” Asking yourself ‘how do I compete with ebay?’ is asking yourself the wrong question. You should be asking yourself ‘how do they compete with me?’ “

You see we were discussing the fact that we offer free shipping and unique policies and procedures that protect and focus on our customers, rather than ourselves. During this chat I mentioned that our ebay competition will never be able to offer the same level of service as their margins are just not big enough.

So now I ask you guys:

“What are you doing for your brand that makes it impossible for your market place competition to compete with you?”

- Thank you Belinda

Tessa Says 

We are really honoured that you told us your business ideas and would love to help however we can. Neither of us have been involved with selling that particular product online, however, 40-60% off RRP has always been the percentages we work with for our wholesale clients. Since most manufacturers require buyers to purchase larger quantities we differentiate ourselves by offering low minimum order quantities, but at a higher wholesale price. We have created 3 wholesale price points for our clients, depending on the size of their order. Sometimes paying a higher wholesale price but only having to stock a small selection for testing suits a retailer better initially and once the item has proven itself, for their store, they will scale up to bigger orders and of course get a better wholesale price.  The most important thing is that you calculate all your costing per item, including the outside business costs such as packaging, shipping, internet and duties/taxes (to name just a few) and make sure that your wholesale prices are still viable.

Nathan Says 

Agreed. Every product/industry has different standards that retailers will expect too. If a product is generally a lower converting object (Ferrari), then the retailers will want a higher margin, but if it’s higher converting (Toyota) then they won’t need as much (but will always try for it!). Because we like to keep as much “fat” in our margins as possible, we try to offer something that they can’t get elsewhere (like lower quantities as Tess has already mentioned). It sounds like you have a good handle on things though, as you’re still getting a decent return on your investment, while offering the retailer a good margin as well. The more lucrative it is for them, the more likely they’ll buy from you. Stick to your guns, go in confidently  and protect your margins.

If you have a question for us we would love to help. You can emails us, comment below or join us on Facebook. 

How can we compete with Aliexpress?

Hi, We have considered staring an online business. We really don’t have an excuse not to give it fair go as we design and create websites including shopping carts. I know it is more involved than that to have a successful online business but at least we can save on that expense. We have thought of a few different products that we possibly can sell. What makes me unsure of this adventure is how do we actually compete with for example Aliexpress? I know they say Aliexpress is a b2b retailer but when it comes down to it I reckon they are as much a b2c retailer – as anyone can buy products from them at low quantities. How do we, that what to run an ecommerce site and most likely get our products from Aliexpress compete with them after we have added our mark-up? Would be very interested I hearing your views or thoughts on this or if you have heard anything from any of your users that might have expressed similar concerns. Thank you for a good website with some useful information

Kind Regards, jonas

Answer: You Don’t!

Totally agree that Aliexpress is becoming more and more B2C, and that you shouldn’t try to compete with them. We were in China on an Alibaba/Aliexpress panel last year, and along with everyone else on the panel we stated our concerns about how B2C Aliexpress was becoming. They politely took notes, unfortunately it does not appear that the suggestions will be taking place. That doesn’t mean that you can’t use them to get started however, and two of the key things to remember when launching an online business (or any other business for that matter), is that you will always have competition and there are different kinds of customers. When we first started, we sold products on ebay, that we now sell for 2-3 times more on our website. The products are the same, but they are presented and packaged differently, we offer more services and add-on’s with them and they are sold to different customers. The value to the customer has increased greatly and the profit margin for us has also increased creating a win/win.

The easiest way for me to explain this is using an example from here in Thailand. In Bangkok, you can pretty much find a $20 fake Louis Vuitton next to a real store selling them for $3000. Are the products all that much different? Not really, as some of the fakes are really good quality handbags. Are they putting Louis Vuitton out of business? Not at all. This is because some people would never be caught dead spending $3000 on a handbag, and others would never be caught dead buying a fake. This doesn’t mean that you can go out and start selling products at ridiculous prices like Louis can, but you definitely don’t want to be competing on price alone, which is what sites like Aliexpress, Amazon and ebay do.

How Do We Stand Out and Charge More?

• Shipped locally (which means they can return or exchange the product locally. Many of the cut price sellers on ebay/Aliexpress are China/Hong Kong based);
• They’re supporting a local business
• Local warranty
• Nicely branded site that makes them feel like they’re going to get nicer service/products;
• Little bonuses where possible
• Locally based customer service
• Easy exchange/returns policy

While these benefits can be enough on their own to swing certain customers over from ebay/Aliexpress, quite a number of searchers will never even go to those sites in the first place, they head straight to Google. There are many reasons why (some founded and some unfounded), and you want to be the one that is there for them when they search for the product in Google.

Finally, never ever compete on price. There’s a reason why “cheap” shops are always going out of business, but the expensive brands have been around for ever. There are plenty of businesses out there who will go out of business trying to beat you on price, and often you’ll both end up going broke. This was a difficult lesson for me personally (Nathan) to learn, because I am a “lowest price” shopper myself, but fortunately (except for my wallet) I’m married to someone who loves paying more for branded products, and now our businesses are much healthier for it.

One of the reasons I (Tessa) am a HUGE branded product shopper is because of the experience. Now let me quickly explain when we say branded we do not mean just big brands here, we mean boutique stores that have made the effort to create a brand, thus creating an experience for the shopper. It is also my biggest joy with our ecommerce stores. I love thinking of ways to create a better experience for our customers. Here are some ideas for you to think about:

7 Tips to Creating A Better Customer Experience

#1 Your colour scheme

On your website you should have a maximum of 2 main colours and a third highlight colour.

#2 Your Merchandising

Just because you are online does not mean you don’t have to merchandise. How are things displayed on your homepage? What does your categories page look like? Have you analysed your traffic and know where your customers are landing when they arrive on your site?

#3 Your Images

This kind of is an add on to merchandising but because your images are the only things showing your customers your product, they have to be detailed and clean. Show exactly what the customer will receive. Check the colours when they are on your screen, do they accurately reflect what you see?

#4 Your Website

It has to be inviting and friendly but it also has to quickly provide information to the customers as well as direct them how to easily shop within your store. I have visited one too many sites that I left because it was just way too much effort to try and find what I was looking for.

#5 Your Packaging

How does the item arrive to the customer? Are they going to have a wow factor or will they be left under whelmed? When a customer buys online it is a very different reaction when the item arrives to if they had purchased in a physical store. One tiny little mark or ding can cause them to be upset, whereas in store they usually see this before they purchase and have made the conscious decision to buy it anyway.

#6 Your Policies

A lot of the cheaper stores don’t have a policy to protect the customer yet a lot of customers would rather pay more to know that if anything goes wrong, you have them covered. How do you cover your customers and make them feel safe?

#7 Your Customer Service

I read too many horror stories of customers receiving “too bad, so sad” replies from business owners when items arrive not as expected, arrive damaged or get lost in transit. Now while these things do hurt your business, to hide behind email and not help your customer is doing long term damage to your brand. Word of mouth is powerful and if you are not utilising it in a positive way YOU ARE MISSING OUT ON POTENTIAL SALES and for what? One refund!

Now over to you guys! What can you add to this list to help Jonas and the TalknBusiness community out? Comment your suggestions below or email them into us, along with any questions you might have. 

Before I continue, I can already hear Tess yawning, and I realise that some of you are probably scratching your heads wondering what I’m talking about, so before I get into my early conclusions, I’ll give you a bit of background to what expired domains are and why they might be useful.

Expired Domains

Expired domains are simply domain names that were once owned by other people, and used for their websites, but at some point they no longer required or wanted that website, so they let the domain name expire, and shut down their website. So why would we be interested in their scraps? Well, just because a website has been shut down, and no one owns that domain, doesn’t mean that backlinks to that domain have disappeared, and with those backlinks come some authority. One of the difficulties when starting a brand new site is gaining backlinks and authority, so if you could start the site with years of backlinking and authority already there, then that would be a big bonus.

Also, some people believe that older domains are more trusted by Google, and are easier to rank than brand new domains, so if this is true, then even if an expired domain doesn’t have a lot of backlinks or authority, but is a few years old, then that alone should make the site easier to rank.

So based on these possibilities, the idea of being able to pick up high authority domains cheaply is a very tempting one indeed, and something I had to try for myself. For my niche site experiment, I set out to purchase an expired domain for the site, that had some age and authority, and this is where I hit my first problem. The domain name for your site is very important. Based on previous experiments, we absolutely believe that having your primary keyword in the domain can be beneficial, but finding an expired domain that just happens to also have your primary keyword in it (and is also brandable as a real business) is next to impossible. I did find a domain name that was brandable and related to the niche though, but it had little authority, very few backlinks (and the few it had were next to useless). It did come with an initial Page Rank of 2, and was a few years old though, so this means I would at least get to test the age factor.

In the meantime of course, Tess was registering a perfect domain for her niche site experiment, which was both brandable and keyword specific. But surely an aged domain would be able to rank a lot quicker than her brand new one right? They both have great content, and great on page SEO. Well, it’s a little bit difficult to tell, as I started a backlinking strategy for Tess a couple of weeks ago, and have only just started doing the same thing for my site now (I wanted to see if my site could rank on content alone). Her site is just about to break onto page one, and my site has only jumped in to the top 100 for its primary keyword a couple of days ago. Given the different content and backlinking strategies, it’s hard to say unequivocally what effect having the expired domain has had on my site, but I have come to one conclusion, and that is… why bother?

If we can rank new domains of our exact choosing, that we know we can brand well and have no possibility of problems (expired domains can come with penalties attached too), why would we go to the trouble of trying to find an “okay” domain, just because it “might” have some benefit that we can’t really see? Don’t get me wrong, I can absolutely see that there still could be some benefit to buying an expired domain that has high authority, your keyword, a good backlink structure, is perfectly brandable to your niche. But the reality is, these domains are so unlikely to even exist, that I just don’t think they’re worth the trouble.

Private Blog Network On Expired Domains

The second reason why you might want to purchase expired domains is so that you can create a network of blogs that have high authority and Page Rank, so that you can then use them to link to your site to boost your search engine rank. One potential problem with this is that it violates Google’s terms and conditions, so caution is advised.

Still wanting to trial this though, I spent hours/weeks following using all of the different methods I could find to get my hands on some good expired domains. Most of my “success” came through expireddomains.net, and I also used Hayden Myamoto’s basic strategy as well. In the end, I managed to pickup a couple of PR4 domains, as well as a few PR3 domains, a PR2, and several that didn’t end up working out with any PR. The theory is then, that I can set them up as “news” style sites, and post articles on them that then link to my niche site.

Why I Haven’t Done This

Well, given our current success with ranking, I’m just not sure we need to bother. The links we’re getting from blog comments for example, may not be on sites with as much PR (although we do manage to get the occasional comment on a PR4 page, and PR3 is reasonably common), but they are usually not just on relevant blog posts, but on blogs where the whole site is relevant. This is one of the weaknesses in the expired domain blog network strategy. Either you have to create a blog network for every single site you own (and we have a lot), or you just end up with blogs full of random posts.

I can see how people can create businesses out of doing this, but I’d definitely have to call it an “underground” business, where people are trading in ways to rig Google’s results. This is firmly black hat territory, and you need to be aware of this. Also, finding expired domains takes a lot of time and energy, and if I don’t actually need to do it (because what we currently do is working), then again I’d have say, “Why bother?”

Given the effort and cost that I went to to secure even a few domains, you might wonder why I don’t just try it on my niche site and see whether I get any benefit, but the short answer is that I don’t want to. I would much rather be able to rank the site using our current methods, than to become reliant on an expired domain strategy. Given that I’ve only just started to use our strategy on my site a few days ago, I’m willing to give it a few months and see if I can rank well without using my expired domain network. If I can’t, then perhaps I’ll give it a shot, but until then, they can stay collecting dust on the shelf.

A Final Note

One positive I did discover on this journey was Scrapebox. This tool has been popular for a long time for lots of nefarious reasons, but I’d never had a reason to purchase it myself. One of the more advanced methods of finding expired domains required the purchase of this tool, so I had a chance to play with it a bit. It’s used for a lot of purposes, but one useful feature is its ability to find an amazing array of relevant blog posts with Page Rank for you to comment on, very quickly. This could be useful for you if you are finding this difficult.

• I don’t know if you have ever noticed but you have two ways to view your personal news feed; Top Stories and Most recent (Did you just have a huge light bulb moment?). In general your news feed will automatically be on Top Stories.

• Approximately 10% – 30% (depending on whether it is text based or image/link based) of your fans will only see your post in their news feed unless it gains positive interaction to broaden the reach. So if you have no interaction and people don’t personally come to your page on a daily basis (let’s face it, who really visits all the pages they like each and everyday!), then a lot of the work you put into your posts is going unseen.

So I thought I would share some tips to help you get your posts seen…..12 of them in fact!

1. Have fans opt in to see your business page in their news feed

This requires asking your fans to make sure that they have selected ‘Show In News Feed’ which they can easily do by clicking on your like button and selecting from the drop down menu.

Feel free to download and use this image to tell your fans how to get notified of your latest posts.

2. Make sure you post great content that is varied and deliver it on a regular basis.

I tested the organic reach (those that have seen your page, whether they liked your page or not) and it clearly grew with consistent and regular posts. Varied content is also a bonus for getting seen. Links and images will have less initial viral view than plain text so mix it up.

The number of people that our posts reached grew as our posts and interactions increased

3. Call to action in your posts.

Make sure your posts call for a like, comment or share. People love to let you know their thoughts, if the content is engaging enough and you place the right triggers you will get fans interacting. Interaction increases your reach and gets you in front of more people.

4. Make your content valuable.

Provide your fans with varied content that provides them with some benefit. People don’t visit your page for free, you have to give them value. This could be a deal, a joke, an image or a video. If you provide boring content or spammy content it will cause a negative effect, not only will people not like, comment or share they will probably hide you from their news feed or worse, just unlike your page!

5. Use your insights!

Looking at which of your posts have the most ‘reach’ and ‘virality’ (all explained in your insights section) you will quickly see what your fans want. Repeat this style of information and ditch the rest!

6. Don’t over post!

Posting lots is not a guaranteed recipe to get you in front of more people, but it is guaranteed to lose you fans.

7. Put some effort in guys!

What content do you interact with the most of Facebook? I love images that make me smile, or words that have meaning. I like to read news updates or something interesting. I like information and tips that help. Don’t just copy and share things, find a unique way to make something your own.

8. Brand it.

If you are creating an image that has a quote, tip or joke then make sure you brand it with your logo or business name. If it gets shared then your name is being shared as well. If you want to pop it on Pinterest, then your brand is being shared again. I like to make the logo smaller in size than the main text and I like to ‘fade’ it a little so that it is readable but does not stand out as much as the rest of the text. Check out our feature image as an example.

9. Comment back to your comments.

If you post and a fan comments, make sure you like the comment and reply back. Your comment still counts and makes your post more popular. Just say 3 people comment but you have commented back to each then your post will show that there were 6 comments, way more successful than just 3!

10. Don’t just sell, sell and sell.

If all your posts are about your product line, your deals, your latest addition fans are going to get annoyed. I like to use the 80/20 rule. 80% of your content is tips, info and fun things. 20% is a deal, a sale and new product line. You can still include your product in some of the fun things, for example if you have a fashion line you might create a look board image which is a collection of items that go with a particular piece of yours. This is not directly selling to a fan, it is providing the fan with some great ideas.

11. Let your personality shine through.

So many people just post auto quotes and generic information (guilty as charged when scraping the bottom of the barrel for a post idea), if you want to stand out and be fresh n’ fun then be yourself. This is something nobody else can replicate. Add your twist to your posts.

12. Be beautiful.

Make sure that if you are creating images, make them eye catching. Make them so eye catching that people can not help but hit the like button or share it. This may not suit all brands, but I am sure you can come up with some ways to make your content more eye catching than just a black box with white text!

Action #1 – Introduce Yourself

We spoke to many suppliers while at a speaking gig in China last year and discovered some great tips. The main one being a gentle reminder that suppliers are businesses as well, with businesses emailing in every day from all over the world. A supplier will select businesses that are potential “real” clients for them, not time wasters. The best way to get noticed and get a reply is to be real.

• Start your email out with a greeting and ask how they are.
• Next introduce yourself and your business.
• Include a link to your site, this shows you are not hiding anything, you exist.

Action #2 – Keep it Simple

Know what questions you want answered and then put them into a numbered list with clear spacing. Try not to ask every single question you want an answer to in the very first email, this is more of a reaching out and introduction email.

• Select 3-5 of the more vital questions from your list.
• Ask them in 1,2,3 dot point, leaving a space between each one.

Action #3 – Don’t lie or exaggerate

The point is to build a great relationship with a supplier, this makes your dealings easy and pleasant. When trying to find a new supplier it is important to be open and honest, if you are not going to order large minimum order quantities (MOQs) don’t suggest or say that you will. Of course you need to make sure you are still seen as a valuable possible client.

• Explain you require a sample to confirm quality of goods for your market.
• Ask for a quote on a mixed sample (if you are looking at more then a single SKU line).
• Ask what future costing would be based on the MOQs you can grow into.

Action #4 – Confirm everything and Check everything!

A lot of Asian cultures have a save face principle, they like to say they can when they can’t because they want to avoid negative words or confrontation.

• Always email back and confirm “Great thank you, I would like to go ahead with ordering the sample of 1 pack which contains 3 different designs/pieces at $3USD per piece with free shipping, making my total payable $9USD”
• Always order a sample. This will allow you to check quality of goods, shipping times and packaging times.
• Always request an invoice. This will help you see all the costs you are paying (sometimes there are hidden fees such as PayPal transaction costs). Knowing these costs will also help you when you go to order again.

Action #5 – Protect Yourself

Pay via a safe payment method even if it means you have to pay the transaction fee. These providers will provide you with a dispute option if your order is not as described or fail to arrive at all.

• PayPal
• Escrow

Action #6 – Leave with a Smile

Close your dealings with a smile, always. No, I do not mean leaving a smiley face emoticon, although you can expect to see a few of those in replies!

• Make your ending light and friendly. I like to say “ Thank you for your time, Kind Regards ….”

Action #7 – Don’t Jump on the Defensive

If you have an issue with your order, such as it has not arrived, please do not destroy your relationship with your potential supplier by emailing with aggression or negative words. Email with a question, sometimes there is a really simple explanation such as a public holiday, but your defensive reaction could mean the end of doing any further business with supplier.

Rather than saying:

“Dear Supplier,

It has been one month and my order has not arrived, you said it would take 20 days. I am very unhappy and I want a refund immediately”

Sincerely Name”

Try

“ Dear Supplier,

I hope that this email finds you well. I am writing today because my order has not arrived as yet and I would like to confirm when my order was shipped so I can double check that I have the timings correct?

Thank you for your time

Kind Regards

Name”

What Next? | Take Action

• Create a template for yourself that you can use whenever you contact suppliers for the first time.
• If you have tips to add, comment below or on our Facebook page.
• If you have questions please ask them in the comments below or email us, we would love to help.
• If you know someone who wants to start or expand in e-commerce, please share this with them.
• For our free e-commerce recipe + 2 free chapters  of our book Retail Rebellion, sign up to our newsletter.

Is there any advice you can give me, as i love the pictures on their sites however i want to test them myself before i commit to large quantities.

Becca

Tessa Says -

I very much understand how frustrating it is having to go back and forth while emailing suppliers, not really being sure if they understand what you mean. Most of the problem lies in the language barrier. I often tell people to keep your questions as short as possible, and each question on a separate line (dot points). 

With the 5 pieces, you will have to get the supplier to clarify this for you, as each supplier works differently and I am unfortunately unsure what your supplier might be referring to. Stick to your request for samples (even if you have to pay a small fee) as this is the most vital point in learning about your suppliers. Not only do you get to see the quality, but you also get to see how long they take to ship items to you and how they package their items. This is just as important as the quality for the future running of your business. If you want a set colour, then explain to the supplier that the samples are not just about testing the quality, but the colour quality as well meaning it is important for them to send you the colours you will be ordering in future if they match your requirements.

Nathans Says -

All product negotiations are give and take, and samples are no different. Suppliers often keep overruns and items from cancelled orders to use as samples, which means that they might only have certain colours available for samples at that time. They want to do everything they can to get rid of those particular in stock items, so they will try very hard to do so. You on the other hand want to not only test their service and quality, but also try to get an initial test range from them. Ideally, you want to get samples from a few different suppliers to start with anyway, so it may be that between them all you can get the colours you’re looking for. If not, keep telling them that you need to see particular colours to check if they are suitable for your particular customers (or to check colour quality as Tess mentioned). The 5pcs could mean that they want you to get 5pcs per design, or a total of 5pcs for the sample pack, you’ll need to ask them for clarification.

P.S Please note that the #### is where we have removed the product/name for our readers protection. 

What Next? | Take Action

• Read 7 Must Take Steps when Dealing with a New Supplier (available from the 17th of April)
• If you have tips to add, comment below.
• If you have questions please ask them in the comments below, we would love to help..
• If you know someone who wants to start or expand in e-commerce, please share this with them.
• For our free e-commerce recipe + 2 free chapters  of our book Retail Rebellion, sign up to our newsletter.

Why you want a product that doesn’t suck!

Finding the right product to sell, with the right amount of traffic and a good profit margin can mean the difference between you achieving the lifestyle you want in months versus years (or never). The right product will save you hundreds of hours trying to conquer a virtually impossible market. How do I know? Because we started with the wrong product! It is now my goal to make sure you don’t. Here are 7 super quick and easy actions you can take to make sure you find the right product line.

Action #1 | Create a list of products you want to sell (15 minutes)

This will be the easy part, everyone knows what they would love to sell, in general it is products you buy/use on a regular basis and enjoy shopping for.

Action #2 | Add products you can see around the room (30 minutes)

Anything and everything goes here from the drink bottle on your desk to the pillow case on your bed to the toilet roll holder in your bathroom. Open cupboards, look in draws and if you dare wonder through your kids rooms.

Action #3 | Get out and about and continue to add to your list and then add some more (2 hours)

Walk up and down supermarket isles, wonder through the department store. Look at what other people are carrying around and buying, however be careful not to come across as a stalker!

Action #4 | Jump Online

Check out market places, online stores and your other favourite places to shop online and get ideas by looking through their categories. Look at most popular items if available. Google search gift ideas for men, women, teens, kids and pets.

We should now have more than 50 products, if not go back over the above actions before moving onto the next 3.

Share me on Pinterest and Facebook

Quick Thought | Forget passion, it is a double edge sword

Everyone says you need to be passionate about your business, we agree that you need passion, determination and drive to run your business BUT you do not need to be passionate about what you sell. Be passionate about finding a product that has little competition and loads of traffic, trust me you will thank us later. BUT if one of your ‘passionate to sell products’ from action #1 passes all our checks then go for it.

Action #5 | Cross off anything that could be a logistical nightmare

If you are not prepared to package and ship a sofa, don’t leave it on the list. If you feel glass is too much hassle, cross it off. What challenges people are prepared to overcome will vary, one man’s problem is another man’s opportunity.

Action #6 | Cross off fads

You want a long term business, if an item is a fad you may find the fad is over before you even get off the ground.

Action #7 | Cross off products with potential legal issues

We create businesses to provide us with a certain lifestyle, one where we can travel. Having a product line that may have extra legalities involved (food products, gun products etc.) would see me laying awake each night wondering if that vitamin pill or food item was responsible for that customer’s case of food poisoning….I value my sleep and more importantly I value my customers and want them coming back.

What Next? | Take Action

• If you have tips to add, comment below.
• If you have questions please ask them in the comments below, we would love to help.
• You may already have a product and be stressing about if it passes the ‘check list’, next week we will cover this.
• If you know someone who wants to start or expand in e-commerce, please share this with them.
• For the full free e-commerce recipe + 2 free chapters  of our book Retail Rebellion, sign up to our newsletter.

7 Practical Lessons for Doing Business With China

Here is a small snippet;

“The Hartnetts’ restaurant experiences in China have included lunching on pig face, chicken feet and even toad, but the adventurous entrepreneurs picked those dishes off the menu themselves. “We’re a bit funny like that, but everywhere we went we got to order so you don’t have to choose the crazy dishes if you don’t want to. They were just amazed when we picked up a pair of chopsticks,” says Nathan.”

They also have bad news for fans of competitive drinking. “We’ve never been to a factory where anyone has drunk anything. One of the suppliers told us ‘You drink beer, we drink tea’ —so you will have to drink a lot of tea!” says Nathan.

“The idea of friendship by torture isn’t true,” agrees Greenberg. “It’s an old wives tale that you have to endure eating strange food and long hours of drinking.”  continue reading the full article

One of our readers recently went through the experience of using sea freight to import her new product range. This is something we thought might be of interest to you guys, so Chloe kindly outlined her experience. Please note this is from China to Australia but regardless of your location, we hope you find some valuable take aways. 

My experience with sea freight was importing goods from China to Brisbane, Australia using the customs interactive website (requires a digital certificate) in 2013 (disclaimer!) I do not know what audience would read this but as I was a newbie, I pitch it to this group and just set out the steps I did with some info I learnt along the way. I do not mind if you change/do not include on your website, this is good for me to have as a workflow outline.

My process was as follows:

• Get details on volume, weight of consignment (shipment), contact details of supplier and terms of sale (in my case, FOB) as well as loading port and discharge port (Brisbane, Australia). Some suppliers have a preferred forwarder, but as I was asked to arrange one, I found my own. There are differences if you are using a full container load (FCL) verse a less than a container load (LCL). The following relates to LCL.
• Contacted freight forwarders for quote (itemized and also requested insurance – this was needed as some quotes varied by a few hundred dollars. INSURANCE: Some used external brokers for this item The bill of lading covers for a certain amount per kg, but you have to process your application through the country of origin of the carrier. Insurance covers for ‘general average’ – if they had to throw containers overboard in an emergency, you pay a proportion of cost depending on size of consignment relative to total ship cargo – or salvage charges if runs aground/sinks at sea. TRANSIT TIME: Some list total time from loading port to unloading – only if they have their own warehouse. Others list from loading to port – unloading is done by external contractors and can add up to 7 days, best to check which is used in their calculations. There are also fast or slow vessels so there may be an option to specify which – it might just cost more for sea freight. PORT/TERMINAL CHARGES: Some list additional charges not specified on the schedule of fees from the port – query these – for Brisbane port, these charges are listed here: http://www.portbris.com.au/ShippingOperations/PortCharges. CUSTOMS CLEARANCE: This was one charge that was most variable, even if they specified number of lines and extra per line. I chose to do this myself so had to inform the freight forwarder when I agreed to their services; they need to know this upfront so you can receive documentation in time).
• Arrange freight forwarder to send shipment and confirm with supplier all details (telex release, paperwork, ship information). The freight forwarders will give details on ETA and pre-alert notice. This is used when filling in customs clearance and vessel information (and route of ship) is needed for external insurers.
• As I was doing customs clearance (I had a digital certificate through Australian Customs so could lodge forms electronically – this takes a while to setup so do this well in advance if you want to do similar), I needed the following documentation from my supplier: Bill of lading (telex/express release in my case, though you can use original – just make sure it arrives quickly so you can fill out paperwork), commercial invoice (helps to have goods and the material detailed on this for tariffs – this is mainly for own use in selecting the tariff classification),packaging list and packaging declaration (stating if there is/is not timber in boxes/pallets/crates – if there is, this may incur more processing time and cost through quarantine – else the supplier has to state it meets the ISPM15 standards).
• Prior to arrival (or really soon after arrival in port – you are notified of this by your forwarder in an arrival notice), fill out Nature 10 form (N10), submit and lodge it. Answer the AQIS questions correctly (note, the importer is not necessarily accredited to clear an LCL, all customs brokers are, but it will not necessarily mean it will go to quarantine). There is a detailed guide to the N10 form to explain the sections and what is to be filled out: http://www.customs.gov.au/webdata/resources/files/DocumentaryImportDeclarationGuideUpdatedJan2013WEB.pdf. The manual way just costs a bit more and you have to go to the local office for the Australian customs and boarder protection; you MUST have downloaded the form and have details filled in – they only type into the fields, they do not offer advice, especially regarding tariff classifications and preference scheme (TARIFF CLASSIFICATIONS: This is dependent on goods description and material used and is found in the Customs Tariff Act:  http://www.customs.gov.au/tariff/tariff2012.asp. If you do not know this (or if it is difficult in the case when multiple items are packaged together of different materials), it is best to contact the customs but their advice can take up to 30 days to process so you must do this in advance of your goods arriving. You also need to fill in the statistical code so make sure you are paying attention to the italic script in the tariff classification section. Of interest, you can apply for import duty exemption, but this takes over 200 days to get a ruling, and you have to be sure there are no similar products in Australia or the business to refute your request in that time. You also need to be aware of the country PREFERENCE SCHEME for trade agreements – this is also used for import duty calculations). As with all customs documentation, ignorance of the law is no excuse so if you are unsure it is best to use a customs broker for the customs clearance.
• Send in (either fax or email, if email you pay an electronic processing fee on top of AQIS processing fee + extra charges based on their ruling) bill of lading, commercial invoice, packaging list and packaging declaration to department of agriculture, fisheries and forestry (DAFF, which process quarantine – AQIS) referencing the N10 lodgement ID for tracking. NOTE: This is not an explicit step in the customs flow process, but if it is not processed then your shipment is not cleared and is held at the warehouse – after 3 days storage you then pay for each day per cbm. In addition, weekends are counted as days even if the warehouse is not open and some close at 3:30pm.
• The forwarder will send you (within a few days of arrival) the ‘outturn report’, which you need along with delivery orders (one with you as consignee, the other as forwarder as consignee).
• Once all paperwork has been processed, customs will declare your consignment ‘clear’.
• Pay all duties (depends on tariff code and preference scheme as well as ruling from DAFF) – this can be done at the customs office if processing manually, through your customs broker, by credit card or if you have a digital certificate and previously submitted two forms (at least 5 working days for processing) B320 (direct debit request) and B322 (ICS EFT client authorisation) customs will process this immediately it is cleared.
• Customs sends you ‘authority of deal’, which may be requested by warehouse when picking up goods. You will need the bill of lading (original or telex release), packaging list and commercial invoice to pick up consignment from the warehouse.

I managed to only pay the following:

1. Insurance, freight and handling charges (the freight forwarders quoted costs), which included:

International Freight
Port Service Charges
Destination Terminal Handling Charges
Delivery Order Fee
CMR Fee
Import Terminal Security Fee
Cargo Automation Fee

2. AUD50 for N10 form processing
3. AUD59 for electronic processing of AQIS documents to DAFF, AUD14 for N10 processing to AQIS and AUD6 for AQIS container charge, and
4. The duties and taxes on my consignment (NOTE: GST is on total of consignment value, import duty on the consignment, insurance & shipping). I did call customs a few times to confirm details, and you do have to be very careful when inputting details into all the forms. I also phoned the forwarder each day to find out where the consignment was at each stage. It is of note that I was told some consignments are grouped together if from the same supplier on the one ship, so duty and taxes will be charged on the total of all of these.

I must admit the self customs-clearance process involved a lot of reading of documentation and forms, so you need to make sure you have enough time to understand what information is needed, and when. As it is reiterated on various documents and recorded messages in wait queues: Ignorance of the law is no excuse (for getting the form/s wrong).

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