Stage 1 – Assess Viability
Before incurring any costs, it is advisable to establish whether importation direct from China is viable. To do this we need to get details of the product that is to be sourced, and either quantities or budget.
Product Details
Various factors must be taken into account in detailing product requirements. These include general requirements such as
1. whether the product is a unique, or a standard widely available product
2. quality vs cost
3. date required – this will have a bearing on transportation costs
and detailed requirements such as
1. size, colour, material, etc.
2. packaging – standard manufacturer or customised
3. specifications (eg. voltage, performance, longevity, OHSS requirements, etc
Quantity or Budget
There are 2 reasons that we need to know this information. Firstly it helps us assess whether we can approach the manufacturer or a distributor of the product, and secondly, most suppliers will not give any indication of pricing unless we can tell them what quantities we are looking at purchasing.
Once we have all this information, we will contact several potential suppliers to get indicative prices, and based on their feedback will provide rough estimates of the cost of importation.
Price Expectations
If the product to be sourced is available locally, the customer should be aware of what their cost would be if they were to buy locally. This is an important factor in determining viability of importing.
Once the customer is satisfied with the cost estimates, agreement is sought to proceed to the next stage – Sourcing and Negotiation. We recommend that whenever possible, the customer provides a sample of exactly what they want.
Category: services
