Any way to stock my items in the USA?

[zhongguohua88]

A while ago I started searching for various mobile phone accessories on eBay and realized that some were much more expensive than in China. After contacting a few suppliers, I realized that there is a lot of profit that can be made from them. Some items are sold on eBay for 5-20 times what they cost here :eek:
Shipping a lot of items by cargo is relatively cheap but sending the items one by one from here would be time consuming, long and expensive. I would basically have to pay 10x the price of an item to ship it abroad and this would greatly reduce my profits. I was wondering if there is any way to stock my items in a warehouse in the USA and have them shipped from the warehouse to save everyone time and money.

Does anybody have any idea?

Regards,

zhongguohua88

[David-Andrew]

The company you are looking for is a fullfillment company or "webshop hands". Tim also mentions them in his book. You send your stuff and they store it in their warehouse. and they send it to your clients when there is an order.

Its like webshop outsourcing, its great to see you considering it.

[zhongguohua88]

This seems exactly like what I am looking for! The only problem is that there are a lot of results on Google and I don't really know where to begin. Do you have any recommendation? I plan to sell very small and cheap items like cell phone cases/skins and they would probably have to be shipped one by one.

[Darren]

This seems exactly like what I am looking for! The only problem is that there are a lot of results on Google and I don't really know where to begin. Do you have any recommendation? I plan to sell very small and cheap items like cell phone cases/skins and they would probably have to be shipped one by one.

I have heard of these companies. There are thousands of them.

Here are some things to consider though:
1 Getting it to the US
a. customs
b. time to fulfillment company
c. time from fulfillment company to customer
d. COST of shipping/importing/exporting
e. Paperwork, forms, government hurdles, etc. (we call it "red tape") affiliated with all the above.
2. Fulfillment company reputation.
3. Fulfillment company costs.
4. profit for fulfillment company (let's say fulfillment company requires 15% of product cost. If product is $2.50USD, is it worth it for them to print order, pack, address, deal with postage, ship, deal with returns for pennies????)
5. profit for you.

Some other things to consider: Nobody in the US wants to wait for their items. They want it cheap and the want it now....and there is always someone fulfilling that need. You are not going to ship on a cargo ship to customers in the US. New phones and demand for accessories come out every day here. By the time a ship arrives is unloaded, passes customs and gets to your fulfillment center, you are already behind.

Just a week or so ago I bought some mobile phone accessories from eBay. It ONLY totaled $5. I don't know how you make profit from that....and what is that profit?

I suspect that the reason the prices are 5-20 times the price is due to the "in-between" things you have to deal with.

I make and take my orders every day to the US postal service (LiceHelp.com) . I would be willing to look at diversifying my business to fulfillment. I pack and ship everyday anyway. I am not going to do it for free...it sounds like a lot of work and hassle (returns, exchanges, etc.). But I can be your testing ground to see if it is feasible if you are still interested. Or maybe we can look at getting my product in China and you fulfill for me as a trade off. Just thinking aloud.

[zhongguohua88]

Just sent you a PM.

[Matthew Connors]

Loo for usa fullfilment companies you should be able to ship direct to them and have them fullfill the order for a couple of dollars each.

There are literally hundreds of them

Alternatively find powersellers on ebay and start emailing them to do JV..Im sure they would like a cheaer supplier without the middleman.

Chances are though they will be very wary of an unsolicited email form China - you may have to send a box of product to get the relationship trust up and going.