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Payment Fraud in China – How to Avoid Going Bankrupt

Posted on by Fredrik Gronkvist — 8 Comments

payment fraud

A true story from Qingdao

Afraid of losing (all) your money when you’re importing from China? You should be, and you’re not alone. Paying frauds are one of the most common forms of scam, and they are targeting small to medium sized businesses sourcing products on Alibaba.com and other online B2B platforms. In the last few years I’ve seen small importers losing hundreds of thousands of dollars in this type of scam.

The first time I had to handle a payment fraud case was in late 2011. It was late on a Friday evening and I’d barely opened my first beer when I received a desperate phone call from a long term client. She had, without telling us, contacted a suppliers, in Qingdao, selling food supplements. They had previously imported the same product from this supplier and my client experienced no problems whatsoever. This time she wasn’t so lucky. The supplier stated that they did not receive a single dollar from her, something which made my client nervous considering she had transferred around US$ 40,000 two weeks before she called me. Continue reading Payment Fraud in China – How to Avoid Going Bankrupt

Recommended import from China forums & blogs

Posted on by Fredrik Gronkvist — 2 Comments

import from china forums

It can be quite hard to find accurate and up to date information on the internet. There are plenty of blogs and e-books but only a few are worth reading if you ask me. Forums are largely underestimated as a reliable source but offer a wealth of free information for startups and small businesses looking to import from China. The best thing is perhaps that you can get lots of free advice from the existing members, of which quite a few are professional sourcing agents based in China.

Forums

The Wholesale Forums

I’ve been reading this forum for a couple of years by now and it’s one of the most active forums that covers import/export and China sourcing topics. The content tends to be of a fairly high standard and can pride itself with contributors from plenty of professional sourcing firms, such as Globalsources.com. Continue reading Recommended import from China forums & blogs

Buying from Aliexpress: A Guide to Safe Imports

Posted on by Fredrik Gronkvist — 9 Comments

Buying from Aliexpress

Aliexpress.com is a transaction-based wholesale platform for importing small volumes from China. It’s a huge resource for innovative and profitable products that cannot be found elsewhere in low quantities. While ordering products from Aliexpress is simple, there are a few things you can do to minimize your risks and increase your chances for long-term success. This article tells you why!

Based in America, Europe or Australia? Read this first!

Many products listed on Aliexpress are manufactured for the Chinese domestic market. These products may be just fine, but most are not compliant with product safety directives in Europe, America and Australia. Importing non-compliant items is illegal, and may result in a forced recall or major fines, in case anyone is injured or damaged.

Notice that it’s always the importer that is responsible for ensuring that imported items are compliant with relevant standards and directives. Chinese suppliers, including those selling on Aliexpress.com are not responsible.

If you still wish to import items from an Aliexpress supplier, you shall consider a laboratory test before making a larger order. You must also confirm which standard and/or directive is applicable to your product, in your country.

But there is help to get. You can either hire a China sourcing consultant, or purchase our Starter Package – which includes confirmation of applicable product safety directives for your product, and sourcing of compliant suppliers. Click here to read more.

Step 1: Source products and suppliers

Aliexpress is home to small Chinese trading companies and unlike Alibaba.com, where you have a lot of verified information on each Gold Supplier, you have very limited information on a Aliexpress supplier profile. This makes the supplier selection harder to define, but Aliexpress ]compensates for this shortcoming with customer feedback. For this reason, the supplier selection shall be based on buyer feedback to a large extent. The positive feedback number is a good start, but you’ll get a more balanced impression of the supplier if you review the negative feedback as well. Continue reading Buying from Aliexpress: A Guide to Safe Imports