best luck,i am working on it too.

I think the secret is to get products that no one else has. You need to be on the ground in places like China to do this effectively.

Good luck on the idea, but I hope you have deep pockets and and lots of storage space.

The good thing about buying things off the shelf is that the MOQ's can be quite modest. When you go into ODM, the production MOQ's can be thousands. Before you get to that, you have to create new tooling (depending on the item), which can cost hundreds, but normally thousands of dollars.

HOWEVER, if you are just selling designs to client, on a direct basis, this will cut the need for investment in stock, however, your marins will be greatly reduced.

Originally Posted by consultant

Good luck on the idea, but I hope you have deep pockets and and lots of storage space.

The good thing about buying things off the shelf is that the MOQ's can be quite modest. When you go into ODM, the production MOQ's can be thousands. Before you get to that, you have to create new tooling (depending on the item), which can cost hundreds, but normally thousands of dollars.

HOWEVER, if you are just selling designs to client, on a direct basis, this will cut the need for investment in stock, however, your marins will be greatly reduced.

why not see if you can fill the MOQ before importing... i.e. you get samples first

It is difficult to build new brand, lots of thing to think about.
wish you the best of luck!

anyway ,i just think that innovation is big chance for us in any industry. when you design new product , you should survey whether customers have demand or they need this kind of product or what kind of consuming people will use it .
Once you survey your products will have market, just arrange sample production in CHina .there're so many new products made in China , i know . of course , many new products are not accepted by customers finnally .. it's not important...one of your products consumers accept is enough ...
after you finishing sample production ,you can contact some related sale companies from web or shop and check whether it will be accepted quickly or not ... if testing sale is good ,you can consider how to creat your sale channels .. if testing sale is not good , you can survey consumers what's their opinion for your products so as to improve it ...
of course ,it will take time for you to do it ... just find more reliable partners who have interesting to work with you ... you can't do all work by yourself...

Originally Posted by dragon1978

anyway ,i just think that innovation is big chance for us in any industry. when you design new product , you should survey whether customers have demand or they need this kind of product or what kind of consuming people will use it .
Once you survey your products will have market, just arrange sample production in CHina .there're so many new products made in China , i know . of course , many new products are not accepted by customers finnally .. it's not important...one of your products consumers accept is enough ...
after you finishing sample production ,you can contact some related sale companies from web or shop and check whether it will be accepted quickly or not ... if testing sale is good ,you can consider how to creat your sale channels .. if testing sale is not good , you can survey consumers what's their opinion for your products so as to improve it ...
of course ,it will take time for you to do it ... just find more reliable partners who have interesting to work with you ... you can't do all work by yourself...

That's exactly what I was told to do by someone else... the owner of an import company which designs its own products. The fact that you, someone from china, has just independently parotted exactly what he has told me means that must be the way it is done! It's like there's a system that only club insiders use.

Basically you've told me, firstly survey whether customers will buy your new product idea. Then get samples made in China or elsewhere, then distribute this to sales rep organizations who test and sell to retailers, then depending on whether it sells well or not you use their feedbakck to improve the product. This is exactly what this other importer told me.. That your saying it shows that it is what chinese manfuacturers expect you to do. So let's get creating those products!

I am looking to design my own items as well. A clothing line, mainly caps for young people.

Creating designs at the moment, but getting them manufactured in china will be the hard part.

You sound like you got a burning desire to succeed, I like that. Dont let anyone take it away!

Originally Posted by craftystylez

I am looking to design my own items as well. A clothing line, mainly caps for young people.

Creating designs at the moment, but getting them manufactured in china will be the hard part.

You sound like you got a burning desire to succeed, I like that. Dont let anyone take it away!

I'm in London too by the way. Actually I don't think it will be too difficult to get them manufactured unless you require the factory to do lots of R&D and design work, like if you were designing a motorized suitcase or something like that. As long as you show them evidence that retailers or end users will buy what you want to make, and it's slightly different from what's available, the factories should be willing to produce for you. After all you're builiding market for products they make... for free. And you 're giving them free market research about what products and designs work in the uk.

All right ,the problem you trapped in,is that all the person who decide to import to think. Wholeselling need a good distribution channel and a lot of distributors,if no channel,will no quantity,then no frofit
Retailing ,need few cost,and piece pric be much highter.bUT can't be a big order
It's really conflit.