The list of product segments to import in 2023 are: Consumer electronics items, Household items, Capital machineries, Chemicals, Food items. We will describe in details the process to import all these products segments in this blog, so that you know how to import these products in a most cost saving way and make a good profitable business out of it.
Table of Contents
- Consumer Electronics Items
- So how do you Import Consumer Electronics?
- How do you Import Household Items?
- What is HS code?
- How do you Import Capital Machineries/Equipment?
- What are the things to keep in mind to Import Capital Machineries as a product segments to import?
- How do you Import Chemicals?
- How do you Import Food Items?
Consumer Electronics Items
Consumer electronics or home electronics are electronic (analog or digital) items made for everyday use, typically in homes or personal use. Consumer electronics include devices used for entertainment, communications and recreation. Consumer electronics have a very big market in all the countries and is very demandable and a lucrative segment to do business.
But in this segment the competition is high as high demand brings more import traders to meet the demand of the electronic gadgets.
From the experience in importing consumer electronics, quality takes an important role in the product segment. Importers get convinced to import low quality products at a cheap price and assume to make a quick profit. But in reality this does not work. Consumers can understand the quality of the product after one buy or by examining the product and they will not make a repeat purchase of the low quality electronics and you will not have a repeat sell and no loyal customer base to import again and sell.
It is seen that consumers are willing to pay extra on a good quality consumer electronics to get a good quality product that they can use minimum of 1 year or 2. So focusing on the quality of the consumer electronics is important for a trader to import with a competitive price that is within the purchasing power of the consumers.
So how do you Import Consumer Electronics?
First and the foremost, you need to register your IRC-Import Registration Certificate and other governmental approval in your country to import the electronics.
Then get to know the electronic segment that you are targeting. The consumer electronic segment is big and you cannot import all the items in there. So focus on the one segment within the segment. Let’s go with the example: LED TV.
So do the local market research on this segment. Find out all the details of the LED TV. Starting from which screen sizes is popular in your country, what kind of mother board you want to put in the LED TV, the sound quality, the color of the TV outer face. How long you want to give the guarantee? How much price range in the market? What kind of after sales service the market is providing at present? What are the existing brand in the market?
You have to find every details of the segment of the electronics you are targeting then communicate with the supplier in that country that you are targeting to import from.
You can use google search to find the supplier in that country or use the database of the import and export governmental websites of that country or trade sites of that country like you can use Alibaba.com for import from China, you can get the details from the link How to import. Of how to use trade sites in China to find goods suppliers and manufactures
For electronic goods there is a chance that the products may have lithium batteries installed inside the electronics. Sometimes the shipping agent may declare the electronics as DG-Dangerous Goods.
DG-Dangerous Goods: A dangerous good (also known as hazardous material or hazmat) is any substance or material that is capable of posing an unreasonable risk to health, safety, and property when transported in commerce.
So it is important to know that the electronics product you are targeting to import will fall into DG goods segment or not. Communicate with your shipping agent while you are making the decision to import. For DG goods many countries have many different ways of physically checking the goods, as per the goods category.
So if your electronic products falls into DG category, communicate with your Customs clearing agent to know what are the extra necessary steps need to do to release the goods in the destination port when the goods come to the destination port. So if you know the things beforehand, you can prepare yourself for the coming steps to take while importing the electronics.
So in the further process after your selection of the product communicate with the supplier in the foreign country to import. After you get the supplier and satisfied with their products open LC or TT with the bank and communicate with the shipping agent to import and customs clear in your port to release the goods to makes sales.
How do you Import Household Items?
The same goes in here with taking IRC and all other government documents to prepare yourself to import.
Then goes the market research of the product you want to import.
Also, find the HS code of the product you want to import. Finding correct HS code of the product is very important in all the items import. As with the unique HS code of the products the import and export country customs can determine the product category and the Duty, Vat and Tax of the product.
What is HS code?
HS codes are unique codes of numbers to identify product categories and products with a standardized two- to six-digits mostly. The first two digits of the code indicate the product category. The next four to six digits indicate the subcategories the product fits into. Different Countries can add digits to identify products even more specifically, taking the code up to 10 digits. These additional country-specific codes can be changed at any time by the country using them. The eight- or 10-digit HS Code used by a country is called a “tariff line.”
So after the importer finds the HS code of the products. The importer must take the help of his Customs clearing agent to find the HS Code. To know what is Customs clearing agent in the import process. Please visit the link…………..
The chosen HS code of the products is important to be correct as all the customs duty, vat and tax and a high cost is dependent on the product HS code and if wrong, the importer governmental customs will claim that the importer has miss declared the HS code to avoid paying customs duty and miss declaration fine will be imposed on the imported products.
After confirmation of the chosen household product to import, follow the above process to communicate with supplier, banks, shipping agent and customs clearing agent to import.
How do you Import Capital Machineries/Equipment?
Let us first see what we call capital Equipment
Equipment that you use to manufacture a product, provide a service or use to sell, store and deliver merchandise. This equipment has an extended life so that it is properly regarded as a fixed asset.
Let us take a scenario of a businessman wants to start a production unit of making Shoes. So for making shoes he needs to import machines to cut leather, stitching shoes, washing plant to clean the shoes.
So to run the factory and to make shoes he needs many machines. So capital machineries or equipment are needed to make shoes.
In this way many factories are developing in the country to manufacture or producing many different types of goods. So in all these places machines are needed and these machines need to be imported from another country if not produced in the importer country.
What are the things to keep in mind to Import Capital Machineries as a product segments to import?
Firstly, you have to take industrial IRC. In most cases in your country you may have 2 types of IRC-Import Registration Certificate.
Commercial IRC: To import products for trading business.
Industrial IRC: To import products to produce another product in the importer’s country with those imported products. So with industrial IRC you are not just importing and selling. But rather you are importing machines and raw materials to make another new product in your country.
In most cases the importer’s government of industrial IRC gives facilities to import and make products in country. The facilities the government gives are like exemption of importer’s country Duty, Vat and Tax to import capital machineries and raw materials.
The government provides this benefits to industrial IRC holder because the industry and making of goods need many work force and creates many job opportunities in the country and people get job which is good for the country and the business. So government supports industries and industrial IRC holder in the import.
So to get the Vat, Duty and Tax exemption benefits the industry IRC holder needs to follow government guidelines by maintaining all the necessary documents to show to the import customs while importing. Many countries will have different rules, and it is wise for the importer to talk to his clearing and forwarding agent to know what are the docs to be updated to get the full benefits of the industrial goods import.
Importer can also open deferred LC-Letter of Credit with the supplier to give payment to the supplier. There are many LC types to open. One of them is deferred LC-Letter of Credit. So what is deferred LC-Letter of Credit?
A deferred payment letter of credit, also known as a usance letter of credit, is a commercial letter of credit that provides that the beneficiary/supplier will be paid, not at the time the beneficiary makes a complying presentation, but at a later, specified, maturity date. The maturity date may be:
- A specified number of days after the beneficiary’s presentation, for example 45 days. In this case the letter of credit would state that it is “payable 45 days after sight.”
- A specified number of days after a particular event, often the date of the bill of lading.
The supplier may give this benefit in LC payment because the capital machineries are very high in price and the importer will pay the money after making some production out of the machineries and sell of the goods
Another reason can be because the machines need to be installed and run in the factory to see whether it is working as claimed by the supplier. So time given by the supplier to do the payment in delay time after seeing all the machine is working.
All other process remains almost the same with finding the supplier of the machines, opening the LC, communicating with the shipping line and customs clearance.
How do you Import Chemicals?
Chemicals are sensitive products to import as they are hazardous and prone to have strong chemical reactions to catch fire in the ship and also in the warehousing. So shipping authority mostly declares chemicals as DG goods-Dangerous Goods
In the case of importing chemicals apart from doing the basic procedures of import you need to provide customs and shipping line with additional chemical documents. Below are the two extra documents that customs and shipping authority may ask for.
- MSDS: A material safety data sheet (MSDS) is a document that lists information relating to the chemical occupational safety and health and usability. MSDS are a widely used system for cataloguing information on chemicals, chemical compounds, and chemical mixtures. MSDS information will include instructions for the safe use and potential hazards associated with a particular material or product, along with spill-handling procedures.
- TDS: A technical data sheet (TDS) is a document provided with a chemical product that lists various pieces of information about the chemical. Oftentimes, technical data sheets include chemical composition, methods of use, operating requirements, common applications, warnings and pictures of the product.
As chemical is mostly a DG product the destination importer customs will chemical test the products to see whether the chemical declared in the invoice and the packing list and all other shipping documents matched with the original chemicals imported.
The testing of the chemicals and the approval may take some time so it is very important for the importer to keep in ready all the necessary shipping docs before the chemicals come to the port to reduce as much time as needed to complete the paper works and tests and release the chemicals.
To note, the more time you keep the goods in the destination port the shipping detention charge and ports demurrage charge will increase and you have bear more cost with the imported products. So it is always wise to release the goods fast within free time from the port.
All other process remains almost the same with finding the supplier of the machines, opening the LC, communicating with the shipping line and customs clearance.
How do you Import Food Items?
Food items are mostly perishable item. So what is mean by perishable item?
Perishable foods are those likely to spoil, decay or become unsafe to consume if not kept refrigerated at 40 °F or below, or frozen at 0 °F or below. Examples of foods that must be kept refrigerated for safety include meat, poultry, fish, dairy products, and all cooked leftovers.
So while importing food items you need to import it by refer containers with refrigerated facilities. Also have to make sure that your food temperature do not fluctuate and decay will occur in the food.
As food items is an edible product, special permission may be needed to take in all the countries form the ministry of Agriculture for the import permit with necessary testing required.
Further, after the food comes to the destination port, formalin and radiation tests may be done in all the countries to make sure the food is safe to eat.
The importer of the food items need to communicate with his Clearing and Forwarding agent to know what are the documents needed to collect to release food items in quick time.
All other process remains almost the same with finding the supplier of the machines, opening the LC, communicating with the shipping line and customs clearance.
