Stories by Uche Usim
Importation is a serious business that needs careful planning and sound execution strategy. It is not a game played to ‘ease’ frustration. More importantly, importing from China is more tasking because it is a place where fake and quality products mix freely. To avoid being scammed, experienced businessmen and women have offered some pitfalls to avoid when importing from China.
Poor Representation
This is the number one mistake all rookie importers make. They do not have a professional image. Who do you think a manufacturer will respond better to and answer quickly? A well-run company or a one-man show? You guessed right, the company! but most newbies totally overlook this fact and thus present themselves poorly. Importing is not a game, it is a business. The earlier you understand and apply this, the better for you.
Always portray yourself as a serious company when negotiating with suppliers and you will see the respect with which you are treated. It does not matter if you have not yet registered your company. Try doing these five things next you are sourcing for goods online:
a. Get a website with your company’s name/product name as your domain name (e.g. www.maxtouche.com).
b. Use email address with your domain name. Never use free email accounts e.g. [email protected] why not [email protected]?
c. Never approach a company directly from Alibaba. It costs them if you send them a message there and they receive tons of messages from ‘unserious’ people. Always check out their contact details on Alibaba (confirm it is the same on their website) and send directly to their email. Most companies always have secretaries who check their emails daily so it is unlikely your message would go unnoticed or better still fax them. There are a ton of fax services online(both free and paid) online that provide you with facilities to do this.
d. Give yourself a job title. Be the M.D. Managing Director is a very big title in China.
e. Always use an email signature. An email signature is a block of text added at the end of every email you send out. Why not make every email you send to your suppliers stand out and look professional? All you have to do is add your name, post, name of your company, website, contact details and picture of your business card e.g. Tolulope Uche, Managing Director, Maxtouche Nigeria Limited, www.Maxtouche.com. Email: [email protected] and then phone number starting with +234..
Brand products trap
Never fall for this. Never buy brand products from China. Brand products are already goods/products that are established in the market by a company. For example, designer apparels like Nike, Fubu, branded electronics e.g. Toshiba, Panasonic, Sony TV etc, Premier DJ headsets e.g Beats by Dre headsets etc. No matter the temptation, no matter how cheap it is, never buy BBs, Ipads etc from China. The best you can do is order similar products from same/different companies and brand it your own name. Scammers know that people want brand new BBs, Ipads, hp laptops, DVD box sets at very cheap prices and they prey on that. No matter how good the deal sounds, do not buy! There are no special editions for Chinese people, don’t let anybody fool you.
Don’t respond to unsolicited emails
Never respond to unsolicited emails. These are emails from companies you don’t know and have never interacted with. Some Chinese scammers Google companies involved in certain markets in a particular country and send emails on how they can provide certain goods to you. There are cases where a Chinese company sent emails to a laboratory in Nigeria informing them how they could help them get chemicals, lab equipment at cheap prices. The email address they used in sending the message was different from what was on the contact page of the website of the real company. If we hadn’t bothered to check, we would have just responded to the same email address (which was a yahoo account) not knowing they were impersonating another company.
Using Online Sourcing
Most companies don’t know how to use sourcing sites online. I have seen a lot of people use Alibaba and I marvel. Most people do not know there are criteria that experienced people use to choose suppliers on Alibaba. Everybody talks about gold suppliers, what about assessed suppliers, A&V supplier (A&V means Authenticated & Verified), Escrow payment (what does it stand for?), the difference between a manufacturer and a trading company? Do you know that there is a way that you can search on Alibaba and you will only see products from reliable suppliers only? This will be explained later.
Failing to ask for samples
Most rookies never ask for samples. Why? The only case where asking for samples is impractical is when the product is very expensive, then in such cases you settle for photos and videos. But in other cases, always ask for samples. Why would you place order for 1,000 flash drives or 500 packs of Brazilian hair and not ask for a sample? Always ask for samples, though in some cases it might be free (especially if the cost is not that high) and you will only have to pay for shipping, in other cases, you might have to pay to buy the sample. I believe it is better to pay and see the sample than pay for the entire goods and meet an unpleasant surprise.
One more thing, most Chinese manufacturers always seize the opportunity of you asking for samples to send you all kinds of samples of products they produce that you did not request. Warn them against this practice because sending additional samples will only increase your shipping fee (Be polite and firm, they should only send sample of what you have asked, sending additional unsolicited samples will disqualify them from supplying to your company).
Don’t request for quotes from only one supplier
Never request for quotes from only one supplier. Start from three upwards. Some start from five though. The reason is this, the more the suppliers, the better it is for you to be able to determine the market average and negotiate better. For example, you want to place order for stock jeans and you have requested for quotes from 10 suppliers and out of these 10, six are offering to supply around the same range. Another reason is that you have choices, you can pick and choose, you are not at the mercy of just one supplier. If a supplier is not serious, you move on to the next. You can always know what is possible and what is not from the various answers you get from the manufacturers.
Due diligence
Practise the art of verifying your manufacturers. You must verify the company’s contact details (do the contact details on Alibaba match that which is on their website?), their reputation as a manufacturer (All manufacturers are looking for business and to do this, they leave their footprints everywhere online, they are registered in directories, search sites etc).
Another thing you must do is Google the company’s name+scam e.g. Fujian Sunflower Shoe Company+scam, if this company has defrauded someone, chances that you will find stories, complaints online is high. Importers are usually vocal online especially on blogs and forums. If they are not telling the world their scam stories, they are begging experts to verify companies for them. The last step is the business number verification.
Every single company has a business number. The business number is provided by the Government to every single company registered in China in order to monitor them. The good thing about this is that you can verify this number online. The bad news is that there is no centralized database/search engine for this number online. You have to know whether the company is a local one or situated in a province. Luckily in China, that is very easy to do. Every single Chinese company name starts with the name of the area it is situated. Just take a good look at the names of Chinese companies at Alibaba, other sourcing sites online and confirm these for yourself. Once you know the area the company is situated in and you have the business number (if it is not on their site/ Alibaba, ask for it), you go to the site of the appropriate website (known as the Industrial & Commercial Administration Bureau).
The downside of these sites is that everything is in Chinese but with Google chrome (which is a web browser by Google), you can find your way around these sites because Chrome automatically translates to English. I will provide a list of these ICAB websites in coming days.
8. Confusion:
Most newbies don’t really know what they want. They want to import jeans, flash drives, laptops etc. But they don’t really know about the products. Before you embark on importing, you must know the product well (you must know your product in detail).
Always have a list of specifications your product must meet. One important thing to note is that the more details you give to the manufacturer, the higher the chances of your supplier producing the product to your exact standard, if you just send mail to a Chinese manufacturer telling you want the price of jeans for example without stating exactly what you want done, not only do you come across as an amateur but the chances are that the manufacturers will see this and use this against you and give you anything they like. Things that you must know about your products are its name (or its alternative name), description, material, colour, common defects (we would talk more on this later today), packaging.
Source: nairaland.com
Customs boss disguises as agent in Apapa, Tin Can ports
Following a flurry of complaints from importers and agents about the sharp practices of some customs officers stationed at the seaports, the Zonal Coordinator of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) in charge of Zone A, Lagos, Charles Edike (an Assistant Comptroller General), stormed Apapa and Tin Can ports totally disguised as an agent.
Without escorts or aides, he mingled with agents and customs officers inside various offices in order to ascertain the level of efficiency and quality of service rendered by the officers to port users. Dressed in plain jeans and T-shirt, the ACG was in Apapa in the morning to see if reports that customs officers came to work late were true. He walked around unrecognised by agents who had also arrived waiting to be attended to.
At the APMT office in Apapa, Edike met a huge crowd of agents who were begging APM officials to attend to them. This drew the ire of the Zonal Coordinator. He had to reveal his identity in order to address the situation. He asked the APMT officials to avoid delaying agents unnecessarily. “Time is money. Every second counts. By delaying these people, the cost of doing business is increased. It also makes our ports unattractive to customers. We must eliminate delays to reduce time and costs if our ports are to be competitive and attractive to port users within the West African sub-region,” he said.
The ACG entered Customs offices unannounced and inspected them. While there, he charged the officers on duty to sit up and live up to national expectations.
Done with his assessment and addressing various issues at Apapa Port, Edike moved to the Tin Can Port. There, he also met various groups of agents. He interacted with them, made enquiries on what their challenges were before entering Customs offices to inspect officers and men on duty.
Having done his undercover findings, the ACG then met with the CACs of the two commands to find lasting solutions to the identified gaps. He charged the Area Controllers to be on their toes and ensure that ports users enjoy efficient services. Edike also tasked the CACs to ensure that not a kobo accruing to government as revenue is lost under any guise.
“These are very trying times for everybody; government needs funds to carry out developmental projects and to meet its obligations locally and internationally. The Nigeria Customs has a mandate to collect revenue on all imported cargoes. We must work hard to ensure that there are no leakages and every kobo must be collected as revenue,”he admonished.
Low revenue drives SIFAX Group into vehicle importation
Isaac Anumihe
As part of measures to shore up its revenue profile in the face of dwindling revenue, SIFAX Group, at the weekend, imported over 1,500 vehicles through a Roll on Roll off ( RoRo) vessel– MV Glovis Supreme.
Speaking to newsmen at the launch of the new product in Lagos, the acting Managing Director, Ports & Cargo Handling Services Limited, Alhaji Mohammed Bulangu, noted that although, SIFAX Group had been into RoRo operations for many years, it has not participated in the importation of vehicles until now.
He confirmed that the terminal under the terms of the concession agreement, can handle general cargo, container and RoRo vessels.
“Over the years, we have come to do more of containerized cargo, even though this is a multi-purpose terminal. However, the reality of the current economic situation, the need to increase revenue base and business volume, employ more staff and deliver array of top-notch services, among others, have compelled us to resume our RoRo services. The terminal has all the required facilities, equipment and manpower to meet and satisfy all expectations,” he said.
According to him, the new RoRo service will connect five ports in the USA to Nigeria with a direct link of approximately 19 days transit time.
“The route will connect Galveston, Jacksonville, Baltimore, Newmark, Boston, all in the United States of America to Lagos (Tin Can Island). Each vessel that will berth at Ports and Cargo Terminal will import over 1,000 second hand cars and trucks. The maiden vessel, MV Glovis Supreme, came with 1,448 cars/vans and 88 trucks, making a total of 1,536 vehicles on her maiden voyage to Ports & Cargo terminal,” he said.
Earlier, Group Managing Director, SIFAX Group, Mr. John Jenkins, had reiterated that the RoRo service was part of the business expansion strategy of the company, adding that its experience in handling such service in times past coupled with its customer-focused philosophy have positioned it well to make a success of the service. “SIFAX Group has a policy of exploring various opportunities to deepen our impact in the country’s economy. This partnership is designed to bring innovation, excellent service and unparalleled customer satisfaction,” he said.Expansion of our service base is one of the key elements of SIFAX Group business strategy for 2016.
“The service will be a one-stop shop one which will include port terminal services, stevedoring, ship agency and off-dock services. I am happy to say that our partners, agents and consignees are in for a swell time due to the volume of preparations that has gone into this new business.” he explained.
Fielding questions on where the over 1500 vehicles would be stored, the General Manager, Shipping, SIFAX Group , Mr Henry Ajoh submitted that the firm has a big terminal at Okota which can accommodate over 8,200 vehicles.
“ Like the MD said, here (Tin Can) is a transit place. We have a terminal at Okota that can take 8,200 vehicles. This is just the first resting place. We will now transfer to Okota” he said, assuring that all the over 1,500 vehicles must be transferred to the Okota terminal at the weekend