- Brian Miller
- Founder of Easy China Warehouse
Show Notes:
- Start on Alibaba
- Making 1 type of product
- Trading Companies make many types of products
- Size
- Biggest may not be best
- A lower price may not be bad
- Ordering Samples
- Pay for samples
- MLQ – Min Order Quantity
- Always negotiable
- Go for a 1/4 of the amount
- “We want to try a sample batch with you first”
- You won’t make money on the first batch
- Freight forwarding
- Ask for referrals
- Questions
- “As a % of your business, how much eCommerce do you do?”
- “How many of your shipments go directly to Amazon?”
Sponsors:
- Drip – Get a free demo of Drip using this coupon code!
- Spark Shipping – eCommerce Automation
Bio:
Brian Miller has been living in China for the past 10 years. He previously worked for one of the largest Chinese government owned manufacturers managing their North American Export operations. He now runs a 3rd party logistics warehouse in Shenzhen China called EasyChinaWarehouse.com. The company provides 3rd party logistics and shipping for Amazon FBA sellers and any ecommerce company creating products in China. Previous to Easy China Warehouse he founded and an E-commerce company which sells Bluetooth speakers.
Links:
Transcript :
Charles (00:00):
In this episode of The Business. eCommerce I talk with Brian Miller about importing products from China. This is a business eCommerce Episode 133.
Charles (00:19):
Welcome to the Business of eCommerce. The show that helps eCommerce retailers start, launch and grow the eCommerce business. I mean, host Charles Palleschi I’m where with Brian Miller. Brian is the founder of Easy China warehouse. He specializes in importing goods from China, and this is the second time I’ve asked on the show to chat about the entire process. Start to finish about how you can import goods from China. Brian’s an expert in this. So I think that shows me very interesting. He answers a lot of great questions here. So onto the show, Brian, how are you doing today?
Brian (00:49):
Great. Thanks for having me on the show again.
Charles (00:50):
Well, yeah. Awesome to have you back on the show. I don’t typically we do do repeats very quickly like this, but repeat guests you’re on episode one, 27, we’re talking very COVID specific. So I figured we actually started talking after the show and just kind of just on the general you know, working with getting products over from China. And I was like, you have a background in this. You’re, you’re a lot more of an expert than I think most people, right? Like all the people talk about this on kind of this theoretical level, but you feel, first of all, we kinda mentioned this. People want to look back in one 27, kind of mentioned your background, but just real quick. So you’ve been living in China for how long?
Brian (01:30):
Yeah, I’ve been living in China for the last 10 years. And I used to work at a Chinese state owned manufacturer. So I used to work for a Chinese company that manufactured industrial products. And then from there I started an eCommerce business where I sell Bluetooth speakers and also a logistics company that helps eCommerce companies shipped from China. So that’s kinda my story. So I’ve done everything from manufacturing to e-commerce and also to shipping and logistics.
Charles (01:59):
So you have a little bit of experience sounds like. Yeah. Okay. So that’s why, so when we start talking after about just getting, I think a lot of people get in the weeds when they want to source from China, they start looking at Alibaba or wherever else and just the whole process. There’s so many little steps. It’s one of those things that people just say, getting products from China and, you know, it’s like this, it sounds easy. Like there’s one little statement, but there’s so many little things wrapped up in that. And they’re very different, right. From talking to a factory finding the right products, getting them over to the U S getting them into a warehouse. Like there’s so many steps in between, and they’re all very different. So maybe you could just start walking us through, if somebody has never done this before, what should they like? Could you just walk us through a process, I guess we’ll start off there.
Brian (02:54):
Yeah. So I think the easiest way to begin and everyone thinks, Oh, gotta be another more sneaky way to do it, but, but everyone should start on Alibaba. So I know it’s the common you know, way to find suppliers, but it’s also one of the best search engines to do that in China. And so, you know, you can search in Alibaba just like you wouldn’t into Google it, but kind of product or commodity that you’re looking for. And there’ll be lots of suppliers that will kind of show up on that page. And what I tell people specifically when you are looking for a supplier you want to look through the pages and you want to see that they are actually making a range of products. That’s similar. They’re not, you know, they’re not making cell phones and kids twice. So if they are making those types of items, that means that they’re probably a trading company make sure that they have kind of a similar product range that kind of matches what a factory would make a similar, you know, like one category of product. And then so narrow it down to those.
Charles (04:02):
When you say that, actually, why do you not want a trading company? Why, why is this a bad thing?
Brian (04:09):
Yeah, actually, it’s a great question because I think a lot of people are concerned about, you know, they want to be at the very, very bottom source, the, the guy that makes it. And it’s a great question because in my opinion, that’s not always the best way to do it. Actually when you’re smaller and your last you know, competent in, in sourcing, sometimes it is helpful to have a trading company help you do a lot of the work cause trading companies actually add a lot of value to the sourcing process. They have long standing connections in their field of expertise. So they might be a trading company for electronics or trading company for toys or whatever would be in some category. And so they know the product well, they have deep relationships with the factories. They often can get a much better price than you can and the prices competitive. And they can also help you with a lot of things outside of the product manufacturing, which is like packaging. Sometimes they can help with logistics. And so, and oftentimes they can also help you buy low quantities of product. So when you do start manufacturing with a factory, they require a minimum order. And usually the trading companies are better at negotiating lower order quantities than you would be on your own. So yes, I would say there is an advantage of sometimes using a trading company and sometimes using a factory depending on your preference.
Charles (05:39):
So just know way you get into it, right. It’s kind of like going through a distributor, you know, you’re getting a slightly worse margin, let’s say tied distributor, right. You know, you’re going to slay the worst margin, but you can go to one distributor and gas, you know, 300,000 access to 300,000 products versus going directly to a manufacturer yet just their skews. So like just know the pluses and minuses, it sounds like,
Brian (06:01):
Right. And also when you work directly with a manufacturer, there are some benefits as well. So like, if you want to do your own design or your own unique product, it’s probably a little bit easier to communicate directly with the factory instead of through a trading company. And then he communicates to the factory cause there’s a lot of communication that gets lost. Right. or the factory might be better aware of how the products made so they can help you with making suggestions to the product for improvements and things like that. Maybe a training company, he doesn’t have that expertise. Yeah. There’s like kind of cost and benefits to going each method. And it depends on what your approach is. As you go to, you know, bring a product to market
Charles (06:44):
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Brian (07:47):
Yeah. Then, then you try to find a, a factory that meets the product type that you’re looking for. But also I like to tell people the size and so, yeah, it’s good to make sure that the factory matches your size. And then we recommend finding three or more factories to compare products and prices with. So when, I mean three or more, it could be three to five or three to 10 or three to 20, but you need a few factories to compare the product, the cost and the offer from, from the factory. And and that’s how you kind of start getting started in comparing which factories you want to try to start working more closely with.
Charles (08:30):
Gotcha. Okay. So then once you start getting these quotes, is it, are you just looking for like the lowest bid or what kind of stuff, like what else should you be looking at other than just rock costs?
Brian (08:43):
Yeah. So I think other than just raw costs, I think you should start to get a feel for how professional the factory is. Like some will give you like really detailed quotes. Some will reply very, very quickly. Some will not, some will give you real, you know, they’ll give you one line with a, with a dollar cost and they won’t tell you anything about the factory. They won’t show you any photos of the factory. So I think it’s part of this time period is to kind of get a feel for who you feel comfortable with who’s professional and who, you know, would be a good longterm partner if you were to choose a factory. So that’s also what kind of what you’re getting a feel for as you go through the quoting process.
Charles (09:27):
Gotcha. Is there anything you shouldn’t ask in the quoting process? Oh, we’re going to say,
Brian (09:34):
Oh, I was just going to say also like when you do start quoting, you’re going to get prices that are all over the place. So you’re going to get like, you know, you quote a product and one is $5. One is eight and one is 10. And it seems really crazy that the price differences are so high, but I always tell people don’t discount the price that’s extremely low. Like sometimes there’s a price that’s so low that it seems absurd, right? That it’s so low. And that doesn’t mean necessarily that the product quality is going to be poor. It could mean that that factory is extremely experienced and has high volume manufacturing that product. And therefore, because they have high volume and because they’re an expert in it, they’ve optimized their factories so well that they’ve reduced a lot of costs. Maybe they automated parts of the manufacturing. Maybe they, you know, there’s a lot of different factors. So don’t discount anyone that seems like really crazy low. Make sure to, obviously we want to start removing the people that are way too high that are like you know, way, way out of the price range. But you take the people that are kind of in the mid range below and start going further with them.
Charles (10:46):
Oh, so that’s different. Right? Cause I feel like when you’re hiring, let’s say a graphic designer, you know, software consultant, you like the rule of thumb is just, don’t go with a low, like what was the lowest bid? Don’t go with that person. But this sounds like that is actually like a little opposite of who was the highest, but don’t go with them, pick everyone from the middle to the lowest and bachelor range.
Brian (11:05):
Yeah. I would say in general, I mean, unless you have a very unique high end product that you don’t mind paying for someone that might care about every nook and cranny of the product, right. And then you don’t mind spending a little bit more, but generally we need to like have a reasonable amount of cost to bring it to the market and make a profit for ourselves. And so we recommend, you know, taking the really high guys and knocking them out and then taking the people that are in the middle to lower end and going further. And usually the next step would be to kind of start ordering samples from them. So you would want to take those factories that you felt, number one felt good from working with them. They feel professional. Good. Good. Okay please. Yes. And they have a reasonable cost for the product and then we recommend that people go and actually purchase a sample from the factory and have them ship it to you. Would you say once you get that sample,
Charles (12:01):
I’ve seen it. I’ve seen people getting started on a purchase then on, they try to like demand like free samples. Is that a thing or should you just like assume you’re even paying for these?
Brian (12:11):
I mean, you, you could ask for it, but to be honest, like I think they used to be more prevalent in China awhile ago to get free samples, but in China factories have been so inundated with like either people wanting free samples because they don’t want to pay for the product and they’re not actually real serious buyers. Or, or they’re just being a little bit, you know, too aggressive in demanding, you know, a sample from 30 or 50 factories and factories are starting to wise and up to that. And they’re basically saying, look, if you’re serious about business with us, then you’re going to spend the $10 or 50 or a hundred bucks to get the sample. And that kind of shows us that you actually are committed and are relatively more serious than just any other guy. You know what I mean? And so there, you know, you have to think of it on both sides, right? The factory is also betting you as you are vetting them. And so they need to have that measure.
Charles (13:18):
People, miss that part of the process, isn’t this isn’t like going to like a store where, you know, you’re the cust like you’re the customer in a way, but also it works. This is like a more of a relationship. It’s not just this like one directional like customer money. And like I’m in charge. You do what I want. This is a relationship you’re creating with this factory at this point where you want to show good faith. You want to show you’re going to be a good customer. Like I can pay on time. Like, so you have both like, it’s literally like going on like first dates where you’re both trying to like put on your best show at the beginning. And like, you know, you don’t want to do anything too crazy. Like say anything bad. Like, so this isn’t don’t act like you own until like Walmart and you can demand anything you want. This is a very different process. Sounds like,
Brian (14:01):
Right, exactly. And if you put yourself in their shoes, you can understand why, you know, if they get a hundred emails a day on Alibaba from people and a hundred people want a sample sent to them, it’s actually also quite a burden for them to have someone shipping out a hundred samples to all these people every day. And so they also want to narrow down the people that are sending them inquiries to the ones that are serious and how they do that is they charge you for that sample. And the people that pay are the ones that they’re more interested in going forward with. So, so it’s kind of a, both sides need to think about it that way, right. That it’s a relationship that you’re going to build over time. And so both sides need to show some type of commitment and trust and honestly, throughout the whole process.
Charles (14:48):
So you start getting these samples. This could, I’m assuming a few weeks at this point, right. In unless area air shipping them over, but most likely it’ll take a while to get these.
Brian (14:58):
Yeah, it is. I mean, they’re usually gonna air ship ’em over, but yeah, it will take a few weeks, you know, maybe they might have the product in stock or they might not, and they might need to finish a production run or they might need to actually make the sample for you because they’re not holding it in their warehouse for whatever reason or they’re a factory for whatever reason. So yeah, this is going to be, you know, searching for factories. Then you’re going to be talking to them for, you know, maybe a week because you have the time difference, right. Every day you can only send one email night and morning, right. And then, then you’re gonna, you know, narrow down your suppliers and then choose to buy a few samples. And then it’s going to take a week or two to get your, you know, wherever you live. And so yeah, this could be already a month into the process. I mean, that’s maybe a little long, but maybe it’s definitely a few weeks. Right.
Charles (15:43):
So just to be realistic, right. So you’re not this, isn’t something to expect, you know, sample come today, sample comes and you say yes, and you’re going, but so it’s gonna take a while, but let’s say so once you get these samples and you decide, is that the point you just get the samples, look at the cost and now you’re ready for a decision or it’s something that you do in between.
Brian (16:03):
Yeah. I mean, it depends on whether you’re buying a product that’s already been developed by the supplier. So that’s a bit simple, more simple as, you know, if they’re sending you the product that’s already has a mold made already is, you know, Ben produced for that by them for a long period of time, it’s probably relatively easy to go forward with one of the suppliers and to start discussing costs, payment terms the packaging that they’ll make for you and things like that. And, and, and if it’s not, if you’re going to develop your own mold, then you might have a longer discussion about how much to the mold how long is it going to take to create a sample? What are the parameters for a successful sample? So you, you you’d want to give them, Hey, this is a qualified sample for me. This is not. And so that’s a longer discussion if you’re going to start, you know, manufacturing a new unique product, rather than something that’s already been built by the factory.
Charles (17:04):
Got it. Okay. But for the ones that have been already built, you’re basically just getting out payment terms. How do you know, I’m trying to phrase the question correctly going into it. So let’s say looking at minimum run is, I don’t know, a thousand units, it’s, you know, 10 bucks per unit. So, you know, 10, $10,000, U S how do you know what’s going to be the total cost of this entire project? Like, how do you stack in a scope on the project cost? Right? Cause it’s not just buying the products, importing them, there’s going to be other things. So like how much of this is going to be in the factory, varsity importing side, and how much do you really like allocate for this?
Brian (17:43):
So, yeah, this is a great question. And this is what I think a lot of entrepreneurs make mistakes on when they are buying their first batch. And I think we get a little bit too caught up in number one, the MOQ. So the MOQ means the minimum order, quantity that the factory requires us to buy and they say the number, but that number is always negotiable. So if the factory says a thousand, you could always negotiate down to a few hundred, right? And they’re going to charge you more for those pieces. Cause it costs them more to make a smaller batch. But in my opinion, it’s a good strategy to tell the factory to say, Hey, look, this is the first time we’re working with you. We want to try a sample batch or a sample order with you first. And that’s gives the factor that feeling, Hey, they’re not going to order the small all the time, but they want to try us out and you can reduce the amount that you need to buy, you know, in a quarter, a quarter of what they, they told you that was the minimum, right?
Brian (18:46):
And even though it’s going to cost you more per piece, it’s going to lower your overall risk. If the product does fail, like if you aren’t able to sell it or if you’re not successful selling it. And so I always recommend that people don’t worry about the first batch and how low you can get the product costs, try to minimize your risk by buying the least amount of product you can from the factory. So that’s how we recommend people going about it is lowest quantity pay a little bit more and just, just, you know, be more careful on the first one and especially because it’s also the first time you’re manufacturing with them. So you want to not get a whole batch of 10,000 units that turn out to be poor quality or something. Right. So, so you also want to protect yourself from a quality standpoint as well.
Charles (19:34):
Yeah. Well, I think some people first get into this, they take an account that first order, but then getting it to the U S is a whole nother cost at getting into a warehouse. Okay. Now shipping it now advertise it. So they have just enough. They’re basically trying to find like the bad, like, no, they have this much money and they’re trying to just like squeak by and get just enough and be like at 98%. And they don’t factor all these little costs. And then you basically, you just to capitalize and you don’t have enough to advertise a market that you use and then you can’t sell them. So then the whole thing, whole project, it looks like a failure, but it’s really just, you tried to bite off, you know, 10,000 units when you should have been looking at a thousand or 500 even just so you have enough capital to bring it to the finish line.
Brian (20:19):
Yeah, I agree. And also, like, I think you can understand what the costs would be if you had 10,000 units and, you know, in order from that amount and what profit margin you can make, but just go and buy one or 2000 units. Right. And even on those one or 2000 units, if you don’t make a lot of money or you even break, even you at least know what margin you can get once you increase your, your scale. Right? Because on the first production run, to be honest, you’re probably not going to make money no matter what, you’re going to make some mistake, you know, you’re going to figure out how you’re selling. Maybe your ad cost is going to be higher than you, you imagined. Right. So, so I think it’s important to know, Hey, what can I get my costs down to? As I go through the process, will I be able to be profitable on the second batch that I buy or the third batch? And I think that’s the way that people should think about it,
Charles (21:14):
The patches and experiment at that point.
Brian (21:18):
Yeah. I think, I mean, there’s definitely people that make money on their first batch. Right. For sure. But I don’t think it’s, I don’t think it’s the norm and I don’t think everyone should expect that, you know, the first thing you order from China and you try to sell that you’re gonna, you know, make a ton of money on it. You’re probably going to be learning a lot. You’re probably going to make a few mistakes. You know, it might cost you more because well, the lower, the transportation fees are higher per, per unit. Right? So to ship by either air or sea, your cost per unit, just to ship that from China to the U S is going to be much higher than if you had a lot more scale. Right. And so, and so, yeah, it’s going to be tougher to make money in the beginning, but I think it’s more important that you test the viability of your idea and come to either success or failure as fast as possible. And that’s by buying a smaller amount and testing it and see if it works.
Charles (22:17):
Got it. Yeah. I always, I love that kind of methodology. I see so many people that picture that going up like first at bat. And if they basically don’t hit the ball, that very first pitch, they’re like, they’re going home and that’s the end of the whole game. And you’re like, no, no, no. This is like, you’re going to be doing this like many, many times. This is your new job, basically. Like, you know, you’re going to be just taking swings and you’re going to miss, and then you have to take more swings. You’ve got a couple of hits they’re going to base hit. So don’t expect a home run. Don’t don’t even expect it. Like where you said, you told me it’s hidden ball your first time up, just expect you to get there. You’re going to swing. And as long as the ball didn’t hit you on the head, you’re in good shape. So exactly. Okay. So then what do you do? Okay, so negotiate that first batch, what do you expect from that timing wise? Do you expect, you know, this is going to take weeks at that point. And then when you start actually lining up shipments, like when does that, like, what is the cause now you’re talking, scheduling at this point, right. On things that are just going to start. Once you put that order and you pay things like that happening, and you need to start like scheduling everything to happen in a timely manner.
Brian (23:24):
Yeah. So basically after you kind of choose to work with a factory or your you’ve made your, your main decision, you’ll kind of work out the terms. So, you know, usually you have to put a deposit down to start the order. And typically it’s 30% down and then 70% of the order amount when they give you your goods and you’ll get all those terms down and then they will usually give you a final production sample. So that means they’ll make the product for you. They will include all the packaging, all the branding on the product that you want, wherever you want it. And then they will ship you that product. And then you will see it one final time and approve or not approve the product before it goes into mass production. So that’s kinda like the step to like get you to mass production and then you’ll give them the okay to do mass production. You give them the deposit, 30% of the total order amount, and then they’ll start making it and typically manufacturing for, I mean, it’s hard to say because every commodity is different, but I would say on average, most things take at least one month. Okay. Some things could be a lot shorter but as a general rule, at least a month in production
Charles (24:38):
Production. Okay. So to actually get that done a month to get to the U S a month, just for you, when you submit that first payment a month to actually get that, you know, back, Hey, we’re done creating that product for you.
Brian (24:50):
We’re we’re done making the product. Yeah. It might be a little quicker for other, for some products like apparel or textile type things can be made very quickly. They’re quite simple. If you’re going to make some type of electronics, it’s going to be much more complicated. The thing is the more complicated, the part is, the more sub-suppliers they have. So the, the factor that you’re talking to is the end assembler basically, right? They take a lot of different components from a lot of different, smaller factories below them. They purchase them and then they assemble it the final product. So the more components that you have in your product, essentially, the longer it will probably take to manufacture. And so, so yeah, you’re gonna have that time of manufacturing. And then after it’s manufactured, you would set up with a freight forwarder. So someone that helps book product, either on a ship or on an airplane for your product to be put onto that container or onto that air freight shipment to the U S or two year three, PL it either go, I guess, to your house, if you wanted to ship it on your own or a local three PL in the U S or Amazon, right?
Brian (25:59):
A lot of people it’s very common to be selling on Amazon. So one of those three places, you’ll probably ship your product into the U S and then you’ll try your, your luck at selling. How do you pick up?
Charles (26:11):
Like, I know, cause you go and you can literally drive down the road going to the airport. And it seems to be like, you know, 30 of them, right. Just X, Y like XYZ, freight forwarders. And there’s another one in a brick building. It looks just like it. Do you just not like calling them out of the yellow pages? Do you talk to the factory? Like, what do you like? What’s that look like?
Brian (26:30):
Yeah, it’s a good question. Because we do freight forwarding as part of my company. So it’s kind of a, a pretty commoditized service in one way and one aspect, but not in another. So I think the first thing need to look at is someone that if you’re doing e-commerce, let’s say someone that has experience sending you know, products into a U S three PL or into Amazon would be important. Right? So if the freight forwarder specializes in shipping heavy machinery around the world, they’re probably not a good fit for you, right? So there’s certain freight forwarders that focus on like very specific niches in the market. And you would not want to work with those people that don’t relate, or don’t usually ship what your product is. Your product is not a hazardous material. If it’s, if it’s not a battery, if it’s not a machine, then don’t go with those guys and go with the other guys that are, at least have some understanding of what you need. I think that’s the first thing.
Charles (27:32):
How would you know that though? Cause I mean, there’s a whole group of them that do cars, automobiles, right? Like that’s a whole industry in itself, just automobile freight boarders, but how do you even start? Like where do you go? Do you sound like Googling around? Like, what do you, what do you find the list of freight forward to even know? And then how do you know, do you call them and just say, Hey, what do you specialize in? And do they actually tell you, or like, is it, or is an Alibaba somewhere?
Brian (27:58):
It’s a good question. There are a few aggregators of, of prices on the internet. But actually as we do a lot of shipments on our own and a lot of our customers come from referrals. So I would say more than 90%. So I would say the business is still very traditional in that it kind of, you know, people acquire customers through kind of word of mouth and trust and recommendations. And I would say that’s probably the most common that we see. Someone starts an eCommerce company. They ask their other friends, Hey, who do you use to ship? Or they do e-commerce and they jump on an eCommerce thread on the internet and they say, Hey, what’s the best rate for it or to ship to Amazon. Right. And so generally we see more people going with that route rather than Googling, because if you do Google, you’re going to get a list of hundreds of them and you’re going to call them up. And it’s, it’s really hard to tell them apart because they all seem to do the same thing. Right. And so it’s, it gets even more confusing as you do that because you have a list, everyone does the same thing. And so you don’t know who to pick. So we find a lot of people go that you’re that kind of referral way to, to pick someone.
Charles (29:14):
Got it. Okay. And would you, would a warehouse feel to give a referral or do you just talking, just go to the eCommerce folks and do it that way?
Brian (29:23):
Yeah. You could go one of two ways. You can look on your own. You can talk to your friends or try to go on the internet and try to find some forums or groups that have these types of discussions. You can ask your factory, your factory. We’ll usually have shipping partners that they work with on a regular basis. So you can have them help arrange the shipment. Oftentimes they won’t have the best rates though, because they’re going to take a margin on the top of that shipment. It’s not the same to not do it with them, but it’s might not always be the best value for your money when you’re choosing them. And then you can do the Google search. So I think those are the main three ways that people go about kind of, you know, finding, finding a four.
Charles (30:09):
Okay. Alright. Yeah. I feel like that’s something people get hung up on too. They get, and they figure out how to get the products and then they just realize, Oh, they’re all sitting somewhere in China and I need to get them to the U S and then into a warehouse or through Amazon, or like you said, your garage. So there’s like this like huge gap in between. And I think people, even the term freight forwarder, some people aren’t even familiar with that. Right. And it’s basically, yeah, it’s someone that basically specializes in that gap, right. On getting the products from China to wherever that place in the U S going to be sent from. And that’s kind of a definition of a freight forwarder, right?
Brian (30:45):
Yeah. Or move it moving product around the world. Basically what they do is there’s kind of ships, there’s also planes. And these people help you basically book your product into a container on that ship. Right. And they help with kind of the process of putting it there. Okay. After it gets to the U S how do you clear it through customs? They’re going to help you with that? How do you get it from the port to your destination? And they’re going to kind of be the person that books, all of those small little journeys throughout the whole entire travel period for your product. And these people can do that anywhere in the world. So they can’t, you know, they could usually ship it to the U S in Europe and they have a resources to book product in many different countries around the world
Charles (31:30):
Or yourself either. It sounds like, like one of those things that you’re better off delegating. Absolutely. Okay, cool. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So then this part, you basically have products in the warehouse and you’re good to start selling. Right. Is that kind of the whole journey?
Brian (31:47):
One other thing, I think you asked another question, which is like, how do you let’s say, or how would you choose someone and, and, and how would you know, what they’re shipping generally? And I think when you call them, you can ask them as a percentage of your business, how much e-commerce do you do. Right. And it’s a nice way to just ask them, Hey, is 90% of your business e-commerce is 10%. You know what I mean? And I assume in the most part, they’re going to tell you an honest answer and that’s, we’ll give you an idea of whether or not they have a lot of experience in, you know, you’re trying to ship.
Charles (32:28):
No, that’s fine. I like the terms actual e-commerce like, you wouldn’t say how many, you know, like shirts that you send to Amazon, you would just say, how much, how much e-commerce do you do? And that’s like, that’s the keyword phrase you’re looking for.
Brian (32:40):
Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Or how much, you know, how much of your shipments go directly to Amazon for your customers. And then you can get a really good idea of, well, okay. 50% of their shipments, they’re helping Amazon sellers. That means they’re really, you know, have a very good understanding of what’s involved to get it to that warehouse.
Charles (32:59):
Got it. I like that. Yeah. Because I think, I think a lot people don’t know what to even ask. They don’t know the right terms and you kind of get on the phone and just kind of having this like really awkward conversation. And you realize that you call him the guy who ships, you know, like you said, machinery, automobiles to Europe. And it’s like, that’s so it’s like, you’re having two completely different conversations. You’re not sure. Am I wrong? Wrong? Are we both confused? Like, who’s confused. They’re on the phone.
Brian (33:25):
Yeah. And I think it’s good to like default to the fact, you know, don’t try to pretend like, you know, more than you do. And if it, and keep in mind that like you are hiring the expert. So as long as you know, that they’re very well versed in that type of shipment. Like if you can guarantee, Hey, they are shipping more than 50% they’re doing for you, eCommerce companies. Okay. I feel more comfortable moving forward. I don’t know what I’m doing. So at least they do. Right. And then try to verify that they know what they’re doing, because we all know in the beginning, we don’t understand how it all, how it all works. And it’s good to have someone that does have that experience.
Charles (34:03):
This has been super helpful. I think hopefully it’s gonna close up a whole bunch of things. If people want to kind of find you learn more about you, or if they’re looking for a freight forwarder that, and they call and say, how much, what percent of your businesses e-commerce where would they do that? Or what would you say?
Brian (34:22):
For us it’s a hundred percent we only ship for eCommerce company. So, so yeah, we’re special in that way. But yeah, people want to find more about us. They can go to our website@easychinawarehouse.com or they can email me at Brian at [inaudible] dot com.
Charles (34:39):
Awesome. Brian, thanks a lot for coming on. It was great chatting again.
Brian (34:42):
Great. Thanks for having me.
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