Outsourcing with China – Good or Bad?
By: Brendan Fitzpatrick
It’s been a while but my recent experiences leads me to comment on the success and failures with dealing with companies in China. To be successful online today there is a good chance that you’ll be dealing with companies in China if you are in Retail. Let’s face it, 90%+ products available on Amazon, Ebay and the likes are sourced from China.
I’ve been fortunate enough to have a good amount of organic traffic from Google where I’ve been able to make supplemental income via affiliate programs, primarily Google Adsense and Amazon affiliates. I’ve recently tried to dropship the top products to increase my profits (from ~8% to %50+). Part of my efforts have been spent on alibaba.com and aliexpress.com. I was extremely hesistant in sourcing from China because there are definitely more complicated logistics that I could have imagined.
My first experience with companies in China was around a Gold dipped Flower which was selling 4 or 5 a week via my Amazon affiliate account. After speaking with 3 companies in China I thought that I had nailed down the right company for the product I was looking for so I ordered $75 worth of product. When the product arrived I was embarrassed that I didn’t figure out sooner that I was a Golden rose made in plastic! Nothing about it was authentic or real so needless to say I dropped that opportunity!
Be careful, be aware and be conscious when sourcing products from China!