The Dangers of Importing from China

Everybody knows that China is the country of fakes Gucci bags, of replicas, of products without quality or value. However, in the last few years, China did start to see a change in improving their products quality. So now the main question remains – should you or should you not import goods from China?

Well, before anything else, you need to get yourself a quick education on the situation, so you know the ups and downs of importing from China.

• Let’s say you do want to import from China. So how do you go about it? Just Google ‘china export’ and you’ll find a supplier? Wrong. You need to find some really credible companies in China, so you has to research quite a bit beforehand. Don’t go into contacting the first Chinese supplier you see at the top of the Google search results. They might be very good at SEO, but might be a big scammer too!
• Now you found your supplier and you need to know how you are going to pay them. When you discuss the details with them, don’t forget that their first language is not English, so you really need to make sure they fully understand (and not missunderstand) what you’re saying. Not that later on you’ll have some nasty surprises!
• Quality – Like I mentioned before, quality is still a big issue with goods imported from China. It is still a major tradition with Chinese businesses that they will cut costs to the minimum they can. Yes, you do want lost cost, but you don’t want the products to suffer from bad quality either. Afterall, you are importing them to your country, where the mentality is NOT Chinese!
• Language – Language is usually a strong barrier between you and the Chinese businesses. Obviously you need to understand their side of the bargain and they need to understand what the heck you want from them. And as you know, Chinese is a very difficult leanguage to learn, in fact, it’s one of the most difficult ones to grasp. So you need to somehow be able to communicate with them. Maybe have a trusted translator, or get somebody from their site who does speak English at a business level.
• Going back to quality – pay particular attention to edible (for humans and pets) products. A few years ago there were some horror stories around the honey import from China, I’m sure you’ve heard already about it. Or about the seafood imported from China. So while imported fakes is bad, imported products that can make people sick is dangerous.

This is not to say not to import from China. Many successful businesses do deal with China on a regular basis. But you need to do your research, you need to evaluate the facts and see all sides of the story before deciding whether importing products from China is a viable avenue for you.