep shipping costs down on pretty small products? It seems like even with a product like a 24 pack of batteries, the shipping would cost at least $5. I know that this can’t be the case for all sellers because some products with free shipping would cost more to ship than they are selling it for.

    • Hey again Isaiah,

      For very high volume sellers, they likely work out bulk deals with UPS/Fedex as well as have their entire company streamlined for these types of shipments. That is why I suggest not trying to compete with things priced lower than $10-20. Batteries are also generally a high volume low margin market, the type I’d suggest not going into. You want a higher margin.

      Hope this helps,
      Will

  470. Hey another question!

    So when you search the top sold products on Amazon. How do you really know what you are looking for. I mean, I’ve found some products I can import for a good price, but all those products seem to be sold by tons of people on eBay. How do you personally, tell what is being imported and what isn’t by other people, and what you can actually sell, and whats over saturated.

    Thanks again for the great article!

    • Hey Zak,

      That’s what this article is supposed to be – How I personally tell what is being imported and what I can actually sell!

      There is no way to be sure without taking a risk and trying, that is business.

      This is the exact process I use to test products to see if it is profitable for me to move forward with them.

      Every product is different. Airsoft guns I was importing an exact make and model and killing it, but with the knives example I could import any decent quality knife and kill it.

      Hope this helps,
      Will

  471. Great post once again Will. You are inspiring a new generation of young import entrepreneurs.

    Have a happy holiday and enjoy the weather down there in Florida.

    Heres to a great 2013 with new opportunities!!

    • Hey there Alex,

      Sorry for the delay on the response, hope you had a great Christmas

      Thanks a lot for reading, I’m glad you liked it ๐Ÿ™‚

      Let’s kill it in 2013!

      Will

  472. Do you check the rate on shipping through your courier or do you have the supplier do that for you?

    • I usually just let the supplier deal with all of it. If I feel inclined to I’ll check shipping prices to make sure I’m not getting ripped off, but it is really rare I have ever been slighted on shipping price.

      Hope this helps Stephen, and thanks for commenting!

  473. Thanks for the interesting article, I’m really enjoying looking around for products to sell, still nervous about spending my money on something that won’t sell though. What kind of percentage for sales should I be looking for on items (on eBay), as in percentage of listings that sell. And what constitutes high, medium and low volume.

    Thanks

    • Hey Aaron,

      Sorry about the delay on the response, I was out of town for the holidays.

      I would also be nervous about spending money on items that won’t sell! That’s why I go through this process to test each product and each supplier to make sure everything runs smoothly before I start buying in bulk.

      It really depends on your item, but I’d say anywhere over 75% not selling is too much. You’re looking for volume too, so look for listings with multiple items. Some will be selling a couple units, others hundreds. Once you start comparing items you’ll start to get an idea of averages and how to compare them.

      Hope this helps,
      Will

  474. Hey

    You say revenue.. but can you give us an idea how much profit he made?

    THX!

    “”””I have a friend who started out selling car audio sub woofers just like I describe here. He started selling 2-3 units per week on eBay.

    Within a couple months he had expanded out to Amazon and started putting his own brand name on the sub woofers he was ordering.

    Within a year he had a website for his brand and began bringing in more and more products to sell. He also began thinking of ways to turn Amazon and eBay customers into recurring revenue by signing them up for his email list and social media profiles.

    Now, not even 2 years since he started, he is set to clear $700,000 of revenue for 2012 at just 20 years old.”””

    • Hi,

      Thanks a lot for reading/commenting.

      I believe he works on around a 40-50% gross margin, but we will be having him in for a podcast interview within the next couple weeks and I’ll be sure to ask him for his latest numbers.

      Of course, how much of that goes into his pocket? Not a whole lot right now, because it is all being reinvested (he still has 100% equity). He could take money out or take on investors and take money off the table, but he doesn’t want to. Equity is always better than cash if you’re confident in your ability to grow the company.

      Hope this helps,
      Will

      tl;dr – 40-50% gross margin

    • Hi Stephen,

      Thanks a lot for commenting.

      I would recommend you buy 1-2 samples from 2-5 factories per item. Obviously if you are thinking of importing something like jelly bracelets you’ll want more than 1-2 units, so use your judgement depending on whatever product you’re looking at.

      A lot of readers have already bought samples, I have probably heard from 20-30 people that are waiting on their first batch of sample orders as we speak. I am sure there are many more who didn’t email me!

      Hope this helps,
      Will

  475. This is a great follow up post Will. I’m gonna read back through it a second time; lot’s of good details. I have a good idea of a product I’m working on with a friend – I’ll let you know how it goes. I’m glad I could be a inspiration for your first importing post which has BLOWN UP. Keep up the good work!

    • Hey Devan, glad you like the follow up as well! Definitely keep me updated on the new project (you know my email). Hard to believe that simple email you sent out started all this! Cloud Atlas or what? ๐Ÿ˜›

  476. Great article! Do you have any advice for a broke college kid? This seems really awesome but I’m worried it would take make me forever to save up enough to get started. Any advice on low start up costs?

    • Hey Max,

      Thanks a lot for reading + commenting!

      The way that I wrote this out is basically my “bootstrap” method for this. $500 would be a good starting amount with this method, but you could even go lower.

      If you don’t have $500, walk outside! College is a massive pool of hungry buyers with other people’s money! Easy money to be made all over the place.

      Hope this helps,
      Will

  477. If I find a supplier that is “Gold”, “Onsite Checked”, and “Escrow”, but NOT an “Assessed Supplier” is this a deal-breaker? What does “Assessed Supplier” mean?

    • Hey Joe,

      Not being an Assessed Supplier is NOT a deal breaker for me. The only deal breakers for me are if they are not gold members, or if they do not take PayPal/Escrow. Assessed Supplier I believe means that they paid for a third party to come in and inspect their factory, a little expensive, and somewhat rare still. Gold + Paypal/Escrow is my minimum, everything else is a bonus ๐Ÿ™‚

      Hope this helps,
      Will

        • Great article! I have been wanting to do this for a long time. After reading your articles I think I’m going to go for it! Now I just need to find my first product to sell!
          Going to start my homework I guess!

          Thanks
          Dave Hartmam

  478. I know you didn’t really do much yourself as far as taxes go, but what about the setup like obtaining a resale certificate or anything? Did you need to do anything like that? What about charging for sales tax for your state (if applicable). Or did you literally just keep all records and hope for the best when it came to tax time? Thanks!

    • Hey Teddi,

      Sorry I missed your comment somehow. Never again!

      I didn’t have a resale certificate until after a good year after starting this. I don’t see any use in dropping money on bureaucratic formalities until I know that it is going to be advantageous to me. After a year I had built up a good amount of cash flow and it was obvious that I would be continuing to operate the business for the foreseeable future. At that point, I filed for an LLC and Sales & Use Tax license.

      My LLC for that was filed in Nevada, so I got a Resale Certificate in NV and collected & paid sales tax for orders from NV. That was the extent of it though.

      If you keep your records in order any accountant will be able to do it for a few hundred bucks.

      Don’t stress the bureaucratic crap so much – it is just there to steal your time and money.

      Hope this helps,
      Will

      P.S. – The only way I would stress this stuff is if you live in one of the really anti-business States like Cali or NY. If I lived there, I would probably get an LLC before doing anything for any business.

      • Hi Will,

        Thank you for sharing your experience and a great posting. I am inspired right away to take my first plunge in to importing business and follow the steps described above. Please excuse my ignorance in my below questions as I have no experience in entrepreneurship and am typing this message right after reading your blog.

        To follow the same thread on Teddi’s question.. my interpretation of what you said is don’t start w/ bureaucratic stuff until there is light at the end of the tunnel. However :
        1- Is it possible to clear imports at the customs without tax ID? No questions asked?
        2- Can seller accounts be opened on the websites you mentioned (i.e. eBay, Amazon etc.) without a tax ID?
        3- Does PayPal not require taxID to open an account? How do they report earnings of members to IRS, based on SSN?

        Thank you so much,
        Al

      • Hi, I’m wondering if we can use our LLC for another business we started recently? And is that sufficiant to sell on Amazon? They said you need a tax number and I wasn’t exactly sure what that meant and have been looking into it but than I ran across this page and got distracted. Is my EIN number sufficient?

  479. Haha yeah it was essentially a question. So just link up with a supplier that sells airsoft products and ask them if they have any guns available?

    I know you said airsoft accessories didn’t sell well for you. Did you try selling CO2 cartridges and if so what were your results?

    Thanks for answering my question so quickly.

    • No problem Stephen, thanks for replying so quick ๐Ÿ™‚

      I never tried doing CO2 cartridges, I am really not sure how they would do. I never got into any of the gas powered stuff.

      I can tell you though, it is going to be tough to compete with me if I get back into it, my supplier for airsoft rocks ๐Ÿ˜›

      Good luck,
      Will

      • Quick question: How did you identify the worth of an airsoft gun? I’m looking at a few manufacturers’ catalogs and most of the guns just have pictures and not model numbers that you could identify on eBay/Amazon. So how did you estimate the value?

    • Hey Stephen,

      China made airsoft guns illegal, so they now need to be smuggled out of the country and are much more expensive to produce. Factories definitely don’t want to attract attention by listing illegal items on Alibaba. If you search for something an airsoft factory would legally produce, like airsoft clips, airsoft parts, bbs, accessories, etc – you should find some factories. My bet is they just don’t openly advertise the “weapon look-a-likes” (that is what is illegal in China).

      My supplier is still going strong, I just put in some orders with him last week to test the waters again. Same exact guy as years ago!

      Hope this helps, not really sure if you had a question or what…

      Will

  480. Great post outlining this method. Does eBay have to many of these’niche sellers’ or are new niche products emerging rapidly enough for new comers to make a buck with this technique?

    Thanks you all the info

    Shout out from your home 813

  481. This was awesome, truly powerful information and I have to thank you for sharing!

    One Question:

    How do you deal with force majeure? Especially with the turmoil in China and any unlikely weather disasters?

    Thanks

    • Thanks a lot for your kind words Bar!

      Good question, I have never had any issues like that, so I am not sure how it would be handled in an air order. I want to say when shipping by air there may be some sort of insurance by the shipping company, but I am really not sure.

      Really good question though, I will have to look into it. Thank god I never had any issues like that! I have had some issues with container shipments, but never something like a ship sinking or any complete loss. I will definitely have to look into it.

      Hope the rest of the article helped,
      Will

    • Hey, Bar. There are some Force Majeures occur. But the percentage is almost like to win a lottery, so you don’t worry about it. I have been in International Trade(Export from China over 5 years and have met NONE)

  482. Thanks. Great advice. But I would buy thru AliExpress, I’d avoid AliBaba, I’ve heard that AE’s escrow is far far safer than AB’s.

      • I think AliExpress is more expensive. It is more of B to C rather than B to B.

        • Hi, Stephanie;
          Yes, you are right AliExpress is more a B to C platform than a B to B one, B to B you might go to Alibaba(but alibaba would require a bigger quantity, may be too big for a starter).
          Most of the AliExpress sellers are retailers, so they sell a more high price, ofcourse it’s to the terminal customer as you can understand, but there are also some sellers are selling directly from the factories. For example us, we used to make on Alibaba but now we started working on AliExpress. If you are interested you can go to Aliexpress

    • Hey Isaiah,

      Though you can’t see the exact amount sold in any given period, you can try to look at how quickly prices are changing, the “Bestsellers” number of the product (#x,xxx bestseller in x category), or …that may be it. It is a bit tougher to get an idea of volume on Amazon, that’s why I recommend eBay for that phase.

      Hope this helps,
      Will

  483. Great article, one question…What percentage of return did you shoot for before giving a product a pass or a go?

    • Hey Marco, I recognize your name from the Adwords Coupon I sent you, hope it helps ๐Ÿ™‚

      My goal was to stay under a 2% return rate, but anything over 5% would be unacceptable to me.

      Hope this helps,
      Will

  484. Hi Will,

    This is a really great article! Thank you for sharing such valuable knowledge on how to start this daunting process.

  485. This post is pure awesomeness. I’m a web developer that suck at marketing, and this kind of post is really usefull. Thank you for taking the time to write such a detailed guide.

  486. Once again, amazing blog post! I’m sure many people appreciate what you’re doing Will, keep it up!

    I think you forgot to insert an image (or link) at the part where you’re talking about how your listings look like.

    • Hi Lamine,

      Thanks a lot for reading and taking the time out to comment again, the only thing better than feedback is consistent feedback ๐Ÿ™‚

      Thanks for letting me know, just added the link now!

      Hope you got some value out of this one Lamine, and I’ll try to keep up the good work.

      Will

  487. Awesome Blogpost!
    Really a lot of great content in this and your previous post.
    I actually started importing just a few days before finding your post which is kind of funny! I agree on everything you say!
    For now i don’t have any more questions… just wanted to say thank you for the great articles! I will be following your blog in the future that’s for sure. ๐Ÿ˜‰

    BTW i think you forget to post an image in your article if i am not mistake:
    After the quote:
    “Can you tell me would a typical Ebay/Amazon listing for one of your airsoft guns looked like, as an example? What would the description say about the gun? The maker? The supplier?”
    There is nothing related to your listing. ๐Ÿ˜‰

    regards Peter

    • Hi Peter,

      Thanks a lot for reading and taking the time out to comment!

      Glad to hear another importer agrees with the ritual I’ve formed ๐Ÿ™‚

      I did forget to post that link – I knew I was forgetting a link somewhere. Thanks for telling me, I am going to add it right away.

      Thanks again for everything,
      Will

    • Hi, Mr. Will, after reading this article , I have no words. Its an amazing explanation!!!!!!!!!!!
      Thank you so much for the info.

    • Hi Will,

      Fantastic post with extensive direction! You have evidently done a lot of research, and achieved a lot of success. Thank you so much for this blueprint, and breathlessly waiting for your next post which I hope you continue this Odyssey.

    • Hello! Amazing and informative articles! I am new to this… so i already know which product i would like to pursue and create a small business with. However, it already exists and its really popular BUT i am putting my own twist on it. I am trying to figure out what to do and how. My dream product is Metallic Temporary tattoos (with my own twist) but i dont have the tools to make this myself so would Alibaba be the best route for me? (even though i have no business right now but i have a plan) Any advice would be appreciated!!! Thank you so much!

Leave a Comment