Sorry for the long wait guys! I have been holding off writing part 5 of this year’s case study so I could include as much info as possible! So, let’s dive right into it. This is what I have been doing with my case study product for the last two months:
Inspection
Since I am working with a new supplier, it is crucial for me to have a tight quality control process in place. The product is also made of 2 materials. One material I have never worked with before, and I can easily get scammed with it.
Because of this, I really need to have great quality control in place. I ALWAYS have my products inspected while they are still in the factory. Some people like to inspect the goods at home, but by this time, it is already too late. If you find any defects, you can’t send the whole shipment back to China, and you won’t receive a refund.
I personally use Qima as my inspection company. They will send an inspector to the factory to write a very detailed report for me.
Even though there were some small defects, the production passed the inspection. Now I can pay the remaining 70% to my supplier and arrange a Freight Forwarder to ship my products!
Freight Forwarder
I use Freightos to pick a freight forwarder. The platform is extremely easy to use. I only have to enter my shipment info and the point at which I would like to ship it. And Freightos will directly show me quotes from the best Freight Forwarders:
In this case, I will pick the cheapest Freight forwarder. They will ship my product from Ningbo to the Amazon FBA warehouse for $1,225. This will be $1,23 per unit, which is a little bit more than I had budgeted for (I forecasted $1). However, I am completely fine with this since I managed to save some cost by negotiating the purchase price down.
Investments so far
- Samples: $90
- Product cost: $5,000
- Inspection: $309
- Shipping cost: $1,225
Total: $6,624
Hello,
I see for your inspection Qima charges per man day. I am at the same point as you in a current product and it would be my first time purchasing an inspection. Do I dictate the amount of time I would like them to inspect for or are they able to estimate it before arranging the inspection. For example, I am ordering 1200 units, would it make sense to only inspect say 500 as opposed to the entire batch in order to keep it under one man day?
Thank you!
It is not necessary for your to specify. You will just pay for 1 full man day and they will check how big of a sample size they can inspect within 1 day.
Usually, the inspection company chooses the sample size based on AQL Standard. you can google AQL table or ASQ Z1.4 to better understand it.
Hey I’m really enjoying reading your blog, and look forward to the next entry.
I’m at the beginning of my fba business and looking for suppliers for my first product. You make it sound really straightforward so I hope I don’t mess this up lol.
Keep up the good work!
How did this product do for the holidays? Did you see success after launching?
How/when do you bring the supplier and inspection company together? And does the supplier notify the inspection company when the order is complete and ready for inspection?
Thanks
When the production is almost done I plan the inspection. The inspector will setup a day with the supplier to meet.
You will tell your supplier that you signed one inspection company like AQI Service, later than the inspector will set up the inspection schedule with suppliers,
Thanks!
Hello, is the freight forwarder essentially the shipping agent ?
Hello, thank you for providing so much value! I thoroughly enjoy your materials and have learned so much. I am trying to find the next 2019 Case Study Part 6, but wasn’t able to find it. Was there one done? How did the launch go for this? TIA!
Thanks for this info! Do you still recommend Qima?
Hi, thanks for all the help you’ve taken the time to offer, really nice. I was wondering in the cost breakdown you have here, is that total above of 1225$ with everything including customs? That’s the one part I’m still unfamiliar with and if it can be estimated
Hi,
This is excluding customs charge. You can lookup your expected customs charge by looking up the HS code for your product and you will see how many % you will have to pay when importing this product.
Can you link me to the info on hs code? I thought I saw it on here? Thanks
Just use google
Hi man! I appreciate all the information & experience you share. Is this listing still going on, may I kindly ask you to give some updates about what moves you have done so far, similar to the previous case study?
Not much. Once a product is selling I just make sure there is enough stock and re-order when needed. Lots of time to spend on other products to launch.