Category: Business
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The Real Cost of Shipping: What Importers Forget to Budget
Behind every international shipment is a stack of sneaky, silent costs — fuel surcharges that fluctuate weekly, customs delays that rack up storage fees, taxes you didn’t know existed. And if you’re not budgeting for them, they’ll quietly eat away at your profit margins. Let’s pull back the curtain and look at what really goes…
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A Step-by-Step Guide to Importing Without a Warehouse
If you’ve ever dreamed of running an import business — bringing in artisanal textiles from Morocco or handcrafted ceramics from Portugal — you’ve probably also hit that moment of panic: Wait, do I need a warehouse for this? The short answer? Not necessarily. In today’s world of flexible logistics, drop shipping, bonded storage, and digital…
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Should You Import Directly or Use a Buying Agent?
You’ve found the perfect product overseas. The prices look great. The supplier promises fast turnaround. The idea of cutting out the middleman and going direct feels efficient, even empowering. But a few months later, you’re staring at a shipping container full of surprises — products that don’t match your samples, a customs delay you didn’t…
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10 Tools Every Import Entrepreneur Should Know About
The world of imports once moved at the pace of paperwork — customs forms stacked on desks, freight quotes exchanged over weeks, and payments crawling through international banks. Today, it’s all changing. We live in an era where the entire supply chain can be managed from a laptop. You can source a product in Vietnam,…
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How to Calculate Your Profit Margin on Imported Goods
You’ve just found the perfect product overseas — a line of minimalist ceramics from Japan, or handmade leather journals from Italy. The craftsmanship is exquisite. The price from the supplier seems reasonable. You imagine them on your shelves (or in your online store) and think, This could be my next bestseller. But before you place…