How to import electronic goods from China [FULL GUIDE]

You may get amazed by the fast pace of electronic devices and how they changed your lives. Do you go to work with an electric scooter and maybe consider try your best luck on a Tesla? How long will you spend on laptops and phones per day? When you started to think about it, you would realize the subtle but powerful influence of them.

Today, we're going to talk about how will electronic devices play an important role in business and as always, show you more insights in this industry.

Follow us and find out more about this journey!

How to manage huge demands for electronic devices well?

As for those electronic component manufacturers who are dominated by international semiconductor giants, which we call who are in the "upstream", their market share is more concentrated. For the other electronic component manufacturers who have a wide range of electronic component applications, so-called "the downstream", it is difficult to find a relatively concentrated design and manufacturing company to meet the support of application technology, thus creating a market gap in application technology. In the field of electronic components, more than 99%of electronic product manufacturers through the distributor channel to purchase 56% of the share. The whole industry chain of electronic components presents a giant pyramid structure, which makes it difficult for the upstream to match the diversified demands of the downstream.

Due to the special status of the industry, the electronic component's distribution trade industry will never disappear, then you will see the potential in it. All have a stable supplier, the original manufacturer in the price increases, enterprises and cost reduction, electronic component's distribution industry to adapt to the development, it is necessary to enhance the core competitiveness of enterprises. To achieve that, it mainly will be from these four aspects: supply chain, cash flow, operations, customers.

Create an efficient supply chain

To create an efficient supply chain is not just the ability to be high-efficient in a certain respect, such as business departments want to meet the needs of each customer; procurement departments want accurate procurement quantities, more appropriate prices, the shortest delivery period; warehouse departments want fast and accurate delivery, inventory backlog and less. Often integrated on the contrary, often out of stock, salesmen rob each other of goods, procurement plan is not accurate, warehouse inventory backlog and other serious problems. Supply chain management capabilities do not lie in the pursuit of a goal of optimal, but the pursuit of the overall efficiency of the supply chain. Electronic components distribution industry through the organic integration of the supply chain management and open up, improve the supply chain capabilities. In particular, for the salesman internal robbery of goods management problems, management to achieve responsibility to establish the right of goods ownership responsibility system. The salesman can consider the customer's delivery date and quantity based on his own inventory.

When the customer's needs cannot be met, the salesmen communicate and coordinate among themselves to solve the problem or initiate purchasing proposals. The purchasing department makes purchases according to the needs of the salesmen to reduce the difficulty of purchasing plans. When business needs are clearly defined, procurement is targeted, and the warehouse manages inventory according to salesmen and delivers goods quickly with PDA, which realizes efficient coordination of the supply chain.

The impact of the Cash flow on the distributor’s business

In the electronic components' distribution industry, there are not only many categories of customers but also many transactions, the cash flow is often the key to determine the success or failure of the distributor's business. Therefore, it's essential to executive capital control and related utilization. For example, distributors adopt a pre-collection system and provide 60-90 days account period to core customers, distributors must have a standard account period management mode to monitor the aging of inventory and reduce the inventory funds occupied and so on. The control of funds is not just about the sole control on cash flow, but a system of management, must be done from the business of receiving orders, delivery, procurement, inventory stagnant, capital utilization analysis to do a comprehensive control and management of implantation.

Standardizing the operations

Standardizing the operations of a business is the most efficient way to manage the business so that operations perform according to objectives, not to increase the cost of running the business. The personalized management needs into the business, greatly improving efficiency and reducing communication costs. That's exactly the use of information systems directly implanted in the rules of the document, in violation of the rules that can not be implemented, to maximize the reduction of communication and management costs.

Customers Loyalty

Electronic components distribution industry customer loyalty is relatively low, customer development is difficult, and the cycle is long. Companies must keep abreast of the customer product development process, so that companies can respond quickly. Through the information system to understand each customer each project to send samples, quotes, orders, delivery of the whole process, in order to strive for orders to provide support. On the other hand, most of the time outside the business development, salesman management is difficult. Therefore, the need for mobile phone mobility is particularly prominent, and the need to keep abreast of business development to make timely management response.

As long as you can handle the four aspects of managing your electronic devices business, it's a well-prepared industry for you to explore.

How do you classify electronics by utilizations?

Consumer electronics

Generally, it refers to smart TVs, computers and tablets, smartphones, air-conditioners, hearing aids and other wearable devices. The consumer electronics industry is one that is continually growing and evolving. This industry has seen exciting new developments in recent years and at a rapid pace. As of July 2020, the revised forecast suggested a revenue of under 407 billion U.S. dollars, which was a slight decrease from 2019. Smartphones were the products accounting for the largest retail revenue within the consumer electronics sector, comprising 79 billion U.S. dollars in revenue in 2020. Revenue in the Consumer Electronics segment is projected to reach US$378,995m in 2020. Revenue is expected to show an annual growth rate (CAGR 2020-2025) of 4.9%, resulting in a projected market volume of US$480,823m by 2025. User penetration will be 22.3% in 2020 and is expected to hit 34.8% by 2025. To be frank, that's the most common electronics in this industry.

Medical electronics

Such as hearing aids, artificial joints and medical imaging and monitors. For its market based on component has been segmented into sensors, batteries, displays, microcontrollers, and memory devices. The medical electronics market is expected to be valued at USD 5.1 billion by 2019 and is expected to reach USD 6.6 billion by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 4.6% from 2019 to 2025. Year. The major factors driving the growth of the medical electronics market are increasing incidents of chronic diseases; increasing adoption of medical imaging, surveillance, and implantable devices; increasing global healthcare expenditure; and increasing public and private sector funding for healthcare and geriatric population.

Asia Pacific Medical Electronics Market to Grow at the Highest CAGR during 2019-2025. The major factors driving the Asia-Pacific medical electronics market are rapid population growth and improvement in healthcare infrastructure in developing countries such as India and China; increasing aging population and strong government support to provide better healthcare services in China and India are the other factors contributing to the growth of the Asia-Pacific medical electronics market.

The governments of countries in the Asia Pacific region (such as Australia, China, and India) have invested heavily in healthcare infrastructure and the provision of basic health insurance for all their citizens. In addition, increasing disposable income and the aging population are other key factors driving the growth of the medical electronics market in the Asia Pacific.

If you're into the medical electronics market, as usual, we would recommend you to take a look at the trade fairs.

Automotive electronics

Controllers such as cruise control, in-car computers and sensors. Automotive electronics is a general term for body automotive electronic control devices and vehicle electronic control devices. Body automotive electronic control devices, including the engine control system, chassis control system and body electronic control system (body electronic ECU).
The most important role of automotive electronics is to improve the safety, comfort, economy and entertainment of the car. The electronic control system is made up of sensors, microprocessor MPUs, actuators, dozens or even hundreds of electronic components and their parts.

Digital electronics

Computer circuit boards, resistors, transistors, capacitors, and more.

In terms of product share in the global semiconductor market, the largest share is for memory and logic circuits, which together accounted for 57.49%. This is followed by microprocessors, which accounted for 14%, and analogue circuits, which accounted for 12%.

The integrated circuit industry chain mainly includes core industry chain, support industry chain and demand industry chain. The core industry chain includes integrated circuit design, manufacturing and packaging and testing, the support industry chain includes integrated circuit materials, equipment, EDA, IP nuclear and so on, and the demanding industry chain includes the field of communication products, consumer electronics, computer chips, automotive/industrial and so on.

What are the relevant import regulations of electronic devices?

Do you know what safety certifications you need to pass to ship your products to other countries? What do all these certification marks mean?

CE (The EU)

The CE marking is a safety certification mark, which is regarded as a passport for manufacturers to open and enter the European market.

RoHS (The EU)

RoHS is the Directive on the Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment (the "RoHS Directive"). Restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment) English abbreviation for Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment. RoHS lists a total of six hazardous substances, including lead Pb, cadmium Cd, mercury Hg. Cr6+, PBDE, PBB, and PBDE are prohibited from entering the EU market. Electronic products, including white appliances, such as refrigerators, washing machines, microwave ovens, air conditioners, vacuum cleaners, water heaters, etc., black appliances, such as audio, video products, DVD, CD, TV receivers, IT products, digital products, communication products; power tools, electric electronic toys, medical electrical equipment.

REACH (The EU)

REACH is the EU regulation concerning the Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals. REACH is the abbreviation of the chemical regulatory system established by the European Union, which came into force on June 1, 2007.　The REACH directive requires that all chemicals imported and produced in Europe must pass a comprehensive set of procedures such as registration, evaluation, authorization and restriction, in order to better and simpler identify the chemical substances. The ingredients of chemicals to achieve the purpose of ensuring environmental and human safety. The directive has several main elements such as registration, evaluation, authorization and restriction. Any goods must have a registration file listing the chemical ingredients, a description of how they are used by the manufacturer and a toxicity assessment report. All the information will be entered into a database under construction, which will be managed by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), a new EU agency based in Helsinki, Finland.

ISO

The International Organization for Standardization is the world's largest non-governmental specialized agency for standardization, and it plays a leading role in international standardization.ISO develops international standards. standardization work within the scope, organizing the exchange of information among member countries and technical committees, as well as cooperating with other international organizations on issues related to standardization.

UL (The US)

UL stands for Underwriter Laboratories Inc. and is the most authoritative and largest private organization in the United States engaged in safety testing and certification. It is an independent, not-for-profit, professional organization that conducts testing for public safety. It adopts scientific testing methods to study and determine whether various materials, devices, products, equipment, buildings, etc. have hazards on life and property and the degree of harm; determine, prepare, issue corresponding standards and help reduce and prevent the loss of life and property caused by the information, while carrying out factual research operations. In short, it is mainly engaged in product safety certification and business safety certification, with the ultimate goal of providing the market with goods of a comparable safety level and contributing to the assurance of human health and property safety.In terms of product safety certification as an effective means of eliminating technical barriers to international trade, UL also plays a positive role in promoting the development of international trade.

GS (Germany)

The GS mark is a safety mark authorized by the German Ministry of Labor and issued by TUV, VDE, etc. The GS mark is accepted by many customers in Europe. GS certified products are usually sold at a higher price per unit and are more popular.

The FCC(The US)

The FCC(Federal Communications Commission) was established in 1934 by COMMUNICATION ACT as an independent agency of the U.S. government, directly responsible to Congress. The FCC coordinates domestic and international communications by controlling radio, television, telecommunications, satellite, and cable. The Office of Engineering and Technology (OET) of the FCC is responsible for the technical support of the Commission, as well as the approval of equipment to ensure the safety of radio and wire communication products related to life and property in more than 50 states, Colombia, and U.S. territories. Many radio applications, communication products, and digital products require FCC approval to enter the U.S. market. The FCC investigates and studies all phases of product safety to find the best way to solve problems, and also includes testing of radio devices, aircraft, and more. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) - Regulates the importation and use of radio frequency devices, including computers, fax machines, electronic devices, radio reception and transmission equipment, radio-controlled toys, telephones, personal computers, and other products that can harm people. These products, if intended for export to the United States, must be tested and approved by a government-authorized laboratory in accordance with FCC technical standards. Importers and customs agents are required to declare that each radio frequency device complies with FCC standards, known as an FCC license.

DIN(Germany)

Deutsches Institut fur Normung. DIN is the German standardization authority and participates in international and regional non-governmental standardization bodies as a national standardization body. DIN joined the International Organization for Standardization in 1951. DIN represents Germany in the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), a joint association of DIN and the German Association of Electrical Engineers (VDE).

BSI(The UK)

The British Standards Institution (BSI) is the world's oldest national standardization body, which is not controlled by the government but is strongly supported by it. BSI develops and revises British Standards, and promotes their implementation.

EMC

With the development of electrical and electronic technology, the increasing popularity of household appliances and electronic products, radio and television, post and telecommunications communications and computer networks are increasingly developed, the electromagnetic environment is becoming increasingly complex and deteriorating, making the electromagnetic compatibility of electrical and electronic products (EMC electromagnetic interference EMI and electromagnetic anti-EMS) issues have also been paid increasing attention to governments and production enterprises. Electromagnetic compatibility of electronic and electrical products (EMC) is a very important quality indicator, it is not only related to the product itself and the reliability of the work safety, but also may affect the normal operation of other equipment and systems, related to the protection of the electromagnetic environment. The European Community government stipulates that since January 1, 1996, all electrical and electronic products must pass EMC certification and be labeled with CE mark before they can be sold in the European Community market. This move has caused widespread impact in the world, governments have taken measures to implement mandatory management of electrical and electronic products RMC performance, such as the EU 89/336/EEC.

PSE(Japan)

This is a certification mark given by the Japan Electrical Safety & Environment (JET) for electrical and electronic products that comply with Japanese safety regulations. According to Japan's DENTORL Law (Electrical Appliance and Material Control Law), 498 types of products must pass safety certification to enter the Japanese market.

The C/A-tick certification(Australia)

It is a certification mark issued by the Australian Communications Authority (ACA) for communication equipment, and the C-tick certification cycle is 1-2 weeks. The C-tick certification cycle: 1-2 weeks. The product is tested to ACAQ technical standards, registered with the ACA for use of the A/C-tick, a Declaration of Conformity Form is completed and kept with the product's compliance record, and the A/C-tick is affixed to the communication product or equipment. Tick logo of the logo (label), sold to consumers A-Tick only applies to telecommunications products, electronic products are mostly applied for C-Tick, however, if the application of electronic products A-Tick, you do not need to apply for another C-Tick. Since November 2001, Australia / New Zealand EMI application merger; if the product is to be sold in these two countries, the following documents must be completed before marketing, in order to prepare for the ACA (Australian Communications Authority) or New Zealand (Ministry of Economic Affairs) to apply for a C-Tick application. (Development) Authorities conduct random checks from time to time. The Australian EMC system divides products into three levels. Before selling Level 2 and 3 products, suppliers must register with the ACA and apply for the C-Tick logo.

SAA certification(Australia)

It is the certification of the Australian standards body for the Standards Association of Australia, people usually call the Australian certification of SAA. Due to the mutual recognition agreement between Australia and New Zealand, all products with Australian certification will be able to enter the New Zealand market smoothly. All electrical products are required to be Safety Approved (SAA), which has two main marks, one for formal approval and one for standard marking. Formal approval is for samples only, while the standard mark requires a factory audit for each product. At present, there are two ways to apply for SAA certification in China, one is through CB test report, if there is no CB test report, you can also apply directly. Generally, the lead time for IT AV lamps and small appliances to apply for SAA certification in Australia is 3-4 weeks, but this may be extended if the quality of the product is not up to standard. When submitting the report to Australia for audit, you need to provide the SAA certificate of the product plug (mainly for products with plugs), or not given for the product, the important components inside the product SAA certificate, such as lamps and lanterns need to provide the transformer inside the SAA certificate, otherwise, the audit information in Australia will not pass.

TOP sales of electronics on Alibaba

After getting some directions from the most important part of the supply chain-the regulations, we may guide you to have a look at the top sales on Alibaba-the main platform for you to tackle the Chinese market. No matter how fully you could prepare for the following process, always keep in mind that the product itself is the foundation to make all that happen.

Let's get started:

Switches and Sockets

As the first thing that would catch your attention when you get in a room, switches bring you the proper lighting, and sockets would be the necessity to secure your electronic devices are doing their jobs.

A wide range of colours and materials await.

Lighting bulbs

How could you have lightings without the bulbs? Your customers will answer the question for you. And that's what we called “Complementary products”. Such as Ikea, people all complained about the lamps there don't have bulbs, but still, they will buy bulbs there for a convenient location. That could apply to your business as well.

For different consumption scenarios, you could find your target.

Home automation

During the lockdown at home, people tried their best to make their houses smarter. Alexia gets the highest sales on all kinds of shopping websites, the other one is the cleaning robot. Of course, the price of an AI would be not that beautiful, but the concept has been transmitted: A little design, great change for the satisfaction in daily lives. For you, home automation like wireless remote switches controlled by phones, a voice control kit, etc., will achieve the concept and bring your customers.

Before you source for the products, make sure you get to know about the market.

Cables and conductors

Since we're talking about wireless devices, well, it's not all the electronics can accomplish the wireless technology yet. The basic components of electrical cables are the conductor, generally drawn wires made from copper, aluminium or alloys, and the insulation. A cable usually features a specific cross-section containing numerous wires. If taken individually, however, the wires would be too fragile and might break. Therefore, they are grouped to form flexible conductors. The finer the wires, the more flexible the conductor.

Big machines cannot live without cables, and don't miss the chance, since big machines will have more "Complementary products"

How will DocShipper help you to be competitive?

We have a warehouse in Northern Italy that allows us to distribute your products at unbeatable prices! (Special E-Commerce) Shelves and references allow us to take care of the entry and exit of your goods (input and output) We establish the level of your stock, which you can consult on the spreadsheet. Indeed, it represents the state of your inventory and can be consulted live. After many years of dealing with Asiatic suppliers, forced to realize that they often do not package your products properly. They wrap altogether. This will affect your product's safety as well as your image. Let us handle this problem for you.

Every order will be properly, carefully, repackaged. This step is included in the price of input/output management for maximum efficiency. You may still concern about the reliability and punctuality of your suppliers in China. No worries, specialists from Docshipper will monitor the shipment process from A to Z for you, with fluent language skills of Mandarin, English and French, it's another guarantee for making sure the good communication. From your import country, China, where we have a couple of warehouses in the main export cities there.

FAQ | How to import electronics goods from China [FULL GUIDE]

💬If I want to find the electronic integrated circuits, where should I start to find my supplier?

Alibaba should be the first option, the wide ranges and easy communication will lead you to the enriched choices. 1688.com can be considered as well, if you’re not familiar with it, find our previous article to guide you.

🍻 How to recognize the fake electronics? By quality or appearance?

In any case, it’s better to pay attention to, at least, both of them. Check the trademark first and investigate the code bar in the relating official website. In addition, you could ask for help from a professional agency like Docshipper, to do the quality control for you.

🎭 Do you think a good supplier of electronics is the most important factor to ensure my margin?

Not really, the whole process of international trade matters equally. A good supplier would be a nice start, while the following steps such as quality control of products, logistics management, supply chain, customs clearance, they are indispensable for your final margin.

🎱 Why you put that detailed information of regulations for electronics?

Like we mentioned, it’s important. Without the beneficial external environment(the policy from the government), we could do nothing about the international trade.

🎯 Anything you think is essential to mention more?

Never forget about your market research and keep following Docshipper’s blogs.

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