Custom branding OEM from China

[colinmcmahon]

I have an opportunity to import many electronics direct from the manufacturer in China. Along with this I can custom brand the electronics. Basically I Import them, slap my logo on em and say they're "1337" Brand. How should I go about doing this?

[JerrSun]

I have quite a bit of experience in exporting products from China and am currently trying to start my own brand as well. I primarily deal with Soft goods (luggage, laptop carrying cases, cell phone and ipod accessories) so i am not to familiar with electronics, but I am pretty sure the concepts as pretty similar as far as the exporting goes. I hope this post doesn't get to long winded but here are some of my experiences with importing goods from china.

The first issue that needs to be addressed is what are your terms with the factories in China. Most of the factories that I have dealt with will require payment up front, especially with new customers that are not referred and personally vouched for from an existing client, a client none the less who has excellent relations with the factory. I was fortunate in the fact that my business mentor had a excellent relationship with a specific factory and he was willing to vouch for me. Even with that it took quite a few nights of drinking and partying before they were willing to work with me. Without this connection there would be no way the factory would be willing to give me net 30 terms as well as manufacture my own branded products in lot sizes as small as 250 pcs per unique style. Most factories would have told me to pound sand if i tried to get those terms with the small lot sizes.

The second issue is what to do with the product after you get it to your destination. Do you have someone lined up to distribute your product, or are you going to resell your product directly. If you have a distributor what are your terms with him. If your reselling the products yourself, where are you going to store it, how are you going to sell it, how fast can you turn your inventory over.

Obviously the most important of an import business or any business in general is going to be Cash Flow. With the worse case scenario, if your branding your own products and your china manufacturers requires payment up front you could be out the cash for a min of 2 month before the products even get to your warehouse. Then depending on the amount of time its going to take you to unload your stuff you could be talking about a huge chunk of change.

Let me know if you have any more questions regarding importing from china, I'd be more the happy to answer any questions that you might have.

Oh and a last bit of advice, if your not Chinese find a good and trustworthy local sourcing agent. It's pretty much standard policy to mark up all goods 15%-20% in addition to the regular new customer pricing for foreigners (mainly anyone who isn't from china/hong kong/taiwan). Even if your agent is milking you for 2%-5% you'll still be better off.


JerrSun