About Chinese Wholesale Products

China is the world's leading exporter of manufactured goods, having clawed its way upward after years of stagnation under the backwards policies of the Maoist era. The world's most populous nation is also one of the leading trading partners with the United States, so it is often relatively simple to purchase products wholesale direct from China. This can save significant amounts of money on consumer goods purchases.

Significance

• Chinese wholesale products are among some of the most common items that an American consumer sees every day in stores. You may not notice the labels, but Chinese products are everywhere. The relatively low cost of labor and industrial density of China has made it essentially the manufacturer to the world, making it the go-to nation for everything from electronics to textiles to appliances.

Function

• It's possible to buy directly from some Chinese wholesalers, but it generally requires that you buy things in bulk. This may not be as inconvenient as it sounds. Purchasing many items at one time from a website like one of those listed below can be an inexpensive way to run a small shop, such as an online store run through an auction website like eBay or Amazon's zShops.

Prevention/Solution

• One issue involved in dealing with Chinese wholesalers directly is quality control. Intellectual property law is, for all intents and purposes, ignored in China. Knock-offs of superior products are very common, and at times are mislabeled and sold as if they were the original item. Fortunately, it's often very easy to spot such items. Their cost is generally so low that it becomes obvious that it can't possibly be the genuine original.

Benefits

• Buying wholesale from China has many advantages relative to purchasing wholesale items domestically. When purchasing from China, you can often get items directly from the manufacturer, reducing the overall cost. The bulk that Chinese companies are accustomed to dealing with also reduces overall costs so long as you are willing to pay for transportation. Even for small merchants, it can be surprisingly affordable--and profitable--to buy and sell a cargo container full of Chinese wholesale goods.

Potential

• In order to reduce costs as much as possible when purchasing products from Chinese wholesalers, it is imperative to create relationships directly with manufacturers rather than relying on intermediary merchants. The Chinese business culture prizes personal relationships beyond everything else, although as information technology spreads throughout the country and it continues its modernization, practices have begun to resemble those in the western world more closely