Shipping too expensive, not viable.

[JoexJoe]

You can also open an account with usps, its cheaper

[phaz0rz]

Originally Posted by JoexJoe

You can also open an account with usps, its cheaper

USPS is not an option for getting your inventory from Asia to where ever else since they only ship within USA.

Aspkin needs to make a dedicated sub-forum where users can post jibberish until they get to 25 posts.

[vmdetection]

Originally Posted by e2free

You need a account with them and its down to how much kg you import, we get around 80% against their list prices

dhl giving me expensive prices, the cheapest i have gotten them down to is £5.9/kg if i order 30kg, if i do 20kg, it's around 6-7/kg. I was hoping to get around the 4-4.5/kg at the very minimum but having difficulties. Maybe if i talk to dhl on the phone they can sort something out. i have requested account so we will see what they say but i think they are even more expensive than ups and others.
I will contact some logistics suppliers on alibaba and see what their prices are. Or maybe i should try and communicate with the chinese sellers on taobao/1688 using google translate or something better to see if they know a cheaper option to ship the product out themselves to me for less price. But most only taking alipay so foreign citizens can't even register on this chinese version of paypal so i need to fix this issue aswell. My experience with middlemen/agents is that there is no need to use them, they charge too much and aren't necessary if you have a good supplier and so you just need to take care of delivery.

[phaz0rz]

I've never had any trouble using Alipay, from USA.

[vmdetection]

Originally Posted by agent006140

There are domestic shippers which would save you some money,your vendor would know,but the intl leg ,you can ask for slow boat to UK.
if you can afford to wait

Well i have contacted a lot of shippers on many different sites but still not getting anywhere really. Their prices are high and really cut into profit a lot for me so i do want to cut costs a bit more and reduce shipping. Can't register for dhl/fedex/ups, they only want business customers and i don't have a business currently since i'm just getting started.

[yankee]

Originally Posted by vmdetection

Well i have contacted a lot of shippers on many different sites but still not getting anywhere really. Their prices are high and really cut into profit a lot for me so i do want to cut costs a bit more and reduce shipping. Can't register for dhl/fedex/ups, they only want business customers and i don't have a business currently since i'm just getting started.

As you are finding....Shipping is a cost of doing business that just is not very negotiable without having significant volume. You best bet would be to work on cost of goods.... Much more negotiable.

[vmdetection]

Originally Posted by yankee

As you are finding....Shipping is a cost of doing business that just is not very negotiable without having significant volume. You best bet would be to work on cost of goods.... Much more negotiable.

I have tried to get the price reduced but i don't receive any response from sellers on 1688. I even send them messages in chinese but still nothing, not sure what is up with that. Also, they're already selling at low prices so it's highly unlikely that it will go anywhere. Shipping is the main issue and also the competitors who are doing really lowball prices and pretending to be UK sellers with uk flag in their pictures and location in the UK, meanwhile their business info is chinese and delivery estimate is 1.5-2 weeks, what a joke. Not to mention the issue of quality control. Sellers on 1688 have high returns rate which tells me product quality is not exactly up to par with what you would expect or require so without a shipping agent, i'd just ship faulty/missing items and agents are expensive.

[vmdetection]

Originally Posted by agent006140

so why do you want to sell what these Chinese sellers are selling?
You can compete,like you said shipping is too much

Most if not all worthwhile products are already listed and being sold by multiple chinese/asian sellers so not much you can do besides try to sell close to the same price they are doing but offer 2-4 day domestic delivery instead. However, there are other domestic shippers most of the time so it's still a hassle.

[prodigyace]

I have an agent i have been using that's very fair on pricing, got to hunt for them!

[vmdetection]

Still can't find a cheap option, dhl haven't gotten back to me to create an account so can't get a quote from them. Parcelforce are giving 8gbp/kg which is too much. My product does have battery so i can't use SAL and other cheaper options right? any help? china to uk