China sourcing for e-commerce and Amazon sellers
What online sellers need to get right when sourcing from China — compliance, packaging, inspection and fulfilment.
Online selling changes what a good product is
The product that wins in a shop and the product that wins online are not always the same thing. Online, your customer cannot handle it before buying, the delivery cost is visible and often decisive, returns are easy and expensive, and a handful of early reviews will shape everything that follows.
That shifts what you should optimise when you source. Robustness in transit, packaging that survives a parcel network, low return rates and a product that photographs honestly all matter more than they would on a shelf. A product that is slightly better but arrives damaged one time in twenty is a worse product online.
Dimensional weight is a product decision
Parcel carriers charge on the greater of actual weight and volumetric weight, and marketplaces have size and weight bands with meaningful price steps between them. A product that sits just over a threshold pays for that on every single order for its whole life.
So find out where the bands are for the channels you sell through, and design the packed product to fit inside them. A slightly smaller carton, a component that nests, a flat-packed element, or removing an inner box that duplicates the outer can move you down a band and improve your margin permanently.
The same thinking applies upstream: units per carton and carton dimensions drive your sea freight cost, since part-container shipping is charged on volume or weight, whichever is greater. Ask the factory for these numbers before production, not after.
Packaging has two jobs, and one of them is legal
The first job is arriving intact. Retail packaging designed for a shelf often fails in a parcel network, so if you ship single units, specify packaging that can survive on its own or a suitable outer, and test it by actually posting some to yourself.
The second is opening well. Unboxing is part of the product online, and it is cheap to get right at the factory and impossible to fix afterwards.
The legal job is the one people forget. Packaging you place on the UK market brings producer responsibility obligations, and there is a plastic packaging tax regime with its own thresholds and recycled content rules. Transport packaging on an import is treated differently from the packaging your customer receives, so it is worth understanding which of your packaging counts as what before you scale.
Returns are a sourcing problem
Online return rates are high, and in some categories they are the difference between a profitable line and a loss. Every return costs you the outbound delivery, the return delivery, the handling, and often the item.
The useful part is that returns are data. Sizing runs small, the colour is not what the photograph showed, one component breaks, the instructions are unclear, the packaging fails: these are specification problems with specification answers.
Feed them back. Your second order should have a specification that closes the top three reasons for return from your first, and the fastest improvement in ecommerce margin is usually there rather than in the unit price.
Compliance, because marketplaces now ask
Selling online does not reduce your obligations. If you import into the UK, importer duties are yours, and if you sell under your own brand you are normally treated as the manufacturer, which brings the technical documentation, declaration of conformity and marking with it.
Marketplaces increasingly require this evidence before listing, and will remove listings without it. That is a business continuity issue as much as a legal one: a delisting in peak season is a serious event.
So make compliance part of the specification before you order, including who holds the test reports, in whose name, and covering which configuration. Also plan for the obligations that come with selling rather than with the product: packaging producer responsibility, battery obligations if your product contains cells, and WEEE if it is electrical.
Stock, cash and the sea freight problem
Ecommerce punishes both stockouts and overstock. A stockout costs ranking as well as sales on most marketplaces, and recovering a position is slower than losing it. Overstock costs storage, and marketplace storage fees escalate for slow-moving goods.
The long lead time from China is what makes this hard: by the time you know a line is selling, the replenishment is weeks away. The practical answers are to plan reorder points against the full chain rather than the sailing time, to keep a decision point where part of a shipment can go by air, and to be deliberate about Chinese New Year, when production stops for weeks.
Split shipments help here more than anywhere. A small air consignment lets you keep selling and check quality while the bulk follows by sea.
Frequently asked questions
What should I look for in a product to sell online?
Robustness in transit, packaging that survives a parcel network, a low expected return rate, and packed dimensions that sit inside the size and weight bands of the channels you sell through. Those matter more online than they would on a shelf.
Why do packed dimensions matter so much?
Carriers charge on the greater of actual and volumetric weight, and marketplaces price in size and weight bands. A product just over a threshold pays for it on every order for its whole life, so designing the packed product to fit inside a band is a permanent margin improvement.
How do I reduce returns on imported products?
Treat returns as specification data. Sizing, colour accuracy, a component that fails, unclear instructions and packaging that does not survive delivery are all fixable in the next specification, and that is usually where the biggest margin improvement sits.
Do marketplaces check compliance documentation?
Increasingly yes, and they will remove listings without it. Plan the evidence before you order, including who holds the test reports and in whose name, because a delisting in peak season is a continuity problem as well as a legal one.
How do I avoid stockouts with long lead times?
Set reorder points against the whole chain rather than the sailing time, keep a decision point where part of a shipment can switch to air, and plan deliberately around Chinese New Year. Splitting a shipment between air and sea helps more in ecommerce than almost anywhere else.